Reality of Working In Japan 🇯🇵

[Music] [Music] hi this drinking party is so fun I have just been to so many of these this week Senpai you want me to drink another beer okay okay oh see this one God this is never ending how many of these freaking drinking parties do I have to go to and it's already 11:00 p.m. all right I'm just kidding guys that was not what it's actually like to work in Japan that was very stereotypical so today I'm going to answer all the questions you guys sent in and show you what the reality in my experience is working here so let's get to it do you feel like you're forced to work over time I would say yes or no no because I mean I could just quit and leave right but yes in the sense that it's actually written into a lot of contracts here in Japan overtime is like part of working here like it's very very rare to find a contract where it's not just part of it and I think it's something like 20 or 30 hours overtime per month that is included in your annual salary a monthly salary overtime work that I'm doing isn't just like oh my boss hasn't left so I can't leave it's more like oh I got to keep doing this did you experience any culture shock I didn't experience too much culture shock before coming to Japan because I'd been here on several trips I'd studied abroad I had lots of friends I consumed lots of media but there were a few things once I got my first proper full-time job like not like a part-time one a full-time one where I was like huh that's not what I expected one thing was like being 30 seconds late to the office day so we had to be there at 10:00 I was there at 10 a.m. 30 seconds and I got in trouble another thing would be like one time I was told that it's more professional if you wear makeup when coming into work but it wasn't really enforced anything it was just like kind of a comment which I don't know if someone would say that to me and I don't know what the kind of standards are overseas I do know that in certain industries like to look more together like put together is important that being said like those are kind of the main things that kind of stick to my memory in all my years so far so not too much are work schedules in Japan insane I would say on average in my experience I have had some really really insane times where I'm working like late until midnight back to back but that's not all the time for me personally like that is less common now but when I was working um a few years back that was quite common like I I was very tired like I was constantly working I couldn't go out in the evenings to see friends and sometimes I'd have to work on the weekends because like sometimes the business trip would just fall under those days that said that is not standard across the board I have Japanese friends as well as foreign friends who have really good working conditions and they will finish on the dot no overtime but I would say that's not super common for everyone I think there's a lot of people who do at least a little bit of a over time if not a lot and at my company there are people who worked way harder than I did they still work really hard I do think if you're at a startup or a small company you're probably going to have like hardworking conditions no matter where you are in the world because that's just the culture at those kinds of companies so it's really Case by case what kind of manager what kind of position I can't really generalize for that one I definitely don't have any friends who have the craziest work schedule where they're missing the last train or they're like up till like 4:00 a.m. or anything luckily touch wood but um there's definitely like some people in my life who work for very traditional Japanese companies where they're like out to 11 or I have Japanese friends as well who come back like at the last train so it's a good thing that the last train exists because I think if it didn't people would definitely be sleeping in the officers and maybe they are but um I think that last train does does like help encourage the company to be like yeah you at least need to leave and go home and come back in like 7 hours but yeah I haven't had that very extreme experience what do I love and what do I hate about my job to be honest the thing that I love the most is also what I don't hate but I find one of the most challenging things and it is travel I absolutely love traveling especially in Japan because there are so many amazing hidden gems and scenery and Seasons like it's it's it's unreal like honestly it was my dream job to be able to travel or work I didn't expect to be able to do it this frequently and in this capacity but yes I I love that so much and I feel so lucky every time I get to be sent somewhere to like promote it but at the same time like I've been in this industry for 4 years and I have traveled a lot like I travel to several prefectures in every month it does kind of wear you down and I've definitely reached a bit of a burnout of travel because it just was relentless like you come back from a trip and then you're on the next one and maybe you won't even come back you just go from one to the other and of course my hobby is actually traveling so in between like trips I would continue traveling because I was like well I want to see stuff while I'm out in this like remote area because like when am I going to come here next so I'll I like to take advantage of those moments but I think like I did it too much and I reached a point where I'm like I need to just like chill out and stay in Tokyo I know I'm incredibly fortunate in this position and I know how lucky I am so I don't think it's a negative thing that I get to travel so much but it's definitely something I need to like take care of my mental and physical health and make sure I don't