Working Holiday in Japan

Working Holiday agreement countries　with Japan

A person who is eligible to participate in the Japanese Working Holiday program must be from a country which concluded an agreement with Japan

Please make sure about whether you are from one of the countries listed on the following table.

Australia
New Zealand
Ireland
England
Canada
Republic of Korea
Portugal
Norway
Denmark
Slovakia
Hungary
Spain
Argentina
Taiwan
Hong Kong

Requirement and Eligibility for Working Holiday in Japan

Applicants nationality	The nationalities of those who apply for the working holiday visa must be the countries listed above
For a resident in Hong Kong and in Taiwan	For a resident in Hong Kong, an applicant must possess a valid HKSAR or British National Overseas passport; For a resident in Taiwan, an applicant must possess a valid passport of Taiwan
Purpose of your stay	All applicants are supposed to primarily intend to spend holiday in Japan for a specific length of time
Your age	Being between 18 and 30 years of age (As for Australia, Canada and Republic of Korea, an applicant should be between 18 and 25) years
Accompanishment	Not being accompanied by dependents or children
Passport	Possessing a valid passport
Funds	Possessing reasonable funds for the maintenance
Health	Being in good health
This must be the first application	Never having been issued a Japanese working holiday visa in the past

Working conditions

　Participants in the working holiday are allowed to engage in employment as an incidental activity of their holidays for the purpose of supplementing their travel funds.

A place where participants are strictly prohibited from working

• Cabarets
  

Nightclubs

• 
• bars
  
• Gambling establishment

If you are deemed to violate Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act

If a participant works at such a place, he or she is deemed to violate Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act and will face deportation except where he or she is deemed to be victims of human trafficking.

　It is also to be noted that those who are engaged in having the working holiday participants work at these establishments could face criminal charges for promoting illegal work or the buying or selling of persons.

Working hours

You don’t have any restrictions on working hours.

Does working in Japan with the working holiday program become the first step to build your career in Japan?

Some of Japanese companies tend to see working holiday makers coming to work as a short-term internship worker so if you have a potential to make a good result enough to give a company the impression that you’re pretty much skillful or hard worker, the probability that you can win a job with official work permit granted by the Government.

Working Holiday Visa is , needless to say, a open work permit in contrast to an overseas study visa. So there is no restriction in terms of working hours. Japanese employer expects working holiday maker granted a enough condition to dedicate their time for work can work under the same treatment of Japanese workers in order to create new value by making the most of advantages of yours, who were born and raised up outside Japan.

What kind of concern does Japanese employer have on hiring foreign people? That is…

• If you are Japanese speaker
• If you can get used to Japanese custom
• If you have a potential to to contribute your skill to company’s benefit

Staying in Japan for more or less 1 year is a blink of time if you’re stuck in a situation where you don’t know what to do in Japan. If you have an objective that you desire to built your career, you have to prepare or acquire something you can master even in your country before you come to Japan in advance as satisfying the concerns that an employer may have.

If you have already experienced in a specific field in your country, that experience helps you to get a job soon. However, most of people coming to Japan with the working holiday visa hardly have professional skill which an employer takes trouble to find you to hire.

So all I can advice for those who you don’t have specific skill to take active part in a certain industry in Japan is learning Japanese.

At any rate, if you is to some extent capable of speaking Japanese, your choice will widen. In Japan, varieties of jobs that you can get without experience are quite a lot. Of course, you need to start from part-time worker but your career mostly start from part-time job even in your country isn’t it?

Is there any ways I can stay in Japan continuously after working holiday term expires?

If you your working holiday term expires, usually you go back to your country without exception. But there is a case in the past that a working holiday maker changed the visa status from “special activity” (which is the official name of visa status for working holiday in Japan) into official work visa without going back to his country.

I inquired about whether or not it is possible for a foreigner granted a permission of “special activity” to be able to directly change its status form special activity to official work permit to the Immigration Bureau of Japan.

it answered ” basically, we have premises that all working holiday makers who is granted “special activity” will be dismissed for an application for another permission while its status is valid. However, we grant a permission with our discretion by examining applicants depending on the occasion they are in.“　However, we don’t know the degree of discretion used by the Immigration Bureau of Japan so you should make a call to it and inquire about this case beforehand.

The key to work in Japan continuously even after your working holiday term expires is how you can behave yourself while working holiday term by regarding working in Japan as trial employment period. There should be a lot of companies that make inroads into overseas market to expand their brand in the world. Prior to aiming to overseas market, they look for someone who undertake a task of negotiation internationally.

To be more realistically, learn Japanese, learn Japanese, learn Japanese. Or maybe you can apply for a company that forces workers to communicate in English in the office. For example, Rakuten……..

What is status of residence “special activity” ?

Residence status “special activity” is defined as only “the activity that the minister of Justice indicates individually” under the Immigration act. If you are granted “special activity” permission, your visa status is what the Minister of Justice indicate on this issuance.

When you apply for working holiday program at a consulate-general of Japan and the embassy of Japan, I think a tiny visa certificate is stapled on a page of your passport. All status that the minister of justice of Japan indicates regarding “special activity”.

Every applicants who apply for residence status “special activity” for the purpose of participating in working holiday program receive the following indication on your passport.

An activity to spend holidays for a certain period to learn and understand general Japanese life style and its culture and an activity to receive a reward which helps you support your travel funds.

A indication written on “special activity” also has a condition that restricts working activity depending on the person so when you have a job interview, you also need to submit your passport with your resume to prove that you have a visa status that allows you to work in Japan.