[etherael]

Regarding jobsites, no, I was contacted on LinkedIn for a specialised project that I happened to be uniquely suited for. I was not in the country at the time, and my employer handled immigration and the relocation and everything associated on my behalf.

I did not speak any Japanese at all at the time I started, and I am slowly learning it now but don't have a lot of time to dedicate to the project. I intend to gain fluency in it eventually. Unlike many of the places in the world I've lived, I would say if you intend to comfortably exist here long term, you will need to learn the language both spoken and written. It's not like a lot of places these days where English is almost an official second language or there's extensive proficiency amongst the local population.

This is my first and only time working in Japan so I have no basis for comparison to other companies here. My impression of the culture is there can be an overemphasis on hours worked rather than output produced and the quality thereof, but they're conscious that is an issue at least where I work and they're mindful of it and try to address it. They also have things that seem strange to me as a foreigner but I am more prone to just accepting and trying to do things their way (when in rome).

All in all, I'm finding it pretty good, it definitely helps that this particular field has pretty much devoured all my energy, life and thinking since I really immersed myself in it a few years ago, so working in a global hub central location where it's really having an explosive impact on a core related piece of infrastructure is pretty much a dream job for me.