Is moving to Japan through language school really that bad?

I went through 2 years of lang school and I wouldn't have done this any other way. Not learning Japanese and coming here raw dog is just disrespectful, sorry to everyone in this sub that has done that. If you want to live in Japan long term it's necessary to learn the language here. It makes you integrate more successfully and naturally.

Language school is not easy, living in Japan is not necessarily easy, and finding a job after language school is not easy. It's not impossible. Work hard and have a degree and/or experience in an in-demand field. To be honest though, a lot of the negative you see is realistic. Living in Japan is not a paradise for anyone but the unicorns.

Many language schools are scams (maybe not so many now that they've culled a lot of them), and tended to funnel you into other exploitative programs. I only have second hand knowledge from my cousin who came here to do that, but many are not worth the money and time you put into them. Of course, if you do proper research, I'm sure you'll do fine (I had a good experience with the MEXT Language program, but that's with Kyoto University staff), and I know many language school grads here who not only had a good experience, but ended up thriving in Japan. But know that it's just as easy to have a bad experience with it's and you may not know which one it is until it's too late. So just be prepared for that possibility.

I'd say my experience was relatively positive. The biggest let down everything got moved to online because of covid... so it's not really the school's fault. I had good classmates, funny teachers, and I still connect to the school every now and then just to stop by and say hi whenever I'm around. You definitely would want to devote and utilize your time to get better in Japanese while in class. It doesn't mean if you're in class, you will automatically get better in Japanese. The effort needs to be put in.

Would suggest moving to Japan with N3 (N2 better), with the goal of getting N2 (or N1) by going to language school in Japan. I had N3, moved to Japan, passed N2, and I have naturalized as Japanese.

That is the only way you are going to survive longer than three years. The "I can't find a job" people are usually entitled westerners who only apply to mid career white collar office jobs. There are plenty of jobs out there but people don't want to do any real work. You are going to have to start in a factory, driving a truck or taxi, construction or some other blue collar work.

If money is no object, it's better to go to language school and transition to a trade school when the language level is good enough to understand the trade. From there, it's possible to enter a company as a new graduate employee. Naturally, this involves many rounds of interviews with the prospective company, but it's a very possible avenue. My company hires foreign graduates every year. 

As I'm near retirement I'd like to extend the conversation - best companies? My MFA is from UCLA and I'm retiring early I think after 25 years teaching college theatre. Love the idea of taking language courses

You get out of it what you put into it. I went to a Japanese language school for 1 year and went up 1 level in JLPT. But I had a blast. I think you'll see a lot of negative comments because people don't leave positive reviews often; people come to the internet to leave a review when they had a problem or want to complain. Some schools are very dedicated and you'll be doing lots of work to push you to get better. Others, like the one I went to, are just a few hours a day, and the rest is up to you. I had a degree before moving to Japan, so I was able to get a job afterward. But, I wish I could have continued going to school for longer; it's just way too expensive!

I think it also depends on where you are coming from, and your personal resources. Like if you come from a poor nation Japans low cost of living and low pay doesnt matter much. If you come from a high paying nation you are giving up some of your best working years for little in return. If you're rich, then really you have the freedom to do this and honestly you'd be fine. A better strategy would be to get a certain level of proficiency before going, then become an english teacher and take classes on weekend/nights. That way you are geting work experience, financing it, and learning the language. After either continue or move into something else as you jave both work experience, references and proficiency in Japanese

There's many ways to start your journey in japan. The main thing will always be what visa do you qualify for after language school? I know people who went language school -> university -> work visa, others who came straight for work from overseas and others who did working holiday -> work visa. Language school is really useful to improve your japanese when you already have some knowledge, but kind of wasted time and money if you're starting from 0 as you can easily teach yourself basic grammar, vocab and kanji within 6-12 months in your free time. 

To me, the orange flag here is “moving to Japan *through* language school. A Japanese language schools will help with learning Japanese. Whether the way they teach works well for you as an individual will depend, but I tend to think that for most people they will work better than self-learning. Even better than language schools, again, in my opinion, is if you find a language course ran by a university. The teaching might not be drastically different, but the environment makes it easier to make Japanese friends and you might be more immersed in the language. Whichever the case though, neither will automatically lead you to a job as there are some other pre-requisites when it comes to getting a work visa in Japan (if I remember right, it’s either a college degree or 3-10 years of work experience depending on the field; and I am not including working holiday and designated activities here as they are more temporary in nature). If you have most of the pre-requisite, with just the language as the last missing piece I think that language school can work and I can certainly say that I know people who started living in Japan by attending a language school and later found a job, and ended up settling here. But already met other requirements. On my end I found a job first, but went back to studying Japanese via a university ran course after two years because I felt that my Japanese level (N3 when I first came to Japan) was holding me back, then started my own business.

