Career Opportunities for Women

Submitted by Japan Inc on April 9, 2007

It has often been said that women are the most underutilized resource Japan has - certainly if you look at the boards of listed companies, one sees virtually no women gracing their ranks. A recent statistic quoted just 200 female board members in Japanese listed companies, versus 54,000 male directors. Indeed, women who have done well in their careers are...

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Asking for Leave

Submitted by Japan Inc on April 9, 2007

Just as with pay raises, the topic of asking for leave in Japan can be a thorny one, if you don't follow the unwritten rules. But before advising you on how to ask for the unusual, let's take a look at just which leave is specifically allowed. As I have written previously, there are 3 levels of contract when...

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Social Insurance Payments for the Self Employed

Submitted by Japan Inc on April 9, 2007

In the last couple of weeks we have been entertained by TV news reports of politicians who haven't paid their Social Insurance installments, even as they push for a clamping down of ordinary people who are not paying into the system. In some cases, the politicians had not paid...

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Saturn Jobs Fraud

Submitted by Japan Inc on April 9, 2007

For the last 2 months, Web chat rooms in India have been buzzing with speculation about jobs in Japan that sound too good to be true. A company called Saturn Jobs in Dubai (as of writing, the web site is still running at www.saturnjobs.com) was offering a range of positions in Shibuya, including those for accounts clerks and...

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The Uninvited Guest - Part Three

Submitted by Japan Inc on April 9, 2007

Being an uninvited guest employee in Japan is a bit like being an encyclopedia sales person. You knock on 9 doors and they slam in your face. But on the 10th visit you find someone with a child who hasjust started middle school and has been thinking about buying reference materials. Actually, the Japanese have a saying that the only successful sales person is one...

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The Uninvited Guest - Part Two

Submitted by Japan Inc on April 9, 2007

If you're living outside of Tokyo, your best bet of getting a job as an "uninvited guest" is going to be with a smaller firm wanting to export/import. In 2004, there are many mid-to-large sized firms reevaluating their foreign strategies and deciding to develop overseas markets for themselves. If you're lucky, you might wind up in a company that is...

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The Uninvited Guest - Part One

Submitted by Japan Inc on April 9, 2007

You've been in Japan for a little while and you realize that getting a decent job isn't going to be easy. Maybe you are teaching English part time or working in a bar to make ends meet - but how do you get to the next step? Especially if you're outside Tokyo and don't know anyone? Well, this is when it comes time...

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Japanese Jobs in China

Submitted by Japan Inc on April 9, 2007

At the start of 2003, DaiJob Inc., created a fully licensed recruiting joint venture in Hong Kong, with a partner there. The new company in Hong Kong is called DaiJob International and the joint venture with this company enables DaiJob here in Tokyo to take client requests for positions outside Japan, now meeting...

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Why Tokyo? Part II

Submitted by Japan Inc on April 9, 2007

I'm not sure why Tokyo-based Japanese companies are more enlightened about employing foreigners than their regional counterparts. Maybe it's the close proximity with some of the world's best foreign firms, which are now active and increasingly successful competitors. Or, maybe it's the fact that most...

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Why Tokyo? Part I

Submitted by Japan Inc on April 9, 2007

I frequently get e-mail from people who have recently decided with their Japanese spouse to return to Japan to live. Given that only 25% of Japanese live in and around Tokyo, there is a good chance that the spouse is from somewhere else. And given that the motivation of many returning Japanese is to be near their family again, the decision is...

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