gringos in Japan
- Started
- Last post
- 24 Responses
- blastofv
Hey PVN – anyone from the English speaking world have any experience working in Japan (for an English speaking branding/design agency)?
Any advice on getting connected and/or the hiring process for foreign designers?
- honest0
I'd say you'd have better luck with an ad agency with an office in Japan. The smaller offices work like robots 24/7 and they have no concept of weekend. Most designers burn out in their 30s to become design assistants for 20-somethings. But aside from that, the best of luck!
- blastofv0
Damn, sounds grim. Yeah I'm thinking I might need to go through a mega ad agency or brand consultancy.
I just know I have to do it.
Has anyone worked over there?
- Hym0
honest is right, sadly that's pretty accurate, the mass creative industry is pure slavery that only mad hardcore people get into
But since you aren't paid that much you wouldn't be able to spend that money on life anyway (haha that's evil right)
i've done a couple jobs for a japanese studio but all my communication went thru an american animator that worked over there because the Japanese Directors had maybe an english vocabulary of max 50 words, not kidding
So i would just learn the language if you really want to work there. Oh yeh, they aren't too hot on foreginers either so you can't be just average in what you do.
- fate_redux0
You're asking at the wrong time, buddy. It's 10:30pm there. Try asking in the morning or middle of the day.
- honest0
yeah, i forgot the pay isn't great and living costs aren't cheap.
My wife actually came over here to the UK for better job prospects. The design market in Japan is flooded. Construction workers learn HTML in their spare time so they can build websites when not doing hard labour.
Funnily enough i think you'd get more money teaching English there, but you might get lucky. Again, the best of luck! Ganbatte ne!
- blastofv0
good point fate – I'll bump this up later.
OK, so learn Japanese – no sweat ;)
My wife has family over there, and some decent connections, so I think we could make it work if I can find a job that won't a: grind me into the ground and b: won't stall the progress of my career
Tricky.
- fate_redux0
What's the desire to live/work in Japan? I'm not saying it's not a clean and safe country, but it wouldn't be my top place to actually work.
- blastofv0
I need the change of pace (and I crave the culture shock), and I think it will be tremendously beneficial to my development as a designer to spend a couple of years gaining a very different perspective. I want to do international work, and I see this as a good way to start down that path.
Some other options are the UK or NZ, but aside from having a blast, the design experience wouldn't really be all that different from the work I'm doing in Boston.
The other attractive options are Spain or maybe Argentina – I speak pretty solid Spanish, but we have no family/friends/contacts in either country.
I think all designers should live/work abroad early on in thier careers.
- fate_redux0
I think you should visit the country for a couple weeks first.
- JazX0
conform to their standards, learn an entirely new language and alphabet and undestand their culture and learn to eat a lot of seafood and seaweed.
don't mention Hiroshima or Nagasaki
good luck with that one...
;)
- tkmeister0
my friend is considering to move to japan. she's japanese and is concerened a bit since her professional experience is mainly in the states. management, correspondence, typography...are her concerns since they are so different over there.
like someone said, if you go with one of ad agencies, you have a better chance of doing well.
good luck, mate.
- blastofv0
seaweed: check
seafood: check
katakana/hiragan: check
culture: check
horrified about the bombs: check
language: not even closeThat last one might be a problem.
Anyway, I've got a couple of years before this would make sense to actually pursue. I will be traveling there later this year, so hopefully I can talk to some people we know and see what's what.
- honest0
watch out for little would-be Kancho assassins
- JazX0
seaweed: check
seafood: check
katakana/hiragan: check
culture: check
horrified about the bombs: check
language: not even closeyou're on your way then!
:)
+
Kancho assassins
honest
(Jun 16 05, 07:30)dude those are dangerous!
- TheTick0
Not gringos, gaijin.
Visit there first. I've spent time there, my fiance is Japanese. I love the culture, but I'm not even sure I could swing living there full time.
It is a wonderful country, but it's weird. I like to say it's living a musuem of the very near future. Get used to no public trashcans. Imagine seeing another gaijin - white, black brown or whatever and just wanting to run over to them to speak english just because you think you might have forgotten how...the concept of clothes dryers haven't occured to them yet...coffee in a cup to go is only now catching on, but plenty of canned coffee vending machines....heated toilet seats rock - but the coldest place on the planet is a japanese bedroom in January, you have no idea....I mean the culture is just so different..and those dreaded Kancho assassin!!!
- honest0
absent trashcans? Which city were you in?
- fate_redux0
honest, Tokyo. I had to walk and walk and walk to find a trashcan. At least near Jimbocho in Chiyoda.
- fate_redux0
I had a blast in Japan, really, a fucking blast, but I don't think I could live there. The culture is just too different. Riding the subway in dead silence, while everyone pretends to sleep...or walking down the street while everyone avoids eye contact. That's weird. I want more human interaction.
And really, it's a bit too safe in Japan. But then I just got my car windows shot out, so who am I to judge.
- honest0
Interesting. I stay mainly in West Japan. My wife is from Hiroshima (absolutely adorably bonkers she is) and it's pretty damn clean there. I went to Osaka and was pretty shocked by the smell and was chilled out in Kyoto. I haven't been to Tokyo yet, but I think it might be a bit too intense for me and I'm from Hong Kong!
- JazX0
I've come up with my own theory.
In each thread this is a key word, it's called 'The Newstoday Thread Single Key Word Theory'.
In this instance the key word is 'Kancho'.
BEWARE!
But seriously, if we took every thread and found a keyword in each thread we could create our own code to represent the PVN and yes I'm crazy thanks