Hi everyone. First time poster, but I've visited the forums many times in the past year. Everyone seems to have some very interesting and unique stories, which is why I decided to register in hopes that I may receive some advice on working in Japan.
I'm a mandarin native speaker raised in the U.S. that will be graduating this June from college with a double major in Psych/Phil. I studied at Keio University for a year, during which I got my JLPT N1. In November I went to Boston Career Forum and went through several rounds of interviews in Boston and Tokyo (similar to how Japanese people do job hunting) before I was offered a job after graduation from my top choice company. I've already given them a verbal acceptance on my part, and we've been working out details on my move to Japan including visa and housing. However, when I received my 内定通知証 in the mail I realized that there were no details regarding my contract, but only that I would be an actually employee.
This leads me to my main question: How do I start the dialogue regarding pay? When I first applied to the company they gave a number of 400,000 yen/month approximately for 新卒, with a slightly higher pay for masters students. They haven't given me any information on it specifically for my hiring, and I don't want to get boned until after I move to Japan. Needless to say, even if the pay is lower than offered I don't particularly mind (I have absolutely no work experience apart from half a year of part-time flipping burgers, and this company has a strong brand name so it'll look great on my resume regardless of pay.)
Another question I have has more to do with working in Japan in general: Does anyone here work 100% in Japanese, but aren't programmers and aren't native speakers of Japanese? I was interviewed for three different positions during the interview process with the company, so I have no idea what kind of job I'll be doing specifically. However, the location will be in Tokyo, and they deal with me exclusively in Japanese (interviews were in Japanese as well). I've read a lot about working in Japan from various sources, both Japanese and foreign, but I found nothing from the perspective of a non-Japanese person like me who went through 就活 and has to move to Japan. I'd love to hear people's experiences about the working environment any of you who use mostly Japanese at work and perform business/administrative/management tasks.
I'm a mandarin native speaker raised in the U.S. that will be graduating this June from college with a double major in Psych/Phil. I studied at Keio University for a year, during which I got my JLPT N1. In November I went to Boston Career Forum and went through several rounds of interviews in Boston and Tokyo (similar to how Japanese people do job hunting) before I was offered a job after graduation from my top choice company. I've already given them a verbal acceptance on my part, and we've been working out details on my move to Japan including visa and housing. However, when I received my 内定通知証 in the mail I realized that there were no details regarding my contract, but only that I would be an actually employee.
This leads me to my main question: How do I start the dialogue regarding pay? When I first applied to the company they gave a number of 400,000 yen/month approximately for 新卒, with a slightly higher pay for masters students. They haven't given me any information on it specifically for my hiring, and I don't want to get boned until after I move to Japan. Needless to say, even if the pay is lower than offered I don't particularly mind (I have absolutely no work experience apart from half a year of part-time flipping burgers, and this company has a strong brand name so it'll look great on my resume regardless of pay.)
Another question I have has more to do with working in Japan in general: Does anyone here work 100% in Japanese, but aren't programmers and aren't native speakers of Japanese? I was interviewed for three different positions during the interview process with the company, so I have no idea what kind of job I'll be doing specifically. However, the location will be in Tokyo, and they deal with me exclusively in Japanese (interviews were in Japanese as well). I've read a lot about working in Japan from various sources, both Japanese and foreign, but I found nothing from the perspective of a non-Japanese person like me who went through 就活 and has to move to Japan. I'd love to hear people's experiences about the working environment any of you who use mostly Japanese at work and perform business/administrative/management tasks.
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