Working Visa and Living in Japan

Foreigners who wish to work in Japan need to get a working visa in order to enter the country on a status of residence permitting work. There is many such status of residence, each allowing the holders to work only in a specific professional field such as entertainment, business management, international services and education. If you change the work and the job fall into a different field from education to engineering you will need to change your status of residence.

There are many types of working visa
1. Professor; authorized to engage in research, education at colleges and a stay of 1 or 3 years and must have certificate of eligibility to apply
2. Artist; engage in activities for the art that provide income including music and fine art. Can stay for 1 or 3 years.
3. Investor or business manager; activities to commence the operation of international trade or other business, to operate or manage the business.
4. Legal or accounting services; to engage in legal or accounting business, which is required to be carried out by attorney under foreign lawyers law, certified public accountant practicing foreign accountant law or those with legal qualification.
5. Medical services; to engage in medical treatment service which is required to be undertaken by physician.
6. Researcher; to engage in research on the basis of a contract with public or private organizations in Japan
7. Instructor; to engage in language instruction and other education at elementary schools, handicapped children’s schools, advanced vocational schools.
8. Engineer; to engage in service which requires technology or engineering or other natural science fields.
9. Specialist in humanities; to be in service which requires economics, sociology or other human science.
10. Intra company transfer; to take part of personnel who are transferred to business offices for a limited period of time from business offices. Applicant must have experience for one year.
11. Entertainer; to take part in theatrical performances, musical performance, sports or any other show business. It can take up to 1 year.

Living in Japan is very cheap as you adjust to a Japanese lifestyle and do not depend too heavily on food and products from your home country, you ay be surprised how inexpensive life is in Japan. Living and working in Japan is good because many Japanese companies pay part or all of their employees commuting expenses. If you chose to stay near the town there are inexpensive houses too. Utility such as water, gas and electricity are expensive. Local supermarkets are inexpensive if you stick to Japanese food such as rice, Soya bean products and vegetables. The number of foreigners living in Japan has been increasing because the demand for native languages teachers in particular is still high.