Actually, I used to work in the UK before (tremendous cost of living, by the way) and I decided to move to Japan.
As you say, the resume/interview/hire cycle was impossible with Japanese companies, but for international companies, it is possible to do the recruiting part locally and then get hired abroad. (I also did that when I got my job in the UK since I was studying in the US at this time).
BUT... If you want to work in Japan, unless you are very very lucky, you have to speak Japanese... And among the new language, chopsticks and raw fish, you also have to cope up with Japanese people, which is by far the most interesting.
Concerning the cost of living, yep Tokyo is 'the #1 city' as some smart-ass newspaper declared, but this study has certainly be done by some American newspaper, and I am pretty sure that they meant 'the most expensive city if you live the American way'. Japanese people are used to live in small flats, barely eat meat and eat out a lot, so if you want to setup a barbecue in the garden of your 200 square meters house (which would be a cheap 'experience' in the US), then you are gonna pay a lot for that.
But Tokyo has some great advantages: where else can you buy a cell phone with a digital camera and that plays mp3s?..
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Actually, I used to work in the UK before (tremendous cost of living, by the way) and I decided to move to Japan.
As you say, the resume/interview/hire cycle was impossible with Japanese companies, but for international companies, it is possible to do the recruiting part locally and then get hired abroad. (I also did that when I got my job in the UK since I was studying in the US at this time).
BUT... If you want to work in Japan, unless you are very very lucky, you have to speak Japanese... And among the new language, chopsticks and raw fish, you also have to cope up with Japanese people, which is by far the most interesting.
Concerning the cost of living, yep Tokyo is 'the #1 city' as some smart-ass newspaper declared, but this study has certainly be done by some American newspaper, and I am pretty sure that they meant 'the most expensive city if you live the American way'. Japanese people are used to live in small flats, barely eat meat and eat out a lot, so if you want to setup a barbecue in the garden of your 200 square meters house (which would be a cheap 'experience' in the US), then you are gonna pay a lot for that.
But Tokyo has some great advantages: where else can you buy a cell phone with a digital camera and that plays mp3s?..
Just my two cents...
V.