A good friend of mine moved to Japan through a language school. He started from zero Japanese and reached N2 in about a year and a half. He’s now working in Kyoto and has been living in Japan for 8 years. He has a Japanese driver’s license, lots of Japanese friends, and is honestly living his best life. I totally get where you’re coming from because I’m also planning to enroll in a language school next April, and I’ve been reading a ton of reviews. From what I’ve seen, language school is definitely busy and pretty strict. You’ll have Japanese classes every day, regular tests, attendance requirements, and your attendance/progress gets reported to immigration. I’m Asian, so I’m quite used to that kind of education system. I also went through a similar intensive language program before studying in Korea, so I know it’s manageable if you stay disciplined. I’m honestly having the same doubts as you because my goal is also to find a job and stay in Japan long-term. Personally, I think as long as you go in with a clear goal and make it to at least N2 by the time you graduate, you’ll be in a good position, especially if you already speak fluent English. Some language schools also have career support and business Japanese courses where they help with things like interview practice, CV writing, keigo, and workplace etiquette. If getting a job is your end goal, I’d definitely look for one of those. Also, language school isn’t the only way to move to Japan. If your Japanese is already at the level companies are looking for (N2 is pretty common), you can apply directly from overseas. I actually interviewed with a few Japanese companies while I was still in my home country, and they explained their relocation packages and visa sponsorship. Unfortunately, my Japanese just wasn’t good enough back then. Hope this helps, and good luck with your plans! :D

Its just on you. Don't make friends from same country or use same language. Of course, Its necessacry to make friends to help you But dont spend much time with them. Find a person who has passion with studing and just play with him.

Language schools are great, but those are not easy at all. If you wanna do n1 from scratch you need to learn a lot day by day. It won’t be too much fun. These schools on the long run is pretty hard if you wanna enjoy Japan too. Especially if your class is big and teachers can’t concentrate on every single student. I attended 3-3 months recently in language schools. ISI was decent but they did it in a Japanese way. For beginners their method are pretty hard I would say. Daily 1-2 grammar that they expect you to know precisely for tomorrow. I got some new knowledge but all in all these schools are pretty good expensive for the amount of knowledge you can obtain. My class was like 35+ people. Other one was a premium like school, Coto academy which was pretty good, but pricey too. At least classes here were only like 2-6 people. And if you wanna find a job in Japan language schools are the hardest way, especially as a lot of Vietnamese and other asians wanna go there for less respected jobs. If (you are not Asian, but) you have degree, can speak fluent English or having valuable IT skills then you can have a job in Japan with visa, but still not easy at all.

If you were high demand back by global companies in your home country then you’re in high demand in Japan as well. If you’re not high demand in your home country you’re also not in demand in Japan. Lots of people who went shitty no name universities and worked at no name companies for who knows how long for to Japan and find it difficult to get a job. If your resume is simply somebody who went to a global top 100’university, and worked in a major professional firm, and you went to language school to study Japanese and you come out successful? Then there is more job openings than you can possibly Imagine.

All the Nepalese etc temp employees at my workplace had a job secured before they graduated, but they were also going to caretaking/mechanics/IT schools, so maybe you should look into it.

ダメではないですよ！ 私の知人が就職に特化した日本語学校を経営してます 良ければご紹介しますよ 直接話を聞いてみてはいかがでしょうか？ 今の日本の企業の人手不足問題、海外の方の衣食住問題や解決法など政府機関と連携して受け入れ体制を構築してるところです。悪いイメージだけではなく、それを改善しようとしてる人たちがいらっしゃることを知ってほしいです

Stop looking for advice online and go and try it! See if it works for you, you’re the best judge for you life!

I had an incredible time in my two and a half years of language school(got a 6 month extension because I was here during covid) and I wouldn't change anything about it. It wasn't easy, not even close. I only managed to pass N3 after that time but I was not a diligent student in the slightest and spent more time going out and enjoying my life than I spent studying. I'm good with every day stuff and at associating with people in more casual settings than I am with kiego and business settings but I've got a good job, my wife doesn't speak English, and I have non-English speaking friends in my community. I had ups and downs with relationships and when I was in between jobs but I love this country and have zero intentions of going back to the States. The trick is knowing what you're getting in to and whether you can handle it. Many of the angry and bitter foreigners living here came with the expectation that this country is some magical wonderland when it's anything but. Come for a year if you can afford it and figure out if you want to stay beyond that. No one will try and force you to stay and by then, if you were diligent, you'll probably be at a decent enough level of Japanese where you might be able to get a job just because you speak it.