overdo it the kind of things you're eating on business trips and work trips is not nutritional like you don't get time to exercise you you don't have enough proper sleep and you're just like constantly working so that is definitely one of the difficult things and my uh diffuser just turned off I really love this I highly recommend getting one of them does working in Japan automatically let you stay here long term no when you work in Japan you are most likely going to be on a Visa the majority of like non-japanese people are that I know and there's different types of Visas so there's the work visas student visas entertainment visas um spouse visa and I'm just on a regular work visa and I have to renew it every time it expires and depending on like what your work conditions are and your qualifications you might have 6 month 1 month 3 year 5 year visas renewal time is very stressful because you don't know if immigration's going to approve you like you most likely are going to be fine if you already got it once but there's always that risk and I feel like that's one of the really stressful things about like working in a foreign country because you don't know if you're going to have to just pack up and leave depending on how um immigration sees you but the majority of times it's fine one thing I want to mention is compared to Australia where you're tied to your company when you work the Visa is basically sponsored by a company Japan is not like that essentially you just need one company to give you the okay and when you apply for the Visa if you get the visa you can leave the company anytime like you can still maintain your Visa even if you're not with that company um whereas Australia you just lose your Visa instantly but you do need to find another job you can't just be on a work visa and be unemployed but there are visas where you're job hunting and all that but you have to started on the work visa to get there you travel a lot for work how long have you been away before the longest I've been away is about 9 days and for me that was a lot too I was like wow that's a long trip most trips are mainly between like 2 to 3 days I'd say on average some trips are like day trips where we're going all the way out and then coming all the way back or like staying overnight and coming back the next day but constantly like on the go to be honest very used to traveling constantly how often do I need to go in the office and check in with them originally the office days were once a week and then it increased to twice a week but then it went down to once a week and now I have complete flexibility in not going in and only if I want to or maybe if there's a big like meeting which happens like very rarely I'll have to go in before yeah it was like if I didn't have a business trip I'd be going into the office on the set days but nowadays like it's very chill we have meetings before a big trip or any trip no not necessarily but most trips will have like some sort of online meeting but if we can't all organize our schedule or it's not required we'll probably brief each other on the train or like at the hotel before like heading out but I would say that's like less common we definitely have like several meetings and the leadup to our like work trips but obviously it depends on the complexity of the project and the client needs and meetings are quite common can you submit your portfolio or resume to a random store or company in Japan I totally think you should do it is it common I wouldn't say so but I've seen friends do it I actually had an Australian friend who was looking for a it was a parttime job here in Tokyo and he just went to like secondhand clothing stores and cafes and handed in resumes and he got a bunch of interviews so totally do that I think there's nothing wrong with it rather than going online and looking for applications because you're going to stand out by doing that and people are going to know that you're passionate and taking the initiative to try and go get the job I actually got my first internship with a Japanese company in Sydney by doing that they didn't even have like a job application posting or anything I just went on the website and I was like hey I think you should hire me for a job because I'm great actually someone at Tokyo creative got their um position by doing so so you never know until you take a chance and you know what even if it doesn't go well try again because eventually you're going to get there so I believe in you what was your favorite work trip so far one of my favorite work experiences was definitely a trip to KI because I didn't have any expectations going into this trip we were like going to this um rural area we just doing kayaking for a client video and I fell in love with the area and I think because we also had like a really relaxed client and the trip wasn't too stressful like we had time to like enjoy ourselves I had a blast I was like this is insane this place is beautiful I think it's my favorite work trip to date but I also had a really good time when I went to okau because once again it was just like a relaxed work trip I think they're my favorite because the trips where you're like constantly um like I got to do this I got to do that ah they're watching me got they're like stressful to be honest so yeah chill trips where with beautiful scenery I guess like water related cuz OK was like remote island with beaches C you was like Mountain riversides yeah they're my favorite for sure how do I get a job in something other than English teaching my advice if you want to work in Japan full-time and something other than English teaching is figure out what your skills are get some qualifications for something that you are skilled in so for example like if you have I don't know the