company that acts as a guardian for minors?

Same answers as last year when you asked.

Just be a weeb and finish high school. Then travel.

Japan will be the same in 2024 as it is now.

After re-reading your question from last year. You are now in your last year of high school? I even begin this line of questioning when you are already 50% through your final year.

Just finish school and travel to Japan next year. Do a language course...

Hopefully you already have a job and have been saving for traveling internationally.

@ken
> you will be qualified to apply an entrance emamination for universities, when you graduated high school program of international schools.

It seems that it depends on the curriculum the international schools teach with. You'll find a lot of information for Japanese children thinking about entering international schools if you search in Japanese.

After re-reading your question from last year. You are now in your last year of high school? I even begin this line of questioning when you are already 50% through your final year.

This. My advice when you asked the same question before was that you try as hard as you can to make it through your NZ education, THEN move to Japan for language school, uni, etc. That was over a year ago. You are now nearly finished with your compulsory education at home. Whatever stress and trauma you are dealing with none of us can understand because it's personal to you. I'm sure it's horrible if you've spent so long considering escaping to another country. Your feelings are 100% valid but, just like last year when I recommended that you listen to the good advice being offered here, they are at odds with the way things are done in reality.

I strongly suspect that you are struggling mentally/emotionally and I worry that constantly focussing on the negative ("I can't finish school in NZ, I have to go to Japan") that you can't change is going to cause more and more stress and trauma over time and potentially lead to some really profound issues later in life. I think that a change of mindset is what you really need. I am not a therapist but I think that maybe looking at the positives here may be useful: you are still really, really, really young (most people who end up in Japan haven't decided at your age), and you are obviously smart, so more or less anything is possible. You probably can't go to high school in Japan. I said it last year I'm saying it again here. It's just the truth. But if you meet certain criteria you absolutely are going to be able to go to Japan in the near future. That could happen in one year after school, could be in four after uni, but it is possible soon. If you really want to, you could probably make a career there and stay for the rest of your life. But there are some things you need to do in order for that to remain a possibility, and one of them is keeping your feet on the ground, not allowing yourself to be tortured by things you can't change, and finishing school in a country that isn't Japan. You make it obvious that this is difficult to accept, but you need to. If you don't then, like I said before, you run the risk of causing yourself profound emotional damage in the long-term, and if that happens then who knows if you will ever get to go to Japan. Stay grounded. This situation is obviously difficult for you but do not let it hurt you any more than is necessary.

You toughed it out for a whole year when you thought you couldn't, you can totally make it to the end of this year. Eight months is no time at all. I remember last summer like it was yesterday. You will be done before you know it and the less you torture yourself over things that aren't possible, the faster the time will go by. Make Japan your post-secondary education goal, promise yourself that you're going to put everything into achieving your goal of moving there, accept that finishing school in an education system you aren't content with is a part of that challenge and just get through it. All things considered, moving to Japan is pretty easy if you check the right boxes. I hope you will learn to feel encouraged by this fact instead of fixating on the fact that it is difficult right now because you are a minor. You won't be a minor forever, and you can go to Japan in the near future.

I havenft touched it out for a whole year. I havenft gone to school in a year. I stopped attending school over a year ago. Ifm not graduating from a high school here. Ifve talked to a therapist and she has understood that for me staying here is not an option. I so badly didnft want to talk about this stuff because people would only think I am mentally ill and that I should just get therapy and then everything will be fine. For me thatfs not how my brain works. When I am sad I donft think illogically, I think more logically and realistically when I am upset. My therapist has understood that for me, I need to fix these problem that I am facing and that I canft just gget over themh. If itfs not an option then itfs not an option. I didnft want to get into this stuff because I didnft want strangers judging me online knowing barely anything about me. When ever this happens people always judge me incorrectly and itfs happening again here. I tried not to talk about this stuff to avoid that trouble because then everyone would just start talking about my mental health and giving my unsolicited advice which is what happened. I donft want your advice about whether I should stay in New Zealand or not. I didnft ask for that advice. I only want your advice if you can help me get to a Japan and get an education. I have heard this stuff a million times and it doesnft change the fact I canft go to school here. Unless you are telling how I can go to Japan and graduate high school there, I donft want your advice. Thatfs not your business. Ifm tired of people thinking they know whatfs best for me when they barely know my situation. Ifm not here to talk about that stuff, if I was then I would of asked for it. You may have good intend but you are all over stepping my boundaries and going into my personal life which I didnft want. Itfs not your place to give me advice on what you think is best for me. If I wanted that I would of asked for that but I didnft. Itfs very rude to start meddling in this stuff when someone never asked you to do that. I got my own problems and Ifll work them out but having you just tell me the same things ifve heard from a million over people who barely know me isnft going to help. If you want to help me then help me with the information I asked for. I am not here to talk about my emotions and stuff, I just want some simple questions answered. I donft want peoplefs opinions, I just want hard cold information. If you donft want to help me what I asked for thatfs fine, i am not entitled to your help but donft start trying to be my internet therapist. Ifm sorry if this comes off as rude but Ifm just annoyed that this always happens. People always trying to give unsolicited life advice when they donft even know me. I am just trying to find information that I struggled to find answers for when using google.

