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Can Japan reboot its startup culture?

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Re: Can Japan reboot its startup culture?

#11

Post by patio11 »

kmf wrote: post #9
patio11 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your best bet would be getting hired by a foreign firm and then laterally transferred to their Tokyo office. Neither not speaking Japanese nor failing to possess a CS degree will make it impossible for you to do IT work at e.g. the Tokyo branches of large foreign investment banks. If one goes strictly by the published requirements, it would not be straightforward to get you an engineering status of residence (so that…

Wow, awesome information. As I haven't had to deal with citizenship, well, ever, it's interesting/enlightening to learn about the work that goes into obtaining it. I'm going to bookmark this one for future reference, thanks Patrick!

Find my email if you ever need help with Japanese immigration or employment issues. I am not a lawyer or a judicial scrivener but I have a fair amount of practical experience with applying chapter and verse of Japanese immigration law to the practical realities of technology companies. (This offer is open to anyone.)

Re: Can Japan reboot its startup culture?

#12

Post by whatusername »

adregan wrote: post #8

In Japan, established companies are king. Nintendo claims to be 100 years old. My buddy's company sells semiconductors, and they also claim to be 100 years old. Of course these companies aren't truly 100 years old, but it means a lot to work an older company. There's a lot of pride in it. Not to mention, banks want to deal with older companies and so do landlords (the article says some are looking for 2 years of prof…

I always thought Nintendo's corporate history was pretty legit? Start with cards, move to games/entertainment, move to video games. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo

Re: Can Japan reboot its startup culture?

#13

Post by eksith »

patio11 wrote: post #10
eksith wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's sort of true. Part of the reason being that kids there have had the same stunting of growth that kids in the West have as well since the start of social media. More often people equate "Internet", "Web" and "Mixi" (Their version of Facebook and of course Facebook is popular too). And it's hard to get a proper feel for what's really out there online and, more importantly, what areas are lacking. That's not to say…

it's a bit expensive to live there This is heavily location-dependent and also dependent on lifestyle factors. Raising a family in Tokyo as rich expatriates (the lifestyle that e.g. Citibank managers adopt when "in country") would require an income pretty deep into the six figures (in dollars). However, 22 year old employees of Japanese megacorps take home salaries which are less than typical San Francisco rents and…

Great insight as always!

Re: Can Japan reboot its startup culture?

#14

Post by PhantomGremlin »

Fascinating article. My only quibble is when it mentioned "tiny South Korea". That population is 50 million, while Japan's is 127 million. So, yes, Korea is smaller, but hardly "tiny" in comparison.

And "tiny" probably doesn't refer to land area either. Much of Japan is rural or uninhabitable. In both countries the amount of habitable non-farmland is relatively "tiny". Quite unlike the USA.

Re: Can Japan reboot its startup culture?

#15

Post by hudibras »

patio11 wrote: post #3
kmf wrote: post #2

I've been in love with Japan since I was a anime-obsessed kid, and visiting Tokyo in high school was the best travel experience I've ever had. Yet at the same time, I've heard it said that the software landscape in Japan is pretty rough -- bureaucratic, aged, and inefficient. I've found that really upsetting, because Japan has, of course, a reputation for being a technological wonderland. People living in Japan -- na…

Your best bet would be getting hired by a foreign firm and then laterally transferred to their Tokyo office. Neither not speaking Japanese nor failing to possess a CS degree will make it impossible for you to do IT work at e.g. the Tokyo branches of large foreign investment banks. If one goes strictly by the published requirements, it would not be straightforward to get you an engineering status of residence (so that…

Just to pile on: It's hard to overstate how large the language barrier is in Japan. For all intents and purposes, nobody speaks English and therefore you cannot speak, listen, write, or read anything during your interactions with the people around you.

I don't want to scare kmf off from coming here; you should, it's a wonderful country. Just need to manage your expectations...

Re: Can Japan reboot its startup culture?

