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Foreigners becoming a pilot? 2023/2/21 16:44
So i live in Australia, but im considering becoming a pilot for a Japanese airline, perhaps ANA or JAL. Are there any options for getting a pilot license in japan for foreigners, such as academies, flight schools, or university courses. I believe that you have to have 1000 or so flying hours to fly for the bigger airlines, do smaller airlines such as peach aviation, J-Air or Skymark accept pilots that do not have the hours to get into the bigger airlines, or are there any small regional airlines that accept that.
by DylanZ (guest)  

Re: Foreigners becoming a pilot? 2023/2/21 21:44
It seems to me that nationality has nothing to do with the qualifications. Why would you ask? Needless to say, you will be communicating mostly in Japanese at school and at your workplace.
by Uco rate this post as useful

Re: Foreigners becoming a pilot? 2023/2/21 22:28
It is next to impossible.Try your own country
by Markel (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Foreigners becoming a pilot? 2023/2/21 23:40
I've known a couple of foreign pilots but not with one of the bigger commercial airlines. One did work for an arial photography/surveying company based at one of the little airports in west Tokyo. I'm not sure about the other but I'm certain he wasn't an airline pilot.

It's not like it's impossible to fly in Japan as a foreigner but becoming a commercial pilot with any carrier is very challenging. It is even more challenging when you factor in moving to another country. And the fact that you want to work for one of the top two airlines in Japan (also the world) does make it seem more unrealistic.

If it is possible to do this I suspect that it would be easier to become a pilot in your home country and then find a way into the field in Japan rather than moving to Japan for the purposes of becoming a pilot.

But in any case I recommend asking somewhere a little more specialised than Japan Guide. People here can offer good advice on visas, sightseeing itineraries, cultural differences, etc. You are asking about something that probably most people here do not know much about about. Go speak to some pilots. They will have the best advice.
by LIZ (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Foreigners becoming a pilot? 2023/2/22 00:35
probably as same as your country, pilots are one of dream jobs for Japanese. there are many applicants. I don't believe that Japan makes efforts to make foreigner's pilots instead of Japanese pilots.
but, it is true that there are much demands for pilots in future. they may hire foreigner's pilots for their temporary demand. you have to know the particular labor situations for workers in Japan, especially for special professions. Japanese companies did not lay off them when in the pandemic, although those companies were completely exhausted by paying their salaries. also, good companies do not want to hire persons who easily move to other companies by the reason of high salary.
by ken (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Foreigners becoming a pilot? 2023/2/22 08:11
I do not think that it is easy, even if it is possible. I believe that there is nothing impossible, just really depends on your qualifications and requirements of the companies in Japan. If you plan to apply for a pilot position in Japan, then I would say that probably all operations would be in Japanese. There can be many terminologies and much difficult Japanese, then N2 or N1. If you have a good Japanese and you studied in Japan starting from elementary school, then I do not think that it would be a problem, but since you are from Australia, I believe that you need extra time to learn all those terminologies and improve Japanese to communicate in various situations that can occur during a flight. So, I would recommend as others to apply for this posiion from your home country.
by John (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Foreigners becoming a pilot? 2023/6/22 08:00
There are about 250 foreign airline pilots in Japan, most of them captains. So yes it is an option to fly there, however not as an inexperienced pilot.

You canft train for a flight licence there as it requires native level written and spoken Japanese, and the price is 2 or 3 times what it would be in Australia or the US anyway.

The only way is to train and get experience abroad, and then get recruited by a Japanese carrier which will train you for the licence conversion to a Japanese one. This takes between 6 months and 1.5 years depending on your previous experience and type rating held.
It doesnft matter if you have 15+ years experience as most of us did, it still takes 6 months to 1.5 years.

For a captain position you will need at least 4000 hrs and 1500 hr command experience with an airline, this translates to at least 7-8 years flying for a carrier abroad before even being considered for a selection.
For a first officer position slightly less than that, but not significantly less.

This is all to say that if you are still to commence basic flight training, it is very early days indeed to think about Japan (or most of Asia for that matter).
The reason being that they only hire experienced people for who there is an immediate need, otherwise granting a work visa would not be justified when you have inexperienced local pilots waiting for a job.

Good luck




by Coffeewhite rate this post as useful

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