<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.
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 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 haven't seen any reference to changes in the laws, but the briefings
> we get each month from Immigration have become more insistent about
> category jumping.

That's not yet discussed by Immigration. There are talks among the giins.
More control in order to reduce gaigin criminality. They've said that
between 2 remarks about yasukuni and one about whale research. By the same
open-minded old farts.

> 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 ?

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...

So, I'm looking at catalogues about other places, just in case. Ireland is
very rainy and they've sent their only chef to Japan
?

> (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.
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