Taiwan is a suicide for the career. Not the worst choice for camping out the coronavirus.
After all this mess ends I want to leave this place ASAP. I do not understand how foreigners here can be happy working for 60-100k TWD. It is peanuts when compared to other countries. Part of the reason must be that they are stuck with gf/wife/kids and been drinking the kool-aid? I don’t want to sound offensive but for somebody in their twenties or thirties it’s not the perfect place. I’d say it’s great for student life and retirement only. The economy is… bleak. The mainland China corps are even outsourcing to Taiwan, given the low wages… ha.
Anyways, back to the topic: how hard it is to move to Japan for somebody who is 30 y.o., speaks and writes Chinese and has sourcing/manufacturing work experience? Any ideas how to make the first steps? Going to uni for yet another masters or signing up for language schools there?
The Japan-focused recruiters seem to only hire Japanese speakers. After researching LinkedIn I can see that most jobs that foreigners do are either in IT or are becoming recruiters… On the surface it seems that if I spoke Japanese then I could get the jobs I want - but I don’t believe it’s that straightforward.
If you think that wages vs potential saving are disfavourable in Taiwan, you may be in for a shock in Japan, where workers have been facing steady downward pressure on their pay for years.
Harsh but mostly true.
Hence there are few white collars in Taiwan from western countries. I would never tell anybody to come to Taiwan to ‘further’ their career. But some of us do okay once we find our Niche .
Japan isn’t the best place though for a career either. People work long hours there and are extremely stubborn.
It is that straightforward. Get a business level of Japanese, and supposing your level of Chinese is also business and not just 我要一杯咖啡, you shouldn’t have that much trouble finding a job in Japan. Whether you’ll like it there is another issue altogether.
To be honest, I could get with the Taiwanese flag-waving before the country enthusiastically banned foreigners indefinitely. It seems they clearly don’t want us here (except for the few unlucky enough to be teaching their children English); I would rather live in a country that is objectively excellent, than a mediocre one where life is simply easy enough to make it seem great some days.
I thought that dumping on everyone as a way to ingratiate oneself would not have been a particularly effective approach, but I suspect you’ll get exactly what you want without even knowing it. Bravo!
I think Taiwan is excellent for short stints (just for the experience) and permanent stays but absolutely horrendous for medium term since the money you save won’t be as meaningful in other more expensive countries.
Depends how much you earn, in general I absolutely agree with you but if you are pulling in very decent money you can save a lot due to low taxes and relatively low cost of living (if you have Taiwan in-laws and elderly parents that helps tremendously to get tax rebates ) . Of course business people don’t pay much taxes.
Agree with this. In general not good for a career type of job. Japan, as well as Singapore, Hong Kong are have better longer term options. Japan one factor is the language which may take some time
Japan is a terrible long-term solution for any expat. It’s a super xenophobic society, and no matter how long you live there, you’ll always be considered a gaijin.
I’ve lived in both Taiwan and Japan and AFAIC, Taiwan wins, hands down.