ability to do accounting or if you're like a medical student or something like that like just have a skill that you can bring to a job so I knew that I wanted to do something in business so at University I did a major in international business I didn't know what kind of job I wanted I just knew I need to have some sort of hard skills that I could provide to an employer but of course if you don't have any skills I would then focus on developing Japanese skills because most jobs in Japan will require Japanese unless you are really special and you have skills in I don't know it engineering where they don't really require employees to have good Japanese anything with client facing roles you're going to have to have Japanese that's just like the reality unless you're in like a very Foreigner friendly company or like you're facing like foreign clients that's the exception to the rule so yeah how far do I have to commute to the office when I go to the office it's basically an hour and I hate commuting for one reason because the trains are so packed and it's not just one train you're taking like several trains sometimes three trains four trains like it's just a nightmare so the thing is you could be like well why don't you live near your office but like since I've joined Tokyo creative their office has changed like four times I wouldn't want to pick my neighborhood based off the company's office because you don't know when that's going to change especially now that like remote work is such a big thing although for some people they want to live they know they're going to be at this company forever and maybe the company's like yes we're going to have this office forever that's a situation you can consider but for me I was like no I'm going to I like where I'm living I'm not moving just because I got a job unless the job was like really far away like 2 hours to commute I don't think I could do that company in Japan will always pay for your commute it's part of like the deal here even if you have a part-time job it's one good thing about working in Japan Community expenses covered by the company what keeps me going every day and what's my creative passion that is a really good and difficult question to answer I don't have like 5e 10e goals to be honest I have like more short-term goals probably like 3 months 6 months one year and every day I just want to improve myself and I like to work hard I think I'm a pretty hard worker and right now like one of my creative Outlets is making content on the internet and I've been enjoying it so much and I kind of want to keep progressing in that direction so my outlet is just making videos and being myself and connecting with you guys because it's really cool whenever I get a message from someone who's like related to what I've done or found something helpful it really just motivates me to keep going what is career growth like in Japan I think career growth depends on the company you're working at um for me like there was obviously a few options I had where I could keep working to become a manager or something or I could take another path and I was recently offered the opportunity to go towards the more content creation route and then have Tokyo creative back me up so I've actually selected that route and I'm going to try my best to you know succeed but if I don't succeed I have no idea where I want to go with my career I'm just kind of weeing life like I don't know where I'm going to end up I guess like I'm not trying to climb that corporate ladder but if things don't work out I think like we'll we'll just see I can't give you an answer on that and I might be different to the next person but I found like a lot of the foreigners that live in Japan don't have that like corporate ladder Minds said they're just trying to enjoy their everyday lives and get by maybe I'm not surrounding myself with very like career oriented people but yeah that's what I've seen what happens if you get sick in Japan and do you get in trouble for it the unfortunate reality is that in Japan you only get about 10 days well starts with 10 days paid leave per year and every year that you work at a company it kind of increases steadily like you get an extra one or 2 days but that does not include sickly which is so brutal it's so rough so in the past when I got sick uh I I probably took like a paid leave holiday or like I took uh replacement days which are days that you can take off if you've worked over the weekend and because I had to travel so much and do so much work I I had a lot of those in really bad scenarios I think what happens is if you're really sick and you can't work for a period of time you can basically ask them to stop paying your salary I think I could be wrong like don't quote me on this but I I feel like I've heard that before and so you might get paid for Less days of work or you know if you just have like a cold or something you're probably going to have to just keep working through it a lot of people do that or they'll take like half a day leave um but you can kind of negotiate things like if you have if you have a good relationship with your like company maybe they'll be like oh it's fine like we know you're sick so like just go one good thing about working at Tokyo creative was that if I had to go to the dentist and or like I had to go to the doctor the physio they would be pretty generous and flexible about letting me go on a weekday during the middle of the day so long as there was like no meetings or anything planned that was not just for me that was for my other colleagues as well and I think that was so great because there's a lot of things in Japan that you can't do on the weekends including going the bank and all those kinds of things and they were really flexible with that