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Some Techies Are Shunning Silicon Valley for the Japanese Dream

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Re: Some Techies Are Shunning Silicon Valley for the Japanese Dream

#101

Post by da02 »

mikekchar wrote: post #7
dawhizkid wrote: post #4

They found one engineer who wanted to live in Japan and call it a story? You could do this for literally any topic about anything and call it a trend apparently

Is this an appropriate place in HN to say "Me too"? :-) Moved here 10 years ago. Don't regret it for a second. But seriously, in the past 10 years I've noticed a lot of high tech people either moving here or wanting to move here. When I first came, it was really rare to bump into a foreigner who was a programmer. They were either English teachers or factory workers. Now I run into people relatively frequently (even o…

What languages do they program in?

Re: Some Techies Are Shunning Silicon Valley for the Japanese Dream

#102

Post by da02 »

mikekchar wrote: post #39
propman wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I ask you a few questions, if you don’t mind. Are you fluent in Japanese? Have there been any major instances of discrimination at work? I know you’ve been there 10 years, but is this a place you’d be happy for the rest of your life to start a family and potentially retire? Please ignore if any of these are too uncomfortable or invasive.

I don't mind answering what I can. Of course the answers are limited by my actual life :-) Fluent in Japanese: There is a difference between fluency and proficiency. I am very fluent in Japanese. If I want to say something, I open my mouth and the words come out. If someone is talking to me, I understand what they are saying -- unless I don't, in which case I ask them to explain and then I do. I'm not very proficient…

Was it difficult starting your own consultancy firm?

Re: Some Techies Are Shunning Silicon Valley for the Japanese Dream

#103

Post by instakill »

codesuki wrote: post #61
bojo wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the parent but same situation. Been here 11 years. A lot of people can get around without speaking Japanese, but I don’t recommend it. You’ll get a much more meaningful and deeper experience out of living here if you can converse with everyone. Randomly stopping and bullshitting with a bored old guy for an hour can be quite fun! Sadly the developer pay here is pretty dismal, even more so if you come with US expec…

In case you stay in Japan contact me. Where I work it's no problem to take several weeks off. Otherwise we have a good work climate, too.

Please ping me via email (contact in my profile). Might wanna hit you up about this :)

Re: Some Techies Are Shunning Silicon Valley for the Japanese Dream

#104

Post by ArtWomb »

Sugoi! I'd be interested in hearing the price breakdown for living in Tokyo at current exchange rates ($USDJPY = 110.00)?

For a moderate two bedroom in a cool neighborhood? As well as office space. And how is the availability of gigabit residential fiber options. Say, comparable to Verizon FIOS (~$150/mo)?

In short, if anyone has set up a remote office for 2-3 months or even permanently I'd love to hear their experiences ;)

Re: Some Techies Are Shunning Silicon Valley for the Japanese Dream

#105

Post by knbknb »

Recently, there was a long autobiographic thread on twitter about a young US woman who could not make it into an adequante job in the gaming industry, simply because she is a woman. For women, it seems to be very hard to find a job generally, with few exceptions. For example, plenty of Nanny jobs seem to be available in Japan.

Re: Some Techies Are Shunning Silicon Valley for the Japanese Dream

#106

Post by ericdykstra »

laum wrote: post #95
xaranke wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you comment on whether racism is still a thing in Japanese society?

It’s still there at an institutional and cultural level - I think the most glaring example of this is the amount of landlords who either openly or discreetly (with a phone call to your realtor) will not rent property to foreigners.

If foreigners are perceived as being higher risk, and they probably are, then I don't see any problem with landlords discriminating against them in general. It just means that the standard will be higher to offset whatever the risk is. There are some landlords who probably won't rent to foreigners at all, and that's fine, too. There are plenty of places available.

If this kind of thing would bother you, I would strongly recommend not considering moving to Japan.

Re: Some Techies Are Shunning Silicon Valley for the Japanese Dream

#107

Post by dfsegoat »

cgarrigue wrote: post #27
soufron wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stayed and worked as a Lawyer in Japan for a few years, and I wouldn't say it makes a difference whether you want to integrate or not. I would even tend to think that not integrating can result in being better accepted. Just be the French or the US guy they like to hang out with, the one who knows to do stuff they don't know, and everything will be fine. Try to become a japanese, and you'll end up being crushed by…

Luckily the work culture is slowly changing, at least regarding the matter of OT: following the suicide of a new recruit of Dentsu that was ruled to be a death by overwork, several companies started to ask their employees to refrain from doing OT. However, as an engineer, it is sometimes quite frustrating to work with colleagues who do not want to try anything by themselves, because they want to be taught everything.…

>> who do not want to try anything by themselves, because they want to be taught everything

Anecdotally, from a recent podcast on military history, I heard this same explanation for why the Japanese Army did very poorly in some WWII battles where they lost commanding officers early in the fight: The footsoldiers were unable to think for themselves, unable to adapt/improvise, and unable to organize anything other than suicide charges.

Re: Some Techies Are Shunning Silicon Valley for the Japanese Dream

#108

Post by carlmr »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #87
carlmr wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any tips on how to get into China?

I got in just by pinging someone and asking for a job, leading to a 9 year stint at MS China. If you have talent/experience, you should be able to find something in China, trying foreign companies (google, Microsoft, IBM, SAP) is an effective strategy for getting your foot in the door, Chinese companies are less approachable.

That's really good to know, I might try on my next search.

Re: Some Techies Are Shunning Silicon Valley for the Japanese Dream

#109

Post by carlmr »

technofiend wrote: post #98
carlmr wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>However, as an engineer, it is sometimes quite frustrating to work with colleagues who do not want to try anything by themselves, because they want to be taught everything. This seems to come from the way they learn things at school: the teacher is always right, because he's the teacher; you need to listen to your seniors, because they know more than you. This leads to new recruits being taught everything by senior…

Sounds like the perfect opportunity for a consultant! You're presumably an expert and have technical authority that is not anchored to the company hierarchy.

That is a good way to see it.

Re: Some Techies Are Shunning Silicon Valley for the Japanese Dream

#110

Post by Aeolun »

ArtWomb wrote: post #104

Sugoi! I'd be interested in hearing the price breakdown for living in Tokyo at current exchange rates ($USDJPY = 110.00)? For a moderate two bedroom in a cool neighborhood? As well as office space. And how is the availability of gigabit residential fiber options. Say, comparable to Verizon FIOS (~$150/mo)? In short, if anyone has set up a remote office for 2-3 months or even permanently I'd love to hear their experie…

* 2 bedroom in cool neighborhood: $2100/month

* office space (3 people) somewhere central, shared facilities, private office: $2000/month

* residential gigabit (min 1 year contract): $60/month

* food for one month, either eating out or buying decent groceries and cooking: $800/month

---

Those are off the top of my head. I'm not very interested in living in a cool neighborhood and rent where I live is more like $1400 (office space is presumably correspondingly lower).

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