The Asia Pacific Headhunter

Japan's Disaster - Putting things in Perspective

 

It's hard to tear myself away from news, footage, tweets and FB updates on the devastation happening in Japan. I feel so saddened and worried about what I see and what could come. Having lived there and still in touch with many good friends and colleagues over there, I feel helpless, yet I admire the strength and will of the Japanese to work together in a time of crisis.

At times like this, you can't help but look around yourself and see your life in a clearer perspective. I'm looking out the window - sun is shining, sky is blue. I've got a beautiful family - healthy and thriving kids, a roof over my head, food in the fridge, clean water to drink, and clean air to breathe. I'm thankful for everything at this very moment. We need to reset ourselves when we get wrapped up with the stress and angst of career overload, financial strains, or the trivial things we tend to focus on.

It's also a time to lend out a hand for those in need. If you'd like to make a donation or contribution for disaster relief, here are some links to the main reputable charities:

American Red Cross - Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami

Salvation Army Japan Disaster Fund

If you want to find more on donating, check Charity Navigator.

How To Read Japanese Names

It's tough for native Japanese to read many Japanese names so for foreign students it can be a bit of a nightmare. Here is one of the tools I use to try and work out someone's name when I only have it in writing. It's not a fool proof method. But it gets about 90% of what I need.

 

Bilingual Japanese Online Job Boards

Just to add to my previous post Top 15 Japanese Online Job Boards, another generous reader and Tokyo-based search consultant Gary Bremermann of Robert Leonard Consulting, commented on two other Japanese online job boards that are bilingual. In addition to Daijob.com that was mentioned in the Gomez report, Gary recommended:

careercross.com - Tokyo-based online job board aimed at the niche market of bilingual jobs for Japanese and English speaking professionals. They have listings for full-time, part-time and temp jobs.

ecentral.jp - Aimed at bilingual professionals seeking international jobs in Japan and employers requiring bilingual candidates. They've partnered with the ACCJ, the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan.

And to add to that:

Jobba.net - a job board aimed at Japanese speakers for jobs world-wide.

Thanks Gary for your input!

 

Top 15 Japanese Online Job Boards

First of all, a big thanks to reader and freelance sourcer Bernd Kestler in Tokyo for generously sharing this find with me!

If you're interested in the Japanese market either as a jobseeker or employer - which job boards would you go to? To help sort through the different online job boards Gomez.com, a provider of on-demand web application experience management solutions, ranked 15 Japanese job boards based on user nominations and for ease of use, volume of information and content, site security and feeling of trust, and comfort in interface and service.

Here's a list of the top 15 job boards in Japan (all sites are in Japanese only except for Daijob!):

1.  Mainichi Communications (http://tenshoku.mynavi.jp)
2. Intelligence, Ltd. (http://doda.jp)
3. Recruit Co. Ltd. (http://rikunabi-next.yahoo.co.jp)
4. PROSEEK, Ltd. (http://www.proseek.co.jp)
5. SoftBANK Human Capital Corp. (http://www.ecareer.ne.jp)
6. Career Design Center Co., Ltd. (@type) (http://type.jp)
7. en-japan inc. (http://employment.en-japan.com)
8. Career Nikkei (http://career.nikkei.co.jp)
9. Mixi, Inc. (http://find-job.net)
10. Create Co., Ltd. (http://www.d-dj.com)
11. I & G Partners Inc. (http://green-japan.com)
12. JS Corporation Inc. (http://shigoto.js88.com)
13. Aidem Inc. (http://www.e-aidem.com)
14. Daijob, Inc. (http://daijob.com) In English see here (http://www.daijob.com/en)
15. Antique, Inc.(http://www.q-jin.ne.jp)

To see the fully detailed report compile by Bernd, you can download here:

Download japanese_online_jobboard_ranking.pdf

14 Reasons Why The Japanese are Richer Than You

As a follow up to my post on Otetsudai Networks I checked out their website in more detail. On their webpage they have a marketing movie, I'm not sure if it was made for them but they are the supporters of it. It follows one crazy Japanese guy as he challenges a World Record for most jobs in a day. There isn't much dialogue and the titles are in English and Japanese so there are no language problems for anyone to watch it. I've pasted it below for you all to take a look. Their site is Love Jobs (japanese only), like many Japanese sites it's very, very slick with lots of Flash.

It really brings home how a location based job network like Otetsudai Networks could be so useful in a place like Tokyo. It's the modern day equivalent of the day laborers who sit and wait in various parts of Tokyo for someone to hire them (there used to be one spot near my apartment at Takadanobaba). It also shows you why the Japanese are rich, because they are working all the time :-). If you watch the video closely towards the end of the day you see that look on his face that you see on so many Japanese faces as you walk around Tokyo, the one that says: "if I work another minute I think I'll drop dead" and then he keeps going.....

Crazy Job Trends in Japan

The way jobs work in Japan has always been different, with "Lifetime Employment" and Freeter probably the most widely known work and career styles that continue to be quite uniquely Japanese. But I just read an article from Joi Ito's blog (which is a great read for a variety of reasons) talking about a new company who are really bringing another very innovative work style to Japan. The company is called, "Otetsudai Networks" ("otestudai" is the noun form of the verb "testudau　手伝う" - which means to help or assist someone with a task) and they take advantage of the proliferation of cellphones with GPS technology and also the preference of many young Japanese to work in ways that give them a lot of freedom.

Joi explains it best:

With Otetsudai Networks, if you are willing to work, you sign up for the service with your skills and focus, take a GPS reading on your phone and then just hang out. If you are looking for someone for say... 3 hours to man a cash register or help wash dishes, you just send the request to Otetsudai Networks and within minutes, you have a list of people available. The list shows what each person is qualified for, how others have rated their work and exactly how far away they are. Typically you will receive a list of half a dozen or more people within a few minutes.

