BA degree needed to get a work visa?

[MutantSith]

I'm looking at colleges right now and I plan on working in Japan. I've read that foreigners need a Bachelors Degree to get a work visa in Japan. I'm wondering if it needs to be accredited or not?

[Ewok85]

It says - "The applicant must have graduated from or completed a college or acquired equivalent education"

http://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/visit/visa/appendix1.html

[haku8645]

Well depending on what type of work you want to do depends on what kind of work visa you need and what the required qualifications are. You'll see a lot of people on these kinds of boards that will just throw out a blanket stated 'Yes you must have a degree', which isn't true. If you wanted a student visa to study, you can work but only on restricted hours, like an extremely part-time position. Other than that, check out the different categories to see what you want to do. If you wanted to teach English, I believe the requirements are either a BA degree from an accredited institution OR three years of full-time experience in that field (it might be five years so don't quote me on that). Other visas, like the management/investor visa don't even mention a degree. Then, a professor visa requires a minimum of a MA degree. It all depends on what you want to do but if you've got the relevant experience, no, you don't have to have a degree. I don't!

[Mandylion]

Best thing to do is call your local Japanese consulate or embassy (can be found on the web) and tell them what you are thinking about and what their requirments are about schools being accredited - in my experience, rarely do bureaucracies post all their information in one place, so if you have any question at all, you should play it safe and ask. It might take a few days to get an answer, but in the end you will get your info direct from the people who will be evaluating you.

-Good luck.

[Revenant]

You could always get married as well, and then get a spousal visa. Just start hitting up places Japanese girls frequent. Of course I'm not being serious.

I don't have any post secondary education, but having met and married the wife in Canada, we ended up moving to Japan when she found out she was pregnant (she wanted to deliver the child in her native tongue, just in case there were any complications). I found a job as an English teacher here (my wife thought I might have had to go in for a job like a kaiten-sushi chef before we came here), and since the money is a bit better than what I could get in Canada, it is here that we stay.