I want to move to Japan after I get my degree

3 comments

1. This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.

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   **I want to move to Japan after I get my degree**

   I am currently a junior in college (I am getting a degree in accounting). I want to legally live and work in Japan, but I do **NOT** want to be an English teacher. I am looking into working on military bases in Japan through the government, but I don’t know how visas and stuff like that will work. Yes, I am studying the Japanese language, but I also don’t want to work in corporate Japan because I do not want to work in such a toxic work culture. I want to leave the country as soon as I graduate. I am looking for realistic advice, but I don’t need any “stay in America for a few years then move.”

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2. If you are employed by the military bases, you are under the SOFA agreement as a visa and GS employees can only stay overseas for a max of five years. Realistically you will have to wait to graduate in order to apply since you need to submit your transcript as part of the application process. GS applications can take forever and you may never hear back from an agency.

3. I know the “toxic Japanese work culture” is famous in some countries, but I feel like it’s a bit over stated. It might depend on the country you’re coming from.

   I live in the US, and have mostly only worked for the US branch of a Japanese company (I’m Japanese American), and a U.S. office of a UK company as their Japanese business dev liaison as my main corporate background. Overall, Japanese companies tend to have lower pay. Technically, my initial PTO package was also on the low side (I think I started at 10 days my first year). But aside from that, I didn’t find the work culture to be so negative, although I might have been missing some details because I’m “Japanese”. I would say it’s important to understand the labor laws of a country you intend to move to, so I would get more acquainted with the Japanese ones. Some policies are better in the US, but I think some are better in Japan.

   Some differences I did note, which I perceived as trade offs rather than toxic

   – there was more micro managing and “mentorship from Japanese managers, but the trade off was that the Japanese company wanted to “raise” you or cultivate you, and the chances that you would be fired were very low. The UK company was quicker to lay me off, and my American coworkers were very hands-off with “mentorship”

   – as I noted, my starting PTO package was very low, but my Japanese company offered a lot more national holidays. My boyfriend works at a very reputable and large US company, and while he has a standard 3week (15 day) PTO package, he does not get separate sick days and the company requires employees to use PTO during the holiday company shutdown. Japan has several random national holidays throughout the year, and a winter company shutdown, and Obon in the summer, as well as I think 2? Sick days that accrued every month. I’m not sure if employees had to use PTO for Obon, since it wasn’t a company shut down, but either way, the PTO package ended up being a lot more generous than the standard American 3 week package as illustrated at my boyfriends company.

   Is there anything you’re particularly avoiding about working in Japan? There are a lot of people who don’t want to work corporate, so I can understand how you feel, but aiming for a niche job is very difficult AND doesn’t offer a lot of flexibility if you need to change jobs. I feel like if you want to build a career there, your best shot is to find a job as an English speaker in a Japanese company, or a bilingual speaker in a foreign company.

   Japanese companies actually recruit new grads at career forums and fairs in foreign countries (notably Boston Career Forum in the US), and you can try your hand at what resumes, apps, and interviews would be like there. If you are in college, and your college has a Japanese Student association or some presence of Japanese international students, they likely have some activities revolving around career building, since Japanese students job hunt during their junior/senior year in college. I was an officer in JSA at my university, and we regularly hosted recruiters from different companies who were targeting bilingual speakers, and we did prep work for career forums as well.