Customer Reviews

The Job Hunter's Guide to Japan

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I purchased and read this book when I first came to Japan, and it was enough to make me nervous about my decision to have come in the first place. To sum the book up in a sentence, any foreigner hired to work in just about any industry in Japan is there to serve as window dressing and lend an international atmosphere, not for their skill etc. While I occasionally encountered this condition during the six years I have worked here, the problem was invariably due to the friction created between an employer coming from a homogenious culture and a foreign employee who had clearly forgotten that 'when in Rome, do as the Romans'. The Japanese employer, unable to deal with the typical foreign employee's confrontational manner, would become less inclined to give the employee any real tasks. Or, in the case of the self-employed, the industry would shut it's doors on a pushy or insensitive salesman. For those with plans to live and work in Japan: If you learn to speak the language like a native and are willing to learn the cultural rules and patterns as second nature (at the expense of your own cultural values), you will be successful in any endever you choose, so don't read this book. If you can't make that sacrifice, then read this book. It might make you feel better when you continually fail to make any inroads.