Japan's NTT to begin remote work as norm for 30k employees(english.kyodonews.net) |
Japan's NTT to begin remote work as norm for 30k employees(english.kyodonews.net) |
They pay you in reputation, and reputation doesn’t transfer to other big corps since they see frequent job changes (sometimes capped at twice in a lifetime) as a red flag and won’t hire people.
Having lived in Japan and commuted by car in Japan, I can say that this is definitely not true.
In the inner parts of the larger cities, yes, very true. But in the periphery of larger cities and in every provincial city (which are most of them), there is a lot of car commuting.
For reference, I would say larger cities are Tokyo, Osaka, and Yokohama. Nagoya is probably around the threshold (not so sure, didn’t spend much time there).
Provincial cities like Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Sendai, and Sapporo are very much car-centric, although the public transportation system is quite robust. Most of the public transport in these cities is to and from the inner city and for short jaunts between neighborhoods by folks who don’t drive. For jobs outside of the center city, driving a car would be quite common.
The outskirts of Tokyo, etc. are similar to these provincial cities.
Smaller cities like Nagasaki or Shizuoka are even more car-centric.
There are many bus routes, and many people who still own and drive their own cars even in larger cities like Tokyo or Osaka.
This was all outlined in our remote handbook provided with my offer letter.
Funnily enough, yes.
A very large group of countries have introduced 'teleworking' legislation post-covid, where employers are legally obliged to pay allowances to employees per day of remote work (specifically to offset electricity and internet expenses).
God forbid we play a few things by ear and see what happens.
When people cast wishes I’d like them to imagine they are holding a monkey’s paw whilst doing so.
Isn't it the case that Japanese work culture, "stay until the boss leaves", is what contributed substantially to loneliness in Japan? A lack of work-life balance? It seems to me that remote work could lessen this effect greatly.
Also, you seem to be assuming it will just lead to people working from home alone. Japanese housing is notoriously small, and cafes ever-popular, it doesn't seem unreasonable to me to speculate that this could lead to a boom in working from cafes and co-working spaces. Unlike a majority of the rest of the world, too, Japan has far less urban sprawl - so going to such places is less of a hassle.
Seems to me this would do the opposite of what you suggest.
If I had to work remotely for the rest of my life, I'd choose Japan, so that I could walk out my front door and around the corner to pretty much anything I'll ever need. I can't do that in the suburbs, pretty much anything useful is a car journey away. I worked remotely from the suburbs for about 4 years, and it was incredibly isolating. There was no-where to go that fit into even an hour long break.
I keep hearing this thrown around, and I have no reason not to believe it, as on paper it makes sense.
But have there actually been studies around this?
That said, pretty much everything else about Japanese culture seems awesome.
In the UK we just voluntarily participate in dangerous binge drinking
That said, no one else I know chose it. You lose a lot of the city night life and niche things. Instead you gain space, more rural style hobbies, less diverse food (particularly if you eat out), etc.
A lot of people aren’t able to recognize the pros / cons of such a trade.
For anyone reading, I recommend living in a suburban / rural location. Get out and take care of a big garden, go to local events and join a few clubs. Definitely a positive experience.
No, he's right. Sprawl is inherently a negative term. Japan has large cities because you know, they can't put people in Manchuria (they've tried) or on the Moon, so they have to put them somewhere. So the most efficient way to house large numbers of people is in dense cities.
The US is a great example of both urban sprawl (outside downtown, American cities have town to village population densities) and suburban sprawl. The worst of both worlds, really.
But I think in actuality, taking zoning and planning control away from the people who use the zones is what causes most of America's strange layout. People absolutely want medium to high density mixed use communities, and affordable housing, but you're not allowed to build that in America.
Not just talking about the urban=>rural switch specifically, but in the opposite direction as well, and when it comes to pretty much any major change of a similar nature in general.
I find it's a decent compromise. I have space. I can take walks in the woods or easily drive to small mountain hikes. But I'm only about an hour to go in for live theater, a meal, etc. And there's nothing keeping me from going into town for a weekend if I wanted to.
After spending a few years in a very rural part of CA while rebuilding my cabin, the lack of quality diverse organic produce I'd taken for granted in SF Bay area grocers is one of the biggest complaints I have.
I haven't seen a Pomelo in a store for over 4 years now, let alone an organic one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_Japan
EDIT: these numbers appear to be old, since 2019 they’ve tuned reactors back on and stopped relying on LNG as much. I can’t find good numbers on recent data but in 2019 they imported more gas than any other country.
Source: https://www.isep.or.jp/en/1243/
Reference #4
Renewables are aggressively scaling up and nuclear looks like it's rebounding some.
Due to the more or less deflationary economy, Japanese wages have not increased for the better part of three decades. (Deflating prices mean that even with stagnant wages, you're still able to buy more.) Job hopping is unlikely to actually result in increased wages. (Inflation is now coming to Japan due to the general global inflation from the war in Ukraine, so that will be an interesting scenario to watch.)
Japan is a heavily reputation based society. In the way that US uses credit score to determine a lot of things, Japan uses this sort of reputation as a proxy to determine eligibility for many things. As a general example, finding in apartment in Japan requires a guarantor (essentially a cosigner who agrees to act as a fallback option in case you can't pay) and landlords want a Japanese national person or entity to do it most of the time. https://blog.gaijinpot.com/what-is-a-rental-guarantor/
Reputation is also highly correlated with company stability in Japan.
Such reputation buys you things like A) easier time attracting a future spouse B) respect in certain social circles and transactions, transferrable to your partner and children (yes this is a thing) C) a network of individuals also “smart and hardworking” like you
> When I started my own company, I was living in an apartment that I had first rented as an employee of a megacorp. The entirety of the credit investigation was me presenting my business card to them. Possessing it implies both sterling moral character, stable finances, and a responsible party to intercede with should there ever be an issue with me as a tenant. (Japanese landlords and lenders will, as a matter of policy, escalate any disagreement with you to your boss, as the social opprobrium you’ll suffer will get you to quickly cave.)
https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan...
Back ~10y ago, the norm was very much that you needed a personal guarantor, and sometimes you could or had to additionally use an assigned guarantor company which may or may not have additional requirements.
These days, the norm is more that you need to provide a local 緊急連絡先 (emergency contact), and sign up with a guarantor company that acts as insurer and usually have a blanket check. One similarity with France is the general requirement of having a verifiable income of minimum 3x of the rent.
Many other points that the author brings up look very different today compared to in 2014.
In Romania FAANGs aren't paying better salaries than market average, so the only incentive to work for a FAANG is to have it on your CV, stay 2 years and find better employment.
FAANGs get it really cheap here as they pay 10x lower wages than in the US.
And as a foreigner I think it's very hard to get a working visa in the US.