Build A Better Career

Back in the day, I’ve heard that any English speaker could book a flight to Tokyo and score a high-paying job in Japan within just a few days of landing. I know several who originally moved here during the “bubble” years, and they tell me it was truly a special time.

Even when I embarked on my first few trips to Japan in the late 90s, it was great to be a foreigner in Japan (despite the fact that there was still only one Starbucks in Shinjuku). Even in Tokyo, people went out of their way to be nice to me. I felt like a celebrity wherever I went. Families invited me to visit their homes within minutes of meeting me. I scored plenty of dates.

Sometime during the turn of the century, things began to change for folks looking to move to Japan.

For one thing, there were a lot more of us. I don’t have any statistics handy, but when I relocated here in 2003, there were blue-eyed Americans everywhere I went in Tokyo. And corporate coffee shops too. There remained pockets in the smaller cities and the countryside where non-Japanese were still few and far between, but you could no longer expect celebrity treatment by virtue of your birth.

Another change was that a lot of Japanese municipalities were in financial trouble. The economic downturn that had hit Japan hard at the end of the 90s didn’t seem to effect the government very much in the beginning, but when it came, it came down hard. Many towns went bankrupt and had to negotiate to be bailed out by neighboring cities. These cities were often a lot tighter about spending and didn’t see the wisdom of paying full-time wages and benefits to recent college grads with no job experience. Private dispatch companies began to pop up everywhere.

Meanwhile, the English conversation industry was experiencing rapid growth. Anyone and everyone who grew up speaking English was getting hired by companies like NOVA teaching laughable lessons to Japanese students who paid exorbitant prices on long-term contracts. It looked like a model for massive profit in the short run, but eventually, people began to see what a bad set-up it was, and NOVA fell into bankruptcy in 2007.

Exactly when I was thinking about returning to Japan after a few months back home, the market was inundated with thousands of newly-laid-off ex-NOVA teachers willing to work for peanuts so they could afford to get back home. Let me tell you, it was a tough job market to be competing in.

To land a good job in Japan today is much tougher than it was back in the day. Hell, even just a few years ago. There is a lot more competition, starting salaries are much lower, and being foreign is just not all that special anymore.

So what can you do to improve your chances? Simple: you have to prepare.

Before long, English will be a required subject for primary 5th and 6th grade students. Conversation schools have learned from NOVA’s example and are adjusting their services and more flexible contracts. They’re also being more discerning with their hiring.

Thanks to the worldwide economic crisis and the incredible rise of some of Japan’s Asian neighbors, Japanese businesses are placing a premium on language skills. Television shows often feature visits to Chinese and Korean schools full of serious students conversing in English at a much higher proficiency than their Japanese counterparts. This is a country that takes pride in its business savvy, and they do not want to lose to China.

Also, you may think this is news, but there’s this thing called the World Wide Web now. Yes, I know it’s been around a while, but for much of the world, instant global communication is a very new invention, and most people in Japan are still getting used to it. The cool thing about the internet is that it’s helping English become the de facto lingua franca of the 21st century (wow, two Latin phrases in one sentence). Japanese people, especially younger ones, want to understand English so they can communicate online and learn about what’s going on in places they find more exciting than where they are.

Speaking of excitement, many Japanese are really into travel, especially young women. At times it seems as if more than half of the English students I meet in Japan are young women who want to visit places like Hawaii and New Zealand. There is a huge demand for people to teach English conversation without all the formal rules everybody hates learning in junior high school.

Not everyone is an aspiring edutainment pro. The world is full of various kinds of people with all kinds of talents and skills and likes and dislikes. Unfortunately, many Japanese people have the image that all non-Japanese people are white Americans who are born simply to teach English. It is wrong, and it’s silly, but it’s also why the almost all non-asian foreign residents in Japan are conversation instructors. It’s an easy job to find.

Even if you aren’t interested in being a teacher for very long, I suggest you try it out, either as a stepping stone to something else, or for extra income. Japanese people will tend to assume that you are an English teacher anyway, so you may as well make a little money from that assumption.

Still, I understand that many people have higher aspirations for their careers than to be a foreign language teacher. I certainly do. The good news is that there are all kinds of possible ways to make a living here. The not-as-good news is that some of them are more difficult to even find than the ubiquitous teaching jobs.

Getting a job in Japan is not like finding employment where you are now. In addition to the difficulties associated with international communication, relocation, and etc., you also need to deal with Japanese people and their culture (and their stereotypes of your culture).

I’m going to just let you in on the bad news first, because it may save you from making a mistake if you can’t deal with it. The bad news is: you will likely not be able to land your dream job in Japan without having already spent some time here.

I’m not telling you that you can’t get the job you want, but you can’t expect to send a resume overseas with no experience and no Japanese ability and get offered a great job with great pay and benefits in an area you want to live in. You can’t expect such a deal at home, so you’d be silly to expect it in Japan, wouldn’t you? I knew you’d agree. Which is why I know you want to come up with the best possible strategy to get yourself to Japan so you can start looking for the job you really want.

Things aren’t how they used to be, and it’s no longer enough to just show up and begin living the dream right away, but don’t assume it isn’t possible to live a wonderful life doing what you truly love in Japan. It is possible, and with the right preparation, it’s inevitable.