Recruiting gaijin into Japan

[JayC]

Hey All,

After a couple trips to Japan and a general feeling of boredom at the job where I work and place where I live, I've decided to start looking for a job in Japan. I'm in my mid-twenties and a fairly experienced engineer for my age, and would be looking to stay in Japan somewhere between 1.5 and 3 years. I'm wondering if any potential employers would refuse to hire me knowing that I would be in Japan (and therefore, with their company) only for a couple of years? I've heard that workers in Japan very rarely change jobs/companies. Has anyone had any experiences with this, or have any advice for me? I'm wondering if I should not even mention during interviews that I'm only planning on being in Japan for a limited amount of time.

Thanks for the responses.

[FG Lurker]

A couple of points to consider, neither is meant personally:

The first is that until you get here and get settled there is no way to say how long you will stay. Most people end up staying longer than they expect/plan, and some never leave. I came on a lark for a year and it's been 11 so far. So, don't worry about this, and don't mention it in any interviews.

The second is that lack of Japanese will limit your ability to market yourself here.

My advice would be to apply for a Working Holiday Visa (I see you're from Vancouver and assume you are Canadian and therefore qualify), and get into the country. Pick up some sort of job (probably teaching at first), and study your ass off. Once you get some Japanese it will be a lot easier to move back into your field of choice, or at least something related.

Feel free to PM me if you have questions you don't want to post. I came in '93, taught English, studied Japanese, and over time have worked towards where I am now, back in my industry of choice and doing pretty well overall.

[kamome]

I think you should take a step back and consider some larger issues before asking about your prospects for getting hired in Japan on a short-term basis.

First, boredom really should not be your motivation for relocating to Japan. After the initial honeymoon period, you will experience other frustrations and difficulties of a magnitude that might eclipse the boredom you felt at home. For example, as FGL said, you will have to learn Japanese as a prerequisite to getting hired. This means significant time off from your job (and having an income) while you pursue the language.

Assuming you get a job, you will then have to deal with the fact that you are a local hire and will be given the same treatment as your Japanese colleagues (payment of salary in yen, use of domestic Japanese health insurance only, etc.) although in practice gaijin tend to have less job security than their J-counterparts.

You will also be cut off geographically from your family and will not be allocated any extra sums of money or extra vacation time to visit Canada. Visits home for Christmas or other holidays/weddings/etc. will be an entirely out-of-pocket expense for you and subject to your employer's rules regarding vacation time.

There also is the fact that you probably will have a Japanese boss, and in my experience, they are not good managers or administrators.

I think that when you add it all up, the "boredom" you feel at home would be preferable to the sacrifices you will have to face when coming to Japan. This is not to say that you should never go there, just that you really should have an appreciation for the challenges, inconveniences and other problems that come with it.

[JayC]

Thanks for the replies, guys. Based on your replies and some thoughts I've had lately, I've decided that I should at least give myself 6 months to think about making the big jump to Japan. This will give me the time to finish the project on which I am at work, and also the opportunity to take some Japanese language courses in the meantime. If 6 months from now, after some Japanese courses, I'm still serious about moving to Japan, then I'll begin looking for a job. I agree that 6 months of courses is probably not going to make a MAJOR difference in my ability to speak, but at least it will be a start. It will also be a self-imposed test to see how serious I am about this really. As far as finding a job is concerned, the company that I work for in Vancouver has an office in Japan, so I thought I would begin by searching there. They use many of the technologies which are developed here in Vancouver, and they collaborate with people such as myself over here on a semi-regular basis. I'm hoping that my experience at our offices here in Vancouver will be a major advantage when I apply for a job at our Japanese bureau.

Thanks again for the replies.

[Greji]

"....looking to stay in Japan somewhere between 1.5 and 3 years. I'm wondering if any potential employers would refuse to hire me knowing that I would be in Japan (and therefore, with their company) only for a couple of years? I've heard that workers in Japan very rarely change jobs/companies..."

This is exactly correct. The Japanese companies and government still hire under the lifetime employment concept. So unless term or contract employment is specified, this is what they expect.

It is true that with the advent of the depressed economy and Headhunting companies, you do see J-workers moving between employment more now than before, but being a major no-no in the past, is still is frowned upon. A person applying for a job who has a track record of one or two other companies is looked at with a jaundiced eye. Something must be wrong if he quit, or had to leave his or her other job. If there is an obvious reason, such as the previous company went bottom-up, it can be over looked, but they still want their version of "reliable" lifetime employees. If you say you're just here for a year or two, you're not going to find many open doors, so I would keep that under the hat for any interviews or applications.

Also, as others have posted, you will need the language. There is little that you can do outside of language teaching that is not going to require a working, or at least some knowledge of the Japanese language and in some cases it will be a requirement of employment. Some have been luck and sucessful without it, but those are few and far between.

But then again, if you don't give it a try, you cannot truly become an FG!