#16

Post by sliverstorm »

hudibras wrote: post #15
patio11 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your best bet would be getting hired by a foreign firm and then laterally transferred to their Tokyo office. Neither not speaking Japanese nor failing to possess a CS degree will make it impossible for you to do IT work at e.g. the Tokyo branches of large foreign investment banks. If one goes strictly by the published requirements, it would not be straightforward to get you an engineering status of residence (so that…

Just to pile on: It's hard to overstate how large the language barrier is in Japan. For all intents and purposes, nobody speaks English and therefore you cannot speak, listen, write, or read anything during your interactions with the people around you. I don't want to scare kmf off from coming here; you should, it's a wonderful country. Just need to manage your expectations...

Eh? I found the language barrier to be about as low as can be expected for a place where English is not the mother tongue.

You should certainly learn Japanese if you want to live there, but you'd still be way better off than rural Russia.

Re: Can Japan reboot its startup culture?

#17

Post by jpatokal »

kmf wrote: post #2

I've been in love with Japan since I was a anime-obsessed kid, and visiting Tokyo in high school was the best travel experience I've ever had. Yet at the same time, I've heard it said that the software landscape in Japan is pretty rough -- bureaucratic, aged, and inefficient. I've found that really upsetting, because Japan has, of course, a reputation for being a technological wonderland. People living in Japan -- na…

Quoting reddit:

In Japan you can look forward to low salaries, long hours, no advancement opportunities and working with trailing edge technology. Whats not to like?

And unfortunately that's only slightly hyperbolic. Full discussion below, and do bear in mind that it's a) an atypically good offer for Japan, and b) much of the audience is young English teachers on shoestring salaries.

http://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/zftls/found_a_softwar...

Re: Can Japan reboot its startup culture?

#18

Post by graeme »

PhantomGremlin wrote: post #14

Fascinating article. My only quibble is when it mentioned "tiny South Korea". That population is 50 million, while Japan's is 127 million. So, yes, Korea is smaller, but hardly "tiny" in comparison. And "tiny" probably doesn't refer to land area either. Much of Japan is rural or uninhabitable. In both countries the amount of habitable non-farmland is relatively "tiny". Quite unlike the USA.

Thanks for for pointing that out. I had fallen for the smaller land mass = much smaller population fallacy.

Re: Can Japan reboot its startup culture?

#19

Post by ics »

sliverstorm wrote: post #16
hudibras wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to pile on: It's hard to overstate how large the language barrier is in Japan. For all intents and purposes, nobody speaks English and therefore you cannot speak, listen, write, or read anything during your interactions with the people around you. I don't want to scare kmf off from coming here; you should, it's a wonderful country. Just need to manage your expectations...

Eh? I found the language barrier to be about as low as can be expected for a place where English is not the mother tongue. You should certainly learn Japanese if you want to live there, but you'd still be way better off than rural Russia.

Well if you want to compare rural Japan to rural Russia...

I see hudibras is getting downvoted but it probably is fair to say that to native English speakers new to the country, people may expect more than they get from ESLs in Japan. I have some pet theories as to why but I don't think it would contribute all that much to the discussion. Unless you're coming to Japan to be a corporate translator (may all the gods have mercy on your soul) it really shouldn't be an issue as long as you're willing to learn a little Japanese along the way.

Re: Can Japan reboot its startup culture?

#20

Post by minikomi »

jpatokal wrote: post #17
kmf wrote: post #2

I've been in love with Japan since I was a anime-obsessed kid, and visiting Tokyo in high school was the best travel experience I've ever had. Yet at the same time, I've heard it said that the software landscape in Japan is pretty rough -- bureaucratic, aged, and inefficient. I've found that really upsetting, because Japan has, of course, a reputation for being a technological wonderland. People living in Japan -- na…

Quoting reddit: In Japan you can look forward to low salaries, long hours, no advancement opportunities and working with trailing edge technology. Whats not to like? And unfortunately that's only slightly hyperbolic. Full discussion below, and do bear in mind that it's a) an atypically good offer for Japan, and b) much of the audience is young English teachers on shoestring salaries. http://www.reddit.com/r/japan/com…

As a web dev in Japan who can speak Japanese & is barely scraping by.. I agree, 670k JPY / month + 2 semi-annual bonuses is very high end wage.
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