This normally happens because failures end up going to Japan. aside from the military guys who have to be out there, we typically don't send our best and brightest to Japan.But Serious people with actual careers will do fine in Japan.
I know brehs with legitimate careers and legitimate degrees doing fine out there in marketing, engineering, finance, and sales. The only restriction for foreigners is professional jobs that require a license (law, nurse, accounting, medicine, etc) since these are regulated differently in each country; but the rest of the economy is fair game. And even among the regulated industries there is normally an exception in Japanese legal code to allow you to practice specifically on foreigners. For example, there was a well-known FBA/ados lawyer operating in Okinawa on family cases or a handful of Tokyo doctor's practices catering to foreigners. Similarly, the Big four American accounting firms also operate in Tokyo and would love some CPAs.
I've also seen folks do no-name University Masters programs to try to get into the regular Japanese economy to avoid playing the role of the English teaching monkey.
Last edited:
