Out of Pod Experience

I get tons of overtime, but that's because I'm 28 in a job that's mostly stupid 18 year olds (back in university, don't judge me!) that like to not come in so I take all their shifts

Well, my only part in this thread will be to warn you a bit about what to expect in Japan. I have a friend that has been working there for the past year for a big Japanese corp and I dont know if its a LatinAmerican/Japanese culture clash thing only or it pertains to a more western vs eastern mentality.

Thing is, Japan blows if you are used to do things a ... "certain way".

Japan, specially working culture, is very very formal, stiff and unyielding, and my friend, which can be described as a workhorse in the American continent is frowned upon as not working too hard there, not due to sheer output or performance, but due to several differences in how work is treated.

I coud rant on about how he describes to me how he wants to skullf**** some of his colleagues that frown on him getting about 15 to 30 mins earlier before OFFICIAL work hours, since everybody is at least 1 to 2 hours earlier than him. How he has to leave at a certain hour after the boss has left in order of hierarchy and the funny music that plays off his puter telling people that its time to leave since work has officially ended and the game of who leaves first (losing face) begins.

He has proceeded to describe me the "school like recess" employees are given during lunchtime, and how he is observed from afar by the directors and managers that sit apart from regular workers. The cultural clash in Kobe of how he has gotten hard stares and sometimes outcries from people at stores from pretending to give them money with his filthy unwashed foreigner hands instead of using the money tray next to the register.

How alienated he is by the fact of using 2 sets of japanese symbols, specially in media (he works in that department) and how advertising is focused on getting a second level of meaning on a product instead of a more frontal one (kinda hard to explain here but you will know what Im talking about if u lived in Japan)

He also proceeds to tell me about the utter worship of the state of being "GENKI" and how it affects how you are treated and how you should treat yourself when around others, including the utter morbid and monstrous like (to him and me anyway) of personal space and physical contact. I have lived in the US, I know what personal space is, it clashes wildly with the way northamericans think of it, and is awful to latinamericans.

Im not saying its a bad place, or that is wrong for you to go there, mostly a small warning regarding what to expect from the CULTURE more than the country.

This could be better understood regarding their way if you delve more into the Paris Syndrome , when classical Japanese people go almost Psychotic on chaotic places like Paris ... and for me, as a Latinamerican Paris was the peak of order and perfection in tiny details (I hate Paris) so In a sense my friend passed through a phase of "Kobe Syndrome" XD, since we come from the opposite spectrum.

Its a stiffling, suffocating society (to us, to my friend by being there and me by proxy for empathizing and having to listen to him more or less daily).

Social interactions can be akward, specially when dealing with women and its a topic I will avoid since its a bit offtopic.

Its not the work, nor the environment, its a wonderful looking place, everything fits and you are not supposed to change it, it is clean, extremely clean place, and you are not supposed to taint it.

Thats more or less the TLDR

Hope it helps ... I will ask my friend if he knows anyplace there where someone can employ you (just remember Japan is super expensive so a good salary to you might be barely above minimum wage"

Just bring a suitcase full of worn panties in ziplock bags and use them for barter.

You have higher standards.

If you want to teach conversational English, there's probably a job for you somewhere in Japan. You don't need any special qualifications, other than a Bachelor's and being a native English speaker. The English conversation schools will hire about anyone. The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program(me) has higher standards and higher pay. It's run by the Foreign Ministry and Interior Ministry, I think. They also bring speakers of other European languages as language teachers.

Other than teaching your native language, it's really, really hard to get a job in Japan. First of all, you need a visa, and for a visa, you need a sponsor. Fish-gutting or burger-flipping jobs might be plentiful, but nobody in those kinds of industries is going to sponsor some Western foreigner to do that. And even if you're already in Japan and have learned the language, local companies aren't much interested in hiring foreigners. They have their own pipeline for recruiting employees, and as some foreign guy off the street, you're definitely outside the pipeline. Besides that, there's a conception that Westerners are trouble in the workplace-- they don't like the long hours, they complain about having tea instead of coffee, they file sexual harassment complaints, etc. etc. The only foreigners with professional jobs in Japan I've seen were transferees. They worked for some company in their home country, then got transferred to the Tokyo office.

Anyway, if you don't mind teaching English, the life of a teacher in Japan can be really fun. Not a lot of responsibility, Enough pay to live on, plenty of opportunities to meet people and learn the language. The JET Program is an especially good deal.

I have a simple wish. I want to move to Japan at some point just for the life experience. However, I need a job over there, so I need to know if anyone knows any industries/markets that are growing out there that actually have a good forecast for the future? Nothing is off limits, and it doesn't have to be a Japanese company that I work at.

I am sorry, but when I saw that you got lots of overtime, that is where alarm bells started to ring. I just don't see any sane supervisor encouraging overtime in the current economic situation. Before 2008 it might have worked. These days, not so much.

I think generally overtime pays time and a half. So if you make 10 dollars per hour. Overtime would pay 10+5=15 dollars per hour. Lots of overtime will get real expansive real quick for the company. That is why companies generally discourage overtime.