Music as a living

Hello there,

I am 21, just got a degree in English and French teaching. I've already travelled in many places, but I have to say Japan remains towards the top for me.

I would like to give it a try and live there for let say a year, but mainly as a guitarist and singer.

Since I am French and that France is quite popular there, god knows why, I thought I could charm some restaurants and entertain an audience with French classics.

I'm not sure if that's something people do though ? Music in bar/restaurants ? Or any France related places I guess...

I could try to use my degree in teaching to back me up.

So, any thoughts ? Is that doable ? Mostly in Tokyo, as it's already overwhelmed with restaurants...

And would a working holiday visa let me work in those 2 different areas of activities ?

Merci.

Does France have working holiday visa agreement with Japan? My understanding is no. (Please someone correct me if I'm wrong.) So I'm assuming that you need to find an employer to sponsor you for a visa for you to be able to stay in Japan and engage in any paid work.

Finding work as a language teacher:
I hope the degree you have is bachelor's degree (not associate or anything less than a bachelor's degree). That's the first Immigration requirement.

Since you are a native speaker of French, there may be companies who are interested in hiring you as French teacher. But the demand for French language studies is far less than that for English.

While you have a degree in English teaching as well, I don't know if schools would be interested in hiring you for English teaching, considering your native langauge.

Finding work as musician:
There are many want-to-be singers in Japan, so to get spots in live houses you need to be awfully good and must already have built good reputation. I don't know if French classics are that much popular now, though.

Unless you are already an established singer, noone will hire you for full-time, meaning no visa sponsor, so you will not be able to obtain any work-permitting visa to do that.

Well actually France does have an agreement with Japan about working holiday, no worries about that.

And my degree is a bachelor one, the first step of the LMD (Europe standards). But as I said, I consider it as a back-up. I would choose to advertise in newspapers and universities to offer personal lessons rather than schools.

I'm surprised that it be that difficult to find a spot, of course full-time ones are rare, nothing matter what country you are in, but that's not what I�fm looking for. More some kind of one-night contract, which would become redundant hopefully.

Waiting for some more feedbacks about that. Anyway thaks for your answer :)

I'm surprised that it be that difficult to find a spot


Unfortunately that is the problem with looking for work in over-saturated industries. It's not just japan of course but all over the world.
You really will need to make a name for yourself before getting that foot in the door.

Regarding teaching by advertising. This is also another case of you going to need a name to make a living. When you work as a private teacher most of your clients actually come from word of mouth. Generally you will build up a list of clients before going solo. So working for a school first hand is quite important if you are looking for a steady flow of income. Otherwise people come and go all the time, if they even boffer attempting to go with a teacher they do not know anything about.