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Jobs in Japan?
Trak asks: "I've always been fascinated by Japanese culture and would love to spend a few years living there. Making a long story, short: my wife just left and I've got some savings, so I'm considering the move. I have a some jobs here in The States that I could rely on for telecommuting work, but I'd rather find a job there in The Land of the Rising Sun. Any advice on where to look and what to pursue? Any horror stories? I've done it all from System Admin to Programming to CTO, so I'm open to just about anything that's available, I just don't know where to begin looking. Thanks."
Making a long story, short: my wife just left and...
...i want to find me a japanese girlfriend
seriously, one way to start off on the right foot is to avoid terrible cliches such as 'the land of the rising sun' - yes, i know nihonkoku translates roughly to land of the sun's origin - but this moniker sounds james-clavellish-kitschy and very tired
- as bad as calling australia 'down under' or perhaps the usa 'the land of the imperialist warmongers'
finally, i wish you luck on your journey
- they say that travel broadens the mind
In a nutshell, from what I can tell from over here in the USA, our economy has things good compared to what they're dealing with in Japan.
From what I've read in the Wall Street Journal for the past few years, Japan is in the midst of a long recession. Layoffs have started to be implemented. Banks' financials are shaky and their central bank has pretty much exhausted what they can do (they've got their borrowing rate down to almost zero percent -- can't stimulate the economy much more than that!) Come to think of it, I recall they're actually in a depression -- people are putting off purchases, now, because they'll be cheaper, later. So businesses are starved for income and cut prices to drum up business; lather, rinse, repeat.
I'm not saying you shouldn't go, but I most certainly would advise you to take a long, hard look before you leap.
One thing I didn't notice in your post is how knowledgeable you are with their language? There are 4 parts to learning a foreign language: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. I studied German in High School and am still able to get by with the reading and speaking, but listening was hard (different intonations and accents) as was the writing (like programminng in a language I didn't know too well.) At least German uses basically the same alphabet as English (with the addition of some umlauts -- the two little dots over vowels). Japanese -- you need to learn a whole new alphabet, let alone the vocabulary and grammar. You've got your work cut out for you. And, if you've never learned any language other than English, doubly so. It was a real struggle to learn German in high school -- it was a whole new way of thinking. It's not like I'd think of what I wanted to say in English and do a literal translation! I had to learn to THINK in German. But, having done that, it's much easier for me to learn another language. I am now in the process of teaching myself ancient Greek and it's so much easier because I've already learned how to learn a language.
In the interim, have you given some thought to going over there for a month or two of vacation? Then you'd have a chance to get a real feel for what things are like over there. You may well find "It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there." But, having spent some time over there, you'll have some great experience that you can leverage should you decide to come back. I can assure you, you'll not see the world in the same way again! I was fortunate to have had a job that paid me to work for a week or two in 5 different countries in Europe. It truly broadened my horizons!
It's good you are soliciting feedback and I hope you are able to garner useful information from people who have actually lived there. So, here's wishing you the best of luck in whatever you decide.
P.S. One last thing: practice using chopsticks. =)
Go there for a month and have a blast and come back here to work is probably your best bet. I've been enamored with Japanese culture myself from time to time, which started when I was dating an Americanized Japanese girl when I lived in Singapore.
While Japanese people and culture and fascinating, and it would be wonderful to be a part of it, the problem is you never will be. You were born an outsider and you will die one, even if you master the language and the subtleties of social interaction.
While I respect them and their culture a great deal, please understand that at their core they're among the most racist cultures around. You'll never really have true respect among them, although they'll certainly be polite to you if you're trying. They have some good reasons for their arrogance, but being from the west I would imagine their inability to do anything but look down on you will eventually turn you off.
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