I don't think anyone here is judging you for whatever problems you have in your personal life. Speaking for myself personally I may have more experience dealing with mental health issues as a teenage girl than you are imagining. I wanted to escape my life at your age too. I didn't have the luxury of a therapist because mental illness was barely considered "real" 20+ years ago but eventually I figured out that there were steps I needed to take before I could actually do it. The process was painful and difficult but I did it because there was simply no other way. Unless there is some miracle answer that nobody here (or anywhere else because I'm sure you've researched this extensively by yourself) has thought of then you are going to have to build a proverbial bridge before you can cross the proverbial river. You can either do that, or you can keep searching for solutions which probably don't exist or at the very least are too difficult to be worth it. If you do that then it is going to weigh on you and get heavier and hurt more and more as time goes on. I strongly recommend the former approach, because the latter won't do anything positive for your emotional state or your prospects of getting to Japan. I appreciate that you didn't want an internet therapist but if you consider that to be unhelpful advice then I don't know what to tell you.

Simply put I am not giving you the advice to stay in New Zealand because it's what you asked for. I know what you asked and what you want to hear. What I said was the complete opposite of what you want to hear. I know that. I don't enjoy giving people advice they didn't ask for, and if I could tell you exactly how you can get to Japan and graduate from a Japanese high school with the limitations you outlined in your first few posts then I would do exactly that. In fact I'm sure most of us would. Please don't think that people here are being obtuse and uncooperative, telling you that you probably can't go to high school in Japan, that you should study somewhere else, etc. out of sheer enjoyment. It's just that you claim you want cold hard facts and well, that is what you are getting for the most part. I accept that you feel there is no easy way to continue your education in NZ. Please also accept that I feel there is no easy way for you to do it in Japan either. Anyone who tells you otherwise is not giving you the cold hard facts, they are selling you a dream. Did you consider that that may be the reason why you struggled to find the answers on Google? You can use Google to find out how to move to Japan as a language school student, as a worker, as a spouse of a Japanese person in ten seconds. It is easy. For your predicament unfortunately there exists no such simple answer.

I know that you feel you need to be in Japan as soon as possible because you consider your situation to be an emergency, but unfortunately if you ask most Japanese people who have the power to get you in then you will probably find that they are less receptive to your issues than people here are and that they simply will not believe that any such emergency exists. They will tell you "no" in much less gentle terms than I and others have tried to. Whether it is mental health problems or you finding NZ's education system to be unsuitable or any other problem that you think means you need to be in Japan, Japan will simply tell you "not my problem, come back when you check the boxes for a visa of some kind". And that is basically what you need to do if you are that desperate to be in Japan. Find out what boxes you need to check, and check them, and then the rest is pretty straightforward. I genuinely hope you find a way to do that.

