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Have questions about Living in Japan.

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test84

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Hi!
I'm planning for my future and my #1 preference is living in Japan, So I made this topic to see if there are people willing to answer some of my questions about living in Japan, So I would get my answers.
I want to study in a Game Dev. university there, not decided which one or which city.

My questions are:

[Educational]
1-how are universities there? does only the schools that run by the government, give you loans or the others will do it too? (i dont know the word but I meant like when u study and the schools pays for u and u instead work there and do something to payback ur money to the school)
how is the study situations for foreigners?

[Expenses]
2- Is it possible to work and study there? I mean I as a student will be able pay for my living (school + food + rent) in Japan? since I heard living in Japan its very expensive. So will I be able to run a very simple life and study or u need someone to pay for ur educaction?

[Social Life]
3- how they react and talk to foreigns and specially Persians? (i think they call them Gaijin). Since I heard that they are little racist and dont believe in other than Japanese people, It would be nice to know how they react and live with foreigners.

last but not least, I can go to USA too, if you were me, after all, which one would u select? my sibling are in USA, i already know english (hardly know any Japanese), getting their visa is much easier and next to Ok,
 
1. Take Japanese night school for a year, finish your education in your country, get a Degree THEN think about moving to Japan. With the night school basic Japanese, Education and speaking English - you will have a good shot at teaching English in a school in Japan somewhere. Once you’ve saved enough money and climatised to the culture you should start looking into your Game Dev placement.

The main problem is; your Game Dev course in Japan is … going to be in Japanese! .. and not just something you can learn out of a book – I’m talking very unconventional Technology/Business style Japanese. Good luck with that.

I think the word you're looking for is scholarship

2. I would think studying and living in Japan is going to be near impossible. You aren't going to get any help from the Japanese government or school system. You'd have to 100% support yourself.

Working and living in Japan is fine and if you're careful - you can actually save quite a lot of money - BUT be prepared to work HARD for it. I'm talking 9-6, five to six days a week. So make the most of public holidays.

3. Much like any country you have all types of people in Japan. You have Nationalists and they tend to very politely tell you to go away & leave their country haha. You'll see them sometimes in vans with loud speaking trying to recruit new members. I'm sure there are some more Hardcore ones who are violent or whatever but generally they just get on with their own business.

Japan does have a history of killing all the foreign people there every 300 years or so, so I'd keep your head down if they start to look angry haha

Most people are a little curious of you and will be cautious, that's the same in any country but after a few beers, they relax and like to have fun. Just like everyone else
grog.gif
 
QUOTE(test84 @ Jun 25 2007 said:
Hi!
I'm planning for my future and my #1 preference is living in Japan, So I made this topic to see if there are people willing to answer some of my questions about living in Japan, So I would get my answers.
I want to study in a Game Dev. university there, not decided which one or which city.

My questions are:

[Educational]
1-how are universities there? does only the schools that run by the government, give you loans or the others will do it too? (i dont know the word but I meant like when u study and the schools pays for u and u instead work there and do something to payback ur money to the school)
how is the study situations for foreigners?

[Expenses]
2- Is it possible to work and study there? I mean I as a student will be able pay for my living (school + food + rent) in Japan? since I heard living in Japan its very expensive. So will I be able to run a very simple life and study or u need someone to pay for ur educaction?

[Social Life]
3- how they react and talk to foreigns and specially Persians? (i think they call them Gaijin). Since I heard that they are little racist and dont believe in other than Japanese people, It would be nice to know how they react and live with foreigners.

last but not least, I can go to USA too, if you were me, after all, which one would u select? my sibling are in USA, i already know english (hardly know any Japanese), getting their visa is much easier and next to Ok,
Click to expand...
read this all about you need to know
 
I'd say go to a US university and then during your 3rd year, do an exchange program 1 year to study in Japan.
If you go now, it just won't work out. You'll need to enter a language school first, and you won't even pass the admissions to enter the japanese university. You'll need a year or two in the language school before you're ready to apply the universities.

They have entrance exams, you need to know japanese or be at japan to do that.
Otherwise for right now you can apply for international departments that teach with english, Waseda (really good school) has that, but it won't have Video game development as a choice, and the majors are pretty limited.

If you just want to live in Japan for the experience, do as what I said, do a 1 year exchange program. Oh I forgot to mention.. in your first two years of university, study japanese.
If you really like it during your year of stay, you can apply to a graduate school there, since your japanese should be much better by then.

