TS: I recently arrived from Australia with my Japanese wife and started looking for a job. Although I have been in the workforce in Australia for a number of years, and most recently was a manager in a customer service business, I have not been to university and therefore don't have a degree. I've been making approaches to numerous English schools, but can't find...

The official definition of "too much" overtime, is probably the measure for making Karoshi (death through overwork) claims in the Japanese courts, which recently have pegged the basis for a claim at around 100 hours overtime in the month preceding a death of an otherwise healthy person, or 80 hours a month for 2-6 months preceding the person's death. So if you're being asked to work this level of overtime, then...

It's just human nature, but the Japanese penchant for doing business in-person seems to be catching on even more than normal. Recently I've noticed an increase in the number of foreign managers who are hiring people they know and trust, to help them battle their way through...

Some months ago, I received an interesting request from a lady in a lesser-developed Asian country, wondering if her daughter's fiance, who was living in Tokyo, could support her daughter here in Japan. A natural enough question, given that the prospective groom would be whisking their child away to Japan for a number of years. What made me sit up and take notice, however, was when she explained that he only received...