[kamome]

Thanks for the replies, guys. Based on your replies and some thoughts I've had lately, I've decided that I should at least give myself 6 months to think about making the big jump to Japan. This will give me the time to finish the project on which I am at work, and also the opportunity to take some Japanese language courses in the meantime. If 6 months from now, after some Japanese courses, I'm still serious about moving to Japan, then I'll begin looking for a job. I agree that 6 months of courses is probably not going to make a MAJOR difference in my ability to speak, but at least it will be a start. It will also be a self-imposed test to see how serious I am about this really. As far as finding a job is concerned, the company that I work for in Vancouver has an office in Japan, so I thought I would begin by searching there. They use many of the technologies which are developed here in Vancouver, and they collaborate with people such as myself over here on a semi-regular basis. I'm hoping that my experience at our offices here in Vancouver will be a major advantage when I apply for a job at our Japanese bureau.

Thanks again for the replies.

If your company has an office in Japan, see if you can get a secondment to that office from your home office. Say that you are interested in developing Japanese clients or that you want to add an international dimension to your domestic experience as a way of developing your professional skills.

Then, try to negotiate a package in which you will work for three years in the Tokyo office that explicitly states that you will have a job waiting for you when you get back to Canada, even if the Tokyo office fires you or closes down. That will ensure you have an exit strategy in case you don't like it in Japan or if you feel you are not making progress on a professional level. If you have to apply to the J-branch independently, as if you are a new hire, you are taking on the risks that I mentioned in my previous email (you'll be a local hire, etc.).

Good luck!

[FG Lurker]

I don't think it is a bad thing for a young guy in his 20s to come to Japan without a safety net or an ex-pat package. Are you guys so old that you have lost yer balls? Lost any desire to do something a bit different from everyone else?

[Greji]

I don't think it is a bad thing for a young guy in his 20s to come to Japan without a safety net or an ex-pat package. Are you guys so old that you have lost yer balls? Lost any desire to do something a bit different from everyone else?

Ah come on Lurk! I was just trying to give him the "best way" answer. There is absolutely nothing wrong with just coming over cold and trying out for the team.

The availability of easy evening on-the-job-training through frequent rape, pillage and plunder missions in Kabukicho, Roppongi and Shibuya will also add extra incentives!

:P

[kamome]

I don't think it is a bad thing for a young guy in his 20s to come to Japan without a safety net or an ex-pat package.

That's absolutely not true. It's very risky for someone early in their career to do this if they don't have much experience or contacts in their home country. By coming to Japan early, you risk getting pigeonholed as a "Japan hand" and this type of background is NOT valued in certain industries.

I believe that international experience and knowledge of Japan is valued differently depending on the industry one is working in and in some sectors (like IT) could be viewed as very beneficial (or at least indifferently). In certain professions (like accounting and law), it can be a death wish to start your career in Japan, or even to spend a significant portion of an advanced career in Japan.

I suppose it depends on what JayC is willing to put up with and how he assesses his standing as an engineer, but he needs to appreciate what the pros and cons are before he makes the leap out of mere boredom.

[FG Lurker]

Yeah, I can see it being hard on a lawyer or accountant where different countries have (sometimes drastically) different laws and regulations.

IT is definitely different though. Windows is Windows, Linux is Linux, and databases are databases. The way things work really doesn't change all that much from country to country.

[Socratesabroad]

IT is definitely different though. Windows is Windows, Linux is Linux, and databases are databases. The way things work really doesn't change all that much from country to country.

Well, yes and no. IT can differ between countries, and especially between Japan and the rest of the world.

What works on the Japanese version of Windows may not work on other language versions. Using a specific example from programming, I have to add a note to all my progs for class here in China explaining that stuff written with my Japanese OS have [yen sign]n instead of [backslash]n, which isn't a problem when I use my Chinese OS.
And as for Linux, I stocked up on TurboLinux in Japan before moving to China since TL holds a major market share. Despite the J-based company's claim to dominate throughout Asia, I couldn't find a single copy at the local PC mart a couple of years ago, much less the most recent version. RedHat, SUSE, Madiva, Knoppix, Debian/GNU-Ubuntu, Fedora, etc. were, in contrast, can all be easily found in the latest version.

So beware - IT in Japan may suit you for IT work throughout Japan, but it can pose problems when you try to port that knowledge overseas.

[FG Lurker]

So beware - IT in Japan may suit you for IT work throughout Japan, but it can pose problems when you try to port that knowledge overseas.

Certainly there are differences -- I have been working in the IT field here for most of my 11 years in Japan. The issues with double-byte characters is one, especially pre-Win2K. However I have learned far more than I ever wanted to know about how SAP handles double byte characters, for example. Not something I would make use of back in Canada. The problems of Japanese keyboards in English Windows 9x is another issue that I know a lot about (and how to fix) but would never have been useful in Canada.

Generally speaking though IT knowledge transfers well between countries. The difference from one country to the next is not that different from the differences between one company and the next. Also, as the keyboard example above alludes to, an IT skill set changes very quickly, and things that were very important to be able to do a few years ago aren't always needed this year. Law and accounting also change of course, but generally at much slower pace and in a more evolutionary way than the often revolutionary complete changes in IT.