hi there :D hopefully someone can help! i would LOVE to teach in japan, and i have a 4 year degree, but my husband does not. i have heard a few things about working on a spouse's visa, but nothing firm. he holds 2 passports (sweden & south africa) but i don't think japan has any special visas for those countries. are there any options for us? is there ANYTHING we could do to get him a work visa?

Hmm - this is a bit of a tricky one - from what I know spousal visas are just for people with Japanese husband/wives. My best advice would be to get in touch with the Japanese embassy in South Africa directly (he'll probably have more luck on that passport) to ask their advice about the possibility of you guys moving there: http://www.za.emb-japan.go.jp/

Best of luck - it'd be great to hear how you get on.

A spouse visa is only if you are a Japanese citizen.

I am assuming that you would be teaching english but if your husband was to go with you, what would he be doing.

It maybe possible to talk to a company and see if they will employ you both and see if its possible to get a visa for both of you.

Another solution would depend on what job your husband does and whether he could find work in Japan.

Its a difficult one...

Also do you both have the same passports - as in, are you both from the same country because sometimes that can be an issue. You should know japan works on paperwork so you may have to fill in lots of documents and make lots of phone calls...

Best of luck and keeps up informed on how things go

actually there is a visa for spouses of valid visa holders (every country has these). usually, the spouse cannot work on this type of visa, but i've seen several testamonies of people claiming it is possible.

i have a US and Italian passport, he has South African and Swedish passports. I would be teaching english...not sure what he'd do. He likes sales, and anything in hotel/tourism, but he doesn't speak Japanese. if there was nothing else for him to do, he'd teach english.

Oh right...thanks for the update...that will deffinately help other people looking into a spouse visa.

Japan is quite strict with rules, so if your over here and you cant work on the visa, then i wouldnt advise doing so...japan like to do things the correct way

Depending where you are wanting to teach it might be possible to get a job in a hotel/cafe/bar...especially in the big cities like Tokyo and Osaka...

Have you thought about him coming on a working holiday visa - they last 6months and in that time if he struggles to get a job in sales/tourism etc then he could look for a job in english teaching and change his visa to a working visa...thats another option.

unfortunately south africa is one of the few common wealth countries that aren't offered the working holiday visa. i'm thinking it will probably be best to find an immigration lawyer in japan.

but if he's got 2 passports and one of them is swedish then couldnt he go over on that...does south africa have a swedish embassy?

no sweden doesn't have the working holiday option either. only a few countries like australia and new zealand have it.