Stressing

My 3 sisters and I are moving to Kawasaki and planning to work in Tokyo as soon as we all finish with our bachelor's degrees (I finish next year). I am stressing because my major is Substance Abuse Counseling and I can only speak beginner Japanese. I don't know what the salary of the counselor's are in Japan so my sisters keep saying teach English or be a concierge at a hotel but is that a good idea? How much Japanese would I need to know for a counselor vs concierge?
Hearing someone other than my sister's opinions would be helpful. Please and Thank you

Well, how much English would you expect someone in either of those careers in the US to know?

How can you counsel someone on addiction/substance abuse if you can't speak the language?

If you are not fluent in the Japanese language, you are likely to find it difficult to get a job in your field in Japan, unfortunately. You'd need to be able to communicate with the locals and the local medical staff.

I don't know what the overall plan is for the four of you (are all of your sisters finding jobs in Japan? Are you staying for good or planning on just a few years?), but simply "moving" and relying on finding a job sounds a bit reckless.

Concierge at a hotel would require some training in hospitality industry; to be practical, a job that requires being a native speaker of the English language IS English language teaching at a conversation school.

You would have to be fluent for both positions. JLPT 2 at least, and then there would be all the "job-specific" words for both that may not be included in general language courses.

Also, getting a job in Japan is not simple. A company will need to sponsor you for a work visa; you cannot get a work visa without this sponsorship (except in certain freelance cases, and I do not believe your job qualifies). I can't see any company sponsoring someone with only basic Japanese.

Have you considered staying in Japan on a student visa and attending a language school for a year or more? This would help bring your Japanese level up. You should also research if you chosen field is a viable job opportunity in Japan - the Japanese are notoriously xenophobic (not always on purpose) and may not be comfortable talking to a foreign counsellor. Your sisters should also research if their chosen fields are likely to get them hired in Japan.

English teaching is always an option, though because there are so many foreigners willing to teach it's not really a career with promotions and pay rises (unless you teach at school level, particularly at international schools). Some English schools also don't treat their employees very well as they are often short-term, so do your research about this carefully.

As others have said, unless you speak fluent nihongo, there's really no future for you as a counsellor in Japan and your specific area of interest would make it even harder. Offering your services to English speakers is a possibility but with just a degree and no real world experience to back it up, it's hard to imagine that many clients would be beating a path to your door.

Finding a job as a hotel concierge is also highly unlikely without considerable hotel experience and again, a very high level of nihongo.

What do your sisters plan to do for work? For all 4 siblings to move to Japan together and to the same place and hope to all find suitable jobs may be more challenging than you imagine.

In your position, at least initially, teaching English is about all you can reasonably hope for.

I hope this isn't too prying to ask but how did it occur that you and your sisters all decided to move to Japan together? Do you come from a Japanese family perhaps?

You need at least JPLT Level 2 Japanese skills to work for a Japanese company, usually Level 1 (fluent). You also need to find a company that's willing to sponsor you for a work visa, apartment rental, etc. Your sisters are right that you should instead look at teaching English as this is one of the only jobs in Japan that foreigners can get without knowing much Japanese. If you really want to work in the counselling field I suggest not moving to Japan as there aren't any job opportunities here for someone who isn't a fluent speaker.

Counselling requires fluency, experience and an awareness of the cultural context. A Japanese person in a counselling session is going to behave differently to a Westerner because of the culture they live in. One size doesn't fit all. I doubt you stand any chance of doing this and to be honest, you probably shouldn't as you cannot offer the quality of care needed - you don't have enough of an understanding of the cultural background, typical and atypical behaviours and family dynamics of Japanese people. Would you choose to go to a Japanese counsellor in the US, who only spoke rudimentary English and had only just arrived in the country?

You could contact the larger English-speaking medical centres in Tokyo to see if they would consider you to work with ex-pats, but if you are fresh out of university, you may need to work with experienced counsellors for a bit before anywhere will employ you as their sole counsellor.

You might also consider becoming a school or college counsellor in an International school or a univ. that has an unusually large number of Western students.

If you really want to continue your intended career, enrol in a Japanese college course, improve your Japanese, and when you are fluent and you have spent some time in the country understanding how Japanese people live, you can do a masters that will allow you to mix your skills together. Or you may find work from contacts.

You stand no chance of a career in Japan if you are not fluent in the Japanese language. If one of your sisters is fluent, she could start a business and employ the rest of you, otherwise you may have trouble even getting visas.