kuri wrote:
> <declan_murphy@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> > Depends on the latter. The Irish restauranter
> > http://www.tadgspub.com/
> > was a chef in Ireland,
> >and his first job in Japan was also as a chef.
>
> I know, that's the case for certain professions that the Japanese agree to
> import. There are many French cooks too. But if your specialty is not
> concerned, that takes many years to restart another career and get the
> required experience.
> At mc-kaiwa, or outside, I've met over 5000 persons that were
> lawyer/chemist/nurse/maths teacher/travel agent/accountant/etc and had no
> perspective of doing their job in Japan, even in a remote future. The
> linguistic aspect is one reason, but not the major one as language can be
> learnt. Many jobs are just not open to foreigners, not even to Japanese
> older than 22, no matter the skills

Apart from jobs in the public sector, I can't think of any jobs that
*officially* at least are "not open to foreigners". There are massive
language barriers, there are prohibitively extensive transaction costs,
but few actual restrictions. For a foreigner to become a travel agent
(for instance) in Japan is not that difficult. 4 years ago I was
actually thinking of becoming one. It would have taken about 2 years
for me, more if I didn't have the language bits under my belt. I'm sure
that for a nurse etc there would be higher transaction costs in terms
of time etc, but a foreign national who took and passed the exams could
certainly work as a nurse (in the private sector at least).

> Certainly a number of posters here (most ?) have managed to avoid or get
> away from the eikaiwa world, but that's not representative. The others (4500
> of the 5000) have packed their things and went back, most didn't last 2
> years.

Doesn't surprise me at all. According to Immigration 81% of foreigners
from OECD countries who complete alien registration leave Japan
permanently within 36 months of their "landing". Of the remaining 19%,
from what I can tell from the MOJ's Jinryuu magazine more than half of
the rest can't hack it and leave before 5 years is up, though some
hippies flee to Okinawa and distort the statistics.

> > Doesn't mean they are all ex-eikaiwa drones.
>
> Do you have the stats for Chubu ? In Kansai, the KTO publish them from time
> to time, and roughly 80% of *Westerners* are registered as working in
> eduction/eikaiwa biz. Among the 20%, many have done it too, some still do
> it.
>
> I was surprised, I naively believed there were 20% of corporate expat/IT
> specialists, 30% of people on spouse visa doing all sorts of job, and  only
> 50% of *teachers*. I have thought about it again, but well, in conclusion,
> the official figure makes sense.

I don't have stats for Chubu, and so I don't know where KTO would get
theirs. Nagoya immigration provides me with some info, but it is
usually national. The 20/30/50 split is naive though - of the 416,262
people to enter Japan last December for instance, there were visas
issued for 88 professors, 9 journalists, 34 business
managers/investors, 1 doctor, 29 researchers, 5 "kyouiku", 219
engineers, 161 specialists in humanities, and 199 corporate drones.
Spouses of Japanese national visa entrants were only 2086, and there
were 92 spouses of foreign residents. Take out the 389,279 tourists/
biztrippers/ culture vultures/ families visitors and prostitutes and
there aren't many legal entrants left other than Brazilians etc, and
students.

> > If someone is employed as an instructor, and they
> > then earn some cash from writing articles etc, then they are in breach
> > of their category unless they do a change of status to specialist in
> > humanities
>
> That shouldn't be a big change.
> intsuctor visa =specialist in humanities/international services
> The *professor visas* are for uni/monbusho teachers, they no longer have the
> right to publish articles ?

If a physicist on a kyoujyu visa publishes about physics - no prob. If
a physicist on a kyoujyu visa writes unpaid articles about travel - no
prob. If a physicist on a kyoujyu visa writes "non-physics" articles
and gets remunerated for them - time to change visa status.

> What I've heard, and if that became the case I'd probably quit Japan
> imediatly, is about switching to the Korean system. I've been stubborn till
> now, but that would probably be my limit.
> You'd be able to work only for the company that sponsored you, and you'd
> have to ask another visa each time you change of company,you wouldn't be
> supposed to work independently. I guess that's not the kind of laws Japan
> actually needs, but if they disagree...

I haven't heard of any changes similar to the above at all. In
discussion or otherwise. I helped someone obtain a work visa through
self sponsorship (from shugaku to jinbunchishikikokusaigyoumu) quite
recently and it turned out to be much easier than expected - certainly
a lot easy than Ireland or Austria. I doubt that much will change.

> > (which still lets them teach and keep their prior
> > contract/employment). And so on and so forth. I don't have any problems
> > though with what Immigration is trying to do on that front.
>
> I could have a problem. Immigration doesn't merely ask you to fill a
> different form, they ask you to fit different conditions.

Yes - but that is why there are different forms. Chicken & egg thing
yunno.

> I don't need staff, and if I did, that'd be foreigners, at the limit one
> part-time Japanese. I'd to pay 2 Japanese staff doing nothing (even if they
> swear they never show up at work, I'm sure they'd still find a way to make
> me lose my time into the bargain) just to get a manager visa.
>
> Kuri

There is no point in changing to the manager/investor visa if you don't
need to, even if you fit the conditions. When I started my first
company (now a KK) I didn't need to change visa (the spec in humanities
visa from when I was a translator). When I went to extend it they
suggested I change to manager/investor, so I applied for it and was
rejected on the grounds that it wasn't necessary to change. I didn't
change to the manager/investor visa until 2 periods of stay ago when
they pointed out that they had fucked up.