Personally, since you qualify for the gold card, you might as well get it and try your luck here first and see if you like it. You could just leave anytime, or even you might like it and get PR and get a Japanese job afterwards with the option to return. You don’t have to pick, you could just do both.
Well, there is a real difference between mask wearing and like stepping out of cafes or not talking on the phone while on public transport: if u wear a mask and I don’t, u don’t bother me and I don’t (theoretically, then folks stress about lotta things nowadays) bother u.
If u talk over the phone next to me about ur stuffs while I’m trying to relax a bit over my drink of choice, there u r bothering me.
I love the peace and quietness of JP, in particular quiet roads without these frigging scooters farting away or these bloody loud indicators from buses and lorries. Christ I hate the noise here, and I lived in HK, but I still find TW noisier (at least in urban areas).
I really appreciate the concept of personal inviolable space in JP, where ppl will go at lengths not to invade it (besides ppl who want to harass you).
Then u go to commercial centres or malls, and then JP becomes hell on Earth with the vendors screaming and noise everywhere. It is fascinating and puzzling at the same time. But, I don’t need to go to malls all the time, while I must take transit and I go often to cafes, so I prefer the peace being there instead of a place where I just pass through sometimes.
I think it might be changing, at least in the smaller cities. One of my friends is a university professor and she’s managed to carve out a very western style work schedule for herself, that involves a lot of remote working. The driving force seems to be the severe shortage of qualified workers.
ofc u have the outliers where is nice to work.
But the standard JP corporate, like the big trading cos (mitsui etc…) or banks or automakers (I have a friend who worked at Nissan and now moved to Citibank in the HR dept), it’s still like the 70s, maybe 80s. On his Nissan employee card there was still written “pls return this card to the HR dept once retired to pick ur retiree ID to access company welfare facilities”, like they still presume u would work there for life.
Until the security guards are pushing you into the Tokyo MRT like you are clothes in an overfull suitcase.
Well, that’s the exception which u know… And that really happens during the rush hours in the morning and evening, business days only.
U know the time and avoid it
How does one get a work visa in Japan? Most of you talk as if it’s a foregone conclusion and you could just get it anytime you want. What level of qualification do you need, because I’m sure you couldn’t just get a job at some shop or with some factory in Japan right, it would have to be high level management or senior engineering position, basically something you couldn’t find in Japan at all, right?
Most people here are also foreign English teachers, so it makes sense that they’ve lived in Japan. Just like in Taiwan, foreign ESL teachers are in high demand in Japan.
Well, a university degree from an English-speaking country, an ESL certificate, and perhaps a couple of years of English-teaching experience?
Don’t Japan also have an aging population as well, making teaching english a diminishing demand?
Aside from teaching English (as I’ve had zero success in that area) what else could I get a job as in Japan?
Well, I have a few Chinese/Japanese bilingual Taiwanese friends who are working in Japan as interpreters. That’s pretty much it. There may be a few other niche industries, but Japan doesn’t really have much need for foreign talent in most other areas, especially when said foreign talent doesn’t even speak Japanese.
It isn’t freedom of choice because you also have to respect and follow these rules and you will be pressured to do. The mask rule I was talking about what the before mask rule, not now. It isn’t a rule now.
I didn’t dare drop a cigarette butt on the ground while in Osaka. Cleanest streets I’ve ever seen.
wait, what? I’m lost here.
Funny how Westerners who visit Japan love the cleanliness, but Westerners who visit Singapore call it “too sterile”.
The overall vibe of the country that affects their perceptions. Doesn’t mean they are being unfair to either.
Never been to Sg, although invited. Probably stated the contrasted experience of Taiwan and Japan here before, and if so, I apologize. The ROC is organized chaos, and landing in Japan until the time leaving is like being in Heaven’s waiting area… if that makes any sense.
“Organized Chaos” is how I felt about Seoul. What I found really funny about that trip is that I went to Seoul having just come from Japan so I thought it was chaotic, but I met people who had just come from Vietnam so they thought Korea was incredibly orderly.
I came to Taiwan from the US so I thought it was complete chaos, but some friends visited from Thailand and found Taiwan very orderly.