My Story: LM

Today we start a series of stories on people who have found jobs in Japan and how they found them. In doing so, I hope that the experiences of others will help guide readers in figuring out how to get started in Japan. LM is 25 and hails from New Zealand. Ever since coming to Japan on a family vacation at the age of 14, she has had a burning desire to get back and discover the culture and people more fully. For that reason, she spent...

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No Degree

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...

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Resigning Versus Getting Fired

Some things are seldom talked about in the official press, but I'm a strong believer in information wanting to be free, so here goes. Today we discuss the thorny topic of how to end your employment with a company. One of the really good things about Japanese bureaucracy is that even as a foreigner, once you are legally working here, in the eyes of the law you are considered equal when it comes to benefits...

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Overtime - Part II

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...

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Overtime - Part I

Everyone knows that the Japanese as a nation are workaholics - it's been like that for decades. Surely you knew at least this one fact about Japan before you came here, so although you do have rights (outlined below), you will surely be upsetting the apple cart if you start complaining about...

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Self-help Program to Overcome - "Lack of Experience" Part One: Networking

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...

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International Transfers

I have lost track of how many letters I've received from people either trying to come to Japan or trying to get sent back home again by being employed by a multinational company. The daydreams are often similar. Join a Japanese company in the USA, and one day you may get the chance to be...

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JPY200,000 is the Magic Number

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...

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Easing Your Way in by Interning

Tokyo is a small town for most foreigners. There are only about 2,500 foreign companies who really have a foreign atmosphere and a need for foreign employees. Getting in to some of these companies can be a real challenge, especially if you're newly arrived and/or you've just finished a course of study. One sure way to get in though, and to...

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The Top End

Have you ever wondered what salaries in the top end of the market are like? In a country where some companies employ up to 400,000 people, you'd imagine that top executive salaries would be massive, as they are in the USA. Interestingly, within Japanese companies - even large ones - the salaries of CEOs are typically less than...

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