Whats the difference between full time employee/正社員 and termless contract/無期契約. Got offered a 無期契約 job (more details inside)

So I applied for a place and cleared all the interviews and now they are disclosing all the conditions案件 for the work (I assumed the position would be for 正社員 thats why I didn’t ask about it in the interviews)

So for the first year it will be a one year contract after it will be a 無期契約,

I asked them whats a 無期契約 is it different from full time/正社員 ?and the person on phone said that every employee in the company is hired under this system and that its the same as 正社員 theres no difference/ your a 正社員 after first year (I couldn’t really clear it out on the phone which one it is)

And the person incharge of the recruitment process got covid so he can’t go to the company and send me the files/details so we just talked on the phone/email

Does anyone else have a similar experience ? Is it a red flag ? If i apply for PR later while on the same job/contract will it he hard for me to get it ? Is it easy to get fired under that type of contract ?
Any pros and cons ?

The job is in the maritime industry on management/営業 side

7 comments
  1. If they said it’s the same, then I think it’s definitely not the same. I would suggest you to dig deeper.

  2. I have no first hand experience, but from what I have read online, 無期契約社員 is still the same as 契約社員, with the difference being only that you don’t need to renew your contract in a couple of years. So, for example, if your company offers yearly bonus or 退職金 for 正社員 but don’t do the same for 契約社員, you won’t have the same benefits as a 正社員, even though you don’t have to renew your contract. You will probably need to check with your recruiter what kind of benefits this company offer and if they are the same regardless of contract type.

  3. I would definitely ask for more details.

    While it depends on the company, often the difference boils down to non-term-fixed contract employees not receiving the same benefits / pay as full-time seishain.

    But this of course would depend on company regulations, etc.

    There shouldn’t be any real major difference when applying for PR, except for whatever difference in pay there might be.

  4. 無期契約とは、あくまでも契約期間が無期限というだけであって、毎日3時間だけ働いて大丈夫ということです。また、会社の適用条件によっては社会保険の加入義務もありません。すなわち、無期契約は、正規契約と同じ点は契約期間が無期限という点だけが同じですが、それ以外の勤務時間や社会保険の加入義務は問われていないということです。

    Is what I got online from a super rudimentary search. Which, to roughly summarize, means that with 無期契約 you’re still a contractor, just don’t have an end date to your contract. The company isn’t obliged to sign you up for social insurance 社会保険 or anything like that. They also don’t have to give you 正社員 benefits. So if that’s what you’re looking for, better find another position or go with this and keep trying to find an actual 正社員 job.

    No personal experience unfortunately. But I’d imagine what applies to a regular 契約社員 will still apply to you. So I’d look up info on how ppl who are contract workers find the PR process and all that.

    Writing this super quickly, so sorry if I left out something.

  5. This kind of contract only is good for the Japanese who do not want to be dispatched in different regions of Japan (as it is sometimes expected in Japanese corporations).
    I would not recommend you to sign for this kind of contract unless you desperately want his particular job.

  6. It definitely is not the same. I would check health insurance premium, social security, holidays, overtime rate, working and etc. implications depending on contract type.

    When I did interviews, one company offered a 2-year contract : no bonus, low salary, no over time pay .I told them to f themselves.

    Never trust Japanese when they say there is no difference between 2 things on the paper, it’s definitely the opposite!

  7. From a legal perspective there is no difference as these are not terms used in Japanese law (which means that seishain can and does vary between companies).

    However, based on accounts I have heard, mukikoyo is basically a contract employee without an end date (in terms of rank, you rank with the contract employees and are under seishain).

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