Hello, I lived and worked in Japan for 7 years, my wife is Japanese, and we have two kids. Currently, my family and I are living in America. I have a good job as a Data Analyst, which is mostly just using Excel all day. I use Power Queries, Pivot Tables, formulas, macros, etc.
I like working with Excel and would like to find a similar job in Japan. Does anyone here do a job using Excel? Is there anything about using Excel in Japan that is specific to Japan? Any other info about your job would be nice too. Thanks.
by LogicDad
2 comments
Something about Excel specific to Japan:
Believe it or not, and totally unrelated to the type of skills you have, there are people who use Excel to type out pages and pages of text. I’m talking about types of documents that one would typically create in Word and insert tables, adjust layout, etc. For example, a 40-page user’s manual for a device.
Because these people can’t figure out formatting in Word, they resort to using Excel where they somehow find it easier to get their page layout looking how they want. The worst part is how these people would enter a single line of text in each row and manually move to the next row mid-sentence making it a nightmare when the text needs to be edited later. In a very rare case, I’ve even seen a document where Excel was used to create a perfect grid and the user then used this grid to type a single letter in each cell. lol
(Note: I used to manage a translation agency and dealt with literally thousands of documents from all sorts of companies based in various countries, but use of Excel in this manner is something I’ve only seen being done by users in Japan.)
Couple those excel skills with the ability to use a fax machine and you will be set.