TT-718 -- Strong Job Sectors for Foreigners, ebiz news from Japan

* * * * * * * * * T E R R I E 'S T A K E * * * * * * *
A weekly roundup of news & information from Terrie Lloyd.
(http://www.terrie.com)

General Edition Sunday, July 14, 2013, Issue No. 718

+++ INDEX

- What's New -- Strong Job Sectors for Foreigners
- News -- Arab oil strategic storage deal renewed
- Upcoming Events
- Corrections/Feedback
- Travel Picks -- Sumo in Fukuoka, Tattoos in Tokyo
- News Credits

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----------------------DELTA AIR LINES-----------------------

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+++ WHAT'S NEW

We are now in Month 8 of Abenomics, and the media are temporarily distracted by the upcoming Upper House elections. Given that those elections are a foregone conclusion, the great experiment in Quantitative Easing by the LDP is sure to continue unabated from August onwards. Apart from the obvious froth at the top of the market (large companies who are exporters, and luxury goods makers/retailers), though, most Small- and Medium Enterprise (SME) businesspeople, who are the nation's employers, are still not seeing a pronounced improvement in orders from their upstream clients nor by consumers. So one wonders how long the trickle-down process needs to take.

The problem seems to be one of timing and conviction. On the timing side, we are now just 9 months away from the consumption tax rates going up, and if there is to be momentum to carry the economy through the downturn resulting from that event, it needs to happen rather soon. The consensus is that it isn't the stock market that is going to feed cash to the spending public and awaken the larger economy, but rather an increase in wages for Japan's 63m workers is needed. And so far this isn't happening because SMEs are still hurting.

Instead, as a Robert Walters recent recruiting report points out, companies which are enjoying a boomlet are hiring contractors and temps on low fixed wages to fill their extra work loads, and are putting off long-term investment in people. Yes, there is investment improvement in manufacturing assets, but this is to be expected as companies sit on huge piles of cash that they have to do something with. In the meantime, greater employment and higher wages still seem to be a way off.

Then there are foreigners.

[Continued below...]

----------------------- MORI LIVING -----------------------

ROPPONGI HILLS RESIDENCES: A PLACE TO SETTLE DOWN

The Roppongi Hills Residence is the perfect place for foreign families to start life in Tokyo, one of the world`s most vibrant cities. Current residents agree that it provides comfort, luxury and most of all safety for the whole family.

"It feels like home," says a wife and mother of three. On-site workout and medical facilities along with easy access to transportation, schools, and a variety of community events make daily life simple and fun. Completed in 2003 using state-of-the-art construction, the complex includes a high-rise office tower, movie theaters, restaurants, designer boutiques, and a world-renowned art museum. The Roppongi Hills Residence is a spectacular starting point for life in the city.

Please find out more about the Roppongi Hills Residence and other serviced apartments from MORI LIVING under: http://www.moriliving.com/en/
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[...Article continues]

The Japanese government, in its efforts to bring foreigners and foreign companies back to Japan, has recently floated a balloon that it will provide a 3-year fast track for new immigrants to get permanent residency (PR). The advantages of PR are numerous, including getting bank loans to buy a home and in ease of job mobility. We have spoken before about the newish immigration points system and how it was adjusted to supposedly make it easier for skilled professionals, the people that Japan says it really needs, to move here. The problem is that Japan has to compete with Singapore, Australia, Canada, and the USA for skilled migrants, and only the youngest and hungriest want to move here. For these people, the points system sets unreasonably high barriers on salary in particular, and as a result the government's goal of bringing in 2,000 skilled immigrants last year fell far short, with just 434 people qualifying.

So for the time being, while it is incredibly easy for a foreigner to move to and work in Japan, there is very little job flexibility/mobility for most people. This means that as a job seeker wanting to move to Japan, you need to choose well before coming, and tailor your pre-Japan experience and qualifications accordingly.

Just what jobs are easily accessible to foreigners in July, 2013? Especially which ones will pay well enough to let you to develop your career? Well, for the time being forget about foreign banks. After all the bloodletting of the post-Lehman period, followed by the departure of senior managers to Singapore and HK after the 3/11 earthquake and radiation scare, our estimate is that the banking sector is less than 50% of the size it was in 2007. Possibly even smaller. The Robert Walters report concurs with this, and notes that most hiring in the sector is for contractors and other temporary staff. Trading volumes are way up, but few people in the financial sector seem to believe that the current rally will be long-lived. Should we read something into this point, we wonder?

