Work

Quick Answer A Japanese payslip (給与明細) has three blocks: 支給 (payments — base + allowances), 控除 (deductions — health insurance ~5%, pension 9.15%, employment insurance 0.6%, income tax, residence tax), and 差引支給額 (net pay). Expect take-home of roughly 75–80% of gross. Two classic surprises: residence tax starts only in your second year (June), and bonuses get deductions too. Your contract said ¥300,000 a month. Your bank account says ¥237,000 arrived. Somewhere in that dense little PDF of kanji, ¥63,000 evaporated — and nobody at the office thought to explain where, because to them it’s obvious. ...

You’ve sent out dozens of applications. The interviews go well — until the visa question comes up, and suddenly “we’ll be in touch” means silence. Finding employers willing to sponsor is the challenge most foreign job seekers underestimate, and applying blindly to companies that were never going to sponsor is where most of that wasted effort goes. The fix isn’t more applications — it’s targeting the right industries and the right platforms from the start. Here’s how to find visa-sponsoring employers in Japan. ...

What you'll learn in this guide Maternity leave (産前産後休業): how long, how much pay Childcare leave (育児休業): up to 2 years, 67–50% salary replacement Paternity leave rights: the new 2022 “post-birth paternity leave” system How foreigners apply and what documents are needed What to do if your employer resists your leave request Quick Answer Foreigners employed in Japan have the same maternity, paternity, and childcare leave rights as Japanese nationals, provided they’re covered by Employees’ Health Insurance and Employment Insurance. Maternity leave (産前産後休業) is 14 weeks around birth. Childcare leave (育児休業) extends up to 2 years, with 67% salary replacement for the first 6 months. Paternity leave was strengthened in 2022 — fathers can take up to 4 weeks immediately after birth. ...

Quick Answer Japanese workplace culture runs on implicit rules most foreigners are never told: arrive early, stay late (even if you have nothing to do), build consensus before meetings (nemawashi), never say “no” directly, and attend social events as work obligations. The rules aren’t inherently worse — they’re just different, and breaking them unintentionally creates invisible friction that’s hard to identify and fix. “I work longer hours here than anywhere in my life, and I still feel like I’m underperforming.” That sentence, or a version of it, gets posted constantly by foreigners in Japan’s work culture. The frustration isn’t just about long hours — it’s about a system of unwritten rules that nobody explains, and that most Japanese colleagues assume you already understand. ...