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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."
Learning the Japanese culture is a BIG intellectual challenge.
You will always be "gai-jin", a negative term the Japanese have for anyone who is not exactly like them.
As somebody who actually live in Japan, I thought I would make some comment...
Well, as many people points out, without a proper job lined up, you won't be able to get the proper visa (of course, this is true for many other countries). So, unless you are willing to work illegally (bartender, teaching English, etc), you have to look for jobs first.
Unfortnately, Japan is currently under recession (for years in fact) that it is hard to get good jobs. Many qualified Japanese can't get jobs, in fact. IT business is particularly bad right now. If you don't speak and write Japanese, you may find yourself very hard to find jobs in Japan.
To make the matter worse, Japanese likes certifications and licenses so much that it is insane, if you ask me. They have system administrator certification (class 1 and class 2, I believe) in Japan, and many companies won't hire you unless you have some sort of that.
Of course, there are companies which will hire you regardless, but these are typically not good companies. for example, there are a lot of temproary employment agencies in Japan. Unlike the ones in the US, many Japanese companies like that will send you to another company (let's call Company B) and work there for years. As a result, although you will work for Company B, you will be employed and paid by Company A (the temp employment agency you belong to). This will give you almost no chance of advancement in your workplace.
This type of employment is more and more common in Japan today in every industry. I know many working in the IT business this way, and I also worked as a chemist in such a company. They hired me very easily, but it actually sucked so bad when I worked that way, I have to say. I had two bosses and two sets of rules to follow (of course, the place where I used to work was really bad, too).
Then, there are work environment issue. Japanese work in harmony, they say. While that may be true, it sure make things hard to do your work, if you ask me. Of course, since you will be regarded as a "gai-jin" (foreigner), therefore, you may be able to do things in different way somewhat (it wasn't the case for me).
Anyway, that's all I have to say about this, and good luck finding one.
We're looking for anybody who's good at making games, mainly seriously good animators and programmers right now.
We're based in Kyoto, Japan and are both english and japanese speaking.