martial arts and self defence

this is actually more out of curiosity than anything but as i'm planning to move to japan in a few years, and being a martial arts and self defence instructor I was wondering what kind of hoops one would have to jump through if they wished to teach self defence in japan

though it's not my plan to move there as an instructor it would be handy to have the information as a backup should my other plans not work out giving me one more thing to fall back on.

(thinks like insurance, health and safety laws ect)

(for the reccord I'm qualified and insured in the UK under the british combat association and british aikido boards, but I don't have much information on japanese equivalents (other than head dojos for various martial arts, which wouldn't suit the self defence classes I teach which is a mixed practical style))

For one thing, you'd have to get a visa. No, it is not possible to get a work visa as a self-defense instructor.

This is not really a thing to fall back on. It strikes me as more of a dream job type scenario. Maybe not for you, but martial arts isn't really something you hear about foreigners using as a last resort to pay the rent because everything else has fallen through. A TEFL certificate or maybe a few years experience working as a translator would be things you could fall back.

But anyway, visa issues, insurance, etc. notwithstanding, you would need to speak the language at a very very high level. I've known people who have done karate and some other martial arts in the past actually and it seems like almost all of them have known a little bit of the language related to their discipline, so you probably do also, but you'll need to be a really good communicator for something like. If you've studied for some years then perhaps it's a possibility. If not then you need to hit the books because you are not going to convince many Japanese people that you can teach them anything otherwise.

well I have about 14 years of experience in multiple styles (5 years shotokan, 14 years mixed style karate, 14 years shin gi tai aikido, 8 years ki aikido, about 10 years of escrema)

but yeah I do speak japanese (not perfectly fluently but enough to get by, and yes I'm still learning)

the question is mostly just out of curiosity as something basically for extra money that I can do part time, or as a back up should other plans fall through while I look into other options.

Wanting to teach aikido or karate to Japanese while being a foreigner is like wanting to teach them how to make sushi. You may not get a lot of students.

Unless you have your own dojo and a registred company, it will be hard to get a visa and no dojo will help you to get a work visa to teach karate or aikido. They have plenty of qualified people right here without the need to get them a work visa.

if there is a martial arts school that will hire you then you could get visa.

if you cannot find school, i suggest try to look for another job that there will be a company to sponsor you... then to still follow your passion, teach martial arts freelance

curiously, i am already 24 and dont have really an active lifestyle (no exercise or gym at all but i walk a lot), is it still possible for me to learn karate or any self defense?

the thing is even though my basis is in karate and aikido those wouldn't be what I'd be teaching but rather a more generic self defence .
basically what i do at the moment (when teaching my own class outside of the karate and aikido clubs I'm a member of) is teach generic self defence in community centres and schools ect which requires me to have insurance (which my instructors insurance with the british combat association covers) CRB checks (for teaching kids) and a few other hurdles to hop through i'm guessing there's probably something similar in japan (at least insurance wise)

if I was planning to teach karate or aikido in japan... well i may as well get a job teaching japanese lol

my main problem is that the styles i train in are not directly under any dojo in japan (though some clubs in the orginisation have links to various dojos) which would make getting into it through one of those quite tricky though not impossible.