Getting a visa for an unpaid internship?

I'm an American who is looking to do an unpaid internship in Tokyo for the summer and possibly longer.

The employer told me that I should check to see if I can receive a proper VISA in order to be in Japan. Does anyone know anything about this? How easy is it to get the right VISA to do an unpaid internship in Japan? Thanks for any help!

Having a tourist visa will get you there for a couple of months. If you want to stay longer, you will have to leave the country and return again. There are other types of visas, but you will need sponsors for them. Is the company not willing to sponsor you?

I was in Japan on an internship 6 years ago. My visa was a cultural activities visa. The company has to apply for it on your behalf so that you can get a certificate of eligibility and then the visa. The process might take at least 3 or 4 months, so if you are looking at coming this summer, you are tight for time. You will need to provide various documents to the company when they apply for your certificate of elegibility on your behalf (same as for any type of visa, by the way). If I remember correctly, things like your resume, copy of your passport, passport sized photographs and other documents were required, and your company will have to provide financial information about the company, a contract etc. Please don`t take my word for this, but call the Japanese embassy or get the company to call the immigration department in Japan and they will tell you all the documents that you need and under what kind of situation you can get a visa for an internship. I had other friends that were also here on internships and they weren`t all on the cultural activities visa, but I can`t quite remember what visa they were on, so I know that there are a probably a few paths that you can take.

Good luck

I did a 3 month internship in Japan a few years ago. I was told by my local Japanese embassy, that as long as the salary is less than a certain amount (i think 200'000 JPY/month) it was not considered as a job, but as an internship. As I was going only 3 months, they told me I could do it wihout any visa, just as a tourist. Of course, if your internship is more than 3 months, you would requires some kind of visa, as entrance without visa is limited to 3 months in any case.