People judge that is hoe the human brain works it is not necessarily a bad thing but people are always judging. As per the Cambridge dictionary, to judge means gto form, give, or have as an opinion, or to decide about something or someone, especially after thinking carefullyh. So people are judging me. People are always judging self consciously. You may of experienced mental health problems but that does not mean you know anything about what I am personally dealing with it. It can be very different for different people so you canft just assume you know a lot about it because you also suffered from it. You continue to give me advice about this after I specifically told people to stop. You are intentionally crossing boundaries now. I donft know why because saying this isnft going to change anything. The polite thing to do would be to accept that I donft want help and stop giving unsolicited advice. I do not believe anything is giving these answers out of enjoyment I understand people are trying to help but I have stated it is not helpful so thatfs when you stop. I am not mostly getting cold hard facts, I am mostly getting unsolicited life advice. If you want to help you can just tell me what you know and then offer any other relevant information. You do not need to look into my mental health. Now please stop giving me advice on stuff I didnft ask for and specifically asked for people to stop. It is making me uncomfortable and is not helpful at all. Ifve heard this stuff before and you know nothing about me. A random comment by an internet stranger isnft gonna suddenly completely change my brain. You donft need to worry about any of that stuff. That is my personal matter. Ifll work everything else out by myself. If I didnft ask for help then I donft need it. I ask for help for things I need and then I go figure everything else out on my own. Like. How I asked for help knowing if there was a service for guardians in Japan. That is all I needed. I am not looking for someone to feed my narrative of something, I am just looking for the truth. There is a service? Great! There isnft? That sucks but therefs nothing I can do. Ifm not gonna fall apart or something if you tell me what I asked isnft possible. I asked because I want to actually know so then I know what to do next. Depending on the answer, I will need to take a different approach. I donft need you to tell me if you think itfs possible for me to go to Japan, I didnft ask for that. I donft need you to list the reasons why you think it wonft work, I already know those reasons. But this is my only hope so here I am. If you would like to be helpful and not just upset me then now you can either just stop commenting or just politely only give me the information I asked for. I know people are trying to be helpful, and I am thankful for that but now Ifve stated that it isnft actually helping so the best thing to do if you care about being respectful and helping is to stop doing it. But you still commented again giving me unsolicited advice after I specifically asked for people to stop. Ifm sorry if I came off as rude about it or whatever but this is how people always act and I just couldnft stand it anymore so I apologise if I was rude. But still, after I asked you to stop, you should. I just wanted a friendly straightforward conversation. gHi, does anyone know if this exists?h gNo it doesnft, sorry. This information might be helpful instead.h gah ok, thank you for your help anyway. h that would of been fine and preferable. I didnft want peoplefs opinions on my life.

I hope you can understand why I feel this way. I appreciate people trying to help me but I would like any opinions about my life to please stop now. I just did not come to this forum looking for mental health advice. Thank you everyone for your replies but I kindly ask people stop commenting unless itfs an answer to my original question or other information regarding how I could go to a school in Japan and graduate. Thank you for your concern.

So did you try to contact those schools you said you found that offer sponsorship for visa? Frankly those are your best bets to make this dream /necessity of yours becoming a reality. Plus if they actually offer what you wish for, THEY have donft it before and KNOW what to do. In contrast to you and to all of us in this internet thread.

Those schools might be the most expensive ones, but at least you can get advise from them if what you want to do is actually possible. Most people here (me included) from our experience living in Japan/teaching at international schools/dealing with Japanese immigration/c do not think it is possible what you want to do. BUT it is also true that none of us has tried what you want to do. So we might be wrong. There might be a way to go to Japan without parents and enroll in an international school. If it IS possible the people who will know for sure are in the admission office of those schools. They will be able to give you hard facts.

Dear rachelcookie,

if you want to get only "cold hard answers" than go and ask the japanese embassy. There you would get your "No! That isn't possible ever!" as cold and hard as you wish!

Don't ask a forum full of nice people who are trying for you the most of all possible ways to get you a proper answer or help to reach your dream without trying of being rude or whatsoever. Because that is how this forum works!

From that picture that you give this people trough your question and first few responses, all of them would have think that you are a minor who are really sad with her Situation in school in her home country. So the people here only try their very best to NOT tell you only "the cold hard facts" about your zero to nothing chances to get to japan at your current situation.

That you are, in fact, not really interested in any proper help, nobody can know here. Because people ASK in this Forum for exact this kind of answers.
So, if you get exactly this kind of answers and not "dry three Word answers", you don't need to be rude, as you ARE in your latest Responses!

It don't matters how your private Situation are being, it is simply not OK to react in that rude form. That would be more pictures give to judge you, than your first thinking about that.

Everybody here where trying to be nice to you. Some may eventualy not choose the best words to explain, but nobody would like to harm you or have any interest in your privatest matters.

I'm sorry for everybody who take their time and try their very best to explain your chances so clear and very kind and do their almost possible to figure out a way to let you "dream" will come true at any time in your live!

Ifve actually started writing a list of schools and all the important information about them. There is one school in that offers sponsorship for a visa and has dorms available to all students but it seems international students must stay there. I have contacted the school already and they said they have a spot open in and a spot open in their dorm. In theory I could enrol at the school to start in September and graduate after a year. It does sound quite ideal but itfs expensive so I am still contacting them about further information. I also have sent an email to another school asking for information and might send emails to others once I have written more of my list.

This will be my last post on this thread.