Instead, the highest level of jobs activity is coming from a sector that foreign companies have always leveraged to get an edge on their Japanese competitors -- IT. Within that space, the hot spots are mobile, web, application software, data conveyance and storage, and similar disciplines. When we talk about IT, we're not just talking about engineers, but also project managers, product managers, and business people who can take IT concepts and translate them into practical solutions. As the Robert Walters report says, "The number of bilingual professionals in the market possessing the required strong business acumen and technical expertise was [is] extremely limited."

Clearly if you have the language skills (and sometimes not) and can apply technical concepts, there is a strong demand in Japan for IT. Indeed, as we have seen in our own business dealings, Japanese companies are no longer obsessed with having Japanese nationals service their IT-related business development projects. They just want something that works, and they want it fast, before some internet upstart eats their lunch online. Robert Walters hints that the current situation is creating salary increases for experienced candidates.

If we look at some of the bilingual recruiting websites, like DaiJob.com or careercross.com, the vibrancy of the sector is confirmed. Roughly speaking on the Japanese side of those sites, there are twice as many jobs for IT and technology than there are for any other sector (although DaiJob has a significant number of manufacturing jobs listed for posts abroad). Robert Walters reckons that the demand is not just coming from major Japanese companies expanding overseas but also from venture firms and foreign SMEs entering Japan, who are launching new cloud-based applications.

Fueling the foreign inbound companies is a flood of new angel and VC money from Silicon Valley. Think of all those early employees of Google and Facebook, who now possess bank accounts with balances of US$20m+, and who fancy themselves as investors and mentors -- then you get the idea. After doing the US home market, most US start-ups are encouraged by their new investors to look at Asia as the next happening place. Everyone knows that the Asians are bypassing the PC era and going straight to mobile and the cloud.

A not so distant second job segment for bilingual foreigners is that of sales and online marketing -- both of which require a consultative approach (i.e., out-of-the-box thinking) and a no-risk, no-gain attitude -- something that many conservative Japanese job seekers aren't comfortable with. It is not so unusual these days to see a bilingual foreign sales leader kicking open corporate clients' doors, flanked by Japanese colleagues who will then pick up and manage the accounts once the connection is made and interest solicited.

Another job sector that Japanese workers are typically uncomfortable with and which is custom-made for risk-taking foreigners is recruiting itself. We notice that there is a high demand for consultants who can service Japanese clients going abroad, but the real action is still looking after foreign companies looking to pull in strategic hires at high salaries. There is also an emerging demand by some larger companies to have their own recruiting professionals in-house, since after 2-3 hires, it's cheaper to have your own staff.

The last sector we'd say is promising for foreigners in Japan right now is the legal sector. Again, you typically need to be bilingual and experienced to get the best opportunities, although we frequently hear of industry experts without Japanese landing positions as well. Now, it is true that this sector is very much boom-and-bust, with senior management alternating between the exhilaration of looking after year-long billion-dollar M&A deals juxtaposed with gut-wrenching monthly drainage of those profits during the down periods. However, the common wisdom is that with a war chest of US$2+trn to spend, Japanese firms will continue to snap up profitable foreign firms while they still can.

Of course, this is not an exhaustive review of the foreign job market. After all, we haven't covered English teaching, acting, bar tending, piloting, jockeying (horses), golfing, sports, leisure management, and a plethora of other jobs that foreigners can and do do in Japan. Rather, we wanted to connect with the government's own theme of moving the foreign workforce upstream -- and the fact is that there are opportunities to be had, but to emphasize the message that you need to build the experience and language skills to take best advantage of them.

...The information janitors/

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------ English Community Manager for Travel Portal --------

www.japantourist.jp is expanding and is looking for an English native editor/writer who has previous experience managing online communities and curating content. JapanTourist.jp was set up to help Japan promote its many attractions to foreign tourists and in particular to demystify and remove anxiety by travelers about how to get around and deal with Japan. The site has been running for 18 months and is now Japan's largest online inbound travel portal.

The job involves:
- Servicing the needs and concerns of our partners around the country
- Working with Technology to prioritize software development of the site
- Working with Sales to harmonize and integrate the efforts of that team with the Partners
- Curating the best stories (and occasional editing) for display on the top page of the site
- Working with contributors to help them improve their writing and photographic efforts
- Creating content ideas and campaigns to get community engagement by contributors
- Creating incentives and campaigns to re-engage dormant contributors

This position is open to full-time (preferred) and part-time (possible) applicants, including, potentially, applicants not residing in Japan. You must be able to deal with the many personalities involved in the community and have a clear sense of mission and have a self-starter attitude. Japanese capability is helpful but not essential.

