A Few Words for Technical Interns in Japan

A few words for technical interns in Japan

Who actually manages you in Vietnam : the dispatching company (the labour export company)
Who actually manages you in Japan : the association, OTIT
At work: the host company In daily life : housing and living ….the host company
Your flights out and back: paid by the host company.
Your Japanese tuition while in Vietnam and at the association: paid by the host company
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Many of you ask : So what about the money they took from me in Vietnam?!
→That has nothing to do with the host company in Japan. They have not taken a single coin from you. You have never paid the host company anything yourselves, have you?
Others say: But I thought I paid for it!
→ Well, that is just what you thought. In fact the host company pays a lump sum for your Japanese tuition, your flights out and back, and even the initial living allowance you receive while training at the association's centre in Japan (8man: 80,000 yen; the sum varies by company and trade). All of this money is paid by the host company to the association, just as the host company has to pay the association's management fee for each of you, from 3 man: 30,000 yen upwards (some associations take less, but that is the average).

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Most technical interns arrive in Japan without a trade, and many of them are school pupils or students who have never worked, never been out in the world, never had a knock or two.
Not to mention that some of them never washed a dish or did the laundry at home, because their father, mother and elder siblings…did it all for them.
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Meanwhile:
For sheer ferocity of competition, Japanese companies still compete harder than companies in Vietnam. Why do I say so? Simply because Japan's standards and specifications are higher, Japanese consumers are more demanding, more discerning and better informed about products and services.
(Note: this is about consumers in general, the greater part of them. Of course, there are now some very discerning consumers in Vietnam too. Simply because they are comfortably off and so can use products and services from many countries. Through that they can compare and build up their knowledge as consumers.)
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So:
Faced with the reality of the work and the life, you are badly shocked. You feel the company has no human warmth and no sympathy, you feel adrift and let down by everything you had imagined about Japan (kind Japanese people, beautiful scenery, a good company, plenty of overtime, plenty of money….etc..)
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The reality is : work and nothing but work; Japanese people are cold and sometimes harsh. They neither understand nor sympathise.
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Do change your thinking a little. What if you were in the host company's place?!
Would you want to pay out a pile of money to take on people who cannot do the work! who do not follow the rules and the proper way of doing things (at work, in daily life), and bring trouble on yourself because you say something and they do not understand, and they say something and you do not understand either – and when you do understand it is hard to accept, because no Japanese person behaves like that!
The host company already has plenty of problems of its own to face. Fierce competition from rivals and from companies importing cheaper goods from abroad. No workforce to keep the business running, which is why they are obliged to use the intern scheme to take on foreigners. They do not want to, but they have to, because they need stability, and baito or arubaito (short-term and seasonal part-time workers) cannot give them that
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Good companies and bad companies
You get both in Japan, in Vietnam and anywhere else in the world. It is not something peculiar to Japan.
Good and bad have many sides to them besides. I have stressed this to you many times. Because for many of you a good company means plenty of overtime.
But that was in the past; nowadays a company with a lot of overtime may well have its licence withdrawn. A company that allows a lot of overtime is very likely breaking the law or getting round it…etc. And if a company does not obey Japanese law, will it be scrupulous about paying your wages?!
Not to mention that overtime takes your health with it; have you thought that you will have to work overtime even when you are ill, because the company has signed a contract and the delivery date is fixed and binding.
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The Wuhan coronavirus.
This is a global pandemic. No one has declared themselves unaffected and as yet there is no vaccine. Which means the disease cannot yet be brought under control.
Japan, America….and Vietnam are all the same. Companies are reeling, and bankruptcies are nothing out of the ordinary.
The epidemic sends many messages, some of them contradictory. And choices have to be made.
For instance, at the height of the epidemic it was : “Do you choose safety or work?”, and now it is perhaps :”If I stay at home, how do I live?!”
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So :
– Having your health and no illness is Good Fortune.
– Having work that earns money in hard times is far more Good Fortune than many other people have
– Why must you put up with things? Why must you make the effort to study?
Look again at who you are living for. If you live only for yourself, then perhaps you are being too selfish. You have a family, you have relatives and friends, you have a country and a people.
And a future…. What sort of future will your children have? What will become of your own family?
It depends on what you are willing to endure. Enduring in order to earn money, to understand life, to become more generous.
Studying in order to understand. Youth is full of spirit, but heedlessness comes with it.
You cannot always study, and you cannot always be heedless and get things wrong.
Some mistakes are paid for with injury, with debt, even with your life.
And as for work :
It calls for professionalism. Professionalism in how you work and in your trade.
Professionalism in how you treat people and how you deal with Japanese colleagues.
Professionalism in handling problems as they come up
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Look again at where you are? and where you are going? doing what? and how to avoid falling behind, being criticised or being looked down on?
If you cannot answer honestly, then you cannot make out the road ahead of you either.
If you do not change the way you think, you will go round and round for ever, weighing up and calculating petty gains and losses.
Criticising and railing at things does no good at all. Look at your own reality and act on it.
What you do today is a step towards your future. What sort of future? That is decided by what you yourselves think.
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Source: Pham Quyen fb.com/quyenjp

See also:
Important Things to Know About Living in Japan
Advice for Anyone Hoping to Go to Japan (as a Technical Intern)