en-us http://www.keithwatanabe.net/index.php Keith Watanabe's Website http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/2/9/596f0b3b5cf747515ead37d8b192068a.html
It feels like people here don't know how to plot their life. The average Japanese lifespan seems simple: work hard to get into a good school, sleep through a university, try to get into a decent company with some notion of lifetime employment, find a marriage partner, have a small family with your parents and relatives helping you out to get your own place, then retiring back in your hometown. And of course people dream of becoming famous or going on TV, but many probably realize that would never happen for them.

Still though, just figuring out how to make it to a good level like CTO or director I feel are things that never cross people's minds here. It seems people feel that as long as they (i.e. guys) work long enough for a company, they eventually will receive promotions based on seniority. While that is true, you often see middle management who are lazy and clog up many companies with their presence. The few success stories of young people in corporations are rare, but the ones that did happen like Livedoor/Horiemon, was a strike against young people in Japan.

In talking to my young coworkers they seem to have an inkling of potential leads to the next level, but I don't feel they know what the end point ought to be. In my case, for instance, I realized that when I started working for ecommerce companies, my goal was to eventually move into larger companies with massively sprawling websites with the final end points being at spots like Amazon, Yahoo, or ebay (this was before Google). In working with Ticketmaster, I realized I was able to learn enough about the big picture and started moving in a different direction where I wanted more creative control.

For Japanese people, I don't think they see the same type of career paths, the concrete direction that can take them fast and smoothly up the corporate ladder. Of course, many here are hindered by the thought police in that switching jobs is a sin. However, with the lack of stability from many companies, it's not nearly as bad as before.]]> Sat, 09 Feb 2008 10:37:00 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/2/9/596f0b3b5cf747515ead37d8b192068a.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/2/10/9b953e6cfc798bf829e97b1c3cce42eb.html
Well, I've known plenty of English teachers out here. Some do okay for themselves, others end up with NOVA (bwhahahaahahahahahahaha!). Others start off on the lowest rung of teaching schools,GABA, because they're willing to pay bottom dollar for backpackers and those who majored in underwater basket weaving, just wanting their first working Visa in Japan. It's great if you're young, but realistically Tokyo is a harsh environment where you gotta hustle to get your next penny or you might end up like a NOVA teacher.

However, I noticed a pattern of some of the more ambitious English teachers out here. There are upgrades from the destitute positions of being enslaved to little whiny brats in distant cities that make you occasionally believe you're in some 3rd world country. Here's some points I've come up with:

• Private tutor - Natural extension of the English teacher. Students (stupidly) pay top dollar for private lessons. Well, supply is plenty now so you don't have to pay top dollar, just a bowl of Yoshinoya and maybe give them a rug outside your balcony!
• Recruiter - Very closely related to the English teacher. This is the vertical leap for those English teachers who have a knack of manipulating students and were slightly more business savvy than their NOVA brethren. Most recruiters out here are non-Japanese (since Japanese don't typically jobs in the first place) and beginning recruiters would start off in pits like East West Consulting (pretty much the GABA of recruiting). Some of these recruiters manage to even elevate their Japanese while they were scrounging as an English teacher.
• PC Support Guy - You love Akihabara but never could afford anything outside of the gumball drop 100-en toy machines on the minimal wage salary your slave pit bosses are providing you as a teacher. You know how to hook up your computer to your ADSL outlet and can plug your keyboard in. You're now IT! (like many brainwashed Japanese feel they are). Maybe you were slightly smarter than your boozed out NOVA companions and decided to save the occasional one yen in your piggy bank (or figured that temples and ponds have troves of treasure if you're willing to sacrifice your sense of pride) and maybe you got some certification. First jobs include a lowly paid technician trying to help out the local staff in making them realize the DVD drive is NOT a cupholder (yeah we're going old school here!).
• Bartender - The opposite of the PC Support Guy. You boozed out so much with your NOVA friends but got good at it that you can now recognize what you had the previous night by the vomit stains on your shirt and toilet. You're now qualified to become a bartender in Roppongi! Typically, the bartender role supplements the income level of the English instructor. You're constantly late getting to your class the next day and only sleep on the first train in getting from Roppongi to some outskirts, inaka kindergarten class. You probably have a 3 year lifespan in Japan.
• Finance Guy - Okay, you never really wanted to be an English teacher but as we all know, finance companies are one of the few companies in Japan that, like English schools, are willing to take anyone as long as they know English. Maybe in your past life you majored in economics, political science, psychology, sociology and/or history and perhaps even hold a degree in accounting or certification as an accountant. But you needed that first Visa because you weren't the best of the best in your classes and needed a way to slide into this country. And just maybe while you were teaching English in some prefecture where NO ONE was speaking English, you picked up enough Japanese to convince people in finance that you knew a thing or two and they (stupidly) hired you in because you had that slight advantage. Congratulations. You're now a money whore.
• Celebrity - The slimiest, most notorious insects that crawl out of these English schools manage to somehow worm their way through dark tunnels and sewers into the living rooms of passively watching grannies on late night TV. These people are coated with so much gel that they're able to ooze through any crack and for whatever reason, manage to claim some fame in Japan. But these people are perpetually considered clowns by the rest of Japan because they are willing to dismiss any sense of dignity from their national heritage in order to slide up the ranks in society and rub shoulders against the hot female celebs here in Japan (come, that's the only reason to become a celebrity here!). Fortunately, these people never move above any rank outside of "class clown" because the yak and other producers are busy in the back determining the next form of humiliation to this gaijin sellout.
  

Just for the record, about myself, I NEVER took any job for pay as an English instructor out here. I do think English teaching is a noble cause, but I refuse to accept money for it. I have my dignity and earned my right through hard work and determination for my position out here and will continue to do so.

And as for me cracking the whip at NOVA, well, let's just say that irony is a bitch and now you're my irony.]]> Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:09:16 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/2/10/9b953e6cfc798bf829e97b1c3cce42eb.html