Contact: info@japantourist.jp for details.
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+++ NEWS

- Arab oil strategic storage deal renewed
- Companies still not hiring more full-timers
- Elderly shoplifting prosecutions exceed minors
- Spiber about to start mass production
- Gree closes four international offices

=> Arab oil strategic storage deal renewed

Interesting to get a peek into international strategic relationships by Japan from time to time. Apparently Japan has a deal with Saudi Arabia's Aramco to store up to 3.8m barrels of crude oil in Okinawa, as a strategic reserve for supply to China, South Korea, and Japan, In return for the facility, which is provided free of charge, Japan gets first dibs on the oil if there is an international emergency. The contract was originally signed in 2010 and apparently was just renewed for another 3 years running until December 2016. ***Ed: Put into perspective, this oil store is less than one day's consumption by Japan.** (Source: TT commentary from saudigazette.com, Jul 14, 2013)

http://bit.ly/11NqpoH

=> Companies still not hiring more full-timers

The squeeze on employee costs is still on for most Japanese companies, and this is amply demonstrated by an Internal Affairs ministry survey conducted on 1m people. There is now a record number of non-full-timers in the Japanese workforce -- 20.42m people, or about 38.2% of the overall workforce, and up 1.52m from the last 2007 survey. Non-full-timers means part-timers, contractors, and others. By gender, 22.1% of non-regular workers are male and 57.5% are female. (Source: TT commentary from japantimes.co.jp, Jul 13, 2013)

http://bit.ly/11NqgSk

=> Elderly shoplifting prosecutions exceed minors

Whether it's a factor of being increasingly desperate or just being slower, the number of shoplifters aged over 65 who were caught in Tokyo just eclipsed the number of teenagers caught for the same act. The stats come from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, who say that 3,321 pensioners were nabbed, while 3,195 teenagers were. Apparently 70% of the elderly cases involved the stealing of food, indicative of the increasing levels of poverty being felt by the aged. (Source: telegraph.co.uk, Jul 09, 2013)

http://bit.ly/13HIlRM

=> Spiber about to start mass production

If you haven't heard about Spiber Inc. yet, you soon will, because the Tsuruoka-based company has announced that it will start the first factory for mass producing spider silk in September. The Spiber process involves taking spider genes and "grafting" them on to bacteria (instead of being produced by spiders), so as to create hereto unachievable volumes of the product. Spider silk is 3x stronger weight for weight than Kevlar, and is flexible and stretches without breaking. Among other things, the material is seen as being ideal for protective clothing and automotive air bags. (Source: TT commentary from e.nikkei.com, Jul 8, 2013)

http://e.nikkei.com/e/ac/tnks/Nni20130710D09HH830.htm

=> Gree closes four international offices

Continuing its pull-back from disastrous forays into foreign markets, Gree is apparently going to close down four of its overseas offices, including UK and Brazil. The company still has a viable operation in the USA and continues to create alliances and new products in Japan, so is expected to recover. However, if you are a shareholder, you will have done a lot better investing in DeNA than Gree at this stage. (Source: TT commentary from e.nikkie.com, Jul 10, 2013)

http://e.nikkei.com/e/ac/tnks/Nni20130710D10SS863.htm

NOTE: Broken links
Some online news sources remove their articles after just a few days of posting them, thus breaking our links -- we apologize for the inconvenience.

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------ The Robert Grondine Memorial Scholarship Fund ------

In 2011, we lost a great friend and colleague, Bob Grondine. Bob made considerable contributions in Japan to the legal and business community as well as important civic and charitable efforts. Not only was Bob a wonderful friend, family man and mentor, he was also a role model as a leader in US-Japan relations.

Among a number of US-Japan causes, Bob was an important supporter and chair of the Japan Advisory Committee of the United States-Japan Bridging Foundation, an organization established to grow global leaders through a program providing scholarships to American college students to study in Japan. Students designated as Grondine Scholars will be selected for their ability to emulate Bob's intellect and spirit as well as his dedication to the
US-Japan relationship. The fund will keep his mentoring spirit alive and memorialize his great legacy.

Donations of all amounts are welcome. To learn more, visit www.bridgingfoundation.org or click on the link below. Thank you.

https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/us-japanbridgingfoundation
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+++ CANDIDATE ROUND UP/VACANCIES

=> BiOS, a leading bilingual IT services and resourcing company, is actively marketing the following positions for customers setting up or expanding in Japan, as well as other employers of bilinguals.

** HIGHLIGHTED POSITION

BiOS is urgently looking for an Account Manager with experience in recruiting and account management for IT infrastructure service delivery, at our BiOS office in the Minato-ku area. The candidate will be responsible for supporting the continued development and management of our existing clients, and serving as the BiOS front line and primary point of contact for new clients and onsite staffs, as well as networking and developing opportunities with potential clients. You will also be responsible for providing a permanent recruitment support.