so I'm really grateful I I would I would have hated having to take like a paid leave one of my 10 days paid leave to like go to the bank or like go to the doctor so I don't know if that's common but definitely at like our company where they were a bit flexible with things that was really awesome does the convenience of having affordable food options everywhere out way any benefits to bringing your own homecooked lunch having so many convenient options to have lunch around the office and when you're traveling is definitely something everyone takes advantage of I'd say like 80% of my like colleagues would go out for lunch like only 20% would have a Bento there were a couple of people who had like wives who were making them Bento very like stereotypical yes people would just go out buy a Bento they'd go to like a family restaurant like a cheap budget place or have comini food yeah that was what most people did and do what's the situation with Healthcare in Japan when you have a full-time job so everyone working in Japan has to be part of the national health insurance like system here in Japan and even if you're unemployed you have to be part of it every month you'll get a slip and you have to keep paying it but if you're a Company employee it's like automatically deducted from your monthly salary and I think it's like $200 a month or something cuz it's automatically deducted I don't really see it but it's pretty good like once you have the health insurance you only have to pay 30% of your your actual bill so let's say the bill is like $100 you're only paying $30 because the government will subsidize like 70% of that and so that's like through your payments you get to um have that and it's not optional you have to be part of it otherwise you're going to get like in trouble when it comes to immigration like time to renew your Visa or if you ever want to do anything in Japan so if you want to stay here longterm definitely pay for it also one thing I want to mention is it includes Dental healthare which is insane it's so cheap here whenever I get my teeth clean I'm paying like $3,000 Yen which maybe in USD is $20 they're actually American dentists like there's a place I go to that has all these like English speaking foreign trained people and it's like 3,000 it's so good I love it what are contracts like in Japan there are different types of contracts here the most common one is like SE shyen so that's kind of like your full-time employee rather than a contractual one I recommend getting that because if you're a SE shyen that means like it's really easy to get a Visa because they're like oh you're full like you're actually employed and you're not just like a part-time like contract but there are people who are just like on one-ear contracts I think like what's most common here is just like a not lifelong but you just have like no end date to your contract and then in terms of like the terms like it'll say like how many hours you have to work what your pay is how do we get paid in Japan most companies are going to just transfer you via Bank like transfer I am paid in Yen because my company is Japanese I would imagine most people working in Japan are paid in Yen but if you're getting paid in USD lucky you because that would be a really amazing like rate at least right now what kind of benefits do I have there no like benefits like oh you get to have this yoga class or you get free lunch at the cafeteria I think my company doesn't have that because we're really small but if you worked at somewhere like I don't know Google Japan I'm sure there's really cool benefits I guess my biggest benefit would be I get to travel across the entire country for work and I get to meet really cool talented people it's part of the job but it's not like in the contract it's just like I see it as a benefit how many holidays do I get a year on average you're going to start with like 10 days and I don't know if this changes like if you're like 30 years old and you get a new job if it's just like okay well you're 30 so you should have like 15 days or because you're like a fresh graduate you're going to have just 10 days most people will start on 10 days and then it will just like slowly add up so I think like I got I'm up to like 14 or 15 days or something what will my next job be do I have any career goals right now my goal is actually to keep going with content and try and make that fulltime I know that's very different to um maybe what you wanted to hear like I want to be like a career woman but I'm actually seeing like a lot of benefits to working in content in Japan and I'm enjoying it so much that that's where my future hopefully takes me it's obviously very hard to like Make It or Break It here so we'll see how it go but I have a lot of support and I have obviously seen some of the best people working in Japan in this industry so I have a lot of Insider knowledge and I feel like if I can keep gumaru keep doing my best I might make it but you never know so I'm just taking as it comes and I have no idea I didn't see myself I didn't have these plans when I left uni I didn't have these plans 2 years ago I've just found myself here so I'll check back in with you in one year to see how I go what's your favorite Japanese business custom omag omag means souvenir and basically whenever you travel in Japan you've got to bring back some snacks for your colleagues and I have benefited from this so much because whenever my colleagues go from like the northern part of Japan to like the southern part or even just the neighboring prefecture They're bringing back like the coolest snacks and they're from all these local places and that's why today I want to introduce Sakura sakuro is a monthly Japanese Artisan snack box that supports local snack