Been working in a Japanese firm for almost 5 years (coming Feb will be my 5th year).
Started as Seishain from the beginning at this company, I have never ever received a bonus.
Also I am the only foreigner in this company as previously 3-4 left for their personal reason.
Since I graduated from “IT” firm, I know I cannot work at other firm except “IT” related , is it possible to change the working type visa?
Currently at engineer/Specialist visa , is it possible to work at other place not linked with IT ?(like factory, combini as full time). I feel like I am being paid low and assigned a lots of tasks outside my skills too.
7 comments
Are other staff at your company getting bonuses?
Yes, I didn’t in my previous job. Because it was not a part of the compensation package. I got only yearly salary, no bonus.
You should check your contract to see if it’s a thing you should expect or not. Usually it would have been explained during the hiring process ass well.
If all else equal then no bonus is a good thing isn’t it. Instead of having part of salary withheld until the bonus payout date, you receive everything upfront.
To answer your question, in the past I had received seishain offers that pay 1/12 the yearly wage every month, and no bonus.
Salaries in Japan have been continuously declining due to the poor economy, and it is not unusual to find companies that do not offer bonuses even to Seishain.
However, the shortage of IT engineers is becoming a social problem, so if you are willing to look, I am sure you can find a company where you can work as Seishain with a bonus and under better conditions. Especially if you can write machine control programs, jobs are plentiful.
“Bonuses” in Japan usually are not bonuses in a traditional sense, but a somewhat adjustable portion of the annual compensation withheld and paid out once or twice a year for employees in stable positions.
For a office job it would be typical to have a lower monthly salary and bonuses, or a higher monthly salary and no bonuses.
Yes, I never received bonuses at my previous job because the company was shit.
Larger companies with reputation at stake will typically pay promised bonuses, while the smaller ones will use “low sales” or “poor economy” as an excuse to cut bonuses company-wide.
When calculating your potential salary, be conservative and always assume that you will not receive your bonus.
Yes I have received bonuses in normal years. Usually 2 months/year. Once I received 3.5 months bonus because business was particularly good.
Large corporations are more likely to pay bonuses imo, even if business is just average