Hi guys,
I’ve lived in Japan for a year before on uni exchange when I was 22 and it was the best time of my life. Came home and the culture shock hit me hard. I never really got over the striking contrast between how considerate my peers were in Japan and how much my teachers and host family looked after me; compared with the self centred and apathetic nature of people back home.
I’d always wanted to go back but life, pressure of graduating and finding work, deaths in the family got in the way. Fast forward, I’m now turning 30… also delayed by covid. I still haven’t returned but I am starting to plan again!
So I’m considering studying a masters in design in Japan. However my friend in Japan pointed out I can probably find a job in Japan. I currently work as a lead designer, managing some projects and training new staff. I also have JLPT N1 but I haven’t used Japanese in a business setting.
However, I’ve been very burnt out. Due to covid there was a huge demand for apps which my company makes and there were numerous days where I worked 14 hours in a day… my friends here tell me not to move because the work culture in Japan is bad but I can’t imagine it being worse than what I’ve experienced here. (the last 3 jobs I had were similar and i live in Australia btw)
Perhaps I’m tough enough for Japanese work culture but I’m also a bit sick of my industry and want to take a break for a while. Thus wanting to study and just work on whatever fun experimental projects I want.
So a few questions as I’m just trying to gather more information and get ideas on what I should do:
1. Is Japanese work culture for designers much worse than it is in the West? My personal working experiences in the west hasn’t been ideal
2. Has anyone done a masters here? I’ve been told you have a lot of free time so I could do art in the time I’m not researching.. is this true or is it a full time commitment? Also am I too old?
3. Is there a third option for me to spend 1-2 years relaxing and doing art? Artist in residence or some program? I think I’ll be bored not having work or study but I’ll be less broke if I don’t study as the course I was looking at is like 40-60k USD and I don’t really need it. Also not sure I want to do English teaching as it’s not relevant to my field and I can speak good Japanese.
4. Any freelance artists or designers here? What visas are you on?
Thanks for reading all this and sorry for the long winded post! Really appreciate any advice or anecdotes you may have 🙂
5 comments
3- Generally no, you’d have to be studying under someone in a Japanese art, or coming In expressly for research purposes as part of your job.
But until you turn 31 you can get a working holiday visa and it’s extendable up to 18months for Australians. I say get a WHV and look for a job while you’re in country chilling.
4- You won’t get in japan *with* freelancing. There’s no freelancing visa. Freelancers are students, employed, or married.
West is MUCH more ideal when it comes to art related careers. Pay is lower and hours are much harder in Japan. If you insist, try to find a studio that has a lot of Westerns. My friends who got hired in Japan swear by this. The hours are more reasonable.
You can consider vocational school.
Hmm start connecting with recruiters. (Robert Walters, Michael Paige) They could give you more concrete answers to product designers routines.
1. I only have experience working as a designer in Japan, so I can’t say for sure how different it is. I’ve heard a lot of horror stories, but when I was looking for a company I looked at start ups and international companies. You might want to start there first.
Right now it’s difficult for companies to find bilinguals (because most of them are already well paid in other companies). If you’re fluent in both English and Japanese, I’m sure there would be a lot of companies that would like to hear from you.
You my friend have no respect for your friends and family back home. Japan is not a heaven, and not a place where its magic land.