r/JapanJobs • u/fleaflyrodeo • 5h ago
Company going under, visa at risk, I am in shambles, spookiest month of the year
I used to work in the US on a work visa after graduating with a Bachelor's from a reputable university there, as a 3D artist doing work for an extremely high profile game, among other titles. Through personal circumstances, after my visa ended I moved back to Asia to be closer to my family and worked in an adjacent industry, contemporary art, for several years. I was introduced to a similar position in a foreign company in Tokyo and took the opportunity for change. Now that the company has plans to go under, mostly in part due to changes in foreign business policies, my (技人国) visa is at risk.
I'm in my late 20s, and I've only been here for just under 2 years, and I know I don't have to stay in Japan, but I've made so many new relationships and found great connections with people here, I can't help but want to fight to keep them.
I came here with no Japanese, and almost never required it for my job, but I studied independently and took the JLPT N2 earlier this July, a missed it by a point. I took the Business Japanese Proficiency Test as well, and just barely missed the mark for 400+ (immigration acknowledges this as an N2 equivalent). I've already signed up for N2 in December, and plan to retake the Business Japanese Proficiency Test again once I am officially past the 3 months wait period. I am completely fluent in English, I consider it my native tongue, and also hold high language proficiency in two other languages.
I've never stopped applying for jobs since I got down here, and have ramped it up significantly recently. Having sent out about 200+ applications, I've only gotten 2 interviews. On my first interview, when asked for which position I was applying for, the interviewers looked at each other and said, "Oh, that was an open position we had?", and at that moment I just crumbled a little inside, and continued to entertain them for the rest of the 1 hour interview.
On my second interview, very recently, I got a preliminary offer with about 2 months of mandatory unpaid training, which I just started, but nothing has been signed yet. The position is an entry level IT position with no experience required, with an advertised a 220k base monthly. There seems to be a good chance for career growth, though I'm still continuing to look for jobs.
I considered going the student visa route and enrolling in a Japanese language academy to really drill in my Japanese proficiency to help find work, but after advising with 7 different schools, who told me that they did not support the work visa to student visa route, I decided against it. On top of stricter laws and actions being taken against foreigners here, getting a work visa again after being a student is not a guarantee, and is a huge time sink.
I came here with a plan, to eventually find a 外資系 with decent pay relevant to my past background, all the while building up my Japanese asap to open as many opportunities as I could as a fallback, and I was so confident in it as I could see myself making progress. But now, between being constantly ghosted and offers with being paid in peanuts, I can't help but begin to feel so worthless. I feel like I'm failing myself and everyone around me.
I'm not looking for a pity party, I just felt like I needed to word vomit to get some weight off my chest. If you read this far, thank you for coming to my TED talk.