should I really live in Japan or just visit ?

yup - not sure my missus counts as she's half portuguese but yeah, married for over 8 years, together for close to 15 years....

I'm sure she's super depressed about that

- amazing food
- very safe
- great pay in the right sectors
- hugely convenient
etc etc

 

Hmm... which sectors are those? From my very short-lived idea of possibly continuing my career in Japan, I realized a handful of things that anyone considering long-term employment in Japan should think of. I won't even bring up how the quality of life/work in Corporate Japan usually turns out.

DISCLAIMER: I'm basing a lot of the US jobs on the Silicon Valley standard. I know this is a high standard, but other major cities are following suit.

- For technology related jobs, the pay is at least on par, and maybe better in the US on average. If you get into finance, it's definitely going to be better in the US. There are tons more jobs as well (regardless of your nihongo level).
- Non-finance and finance jobs alike in the US generally feature at least a few perks that won't fly in Japan. In-office meals covered is a huge one. 401k matching to some extent happens. Does Japan even have anything like 401k (or IRA for that matter?). Also, equity bonus. I don't even think there's a word for that in the Japanese dictionary. Only benefit worth mentioning in Japan is the covering of the train pass, which is standard. If you're a small business owner the tax breaks in Japan are hands down way better, but that's not that many people.
- Corporate Ladder / Room to grow. Any major US city has a number of universities with higher education available for professionals. Japan (Tokyo) has Temple University. Plenty of schools offer masters programs in English but I've not heard any of them that cater to part-time students. If they do, their advertising is horrible.

YMMV, of course, but it became clear to me very quickly that the longer I waited to come back, the worse off I was. I hope it bounces back one day, but I don't see that happen while Japanese corporations remain so top-heavy, which isn't going to change any time soon.

 

Well, i guess i'm more directly comparing to the UK where i would most likely head back to and there would be no way i'd pull a salary of an equal footing without being -extremely- senior.

But yeah, Finance mainly is the key area i was thinking of - i also got an offer from a non-finance tech firm that would have put me on money i'd doubt i'd get in the UK.

I'd add that i get commute, meal allowance, and hefty prefered stock options in my current package. Plus -zero- calls once i leave the office.

When we did look at an intercompany move to NY our pays would have went down by a signifant amount but that may well have been my previous company trying to be dickish ?

That said - my job is now dealing with domestic Japanese clients and, um, yeah... that has a significant "stress tax" to put it lightly and obviously operating not in my native language also throws a barrier up (My Japanese isn't exactly N1 level - i have got myself up to the level for the job, but it still needs work and delicate negotiation in Japanese is still a minefield).

Long term - i'd certainly like to bail out of here - mainly because education costs are stupidly high once you look at international schools - and i think that's where i'd be better off in the UK or US. A lot of the hugely out of proportion costs would go away so even if a hit in salary came, i'd day-on-day be much better off. And obviously selling our house would give us a nice bonus too if were to leave. But... it's not happening for me just yet

 

I think any move to another country will result in an adjustment for living expenses, but I can't imagine that being much going to NYC. Sounds like your company was being dickish.

Not really sure what the UK job market is like. I'd have assumed it was decent, but yeah, I didn't look that hard. The US has a handful of jobs that want tons of skills and don't pay much, but I can't see them getting filled. Generally they're targeting Masters graduates but with little experience. They don't seem to be the norm though.

When I looked for some contract work before leaving last Summer, I told them what I wanted for pay, and they said I'd need to be flexible. Another friend that used to live here is looking to coming back. He's a programmer, but not in the financial sector. All the recruiters that he talked to said he'd not make the salary that he currently gets in Atlanta. :-/

 

If you have to ask, then visit.

 

Hello GaijinPunch, do you know anything about working with videogames there?

 

Only that it's pretty shitty. Ask Shou - he's far more knowledgeable on the topic than I.

 

Working for any of the traditional or mobile domestic game devs/publishers = making sub par wages and horrible hours/environment. Even at the top, I'm a C level exec, there are so many issues that I would never ever work for a Japanese game company again.

 

Are these issues mainly concerning the hours or is it the bureaucracy involved with ambiguous reporting to seniors/receiving reports from too many subs? If you don't mind me asking, how's the company structure in the tech/game industry in Japan? Traditionally vertical or is it transforming to being increasingly horizontal like on the Westcoast, with young companies at least?

 

Much of it stems from just being Japanese...
- Silo'ed and isolated especially from the rest of the world - they have no idea what is going on, execs with very little international experience are sent abroad to make money
- People relationships/history far outweigh actual merit - people can lose millions of dollars and ask for more just because so and so worked at Square Enix for 10 years or has known C-level member since university
- The startup scene is very immature compared to Silicon Valley, domestic VCs expect guarantees on their investments, new grads face a lack of a supporting society for trying something new instead of a "good" (ie known) company
- Successful startups can IPO on TSE Mothers when their profit is in the low millions USD; thus they transform from having some innovation to every other domestic corporate because their shareholders expect that

Japan will take 2 generations to get to a place where it can become something like Silicon Valley.

 

Make note though, that working for most Japanese companies sucks huge balls. I don't have hard numbers but most long term foreigners simply don't work Japanese companies if they can avoid it (English teachers excluded). You'd expect something that 1) is a relatively modern concept, like games/mobile and 2) requires an actual trade skill (programming) to something different, but apparently it doesn't.

 

yeah, the only few companies that i would have touched with a long stick were relatively new upstarts who were relatively western in style. Having seen the inner workings of several Japanese companies i just can't see that sort of life being fun.