I'm guessing that the school you are talking about is UWC ISAK Japan (https://uwcisak.jp/). This school is a part of the UWC school program - with the flagship school being in Singapore. They are non-profit from memory and it's normally a 3 year program where they stay on campus.

These schools tend to be a mix of international kids and some locals which want to complete an education outside of Japan (or complete a degree in Japan in English). It's possible to not complete Yr 10 as this is just MYP (international Year 10 - so it's not that important) It's also possible to transfer at the start of Year 12 IF you have completed the IB at another school. This is quite rare though as you need to complete some internal assessments and have started the extended essay and CAS (Community - Activity - Service).

UWC will sponsor you for your visa as it's how most people at the school get in as the school was not set up for expat kids living locally (you could probably count expat kids for business within 20 km's on your fingers who live in the local area who live with their parents.)

The school is probably the only international school in Japan that I am aware that provides scholarships. However - these scholarships will require letters of recommendation along with academic transcripts and extra-curricular activities. In general - these students are often from the cream of the crop often from poorer countries which encourages social mobility as networking is a part of being in one of these schools.

Why do I know a bit about this school? Well - I've been asked to interview there on a couple of occasions. The poster who spoke about the Chem IA in your previous post would probably know me - or at least of me if we were not anonymous online.

On not wanting other people telling you what to do. Do what most people do. Skim through posts people have written to see if there is anything important FOR YOU and ignore the rest. Trying to tell other people how THEY should respond is the same as trying to staple jelly to a wall. Changing your responses is a lot easier than trying to change how the whole world works.

I will say that your spray may lose a lot of good will on this type of forum. Some of the longer posts have excellent advice scattered between things you probably find irrelevant. You've definitely lost me and I regret the 30 minutes I've probably spent responding this time and in my previous posts. Hopefully others don't feel the same.....

Rachel, I'm sorry that the responses you have received have upset you, and yes, some, though not all, of them have been harsh and disrespectful.

Please try to understand our reluctance in simply providing "cold hard facts" is that many of us are neither cold nor hard people. If you really want them, though, the cold hard facts are that your goal, to find a company that will act as your legal guardian so that you can attend an international high school in Japan while living off-campus, is impossible. I say this not as a judgement of whether or not I think your goal is a good one, but simply as an observation of those cold hard facts you are seeking. It's not possible.

At the same time, those of us who are not cold, hard people, such as LIZ and those other posters who have offered advice in good faith, would feel remiss if we simply said "Nope, your goal is impossible" and left it at that. While your exact goal is impossible, there are ways to achieve parts of it. Living in a dormitory while going to high school in Japan is an option, though it would mean giving up on living off-campus. Living off-campus while attending language school or university is another, though that means having to finish high school somewhere other than Japan.

So to more completely state the cold, hard facts: Your plan is impossible, but there are other plans which will at least allow you to achieve some of your goals. Perhaps it was presumptuous of us to assume you would want to know more about those plans, but for those of us who are not cold, hard people, we feel a responsibility to share the alternatives that are also connected to the topic of discussion.

u I so badly didnft want to talk about this stuff because people would only think I am mentally ill and that I should just get therapy and then everything will be fine.v

I apologize if the suggestion to speak to a psychologist made by myself and others made you feel as though we were implying that your are mentally ill, or that therapy would be a quick and easy way to resolve your issues. That was not my intent, nor do I have any desire to pry into information you do not wish to reveal about yourself.

As mentioned above, in cold, hard facts, your current goal is impossible. Also, as cold hard facts, there are alternatives that will allow some aspects of your goal. Each of those alternatives, however, comes with its own set of compromises. So right now, your options are to either give up on studying in Japan entirely, or to accept a certain set of compromises. My concern is not which course of action will be "best" for you based on my own personal preferences of societal standards, but which course of action is most likely to make you, based on your personal preferences, happy.

However, which course of action is most likely to make you happy is strongly connected to the emotional and academic issues that are making you unhappy in your current environment. Again, I do not want to pry or invade your privacy, and truth be told, since I'm not a trained academic or psychological counselor, I'm not equipped with the skills to help you navigate your specific issues even if you were to tell me what they are. Those are the skills that counsellors have, and I recommend speaking with them not so much to have them make your decisions for you, but to help you equip yourself with more information to make a better choice for yourself - and again, by "better" I mean a decision that is more likely to make you happy.