For working, you can get work, but I think they limit your hours. Also as a foreigner I think it'll be harder for you to get jobs, since most of the part time jobs like 7-11, restaurants, shops require japanese. You'll probably have to teach english or something like that.

And views on foreigners, yes, they will be a bit curious, but not racist. You will be able to pull a lot of japanese girls though, they love foreign guys.
 
after all, would ppl recommend getting to Japan or not? keep in mind i can get to USA, too but i dont like their culture and also their game's culture, u know i'm a Squre Enix, Nintendo, RPG fan, but they are more like XBOX fans.
 
My brother did the Japanese exchange program. He lives in Japan now, married, and has a baby daughter.
 
I'm not talking from experience (only recommendations) but if you are really serious about going to Japan then a good entry point would be a scheme/programme like JET. You go over there to teach English to people (usually kids in school but sometimes adults too), you don't need to know Japanese and you get paid. You will learn far more being out there than stuck in a university with your head in a book all day. Once you've finished if you still think Japan is for you, then you could consider commiting yourself to courses in Japanese and game development.

smile.gif
 
thnx for great advise, i went after that and found out that since my country isnt traditionally English speaking, they dont take JET from us.

anything else?
 
well if you cant get a job through jet then there are always smaller companies. if you english is good and you have a degree then you can always apply to companies like nova, interac, gcos etc. but the good thing about japan is that there are so many english schools that you have a pick of which one you want to work for.

you best option is always finish education in your own country, exp if you are not fluent in japanese. as 4ppleseed said, they the courses will be in japanese, so you need a high level of japanese, usually a level 1-2 in the proficiency test (5 is the lowest and 1 is the highest proficiency).

what you want to do if you want to study in japan is first get a job in japan and build up you language skills and communication skills. that way you can have a social life and mingle etc. in the language. make sure you get one japanese friend (not a Foreigner that speaks good japanese , but a proper japanese friend) that is connected when you work there. they will show the ropes. but you also want to save as those uni courses are going to take a bit of money, and the japanese people make it really hard for Foreigners to get a loan from the banks. (heck i cant even get a credit card here). usually the best bet is to live just outside of a major city, where the rent is a little cheaper than inside a city, (unless you find a job where the company gives you an apartment for free, but those jobs go to people that are really experienced in the field). and when you do eventually study, study a night course so you still have time to work and make money.

i have to say though, it depends on the field you are have studied that makes you want to stay or go home. i studied education in australia, and well its been a big stepdown having to be an assistant language teacher, as to being a teacher. and if i wanted to be a fully fledge teacher here i have to goto uni to do some other courses to help me qualify (although i am a registered teacher in australia). so yeah. as much as i love Japan and all its social life and the children at my schools. i cant wait to go back to austraila and start teaching my own class my own way. (japanese way of teaching class is boring. i thought that we were all over with the Rote learning but they aren`t over here) although i am going to miss the fast unlimited internet here.
 
my brother's fried is living in Japan for a long time, he's not Japanese but he studied his masters and Ph.D there.
My brother says that he always complains that the work environment for foreigners so hard and they co-workers STILL dont accept him, like taking him out for something or being open at work and he's still pissed off.
is that true? are they so hard with gayjins? is it that bad?

i heard they are not like this in the universities but its like this in work environments.
-----
there is a book called Japan Unmasked seems to answer these types of questions but i cant seem to find it in t0rr3ntz, if anyone knows how to .., plz pm me, appreciated.
 
QUOTE(test84 @ Aug 21 2007 said:
my brother's fried is living in Japan for a long time, he's not Japanese but he studied his masters and Ph.D there.
My brother says that he always complains that the work environment for foreigners so hard and they co-workers STILL dont accept him, like taking him out for something or being open at work and he's still pissed off.
is that true? are they so hard with gayjins? is it that bad?

i heard they are not like this in the universities but its like this in work environments.
-----
there is a book called Japan Unmasked seems to answer these types of questions but i cant seem to find it in t0rr3ntz, if anyone knows how to .., plz pm me, appreciated.
Click to expand...

Well from my knowledge (I know some people who immigrated to japan) the work environment isn't much different colleagues wise (If youll act nice they'll be friendly enough ) but company boss sometime take advantage of you cause you can't afford to get fired (your work visa is dependent on that), BUT even that is rare.


All in all japan isn't the best country in the world for immigrants but its far from the worst .
 
would anyone who has Japan life experience please type down pros and cons of living there as a foreigner?
since all i hear from ppl contradicts with each other.
 

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