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Famous for its resistance to immigration, Japan opens its doors

asia.nikkei.com

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Re: Famous for its resistance to immigration, Japan opens its doors

#91

Post by cdavid »

jaredklewis wrote: post #60
victor106 wrote: post #41

Anyone here know how much a typical (I know its hard to qualify a 'typical' programmer) gets paid in Japan compared to the US?

People I know at big international companies make between $80k and $150k. People I know at Japanese companies and startups make between $40k and $80k. This is based on a very small sample size of people in Tokyo...

If we are talking total comp, this is somewhat the range I have observed as well. There are Japanese companies where you can expect 80k+ with only a few years of relevant experience. If you have some specialties in demand and are good at it (e.g. Machine Learning/Deep Learning), you can get more.

In international companies, as purely a software engineer, you can go above 150k total comp.

If you want to make more, you want to go toward sales/marketing/etc. In that aspect, it is a bit like Europe where staying technical locks you very quickly. A good sales/marketing person can make 200k+, but that would of course require excellent Japanese skills.

[edit] Source: I am managing a machine learning group in a startup in Tokyo and manage the hiring of my team.

Re: Famous for its resistance to immigration, Japan opens its doors

#92

Post by doyoulikeworms »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #56
volgo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But ethnicity, not just nationality, seems to matter a lot in Japan The correct modern terminology for that is racism. Something most people don't know a lot about, because as a culture Japanese tend to be very outwardly polite so a lot of racism is very subtle and can't be spotted by someone who's just visiting.

The way that Japanese treat outsiders is so far from the popular Western ideal of what 'racism' means that I'd argue the term barely applies. 'Racism' is a loaded term that has little meaning in most situations because it entirely depends on context. Sure, if someone is calling a black guy the n-world, well then yes, we can safely use that term. But if we consider that the vast majority of the world is inherently eth…

From what I’ve read, they way they treat ethnic Koreans living in Japan sounds racist to me.

Re: Famous for its resistance to immigration, Japan opens its doors

#93

Post by dzonga »

reverse centuries of gains and progress, because you wanted to be homogenous country. it might take up to a generation to reverse the damage that has been done. social aspects and orders have been lost e.g veggie men - no desire to breed. what most people forget is foreigners bring new ideas and vibrancy.

Re: Famous for its resistance to immigration, Japan opens its doors

#94

Post by dang »

jk2323 wrote: post #81
weiming wrote: post #22

The article doesn't mention, but Japan also took steps to make immigration easier for skilled workers with the Highly-Skilled Foreign Professional visa [1] based on this point system [2]. Can even qualify for permanent residency in as little as one year if you score 80+ points. [1] http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact_3/en/ [2] http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact_3/en/pdf/171110_leaflet...

"but Japan also took steps to make immigration easier for skilled workers with the Highly-Skilled " Why go to Japan? Every idiot and his brother can now come to Germany thanks to Merkel, the German chancelor. You don't have to be skilled, just come. Free boarding, free food, free healthcare and cash. Money for nothing and the chicks for free.... https://www.timesofisrael.com/outrage-and-questions-about-po...

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Re: Famous for its resistance to immigration, Japan opens its doors

#95

Post by yorwba »

hueving wrote: post #57
thaumasiotes wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would sound a little more convincing if you hadn't taken six words to define the concept in English.

"American" is the term in the US because it's not tied to ethnicity. "Chinese" is tied to ethnicity.

English speakers may think of "Chinese" as an ethnicity, but it's different in Chinese. The default term is 中国人， which literally means "person from the middle country", which is quite obviously about nationality. If you want to talk about ethnicity, you'd use 汉人 for Han Chinese, 蒙古人 for Mongols and so on for any of the hundreds of Chinese ethnicities.

Re: Famous for its resistance to immigration, Japan opens its doors

#96

Post by hh3k0 »

jacobush wrote: post #82
jpatokal wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, Japan's spiral of depopulation means they actually do need masses of people, and they're importing them too via all sorts of dodgy trainee visas etc to staff convenience stores, hotel front desks, construction sites, lettuce farms etc. It's just politically impossible to support permanent immigration for anybody but the 1%.

Are they heavily banking on robots making up for demographics?

Yup: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/06/japan-robots-w...

Re: Famous for its resistance to immigration, Japan opens its doors

#97

Post by yorwba »

khallo wrote: post #50
iguy wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can never ever become Chinese either. Nor Indian. Nor Nigerian. Nor Russian. Never mind Kuwaiti. The exception here is the west, both in terminology used for people originating elsewhere, and in actual beliefs. [You, personally, may possibly have one exception on this list, roughly if you come from the edge of one of these, but never more.]

I don't think the issue is about "becoming" any of those nationalities you mentioned. You might not be considered Indian or Nigerian or Kuwaitian in those countries, but you sure as hell won't be ostracized or receive disapproving looks. That is speaking generally since every country has racist/xenophobic people. Blackface is quite common in Japan. Example: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42561815 They have more…

Blackface isn't necessarily racist.

Is the blackfaced actor used to make fun of black people? Probably racist. But that would also be the case if it were a black actor doing the same (it might just be more difficult to hire one for that).

Is it used to create tension between the obviously fake costume and the effort put into pretending that it is real? Probably not racist. I can imagine a show deriving great hilarity from casting everyone in a role they are not the least bit suited to and then trying to make it work anyway.

Re: Famous for its resistance to immigration, Japan opens its doors

#99

Post by iandanforth »

jpatokal wrote: post #66
weiming wrote: post #22

The article doesn't mention, but Japan also took steps to make immigration easier for skilled workers with the Highly-Skilled Foreign Professional visa [1] based on this point system [2]. Can even qualify for permanent residency in as little as one year if you score 80+ points. [1] http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact_3/en/ [2] http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact_3/en/pdf/171110_leaflet...

The problem is that the points requirements are too high for the type of young entrepreneurial people Japan wants to attract, and Japan itself is not attractive for the high rollers of the professional or scientific world that would qualify. In the 5+ years since it was rolled out, the number of successful applicants is less than 5000, most of whom were apparently Chinese nationals already in Japan. https://www.nippo…

Am I reading this wrong? It looks like you get 40 points for having a salary of 10M yen. That's not very high for tech jobs. That plus having a few years of experience, a bachelors, and being under 40 gets you past the 70 point bar at least.

Re: Famous for its resistance to immigration, Japan opens its doors

#100

Post by majos »

mikekchar wrote: post #61
volgo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But ethnicity, not just nationality, seems to matter a lot in Japan The correct modern terminology for that is racism. Something most people don't know a lot about, because as a culture Japanese tend to be very outwardly polite so a lot of racism is very subtle and can't be spotted by someone who's just visiting.

Every time this pops up, I feel compelled to point out that in the 8 years I've lived in Japan (over a 10 year period), I haven't found this to be true. There is racism in Japan, just like everywhere. When I lived in Canada, I saw a sales manager where I was working throwing how CVs with Indian names. I asked him what he was doing. "There's no point in hiring someone whose name I can't even pronounce", was the reply.…

Interesting. I know I've read accounts by, say, ethnic Koreans claiming that even when raised in Japan the ethnic difference caused native ethnic Japanese to treat them differently.

Maybe I'm unduly influenced by a small number of such anecdotes.

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