My language school was poo poo pee pee, and everyone in my class can attest to that. That being said I'm still glad I went for the people that I met there and my language skills did improve (not through the school, I studied a lot on my own).  It makes logical sense to go to language school, get good a japanese then get a job, but apprently that's not how it's viewed in Japan. Finding a company that supports student visa to working visa change from language school is extremely difficult, and I didn't manage it. In the end I had to enroll in a vocational school just to extend my visa. My job applications started getting taken a bit more seriously after this but not much. I got extremely lucky to get a job out of vocational school I think.  When I went to my naturalisation meeting, the agent there told me straight to my face, "a student visa is for coming here to study, and the leaving immediately after." He seemed to be angry that I'd somehow gotten a working visa after school (?). When that happened, it suddenly made sense why changing back to working visa after student visa was so difficult... Not saying it's impossible, bc I obviously did it, and if you rly want it you can do it and I encourage you to do so. But I do want to warn you that it is rly rly rly rly hard and stressful and costs a lot, because you'll never earn enough from a part time job to support yourself 100%

I did exactly this. I went to a language school for 1 year 9 months, and went from JLPT N5 to N2. It was the best period of my life as I got the time to travel around Japan and study Japanese. I made so many friends from so many different countries and the teachers were really nice as well. If I had the money to go to another language school (to study another language in another country), I think I would. I also got a degree there and worked for 4 years. So in total I lived there for 10 years. It's definitely possible, but it's going to be tough. If you have the money to sustain yourself in the beginning, then that's great. If not, you'll have to work part-time just to survive. Good luck OP!

日本人です。一番良い方法は　日本でアメリカ企業で務めることです。給料が良いので余裕で暮せます。他の国の企業は分かりません。

I'd say it's mostly due to wrong expectations. Going to a langiage school, you pay for a visa. Is it the most effective way to learn the language? No. You are better off hiring a private tutor. Will it make you learn the language without you putting an actual effort during classes and after? No. The fact that you paid a lot of money doesn't upload japanese straight into your brain. Can you sustain yourself with part-time or your cosy remote job? Learn japanese, work, sleep - choose two. If you don't have enough money to part-time only recreationally for 2 years, it's gonna be very-very tough. Or you are risking ending up with N4 after 2 years. Also, jlpt doesn't guarantee you'll be able to speak at all. School can't help much with this either. N2 is a primitive level if japanese. If your job requires talking, you need to aim beyond N1. So yeah, it's not a prolonged tourist trip, it's a hard work if you want to stay. If you get your expectations strainght, you'll be fine.

If you can manage healthy living cost around 1000US$ per month plus tuition fees easily it’s not that bad.Most japanese language school courses are 2 years, 1 year 6 months and 1 year. But even after studying in language school its not guaranteed that you will do better like get N2. Because, in language school the curriculum is not fast paced and you have to study on yourself outside of your class homework or assignments. But if you don’t have the cash I suggest learning japanese atleast N2, or N1 if you can in your country and study in japan 1 year to get used to their to communication with japanese.

NLEX firing incident in the Philippines

I had a blast. I met some really great friends in my language school and so glad I went. I quit my job for a year to go. And honestly a big part of going was just to have fun. I’m half Japanese so I also wanted to connect to my roots and learn the language but I also wanted to just experience life there and I loved every moment. I don’t think it’s realistic for me to work there, I just really love my job back home, but I think even if you’re going for a year it’s so worth it… that is if you do your proper research and have realistic expectations. A lot of people are grumpy about Japan on Reddit, really not sure why, but I think you just have to be open, realistic, and ready to “assimilate” as there may be a lot of cultural differences. I didn’t find I had much of a culture shock since I am half, but some of the people I went to school with seemed miserable and I feel like they went for the wrong reasons. One guy went because he liked anime, that was it. He said he hated Japanese food and literally refused to try it. He didn’t know how to cook either so he just ate sandwiches and boiled pasta. Honestly I would love to go back to work if I could find a job that’s as good as the one I have now, but I’m just not willing to give it up again. It’s definitely worth giving it a shot, if you hate it you can leave.

not sure why you see many negatives post. Language school is quite a good way to move to Japan. Get to N2, try to get job while learning N1 is how me and my friend move to Japan. The problem is money but you can cover some of it by working part time since you are allowed to work for 28hours a week with student visa.

I met my now wife in Japan for the first time while I was in language school. It has its ups And downs but if you wanna experience the culture, language, and potential make some friends( this can be a bit of a challenge if you’re looking outside of your school or class). Go for it. Make sure to budget well but all and all I had a wonderful time and I’m currently a full time resident.