Due to the technical nature and demanding work environment, this position is suitable for someone with solid experience in recruiting, sales, account management, or similar client-facing tasks, preferably in IT. In addition, since this role requires direct communication with both internal staffs and clients who are bilingual in English and Japanese, fluent English and Japanese will be required.

Remuneration is JPY3.6m - JPY4.5m plus commission, depending on your experience and skill level.

** POSITIONS VACANT

- Web Designer, Japanese ecommerce services provider, JPY5M - JPY11M
- Assistant Manager (Network Operations Team), global ISP, JPY5M - JPY6M
- Project Coordinator, global payment services provider, JPY7M - JPY9M
- Helpdesk Support Engineer, Japanese IT services provider, JPY3M - JPY4M
- Technical Support Engineer, medical equipment services provider, JPY4M - JPY5M

Interested individuals may e-mail resumes to: tomohiro.kimura@biosjp.com. Check out the BiOS web page for other jobs: www.biosjp.com/careers.php.

** BiOS Job Mail

Every 2 weeks BiOS sends out a regular communication to its job seeking candidates, called BiOS Job Mail. Every edition carries a list of BiOS's current and most up-to-date vacancies, with featured entries containing a short job description and every job being linked to the main entry on the BiOS home page. Regardless of whether you are unemployed and searching, thinking about a career change, or just curious to know if there is something out there that might suit you better, the BiOS Job Mail newsletter is an easy and convenient way for you to stay informed. If you would like to register for the BiOS Job Mail, or to find out more, please email tomohiro.kimura@biosjp.com.
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+++ UPCOMING EVENTS/ANNOUNCEMENTS

------------------ ICA Event - July 24th-------------------
Speaker: Dr Greg Story, President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan

Title: "Igniting Workplace Enthusiasm - How to Create Engaged Employees"

Details: Complete event details at http://www.icajapan.jp/

Date: Wednesday, July 24th, 2013
Time: 6:30 Doors open, Buffet Dinner included and cash bar
Cost: 4,000 yen (members), 6,000 yen (non-members). Open to all No sign ups at the door!!!!!!!
RSVP: RSVP by 5pm on Sunday, July 21st. Venue is The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan

http://www.fccj.or.jp/aboutus/map
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+++ CORRECTIONS/FEEDBACK

In this section we run comments and corrections submitted by readers. We encourage you to spot our mistakes and amplify our points, by email, to editors@terrie.com.

=> No corrections or comments this week.

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+++ TRAVEL DESTINATIONS PICKS

=> Sumo Practice in Dazaifu, Fukuoka
A once in a lifetime chance to watch Hakuho train

Hidden behind Dazaifu's Tenmangu Shrine and the Kyushu National Museum is a lesser known tourist site where men train in their special art every day, to the point of brutal exhaustion. This is Dazaifu's sumo stables.

I've always seen sumo wrestling as a bit of a joke. It's just a competition to see which obese man in a diaper can toss the other guy out of a ring first right? Wrong. What I saw were men training hours and hours a day, going through incredible amounts of pain, all to build themselves up for those precious few seconds they have on stage to show they're the best.

I was incredibly lucky to have been taken on a school trip to Dazaifu. We were shown Dazaifu Tenmangu and the beautiful Komyozenji Garden, then we were taken up a path to what looked like an abandoned stable. A moment later, a couple of sumo wrestlers walked out in lavish kimonos. Their beautifully set hair and the dramatic colors of their kimonos gave off an incredible aura of pride. We would later find out that these men were among the top contenders of the sumo tournaments.

http://en.japantourist.jp/view/sumo-practice-in-dazaifu

=> Three Tides Tattoo
Getting inked in Tokyo

Japanese society holds quite a disdain for people with tattoos. When many Japanese think of a person with body art, visions of black suits, missing pinky fingers and a certain organized crime syndicate pop into their minds. Beware: certain onsen (hot springs), golf resorts and gyms will not allow entry to guests with ink. Those with visible art will also have a difficult time landing a bank loan. Yet, despite the everlasting notion of tattoo discrimination, Western-style tattoo shops are cropping up around the nation and the idea of tattoos as fashionable body art, rather than as a symbol of crime connections, is becoming increasingly popular.

It was due time I got yet another tattoo. Three Tides Tattoo, with two locations in Osaka and Tokyo, is world-renowned and talked about in a number of art, culture and tattoo-centric publications. Recently VICE produced a segment called "Tattoo Age" chronicling tattoo artists around the world -- and Mutsuo of Three Tides was one of the subjects.

http://en.japantourist.jp/view/three-tides-tattoo

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+++ ABOUT US

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Written by: Terrie Lloyd (terrie.lloyd@japaninc.com)

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