[donw]

I live in Japan, and have for about a decade.

You're bang-on when it comes to culture, but it has nothing to do with being optimized for tourism.

Japan is a very conservative country. Change happens slowly here, and Japan does a lot to ensure that people raised here share a common culture, with a strong focus on stability and harmony.

To provide some examples:

- NHK, the national broadcaster, has several series of popular programs showing life across all of Japan -- rural, urban, suburban, every prefecture. There are also programs showing Japanese people living overseas, and showing how they have integrated into the local culture. There is no "rural vs urban" divide in Japan.

- Japanese schools focus heavily on structure and responsibility. Students maintain their classrooms, clean their bathrooms, staff the cafeterias, etc. All of this is under adult supervision, but the kids do the actual work. Discipline is strong as well -- there are real consequences for poor behavior.

- Japan follows the Prussian education model. Compulsory schooling ends at 14 (9th grade). From there, you can immediately begin working, go to a trade school, or go to high school. There is also a professional education track separate from university.

- There is a strong culture around keeping families whole and raising kids as a whole family in Japan. Often the wife will move back home and live with her family shortly before and after childbirth, and there's a lot of cultural reinforcement there.

- Parents are very active in the education of their children, and the locus of responsibility is first on the child, second on the parent.

- The Koban system is fantastic. Police live in their communities, and interact with people every day. You never want to end up on the wrong side of the law -- the conviction rate is well north of 90%, and the accused have very few rights here -- but overall, Japanese police are very polite and professional.

There are downsides to this -- everything comes with trade-offs -- but it delivers a very stable and safe society.

[james_s_tayler]

The no rural vs urban divide thing...

I never ever thought about it before but I see _exactly_ what you mean. And I think you're spot on. There isn't this idea/phenomenon of country folks being very different than city folks, rather there is an extremely strong cultural narrative around how a Japanese person behaves and what it means to be Japanese that transcends the settings in which one lives. The cultural machine just continuously markets Japaneseness to it's citizens.

I agree it comes with good and bad, but for sure when it comes to safety and stability it's huge factor.

[actuator]

Few questions, would be glad if anyone can answer these:

- Would you know of good companies which have a good work life balance in Japan?

- I know among the big tech, Microsoft and Google have offices there. Both seem to pay well as well. Do they have similar WLB as their US offices?

- I have heard of racism, like certain apartments being off limits for non Japanese people. Some clubs only allowing white caucasians among foreigners. How true is this in your experience?

- I have no problem in learning Japanese over time, but without it at the start, is it very difficult to get by?

- Do most people live in Tokyo/Kyoto(where Tech companies seem to be) itself or can you live a bit in outskirts(a bit of greenery) and commute using the fast public transport?

[donw]

Of course. :)

I'm not sure "work-life balance" is even the right concept in Japan.

Japanese companies are structured around the idea that you devote your life to the organization. Overtime and weekend work are common. In exchange, the company will take care of you: you will never be fired, you will be provided with access to a broad social network, a group of friends, a spouse should you desire, and enough salary for your station in life until you reach retirement.

If you are satisfied with that contract, you will be happy. If not, you won't.

Working for a big US-based tech company here, you get the best-ish of both worlds. Salaries are much higher -- although not on par with the US -- and your working environment will be much more familiar.

The downside is that you are very insulated from Japanese society as a whole. The "Gaijin Bubble" is a thing, and it's incredibly hard to break out of.

One of my buddies -- who "happens to be black" as George Carlin would say -- describes Japanese racism as "racism done right".

I'd say I agree with his assessment. I've been denied apartments, had an ex whose family hated foreigners, and been refused entry to a restaurant once, but that's all fairly uncommon. You are unlikely to experience violence, although the police will -- very politely -- pay more attention to you than they would natives.

Tokyoites are used to foreigners, and outside of that, you're a curiosity?

Also, speaking Japanese opens many doors. I once had a nightmare of a time getting a taxi, but they would stop to pick up Japanese people. Once I finally flagged one down, I asked the driver why.

He was thrilled that I spoke Japanese, and mentioned that, in that area, most foreigners (a) couldn't speak the language; (b) wanted a long taxi ride; and (c) often fought with the drivers and refused to pay (taxis are not cheap here).

