I was over at the site Japan It Up reading up on questions asked to a fellow American living in Japan when I stumbled upon someone asking about working In Japan now I have never really though about writing on jobs in Japan surprising as that is.

Their is already so many sites that cover jobs in Japan. Gajin Pot and Daijob to name a few.
But these sites don’t tell you what happens in the process and they do not give you all the options that are our their. leaving people to think they are limited to English teacher or  high end Japanese company’s.

The option’s that these sites do not cover is US Government and DOD contractor jobs.
You would think these are far and few but with the over whelming amount of bases in Japan more and more jobs are opening up.

Ok enough blabing and on with the actual process.
head on over to NAF Jobs and select the base that best fits your location. upon selecting the base it will give you a list of available positions as well as pay grade. where you can then apply or view a better description about the job. You will be able to create an account and upload your resume. This is a official Government site and they will keep your resume on record so keep this in mind when applying for positions.
Once applied the HRO for the base services will contact you if you qualify for the job and ask you to come into the base you will need to inform them that you are not on the base and require someone to come to the main gate to sign you in. This is mandatory as you need a government ID and or someone from the base to accompany you.

If you get the job it takes anywhere from 2weeks to 2 months to start the job and you will have to go to immigration, their is a possibility that you will lose your visa and gain SOFA in its place.

SOFA is the agreement between the United States and Japan for american civilians to live and work on base In Japan.
SOFA is similar to a Visa as it allows you to live and work in Japan but the SOFA will only allow you to work for the US Government while you have it.

If you decide to leave the position you are allowed to keep SOFA for an allocated amount of time to get your visa back.
This does not always happen and I would not rely on that window of opportunity to much.
In my case I managed to keep my Visa while I had SOFA status but this is rare.

I know I am missing a lot in this write up I was hastily writing but its at least a slight overview. If you have any questions please feel free to ask away and I will answer anything I can.