Working in Japan has been one of the toughest challenges I have faced. It is quite a unique experience to work in a Japanese company, let alone staying in a company full-time for 8 months. When I first started working, I wouldn’t really care so much about the overall project and about the company because it wasn’t really competitive. Let me tell you now though, working as a foreigner in a company in Tokyo that is not English teaching is extremely competitive. Web design by itself is competitive in the fact we have to compete with everyone from around the world to win contracts from major companies. For what we do, we are demanded 110% from every project we work on or we could and eventually would lose a major client. And that explains the ridiculously long hours we must sustain to compete at this level… I alone sometimes work from 8 am in the morning til 8 pm in the evening with little to no breaks just to get the work done. Oh did I forget to mention I love what I do. Flash is awesome.
I would like to mention that I am lucky to have such a great company to work for. I have my boss, Hiruta-san, who is perhaps one of the greatest managers I have ever met. I have a sub-boss (sorta) who is a really cool guy with a unique sense of style and humor. He doesn’t speak very much English but we get along really well. We go on many dates together lol.
Anyway, working in Japan is a very unique experience. If you do plan on teaching English here, it is a unique experience on its own. Someone I met through soccer here said he was making a salary at an English School teaching for only 3 days of the week. I asked him what he does with his time and he said he sleeps; something I truly miss lately. In contrast, working for a Japanese company, and not a foreign company, is a completely different thing. You are demanded long hours, a very competitive working environment, and are required to be quite independent. If you learn quickly, understand working politics, and make friends and not enemies, you will progress quickly. Although I don’t need to worry about most of these things at my job, from what I hear from friends, this is the real juice. I guess it is similar to Canada because the ones who move up companies, who become directors or presidents, and who do well in school, all follow the same guidelines. It differs in the fact that everyone is demanded to do these things, even if they do not become director, CEO, president, etc. I wonder how hard they must work?
Lastly, I would never want to come here when I am older. There are way too many old parking lot attendants, traffic guards, and useless jobs for old people here. It is unfortunate that many of them cannot just retire and enjoy themselves. I do not understand why there are so many of them but the relatively well-known statistic of Japan having one of the lowest unemployment rates comes to mind. They must force them to work!!! Anyway, good night world. North America has better salaries, but Japan’s culture is so rich that in the end, it’s all worth it after all
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