Remote work is a thing now, but before that, you lived in Tokyo. You can easily live in a bedroom community and commute -- some people do 4+ hours per day on a shinkansen.

On the off chance that I do stay here, I will likely move to a semi-rural area and telecommute full time.

Your company (nominally) pays your commuting costs.

Japanese is straightforward to learn, but you really have to devote time to it. Plan a few years of total immersion.

Also, it's not a European language, so outside of the grammatical differences, there's just a ton of culture where there is no overlap -- I didn't really appreciate just how deep Christianity's roots were in Europe until moving here -- it's crazy.

As a tiny example, the little grill that you cook "Ghengis Khan" on is called a "shichirin" -- which is a specifically-shaped wheel from Buddhist teachings.

[082349872349872]

I've heard an anecdote from a colleague that speaking Japanese moves one from the category of "Gaijin" to "interesting Gaijin", at which point people start volunteering how "we do things." (this is probably true anywhere: it's the fundamental distinction between an expat and an immigrant.)

> Plan a few years of total immersion.

I'd say this is true (although closer to "a couple") even going between european languages and english.

On the other hand, anyone emigrating for cultural reasons might appreciate that learning a language in their host country will be an order of magnitude more rapid than raising and educating a generation or three[1] in their home country.

[1] Has the american character has changed significantly since the publication of The Canterville Ghost in 1887?

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14522/14522-h/14522-h.htm

[actuator]

Hey, thanks for taking the time for answering that. Your answers are realy helpful.

- Definitely an interesting way to look at it, I am not sure whether I would be able to convince myself of this though, based on the cultural difference I have grown up with.

- The US company thing sounds great, even entry level tech roles have $150k+ comps, and I think in Japan that should still be really good.

- I can live with a little bit of racism and I think learning language of the land is kind of a good thing anyway, if I do plan to live long term.

- I think with Covid forcing companies to allow WFH possibly in the long term should definitely make it easier. Japan seems to have beautiful countryside and small towns, so it would be a shame if I don't get to experience that. :)

The culture bit is quite interesting indeed. Other than Buddhism, foreign religions haven't been able to get much foothold there it seems. Even Buddhism lives alongside Shinto and folk religions from what I have read.

I think one more good thing about Japan is their PR is points based and last I checked, I qualified for the fast track one based on points.

A bit worried about the Gaijin bubble thing, I would have assumed even the US company offices would have a lot of Japanese employees.

From one of your remark it seems like you are planning on moving out, are you planning to go back to your home country or some other place?

[donw]

USD 150k is roughly JPY 16M, which is 2-3x an entry-level salary here. Google might be laying that down for new graduates, but they'd be the only ones that are.

[actuator]

Ah, thanks. Will check levels.fyi to get a better estimate.

[donw]

If you are genuinely looking for a gig in Tokyo, feel free to ping me directly. Email in profile.

[fomine3]

> There is no "rural vs urban" divide in Japan.

Hmm maybe not divided like US but exists. Tokyo vs other big cities(Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Nagoya,..) vs others is popular conflict. Young people move to Tokyo to get jobs or go to univ and never goes back, meanwhile rural areas are losing younger smart people. And all govs and most news are in Tokyo so not considering others well.

I hope covid improves this situation.

[donw]

You are correct, but maybe I should rephrase?

I have never gotten the sense that Tokyo people think that Japan would be better off if everybody living in rural areas were to drop dead tomorrow.

Rather, in grocery stores, foods and fruit proudly proclaim their prefecture of origin -- Iwate, Aomori, Hokkaido.

Tokyoites go to the countryside for vacation, for hot springs, to visit farms, that sort of thing.

Popular sentiment is that Japanese are sad that the countryside is dying, and there's a lot of push -- albeit with very limited success -- to get younger people back out there, because at some point, somebody has to grow the food.

Japan only produces 50% of the calories it needs to feed the population -- the rest are imported. That's a scary place to be in the world right now.

Rural brain drain is a real phenomenon, and related to the fact that Japan... and maybe all governments and large organizations, when I think about it, have a strong centralization pressure, to pack everything together in one place.

It takes active measures to resist that. Distribution is hard, but it pays dividends in terms of resilience and awareness.