Tokyo is a small town for most foreigners. There are only about 2,500 foreign companies who really have a foreign atmosphere and a need for foreign employees. Getting in to some of these companies can be a real challenge, especially if you're newly arrived and/or you've just finished a course of study. One sure way to get in though, and to...

Have you ever wondered what salaries in the top end of the market are like? In a country where some companies employ up to 400,000 people, you'd imagine that top executive salaries would be massive, as they are in the USA. Interestingly, within Japanese companies - even large ones - the salaries of CEOs are typically less than...

About a year ago I wrote about getting a job as a writer in Japan. I've been surprised by the continuing flow of questions from budding journalists and other writers, asking if the opportunities are real. They are indeed real, but I admit that in the first article I wrote regarding this profession I didn't qualify the skill set you really need to...

We continue our discussion on Kakunin Kaisha, or "one yen companies", with a continuation of the article submitted by Andy Hunne (andy@sentinel-it.net). The paperwork required to establish a Kakunin Kabushiki Kaisha (KKK) was relatively easy as it was done by my Judicial Scrivener, hired for the purpose. I told him what I wanted and he created it. I spent about 2 hours with the scrivener and have had maybe three phone calls in the past week with him to clarify a couple of minor issues, so the whole process...

Although this column is mainly about getting a job, many people are now opting to create their own jobs by being self-employed. Of course, starting your own company is a daunting task in any country, but in Japan there is always the added hurdle of having to raise...

You read all the time about Japanese major companies doing most of their hiring for April (first month of the fiscal year in Japan), and it's a big deal when they start searching for candidates as early as 6-10 months beforehand. But did you know that 97% of Japan's 64 million person workforce actually works for small companies? And the small guys can't afford...

While all attention is focused on the poor state of affairs in Japan's pension system, there is a unique problem for foreigners working in Japan that also needs to be addressed. Not many people know it, but the way the pension system is structured at the moment, foreigners living in Japan for longer than 3 years but less than 25 years, wind up paying...

The last in our series of common visa questions answered by Marc Bergman of Strata Works, a local company consisting of accountants, judicial scriveners, immigration specialists and patent attorneys that offer a variety of services to allow clients to concentrate on their core businesses...

We continue our visa questions with Marc Bergman of Strata Works, a local company consisting of accountants, judicial scriveners, immigration specialists and patent attorneys that offer a variety of services to allow clients to concentrate on their core businesses...

We decided to ask a few visa consultants here in Tokyo about some of the more common questions that we have been asked by candidates over the last 12 months. This column, as well as others over the coming weeks, are taken from a set of questions I asked Marc Bergman of Strata Works - a local company consisting of accountants, judicial scriveners, immigration specialists and patent attorneys that offer a variety of services to allow clients to...