Possible new labor rules law

Back in September last year, the Japan Times carried a valuable series of articles on the findings of a labor ministry study group which is working on redefining the labor standards law. The group is apparently focusing on increasing the importance of company...

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Jobs successfully found

The byline at the bottom of each of these columns promises that Terrie will personally answer every email received. Certainly this creates a steady flow of mail to the family letterbox, and about 1-2 hours work answering the 3-5 enquiries a day. However, it has its rewards as well, especially when...

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Daijob HR Club – Part Two: Benefits and Joining

The Daijob HR Club is provided as a public service by Daijob, Inc., which hosts the website; provides editorial direction for its content and that of a related newsletter; and provides the venue and secretariat for meetings, seminars, events. Informing the HR Club we were keenly aware that HR managers are unlikely to participate if they could...

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Daijob HR Club – Part One: Background

When we first founded Daijob as a business in 1998, the Japanese economy was in a deep funk and many foreign firms were laying people off. It was indeed a challenge to be launching a recruiting business in this market! As we started to go out and do sales, we discovered two realities. Firstly, that although the market was downsizing, HR managers were...

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A Career in IT in Japan - Part Two, The Bare Minimum Qualifications

Getting a career in IT in Japan is basically a function of three simple but important capabilities: the ability to speak both English AND Japanese, an awareness of computers and how they work, and cultural sensitivity. So if you're thinking about moving into the IT field, you at least need these skills. In particular people keep asking me...

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A Career in IT in Japan – Part One, The Benefits

I frequently get e-mail from people who are graduating from university or coming off a JET course, who are wondering what to do next. While you may have romantic notions of careers in international finance, design, or research, by and large these approaches require both an appropriate education and an ordained entry into an industry-related company. My guess is that...

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Quitting Time – Part Two

We continue on from the Q&A submitted by several readers about what happens and the right protocol for leaving your firm...

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Quitting Time - Part One

A reader recently asked me some questions about procedures when it comes time to leave a job. I thought these might be interesting to share. As usual, I will make a disclaimer that I am not a legal professional, and if you decide to take a certain course of action based on my comments below, you need to get professional advice first before...

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More About Pensions (Nenkin)

There are two main types of pension programs in Japan for those of us working here. The most common is the Employee's Pension (Kosei Nenkin) which is administered by the Shakai Hoken office and which is withdrawn from your monthly pay packet and paid to the Shakai Hoken office on your behalf by your employer. The other is Kokumin Nenkin, which is...

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Working for Shinsei Bank #2 - IT Opportunities in 2005

Shinsei Bank is an unusual mid-sized financial institution in Japan, in that it offers such a wide range of services, covering the Retail, Commercial, and Investment banking sectors. As such, the back office computing systems of the bank have to be flexible and responsive to change, at the same time as being extremely reliable and based on open...

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