Doing an internship through Internship in Japan is simply not worth it. You pay far too much money for just mediocre service, and an even worse internship. I only did it because of personal circumstances, and now I regret it.
First of all, if you want to do an internship in Asia, but are not sure which country to choose, DO NOT choose Japan. Living costs and programs for other countries are often MUCH cheaper, and you can get pretty much the same quality (and availability of) internships.
If your goal is to live in Japan long-term, DO NOT come through an internship. The odds are extremely low you will be hired, and then it will be too late to look for other jobs. The easiest way is to come teaching English, learn the language, and then change your job.
Anyway, on to my review of Internship in Japan. I had problems with the following they claimed to offer:
1) Guaranteed internship placement: for a company that has been placing foreigners in Japanese companies since 2012, you would think that they have a huge database of companies eager to place inexperienced foreigners in entry-level positions. No. If you don't have the proper background for your field, and if you can't speak Japanese, your options are extremely limited. They searched for 3 months to find me a finance internship, but to no avail (I ended up doing one in another field).
2) The career coaching and training: make sure you ask for it. They never gave me the pre-arrival orientation, and only gave me the internship orientation after I asked. Pathetic, huh?
3) Free Japanese lessons. Bogus! They give you a website with a few videos of the most basic, useless Japanese conversation. You're better off watching YouTube videos.
4) Health insurance: No, it's only basic accident insurance.
5) Certificate of completion: Never got it.
They don't always respond to messages, which I found disgusting. They also never once sent me a message asking how I was doing, or how the internship was going. In other words, once they get your money, they couldn't care less about you.
When searching for internships, they really keep you in the dark. I even had to recommend internships FROM THEIR OWN WEBSITE to contact. Only then did they consider them. Unbelievable!
As for the internship itself, as I mentioned, no one from the agency checked in with me. Also, my boss was not interested in teaching me anything: I was just free labor. Sometimes, there was nothing for me to do, even after I asked for more assignments. My boss was so out-of-touch that I could get away with watching YouTube videos during work hours. Never once did he comment on my performance, and didn't try to give me extra projects until I asked. I ended up quitting 2 weeks early since it was becoming just a waste of time with no benefit. Without even a Thank You, his parting words to me were, "Good luck." If you choose to do an internship with Internship in Japan, my parting words to you are the same.
Response from Internship in Japan
Hello John,
We are sorry to hear that you did not get the experience you wanted in Japan. Concerning the facts which made you feel disappointed, here are our comments:
1) Yes, we guarantee the internship placement, however, the intern`s background is as much important. Since you do not have any Finance or Law related education or background, no fluency in Japanese and most of your work experience is English teaching, unfortunately, it was not possible to place you in a big finance corporation as you wanted. And this fact was explained to you during the initial consultation. Nevertheless you desired to proceed.
2) All orientations are scheduled in advance and done on scheduled days. In case the intern arrives earlier/later than expected, then the orientation is done individually. However, it is the responsibility of the intern to let us know in advance about the arrival date.
3) We do not provide free Japanese lessons. Yes, we only recommend a free Japanese textbook to learn conversational Japanese.
4) The insurance we provide is a a wide range Travel Insurance which covers 100% everything from common cold to accidents, staying in hospital fees etc.
5) The Certificate of Completion is only given to interns who completed the internship. Since you left earlier, you did not receive it.
Thus, we totally understand that doing an internship in Japan is a challenging and sometimes difficult experience. That is why we do consultations in the beginning to explain the content of the program and available positions based on a candidate skills. All the options which matched your profile were presented to you for consideration.