Apparently I can work part time for about 25 hours as a student in Japan. There are rules however…

-According to the Student Visa office: Foreign students cannot engage in part-time work at an entertainment or entertainment-related establishment. Meaning that I can’t play the hotshot bar tender like Tom Cruze at some Jap bar…
-If a foreign student is discovered working in such a place, he or she will be punished for engaging in an illegal extra activity and will be liable for deportation. Mmm sounds serious.. so what might these dins of iniquity be?

Places classified as such are as follows:
1.Cabarets, nightclubs, dance halls, bars that require staff to entertain customers and eat and drink with them, pachinko parlors, mahjong parlors, game centers, private-room bathhouses, strip clubs, peep shows, love hotels, pornographic bookstores, private room massage parlors.

Whoa ok… is that it? Nope there’s more!

2.Foreign students are not permitted to work in places that (a) require staff, such as hostesses, to entertain customers, (b) are dark (with an illumination of less than 10 lux), and (c) are narrow (less than 5 square meters per customer seat) or otherwise difficult to see.

What? I can’t work in dim lighting or in a tight place? Wait a minute… isn’t most of Japan narrow and dim at night? I guess this will be harder then I thought.. jeeez…. Tough rules, but that’s not all from what I found out… check this out: Once you’ve found a joint to work at….>

“Foreign students…(are) not allowed to seek or accept employment unless they have official permission to do so from a regional immigration bureau… Once you receive permission, this part-time work is defined and referred to as an extra activity.”

Yeesh! so I got go to some Hokkaido Offical looking guy and ask him first if I can work, BEFORE I even start looking for a job. In the words of Marty McFly, “This is heavy”

And I thought it was tough to get a J.O.B. in America!

~J out

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