When I first came to Japan, every day on the way to my language school, I saw the same people around the same time, wearing almost the same suit every day, some days holding umbrella, some days holding an electric fan, some days just walking with their eyes glued on their phones with their earphones hanging. I felt sorry for them. To me at that time, they all seemed so pathetic, living boring days, taking the same train at the same time every day. I clearly remember that day, I promised myself I will not be like them, yet now I’m one of them.

I’m now in my fourth year living in Japan and recently ‘celebrated’ my first year working here. I wake up every day around the same time, getting ready, get out of my apartment at the same time, taking the bus, and then train, always at the same time so that I can arrive 5 minutes before the office hour starts. I feel pathetic, but I realize, working life in Japan is like this. Working in Japan is boring.

If you look it up on the internet, there is not much good news about working in Japan. Most of the news is either about some people die because of overwork, or sexual-harassment or power-harassment in the office. You may be wondering if those are all true or people are just exaggerating. Well, sadly, some of the news like the one about people die of overwork is true, although not every company is like that. However, in my opinion, those things are really different for each individual.

I’ve been working in a small-medium Japanese company as a visual designer. I was the first fresh graduate foreigner hired. My office situation is like this: every morning we have the whole company morning meeting, and some days we have morning stretching. The hierarchy in the office is very clear: one is the biggest boss, then there are some other big bosses, medium bosses, small bosses, some almost bosses, the somewhere in the middle people, and the fresh graduates—me and the other 5. Culturally, it’s a hardcore Japanese company.

I joined my current company like other fresh graduates in early April, wearing a set of black suit with my hair sleek, black heels, and nude stockings.

The first day was like doing nothing. The whole first month was boring. It was nothing like the in the news: no overtime, no pressure to go to drink with the bosses, no work at all. The first month was just listening to people explaining their stuff, about company history, about how to be profitable for the company.

Then after the training month was over, I thought finally I could leverage the skills I learned in school and design some stuff, but again, no. The second month was boring too. I had to do some Photoshop and Illustrator training, like cutting someone’s clothes and change the color or making some shapes using pen tool. A month of nothing again, but I still get paid. For some people this might sound like a dream job, but not for me. I was so bored and I felt guilty getting paid for nothing.

Third, fourth, fifth, half a year, and so on went by almost the same. No one lets me do stuff because I was just a fresh graduate. Some bosses called me and the other fresh graduates not by our name but “that freshy in account” or “that freshy in administration”. They don’t see us by skill, they see us by how long we’ve been in the company.

However, this is just my first year and my own reflection. Next year might be better, hopefully, more ups and downs, more adventures. I know some people who can’t stand working in Japan because of other reasons like too much stress, too much pressure, etc., but to me, it’s because working in Japan is too boring. Sometimes I feel bad for complaining about boringness while other people’s problems are more serious that can lead to mental illness, but imagine staying in the office for 8 hours doing nothing, just pretending to be busy. It’s slowly killing me.

I’m not sure how I’m going to end this rant, but like my post before about living in Japan, I think working in Japan is not for everyone. If you are a foreigner with an offer from a Japanese company, great! I think you should give it a try—it’s a nice experience working with very polite people. But always have plan B in case living and working in Japan isn’t as sparkly as what you thought it would be.

xoxo_anastasia