Alright, so I have lived here in Japan for about 5 years, and I am married with a kid. I am basically a subhuman by japan working standards, with no college degree and only conversational japanese. I floated around various english teaching and odd jobs and finally, miraculously scored a seshain job after years of trying. basically, I am really ecstatic but i Just want to know, is this experience typical? i really feel like this was make or break to both my career and familial life and it came at the last possible moment. I would like to hear some others experience with how easy or hard it was to get this type of job.
what are your guys experience with the elusive seshain employment? thanks.
19 comments
I’d say pretty decent, in a sense that puts you ahead of all English teaching positions at least.
For me, language was the biggest barrier in getting a seishyain position. When I got a regular employee position, I felt I finally “made it” and that all my investment in Japan finally paid off. At least that Euphoria lasted til I got my crappy boss.
I dunno… They don’t seem that hard to get so long as you’re not in English teaching.
Without university background and no Japanese skill, I guess it’s not that common.
With both or at least one of the above not that uncommon and the more you have background and/or Japanese skill the easier it get.
Hey congrats. I’d say even the shittiest seishain job is probably a decent step above being an english teaching assistant. Maybe not in terms of immediate pay but for career development it’s much better. Way easier to jump from one seishain job to another.
Depends entirely on your field and maybe how you came over. For English teachers? Sure, it’s pretty difficult since they’re a dime a dozen. Why would a company lock in an employee with a seishain contract that gives them extra rights and makes them extra expensive when they can just stick with a rotating circus of disposable drones who will gladly race each other to the bottom just for the chance of living in a glorious anime fantasy land?
Coming over in a more specialized field? There’s a much better chance that you’ll be seishain either very soon or from the very beginning. If companies are going to the trouble of bringing over and setting up a specialist or highly skilled worker, it’s in the company’s interest to try to secure that person for as long as possible.
It’s not common to get a full time job without BA degree and decent Japanese skills. However, you may have a spouse visa and this made it easy to get the position.
Congrats and I just want to say your post gives me hope 🙏
I obtained a seishain position within a year of living in Japan but I’m a licensed teacher who came with prior experience living in Japan. I can say I know many who are full time workers which is also called seishain. But if you mean life time employment type, I know my friend received his position after 10 years working and living here.
I’m in IT (design / front-end dev, primarily) never had anything but a full-time, 正社員, position when working for any given company.
That was over the span of fifteen years.
Real question now is: how lucky for a foreigner to manage to get out of the seishain ?
Kidding not kidding, anyway congrats (run away quick when they’re not watching)
The requirement to have a degree is for visa sponsorship. Being here on a spousal visa changes the game a bit.
I’ve been seishain for my last 3 jobs.
It depends on what you do, but there appears to be a real skills shortage now in all manner of roles. Not “skills shortage” as you hear about in North America but salaries are flat, but vacancies going unfilled. Even us non-Japanese-speaking candidates may be more employable as a result. ;^)
I was seishain at my last eikaiwa. And my school before that offered it after 2-3 years
Working in IT, it took me 4 years to land my first seishain position. Before that I was either haken shain or keiyaku shain, which I can’t really complain to be honest, as I was fresh out of college with terrible Japanese.
What type of work is it?
Dunno man, I am a fucking moron and I managed to get one. And then I hated it so I quit.
Is it difficult? Unless you’re specifically searching for contract work, most positions are seishain…
First of all, what I’m going to talk about is about employment outside of more in-demand industries. Higher paying jobs in the IT industry and such naturally offer a seishain contract as the minimum least expected.
It’s quite common for “black” companies to offer a seishain position without any intention to follow labor laws and with a full intention to squeeze every bit of work out of you. It’s not a foreigner as a seishain thing, it’s a black company thing. The victims are usually people who have less than ideal work history, such as a gap right out of college or their first job wasn’t seishain.
I’m not saying your company is 100% black. There are also small companies that are desperate and simply trying to do everything for you to keep you.
I hope your employer is the latter.