makers and producers authentic Japanese treats inside and each month there's 20 in here but you also get a Japanese tea as well as a special Japanese table wear included every month there's actually a different theme and this time the theme is a night of Sakura and in Japan it's really popular to go to light ups in the evening and they're called Y zakura and the box is designed just like that inside there's always a monthly booklet which tells you all about Japanese cultural information as well as allerin info there's so much in here this month and I've heard that there are many many Sakura theme snacks again this month's table wear item is the cutest little Sakura theme cup look at that I'm a big fan of cashew nuts and I can't believe they are sakura themed ones so let me give this a go it smells so sweet oh my goodness M that is a really subtle Sakura flavor I really like that the mchi this month is huge look at it they're all mchi M I love this oh my God it tastes like suc I love that they include two t bag so you can share it with a friend and this month it is a blueberry hibiscus tea and I decided to have it iced come bye if you want to experience Japan from the comfort of your own home check my link down below and use the code sarasan for $5 off your first purchase and I highly recommend if you guys are ever going to get a sakuro c box to do the sakuro ones so we can enjoy the Sakura season from wherever we are in the world all right back to the Q&A what's work culture like at startups in Japan is it different from Big corporate companies of course it's different startups everywhere in the world I think are pretty similar like you got to work hard you have a small team you got to be flexible you got to be able to do lots of different skills you are not just a product analyst or whatever you have to do like finances you have to do work on the website you have to do all sorts of things the good thing about startups is you develop a range of skills in areas that you wouldn't normally get the opportunity to like try out and you can figure out what you really like and I think that's something that most people should try and experience I haven't worked at a big company here so I can't really comment on that but I do here that big companies don't necessarily mean that you have to work less like both have difficult work environments so it really just depends on where you work at the end of the day that is the main thing do I plan to stay and work in Japan long term I definitely want to stay here for at least a few more years but I don't see myself like retiring here that is one thing I'm like I don't know if that's for me and I'm not going to say no to it but I definitely can't be like yes that's my life goal what was my experience getting my Visa here for the first time so I came on this trip to Japan when I say this trip it was in 2019 when I first moved and I came on a working holiday Visa which is an agreement that Japan has with several countries around the world and it allowed me to work in Japan for a year and a half and I could get full-time jobs or part-time jobs it was very very flexible I just couldn't work in like the night industry from there I found my job at toky creative and they were like hey we really like working with you so let's extend your Visa so while I was working at TC I had the working holiday and then I swapped it over to like a normal work visa and the rest is history I'm still on that now do think it's expensive to work in Japan I personally think that living in Japan is Affordable but I wouldn't say it's cheap now you might be thinking what is she talking about it's so cheap to do this and this and this but that's because you're earning money and exchanging it at a really good rate and coming here the salaries in Japan are terrible this is not a secret it's the truth they're awful and I'm just saying this in comparison to if I worked overseas I'd be earning a lot more but in Japan this goes for everyone engineers teachers for instance like the average graduate salary here is 3 million yen which is like what I don't know 20 grand USD 30 grand Australian I'd say the average salary for someone in their mid to late 20s in Tokyo is probably 4 million yen which is not terrible but it's definitely not great and I'm talking about people who are like really qualified I definitely wouldn't say having a 4 million yen salary is like you're poor or anything but I'm like a single person right I don't have children I don't have a partner I have to pay for but you can just get by like you can get by you can have like you can go out for dinner with friends every now and then you can go travel like every now and then but it's nothing like you can relax and be like yeah I'm I'm I'm pretty comfortable like I think even if I wanted to get a pet or something I'd be like okay that's a big expense I need to really consider it nowadays with inflation because Japan all the prices were just not changing for the longest time it has jumped up so much in the past year of living here that some things are just so expensive now that it makes you reconsider especially vegetables if you want to cook at home you are spending a lot to eat a nutritional meal for even someone in like engineering like computer science you'd probably be earning like maybe 60 to 80 grand like uh I mean 6 million to 8 million yen which is like I don't know like 40 50 Grand is quite different and it's quite shocking but I have a lot of friends who make the sacrifice to live in Japan even though it's a huge pay cut because they like they like living here that much and I think I'm the same where I'm like I'm not working here for the money I'm working here for the life experience and just cuz I enjoy it so one of my recommendations is if