Do I need a high school or college degree to naturalize?
Japan, like many other countries, has a "high skilled worker" only preference (with no quotas or caps) when it comes to the immigration of single people with no pre-existing connection to Japan. Thus, most of its visas — such as Instructor, Engineer, Specialist in Humanities, etc. — have an implicit college/university four-year (not a short-term) degree requirement. Actually, most of the working visas also don't explicitly require a degree. In lieu of a degree, they normally want evidence of industry experience. This industry experience requirement can often be as high as ten years, and they often won't count any work done, even as a full-time employee, performed as a minor. The result of this policy is that if you don't have a degree from a non-associate non-trade school institution of higher learning, getting permission to legally work in Japan is difficult. Naturalization, however, has no explicit college (or even high school) graduation requirement. Li...