I think I can speak for just about everyone in this thread, and possibly in the country, who was born somewhere else and then moved to Japan when I say that all of us originally had a plan for how we wanted to move to Japan...and that almost none of us actually arrived here by that method. I also desperately wanted to move to Japan as a high school student, but that was not possible because of my academic and financial situations. I then wanted to move to Japan for all four years of university. Again, this was not possible for me. I then wanted to take a break from university and go work in Japan. Once again, this ended up being not possible for me. Finally, I was able to come to Japan as part of a university exchange program, which eventually led to me finding a job in Japan, where I've lived happily for the last 20 years.

My experiences are by no means unique in this matter, and again I think many others will agree that ultimately, coming to Japan after making compromises has made us happier, and that we would have been less happy if we had simply given up when the cold, hard facts were that our initial plan was not possible.

So please forgive those of us who are genuinely trying to help for not stopping at just the cold, hard facts. It's because we're not cold, hard people, and so we feel compelled to also share the warm, soft information too.

The school is not UWC ISAK. Itfs a smaller international school. I specifically asked in my emails if I would be able to attend the school and graduate and then said I could do so, just going for the final year of high school. I am reluctant to mention the school name as I donft want a troll to see this and then contact the school and mess up any chance of an application for example. It just feels a bit too personal to say what school I might be applying to because if I actually did end up going there, it would be the same as publicly announcing online which school I go to, which is a bad idea. Itfs a less known international school, and I believe they mostly cater towards international students in Japan and Japanese kids wanting an international education but they do also cater towards international students who donft live in Japan. The school did specifically email to me their information about visa sponsorship so I know they definitely do all that stuff. This school would be pretty much ideal but itfs expensive like international schools are. So thatfs why I was looking for the guardianship thing, so I could go to a cheaper school. Realistically, I donft even know how I would afford the cheapest international schools so nevermind the average priced ones.

Oops typo.
gI specifically asked in my emails if I would be able to attend the school and graduate and then said I could do sog
I meant gthey saidh. I thought I would mention this because it seemed like the typo was unfortunate that you wouldnft of been able to tell which word I did mean.

Straight forward answer:
First, yes, the NZ education system might not be challenging for people that can do better - I get that and put up with it, finished and then went and did university. My daughter also survived it (at a private school) avoided the useless IB curriculum, graduated and now has a really good job.
Second, coming to Japan to an international school will NOT replace a bad system with a better system. You will pretty much get like for like. If the school is going to do IB or some other system, it is likely to be as "useless" as the system you are leaving. It will not be magically better - just in a different country.
Third, even doing Japanese highschool or international school I seriously doubt you will be sufficiently proficient to get into a quality Japanese university unless you are somehow an amazing linguist, which on evidence in your posts, you are not.
Fourth, prior posts have time and time again repeated the practicalities of moving to Japan as a minor. You have, time and time again refused to accept those answers. Many people come to this forum looking for an answer that does not exist and that is irritating and tiresome. The regular contributors here are kind/helpful and contribute their time and expertise. If you cannot accept that, please don't waste our time.

Company that provide a service to act as your guardian probably doesn't exist, unfortunately. Guardian in Japanese should be Hogosya if I unfortunately correctly, and as long as I google definition of this term, it seems to be your biological parent(s), adopted parent(s), poster parent(s), and principal manager of orphanage. Companies are not eligible to be guardians.

I apologize you if above was wrong. Good luck with your study.

To be a guardian of someone, whether s/he's a minor or not, you need to get the recognition and permission of the court. It's a legal thing.
There are two main cases one needs a guardian.

1. When the person is minor (younger than 18 years old).
2. When the person is medically diagnosed as not being able to be responsible for him/herself.

Being a guardian, the person can restrict your behavior, activity, and decision within the basic human rights. Duty and responsibility can not come apart.
It can and must never happen that a "company" acts as a guardian of someone.

If you mean "guarantor" for a specific contract, typically when you rent an apartment, money may solve the problem that you don't have any Japanese person that pays your debt in case you run away with your debt unpaid. Some landlords allow you to have a contract with a "guarantor company" instead of having an actual guarantor.
You will need these kinds of guarantors even if you are an adult. And this is not just for foreigners.

Thanks Tai, for better explanation. That is what I wanted to say although I just wrote it simply 'companies are not eligible to be guardians'. Indeed, it is legal matter.

So OP, please be careful if you found a company which says 'we do'. Meanwhile I would remind you about agencies that offer help improperly those who want to go to Japan but unable. In New Zealand, where you are living, I don't thinkt there is such agenciy but there are in some countries including my home country unfortunately. Customers of that kind of agencies never success, even end up with deportation as you can expect.