Last week, I wrote about the hazards of a foreign executive with a Japanese national as a spouse, deciding that he/she would like to live in Japan and somehow hoping to independently (i.e., not being hired as an expat and sent by the head office) jump into a similarly high-powered job here in Japan. While I'm sure there are exceptions, I've seen more than a few deflated...

Wrapping up on this series on Graphic Designers, I thought I'd make some comments about job titles and salaries. Perhaps not surprisingly, salaries in the design world in Japan are quite low because of the large number of people who want to be in the industry. Apart from the obvious need to be competent in design, there seems to be very little interest in...

There are many types of creative agencies in Japan, ranging from 5-person job shops through to full-service outfits of 100 people or more. Most of these companies operate under the iron rule of the founder and come across as sweat-shops of the old world. As such, they are...

Most of my mail is from people struggling to find a job, so I was happy to get one from a guy who has the opposite problem: that of too many job offers to choose from. If you use a recruiter, this problem shouldn't occur, since they are supposed to prep the employer beforehand that...