you're coming here don't expect to earn a lot just expect to have a good time how do you find good stable work are there any websites to do this yes there are tons of websites you can check out there's places like gunport you can use LinkedIn there are so many work forums that you can come to where they're looking for foreigners in particular or just like go to the normal Japanese ones the most important thing to do is make sure you have your resume ready you have all the Japanese requirements like let's say you need a jpt certificate or you need potentially to have a Coe so you're already living in Japan or another big thing is if you're job hunting here make sure to have like the full attire for me it wasn't too important I just had to have like a business casual look when I went for my like online meeting or interview here there are certain companies especially like the official shoe cutso period in Japan where you have to have like the right Blazer the light right top shoes everything but there are stores where you can buy that but yeah just figure out what kind of industry you're going for cuz if it's like the creative industry you just turn up um maybe not like this but you know business casual do you feel like Japan has a competitive salary versus Australia and the rest of the world no they do not have competitive salaries here as I covered in an earlier question no one reason for this is because a lot of people around the world just are desperate to live in Japan and will sacrifice a higher salary so that's kind of my impression and local Japanese people aren't really fighting to increase their salaries like they're just going to put up with it so I think that's like two potential reasons that contribute to such low pay what are some of the best jobs for foreigners to get into some of the best jobs for foreigners is somewhere where you are the minority I think that's where you can have the better odds of getting a job as well as better pay but that's the same across everything right so in that sense something that would have high pay is like a job where you have a lot of skill required because not anyone can do it so you have a Competitive Edge over someone you're able to bargain more when it comes to wages can I get a job at Tokyo creative yes you can if you have Japanese skills as well as another skill set because we get a lot of people asking can I work at Tokyo creative but they don't have any Japanese or they're not based here so you've also got to be based here you can't just be from overseas in almost 99% of cases but that being said if you are really highly talented at videography or editing you might have a shot uh it's not up to me so if you're interested head to the tury creative website and apply via the email there even if we're not looking for people it's always a good shout to just give it a go and submit something I want to work in marketing in Japan but I want to only work 9 to five and not do crazy work hours is this possible if you want to work in Japan you cannot guarantee that you won't have crazy work hours it really just depends on the company you enter because things can change like one of your managers changes and then all of a sudden you've got more work hours or it could be the opposite I've seen it go both ways you start off really easy and then it slowly gets worse or like sometimes like there's a crunch time of year so if you were in accounting it would probably be like at the end of the financial year or if you're in tourism it would be like Autumn Leaf season because that's always crazy but just go in with an open mind and of course don't be totally abused and like work to death but expect like a little bit unfortunately that's the reality of most people I see working in Japan is there a learning curve if you want to work in Japan for foreigners I think there are certain things along the way that you should try and pick up like business mannerisms and cultural etiquette but of course I don't think that you should you know work yourself to death and like stay into the office to the last one if that's like something that you're not feeling comfortable doing then I think you need to look for a better job or find a way out because that's not going to help you long term things that you can try and like work through are like things that I've tried to do like get used to writing Japanese business emails I still am terrible at it because I don't actually get a lot of opportunities to do it um and I'd always be like ah this doesn't sound good but you know there was a few opportunities where I got to try it I'm not a beginner but I'm definitely like I feel like I'm a beginner in business or writing I can have a conversation I can be all C well likei Sarah oh no already wrong what level of JT do you need to get to Japan and get a job the bare minimum for Japanese level is basically an N2 in my opinion across the board so if you have N2 you probably can get yourself like quite a few jobs and honestly on LinkedIn when you apply a lot of them require minimum N1 and this was for business and like marketing because you have to like talk to clients and it's a lot of like emailing so it depends on the industry like I have friends who have like barely N4 but they've got like jobs in um Japan so it really just depends and honestly like at the end of the day I personally don't see the value in jpt for being like a barrier to getting a job because just because I have N1 or N2 doesn't mean I can actually speak Japanese read it well and be fluent or Comm like communicate effectively so I mean like if you don't have it don't let it stop you from applying for jobs unless it physically like the online system won't let you because you never know you never know they might be like oh actually