My friend is Japanese and his foreign wife moved to Osaka with him and she attended a language school. I had thought about doing the same thing, but she scared me off telling me her experience was horrible. It seems like some of these schools are just Visa Mills to get people from poor countries working at family Mart because you can work 25 hours on a student visa. As for me, I decided to go to China instead, and did a Chinese program. In my opinion, learning a language in a classroom is not great. Most of my learning came from normal life interacting with people and my own personal study along with a conversation partner from italki. The advice from my Japanese friend (who is a Japanese teacher) recommended me for my situation that I should just get a job teaching English and use that former tuition money as private tutor money. As for the language program in China, I wouldn’t say my Chinese got much better, but I had a good time with all the other international students and enjoyed a slice of life in China (still here as well). If you do go to the school, I think just setting your expectations will create a wildly different outcome for the same situation. I think many people go in with the mindset thinking if they just go to class, they will learn the language, but I found that not to be true, a significant amount of self study time is still required to fully grasp the material and implement it. Class time was just a soft introduction to material with access to a native speaker. And many students me included got caught up with just hanging out with other international students and speaking English a lot. It’s tough at first to force yourself to go speak the language when you have little you can say and for me little you can understand from native speakers, but with persistence, you will begin to grasp it!

Studied Japanese for 2 years in a language school...I think my advice would be...make sure to choose the right language school. :)

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It might end up being harder than you originally anticipated, but it is still within the realm of possibility. Once the initial phase of just moving here wears off though, you will pretty quickly realize that there are still a lot of issues in Japan (and lots of inconveniences/annoyances). That can certainly be mitigated by speaking a passable level of Japanese, but I have been here for a year now, and while I like it overall, it's definitely not as great as I had imagined. I do have the benefit of being married to a Japanese person though, so I am not completely lost on the administrative side of things (ward office, immigration, doctors, etc.). I would be a lot more stressed out if I was handling everything on my own.

I think if you can afford to go language school without having to take a part time job then i think you will be golden. I work part time early in the morning, go to school in the afternoon, then another part time after that(obviously still within the 28 hour limit). I'm exhausted after everything. I don't even have time to study outside school ( well technically i do, but i sleep coz im tired). Thankfully im good at learning and have been exposed to japanese culture since I was young im still managing to come out at the top of the class without studying. But my friends in the same spot are obviously struggling. But without all that burden you will have plenty of time to go to the gym, cook meals, go out and play. If you aren't picky its not that hard to find a job. But if you wanna be a salary man thats where the difficulty spikes i guess.

I recommend looking for language schools or programs run by universities rather than private language schools. Universities are generally held to stricter educational standards and regulations, so you’re more likely to receive a higher quality education. They also tend to offer better academic advising, career guidance after graduation, and stronger support with job searching through their faculty and career services.

Unfortunately as many people expect foreigners to speak english if they wish to come Western the same applies to Japan. You have to have JLPT or something

went to language school for 2 years when i already had N2 mainly to improve speaking and help get N1. decided 6 months in that id like to stay in japan after school so i started job hunting. that was the hardest two years of my life 😂 job hunting in japan and adjusting to living in a unfamiliar culture was way more difficult than i expected. i would recommend already having work experience in a specific field before coming here and job hunting. casting a wide net sounds like a good idea when job hunting here, but honestly if you can only provide bilingualism and nothing else to a company they wont hire you. most people without much work experience before coming end up teaching, working hotels, or doing consulting.

I found a job after language school. 

One of my friends has learned Japanese for more than 7 years and got a N1, worked as a hotel front desk receptionist in Japan for 2 years, but quitted job really burns her out. Not finding next acceptable job, she is going back to her home country. (the visa type also put different kinds of restrictions) Seems it's not easy even if you do well on the language. Professional skills and language both play the critical roles. For the positive side...simply living in Japan for a while should be a wonderful experience, with clean streets, the convenience, polite people and the deep culture. How about prepare yourself with basic Japanese and try working holiday visa?

Reddit is 90% negative people. A large amount of people who have good experience don’t come to Reddit to talk about it

Not hard and not bad, just expensive, if you have the money do it

I think most posts on the internet tend towards extreme pessimism, so it doesn't really surprise me. A lot of the people whinging about it are probably just wasting time online instead of putting in the work. That said, Japanese is a very difficult language so make sure you know what you are in for. It's not easy to learn the language, or find a job afterwards. It's not the total hellscape idea you get from reddit but if your idea is to go to Japan to chill or have fun and not work your ass off you'll probably have a bad time.