Do you need 1-kyuu?

The following scenario seems to be happening quite a bit lately. I get in touch with someone at a recruiter's office and they seem interested. "Strong programming skills," I feel IT Technician float about in their head . The words "creative, designer and strategy" seem to bounce off as if somehow of a different polarity. When I seem reluctanct or unskilled compared to other IT engineers (because I am not one), language is brought up. "We really have only been seeing 1-kyuu level Japanese positions."

Can this be? Japan now needs 1-kyuu!

Yes, working in Japan requires Japanese. I've noticed this even while interviewing candidates for an English teaching position. Candidates who have been happy to speak only in English and refused to speak Japanese just can't connect with the owner of my company to the extent that those who try do. The big schools (NOVA ECC etc.) have their own culture within which English speakers survive, which explains their "NO Japanese" attitude. Not the small schools.

Companies, like the small Eikaiwa, want the best of both languages. I once read an article on how participating in water-cooler discussions increases happiness in the workplace. Of course, not only on the social level, but business itself becomes seamless with proper communication. So, Japanese is necessary but do companies mandate 1-kyuu or someone with serious intention to interact, learn, and enjoy working in their company? I think it is likely the second case, and this may be why I have become skeptical of recruiters who may unwittingly use this phrase to truncate conversations. Let's be honest, 2-kyuu Japanese is sufficient (if not preferable) and anyone who would pursue Japanese to that length and then choose to work in Japan, is going to make it to 1-kyuu. So, why do recruiters seem so focused on high-level language abilities?

Recruiters

Recruiters have it bad. When I talk to one I get the sense that there is a hamster wheel they must keep spinning in order to use the computer and talk on the phone at the same time. Their life seems hectic and even worse, every placement needs to be top-notch. That is why companies pay these guys. Considering the competition for jobs in any market, this is bad news for those of us in training either concernign our language, skills, or both.

So that is the down side, here is the up. Recruiters need strong candidates willing to work hard. They also need to meet deadlines. If you define yourself, then they will keep you in mind when a position comes in that is in-line with your self-definition. Also, they have access to jobs that are not necessarily posted anywhere else. If you can establish a relationship with one, really connect, then you have many more options than finding leads on your own. My third point is that recruiters look at your skillset and personality with different eyes. They may see a position in which you may find enjoyment and success that you might miss.

So, cheers to the guys and girls who find jobs for others. If I get a group of readers going, maybe we should organize a "beers on us" night in Tokyo for a few of them and speak in Japanese only.

Does Declining Population Mean Work

Japan is full of foreigners looking to work in a different field than English teaching. It makes sense. If you have any older students (and are teaching), you have probably discussed the arising concern of women in the Japanese workplace. Or if your students are better read, the approaching decline in the workforce numbers. Sooner or later, many professionals have said, Japan will need foreign labor as REAL labor; though, there is some likelihood that Japan may never come around to this idea (Read article from japanfocus.com or this somewhat too pro-US article in The Kansas State Collegian) . "Japanese is difficult, so a head start may be well worth it or will it?" becomes the question.

Here is a less developed conversation on the topic of finding work other than being an English teacher on japan-guide.com. It has one note that I found interesting. A participant suggests creating your own company here in Japan. This, as someone who started a company in the US, may require more effort and Japanese skills than he may know. Still, the idea is worth exploring.

"There are not many opportunity for a person in "our situation". I dont want to be an English teacher but i will have to since i plan to stay here for a while. But i a m considering deloping my own business"
LINK

Let's consider history for a moment. Though the Japanese are not known for treating their foreign labor particularly well in the past, there is a long history of using foreign labor. They did, for instance, bring Koreans into Japan originally as scribes when beginning their written language. What we can gain from this historical fact is that Japan will bring in labor when they need to, they will not however, do so with the all-encompassing embrace of the United States. This may turn out to be a very big advantage.

Many countries that have naively brought in their foreign labor have in turn ended up with multi-cultural crises! The North-African-heritage population in France, the Turkish-heritage population in Germany, and the African-American population (yes, it is a different situation but still a population brought in as slave "labor") are all facing problems being truly recognized as members of their society and country. Even the Hispanic speaking population of the US that President Bush has reached to and garnered some major support from creates a dilemma for the previous US population. Bringing in foreign workers changes the values and heritage of your population, thus changing the same qualities in the system of government and culture. This can be extremely damaging and have its own negative reactions against the system that the country is trying to maintain. The actual ideas of liberty, pursuit of happiness, or even "wa" (the sense of peace that Japanese maintain in social interactions) can be violently shaken.

To bring this back to our topic, I expect that this caution on the part of the Japanese is healthy in maintaining Japan as an identity that a aging population will need to rely on. If there was a first world country that Japan could look to as successfully bringing in foreign labor and maintaining a strong national identity, they would be following that role model. Since there is not, we may find that Japans slow pace and caution with newcomers is the model. As foreigners looking to work in Japan, we come back to the simple tasks: (1) Learn the language and culture (2) Define yourself. Perhaps, starting a business in Japan is a radical attempt at self-definition for some, like myself, but it is an interesting and challenging way to make your own place in Japan. And this we must do, we must find our own place in Japan. We will never be considered Japanese in the pure sense. In that sense, the ideas of culture, race and nationality are tied up (into a confused bundle). Achieving the status of permanent resident, with friends and family who manage to untie the bundle is probably the best that can be hoped for, at least for a few generations.

Gaijinpot.com Blog on the subject

I've found another blog on Gaijinpot.com (a decent resource though it tends to have underpaid positions listed) that deals with the issue of finding work in Japan as a foreigner. Most people are expressing frustration with teaching, but some comments on Japanese fluency and defining your career life seem valuble. For instance,

Japan, like any country values valuable people. 98% of white English speakers however are English teachers - not that they're not valuable, they just defaulted to Eigo Teacher because they couldn't (or wouldn't) define themselves elsewhere.

from Bongo (click here to see blog)

This is a great quote! I did not appreciate the tone of everything Bongo said but there is something to the message itself. As I contact recruiters, they express the difficulty posed by moving to Japan to find work. Maintaining a great work history in the field you want to be in and achieving fluency in Japanese to the level that you can work here is extremely difficult. There is a general underlying assumtion here that people tend to have to prioritize one or the other in order to achieve the goal. If you come over with your company, it means they consider you valuable and encourage you to become fluent, not that they care. If you try to start in Japan as an expat, companies do not give you the benefit of a proven internal work history so you better know the language and have some proven work skills!

So that is the assumtion and the Catch-22, isn't it. If you come to work on the language, do not spend more than a year. If you do not perfect Japanese, your work history becomes tarnished after a year. But, is it really true that expats in Japan cannot continue to learn the language and a new job? Most of us have to learn to teach English from the get go and study as well. Why is it that companies do not see this as a promise of continued work ethic?

My answer comes from some of the interviews I've done to find a replacement. There are a lot of slackers in Japan, doing as little as possible to keep ALT positions. Foreigners have shown up to the interviews in jeans and t-shirts, they slouched and yawned, and even made smart-ass comments to me. They openly want a job that either allows them to party or waltz in at their own convenience! Why the hell would some of these people get hired in their home country? This is a general problem that needs to be fixed before teaching English for even a DAY makes you unemployable.