you're pretty good I see potential in you so don't let it hold you back but also keep working on it because at the end of the day it's like a degree Japan really cares about qualifications like have you graduated University and jlpt and plus it helps you have a better shot at getting a good visa from immigration have I ever regretted working in Japan no luckily I have had a really great company who has supported me as a non-japanese person and given me the opportunity to live a great life here with that being said there are moments where I'm like damn this is hard and I have cried a lot like there have been nights where I'm like what am I doing with my life is this what I need to be doing and I think that's normal especially if you're living abroad um and especially like when it comes to like cultural misunderstandings and like obviously the pressure you have as like a non-japanese person like I feel like you're held not that you're held to a different standard but like everything requires like a lot more thought than you know like a local person of course it's hard for them but in a different way way so there have been moments where I'm like damn this is really hard but I'm glad I could stick through it and like keep working but it's definitely changed me as a person I'm not the same person I was like four years ago I'm I'm a lot more aware of certain things and a lot more and get more stressed about certain situations cuz I'm aware of how Japanese people think they're like if this isn't like this then this they're going to freak out or this is going to be like this and I'm like there's like a thousand things going for my head and so so like a small example of that is like whenever we check out of a hotel when I'm with the Japanese staff they're like making the bed cleaning the room so it's spotless right and it's like I don't think I would ever want to disrespect like a hotel and like not clean it um in the sense that like it's completely like a filthy place but they're like making the bed and like cleaning the cups and everything and I feel like at least in the west when you check out of a hotel you don't have to do all those things but that's one thing that I've like taken away with me and it's a good thing but like when I have when I stayed in Australia and we went to a hotel like my friends don't like make the bed or like my foreign friends in Japan and it kind of like I can't undo that what I see now or like for example when we're at a restaurant and we're filming they're like cleaning up everything so much and then when we finish the dishes they're like we can wash it for you and it's like the next level of courtesy and everything and I feel like that's stuck with me if it's good or bad but cuz like people overseas or like people around me are like way more chill but I'm like like I'm like I got to do this um and I'm not even on the same level of my Japanese colleagues they're like extreme and it's it's a good thing but it's also like you're constantly like stressing about little things that you wouldn't normally be stressed about have I had many jobs since moving to Japan yes I have but none of them were like full-time gigs except for the one I have now and I've just stayed at the same company before I had um lots of part-time jobs like I worked in several cafes I worked in like restaurants and I also worked as like an English was like a tutor but it was kind of part-time and as well as like on University campus so it was very casual those are the those are the only other jobs I've had here to my knowledge and memory but working part-time in Japan is a complete different story to working full-time and everything's a lot more chill but I think it's a great way to like kind of put your foot in the industry like working in Japan and getting a taste for what it's like because honestly part-time jobs here are way more intense than back like home in Australia for me like they were really rough like I had some bad experiences maybe that's for another time but yeah they were they were that was a lot are foreigners seen as lazy or undevoted to work honestly I do feel like there is a division of foreigners versus Japanese and I've just experienced that not only in like my work life but like my personal life and just in general life here and I think it's just really hard for such a homogeneous country to really treat everyone like the same and I don't feel like it's intentional but it just happens naturally and I do feel like I've faced like adversity and it's been really hard sometimes to feel like you're being treated differently but I I think you have to not take it too seriously and be like unless it's like a really extreme situation just be like okay then it's not meant or if you do feel like something has been unfair there's been unfair treatment try and raise your voice and be like hey this is this is how I feel and maybe the people who are doing it don't even realize I think that's the thing in Japan like there's a lot of casual racism but they don't understand and so throughout my years here I've experienced like different levels of racism and of course as a white person I don't have it nearly as bad as other people so I'm very aware of that but there are definitely times where I'm like wow not necessarily at work just in general where I'm like wow that sucked like but I don't want to let it get me down I know that it's not really like something about me personally mostly it's just kind of like part of being in a foreign country where I'm the minority um whereas back home I'm just uh part of the majority foreigners working in Japan long-term get tired of people complimenting them for their Japanese skills personally I'm not tired of it but I'm very much like okay thank you like I'd like to move