Part-time work is the reason a lot of students can afford Japan at all. It is also the part of the student visa with the clearest rules, so it is worth knowing them exactly rather than by rumour.
The rule
A student in Japan may work up to 28 hours per week during semesters, and full-time — 40 hours — during official academic vacations. That is a ceiling set in law, not a target.
The permit comes before the job
Before starting any job, you need a formal work permit from Japan's Ministry of Justice. Without it, the hours above do not apply to you. Discovery processes this permit right after your visa approval, and you submit it at airport immigration when you land — so the permission is already in place before you have even reached your school. The alternative is arranging it after arrival, which costs you time in exactly the weeks you can least spare it.
What the hours are worth
Three things decide whether the hours cover what you need them to, and none of them has a single national answer:
- Part-time pay — set by the employer against the prefecture's minimum wage, so it varies by city and by the kind of work; and which jobs are open to you at all depends on your Japanese
- Living costs — driven mostly by rent, and rent in Tokyo or Osaka is in a different bracket from a regional city
- Language school tuition — set by each school and published in its own admission material, usually quoted per year
Read those three together rather than one at a time, and get real numbers for the specific schools and cities on your shortlist before you build a budget. Bring that shortlist to our Dhanmondi center and we will go through the current figures with you. The shape of the answer rarely changes: part-time work at the legal cap can carry a good part of a month's living costs, but it is not a dependable plan for tuition and living at the same time, and no honest counselor will tell you otherwise. Budget tuition from your sponsor or a scholarship, and treat part-time income as what covers the month you are living in.
Attendance is part of the arithmetic
Many Japanese schools offer tuition reductions and exemptions to students with strong attendance. Shifts picked up at the cost of class can therefore cost more than they pay. The hours are a limit to work within, not a number to reach.
Finding the first job
First jobs are usually found through people rather than adverts. Through the Bangladeshi community network in Japan, we help students into part-time work shortly after arrival. What decides which jobs are open to you is your Japanese: schools generally expect around N5 to N4 before you fly, and the level you actually arrive with is what decides how much of the market you can apply to.
- Japan
- Part-time Work
- Work Permit
- Budget