The businesses are rated too on a per-manager basis so when you're hanging out with your friends and you get a request to go help at the corner convenience shop, you know how your peers have rated that particular guy who's asking you to come and help. You can also counter the request and say you'd go if they paid you 2000 yen / hour instead of 1500.

As more and more people start using this system, it's liable to start filling a very important gap in the workforce. It's also a perfect example of a location based, peer-to-peer reputation based, mobile behavior oriented product for an aging society.

This is a REALLY interesting idea. For employers (or anyone for that matter) who want 2 or 3 hours of work done for them it creates a great opportunity to get help quickly. For people who have flexible time situations it brings opportunities to them where they are right now. I can imagine this kind of scenario. You have an area you want cleaned and it's too big a job for one person but you only have a couple of spare hours. You look for 3 available people in your area and you could have help within minutes that serves their needs and yours.

The fact that this is all run through cell phones also means you have a way of tracing all those involved to help eliminate any possible fraud. There will be issues with quality of work for some people, but the risk is low since you can start with short periods of time and since the system becomes reputation based over time. The other barriers I can think of are possibly legal in regards to some workplaces having legal requirements for safety training for employees. None of the issues are insurmountable though. I for one will be really interested to see how this grows.

Where Do The Highest Paid Executives Live?

We really live in a mobile world nowadays. In particular many people will consider working not only different careers but also in many different countries during their career. There is no doubt that Asia is seen as an excellent area to move to and work for many people, at the same time many people in Asia are very interested in working in other parts of the world. The spirit of adventure drives many but if you are also interested in the power of money you might want to check out the Hay Group's 2007 World Pay Report available here (beware the link goes to a PDF download).

I like this report because it doesn't just show salary levels, it takes into account the cost of living and tax in each country to reveal disposable income levels - the true purchasing power of executive salaries for 46 countries in North America, South America, Africa, Europe and Asia Pacific. The results might really surprise a lot of people. The USA is 24th while countries like Russia, Turkey and Thailand are all in the top 10. From within Asia Hong Kong is 3rd while Thailand is 8th, Singapore 9th and China 14th. If you've been thinking hard about taking your executive skills off the beaten track then this might make you even more interested. While you might take a pay cut to go to many places your purchasing power may make up for that cut.

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Experience.com provides information on internships and entry level jobs.

Horie Convicted

Link: Horie handed 2 1/2 years, Upstart founder of Livedoor facing real time in a cell - Japan Times
 
Update on Takafumi Horie, who was convicted on Friday and sentenced to 2 1/2 years. As noted by the media, it's rare for people convicted of similar crimes to actually do jail time, with their sentences suspended.

White-collar criminals convicted of financial fraud in most cases plead guilty and in return get suspended terms, including two Kanebo Ltd. executives last March arrested for window-dressing and real estate tycoon Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, who was handed a suspended term in 2005 for charges including insider trading.

An interesting outcome of this:

Speaking of the impact of the ruling, lawyer Takai expressed concern over its effect on young business hopefuls, noting many will be "daunted by the verdict" and lose their sense of aggression to challenge the status quo.

Personally I think that's BS, if Horie did the crime he should do the time. The shareholders of Livedoor who lost all their money won't get it back. I think most young business people can see the difference between marketing and corruption. If Horie truly fell into the latter then he deserves reasonable punishment.

 

Interview with Takafumi Horie - Japan Times

Link: Horie didn't like his job, he was just good at it | The Japan Times Online.

Here's an update to the Livedoor debacle last year in Japan when CEO Takafumi Horie was arrested for violating Securities and Exchange laws. Even though he's still in criminal proceedings, this week he gave the Japan Times an exclusive interview about his views on the whole prosecution, why it happened, how he feels about Livedoor today, and what's in store for him in the future.

Staying in line with his brash, straight-talking, anti-corporate Japan attitude, Horie maintains his innocence, and that he was just good at being an entrepreneur. Why the prosecution went after him so suddenly and quickly, he theorizes that they perceived Livedoor to be a "criminal grab bag" (he notes - people buy grab bags because they're exciting, but once they open one up, there's really nothing exciting inside).

As for the future, he's pursuing projects overseas, and will most likely stay away from corporation building in Japan. His verdict will come in this Friday.

Recruiting & HR@ iTV Japan.com

Link: Recruiting & HR@ iTV Japan.com.

Thought I'd introduce this website resource for those interested in Japan: itvjapan.com - Japan's first internet television network for business executives and provides business news, interviews and analysis with Japanese business experts and opinion leaders.

In addition to the HR & Recruiting channel, they have various business programs such as Doing Business in Japan, Sales Force, Tokyo Insiders, and more. It's another interesting way to learn more about human resources, recruiting and business in Japan in addition to blogs and rss feeds to news providers.

The current interview is with Ken Cogger, Global Head of Recruiting at Nikko Asset Management. He talks about "candidate as guest" in which the candidate is the center of focus and treated "as a guest" throughout the whole recruitment process - ranging from the little things of their first reception to the client's office to providing timely and relevant feedback if possible. The point is maintaining momentum of interest throughout the process, selling the candidate on the company so that the candidate has a positive experience with the client. After all, not all candidates will get hired, but when they leave the recruitment process, they come away with a positive impression of the  company and recruiter. And in a candidate's market, candidates talk - so as a recruiter, you're really doing sales, marketing and PR for your client. You've got to focus on the positives of the company and help the client continue that "candidate as guest" approach right through employement and employer relations to retain talent.

Btw, I have the say the quality of the streaming media is really good - very clear and sharp.