on like I'll just be like ah thank you so much and I'll just try and shift the conversation because I've had the conversation so many times it's like it doesn't make me feel like oh yes my Japanese is so good like I don't it doesn't it's kind of like an empty comment to me unless people are like there are times when it will mean something to me but it's because they're not generically saying it I think like Japanese people have a lot of set phrases that they'll use when they talk to foreigners like and I feel like when it's outside that I might be a little more happy or like I think it's more when they compliment me for using a certain term um that's actually difficult where they like oh they actually understand like I can speak Japanese to like potentially a higher standard or higher level compared to other people but yeah it doesn't bother me there are people who are like really pissed off about it but then there's others who are like on the high they're like yeah I'm so good at Japanese thank you how to analyze a good good job offer in Japan and strike the balance between good work life balance and good salary this is going to be Case by case you never really know until you start working there how like extreme the situation is when you work in Japan I I mean that's the same anywhere um I personally feel like I would search on LinkedIn for like other people working there and see what how long they've been there for and like if you can see what they're talking about just to kind of dig deep and see what people how they feel because if there's a high turnover rate they're probably not doing it um although Japan does like tend to have the long like lifelong kind of work contracts I don't think that applies to younger people anymore a lot of young people are like jump jumping between jobs like they do in the west uh but yeah I I think it also it depends where you're at your life like if you want a good salary but you're also committed to like working nonstop people do that they do that back home in Australia too they're like I just got to grind for a bit like grinding culture if you want both maybe you just have to negotiate maybe you won't be able to work from Ely but you can work in the office maybe you can only work twice a week like I I don't know I I I think it just really depends on the company and the contract and the conditions that you're looking for the best time to invest in your pension is in your 20s and 30s and how does being a foreign and Japan affect that this is something that I've been worried about a lot lately in the sense that in Australia the pension system is really great so it's called super annuation and so every month I believe or every time you get like income from your employer they're putting like 10% of your actual salary on top to your pension they have to pay it and there's also another initiative by the Australian government where if you put in like $1,000 they will like double it because you're putting it towards your super annuation whereas Japan I'm just paying like from my salary like let's say my salary is like $1,000 a month they're taking like I don't know maybe like $200 and putting it into my pension um I don't have a choice like it's not even on top of my set it's just deducted from it so it's different to the Australian one and then I can't access it until I retire in Japan which I don't think I'm going to retire here like to be completely honest so for me I'm just basically donating my pension money to Japan's elderly population that is currently elderly because it's not my pension it's actually just like going towards a a big sum of money that they're using to like actually provide to the current generation which is problematic because once the younger generation my my age once we get to like 60 70 there's not going to be apparently enough money for everyone because the younger you know there's a Asian population there's not enough birth rate there's not enough people to support the growing elderly population so yeah and then in Japan if you work as a foreigner I think if you work here longer than 5 years or 6 years and you leave you can't take your money out but if you stay here for like under 5 years I believe you can take a percentage of it but not the whole amount so yeah I'm kind of screwed and I'm trying not to think about it because like I could have like thousands of dollars saved off in Australia not only from having a higher salary cuz Japan doesn't have the best salaries but because the government also does all these great initiatives so I'm just like that's a future me problem I'm going to not deal with that maybe I won't even need it maybe I will pass away before I become old I don't know or maybe I will just win the lottery not that I play lottery so yeah I'm just I'm just not focusing on it let me know if I should be doing other things cuz CU I'm not help I just want to say that everything is based off my own experience as well as my friends that I can refer to but this doesn't apply to everyone working in Japan so take that with a grain of salt and if you guys have more questions let me know I'd be happy to do another Q&A and I hope this provided some sort of insight to some of you and this was helpful because yeah working in Japan is definitely something you won't know much about until you get here and do it I'd appreciate so much if you hit the Subscribe button like and comment to support me and continue working in Japan I'll see you guys in another video bye oh yeah one quick tip when you're done for the work day you say

Channel: seerasan

Views: 148,725

Keywords: Japan, Japan Life, Japan Travel, seerasan, working in japan, japan life

Id: Qp-8Pb4e_BA

Length: 40min 11sec (2411 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 21 2024