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No. of foreign part-timers at convenience stores rising

17 Comments

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@Anon

Thanks for the recap of the real figures.

It seems many here have no clue on how to manage life ahead a year.

1000 yen/hour is a student's job or part timer for pocket money in view of all the side costs.

If you wish to end up at 65 year old with no savings, no house, no car,etc. just go for it. Of course, the clever ones will make it.

Do you really think Japan has the capacity to attract only those clever ones as there is the need to fill 100000's of such positions in the near future ?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@reckless

1000 yen/hr sounds OK but there are a few issues. The employer will almost always limit the employee to an average of 28 hours a week to avoid having to pay half of the employee's nenkin/hoken (insurance/pension). On this amount a person can't afford to live alone. Many single Japanese people that have these "part time" jobs and live alone work two jobs eight hours a day, six days a week just to survive. Their take home is usually about 2.4 million yen a year which in USD is $21k. They then are required to pay health insurance (8,000), pension (adjusted to income 2.4m is 130,000), 10.2% national tax and 5-15% local tax. That's a total of about $4-6k US that they loose off the top. Now they have about $17k a year to pay rent, bills, eat, buy clothes, etc... It's not a good life. Remember, they are working six days a week.

If they are a foreigner maybe they will be lucky enough to get their employer to sponsor a visa and give them a full time job. The problem is most of the time they only make 5% more and usually don't get paid for overtime. Now they work 10-14 hours a day, six days a week.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

For students: part timing at a conbini / restaurant is extremely helpful for language acquisition. It also helps cover expenses. I worked a baito, and I highly recommend it!

For "management interns": I only worry that including this type of job in the intern program may have greater benefits for the conbini chains (i.e. cheap labor). Unless the chains provide a path to long term employment and visa sponsorship...

The Technical Intern Training Program is constantly slammed for low pay, or providing sub par housing as "compensation", and a nearly impossible path to citizenship

1 ( +1 / -0 )

My dream to live in / work in Nippon. change of locations doesn't always bring a change in life satisfaction

3 ( +3 / -0 )

My dream to live in / work in Nippon. My heart belongs there. Ain't going to happen! Sob

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

@wtfjapan - exactly! Naturalizing would simply be a waste of time and money. Imagine getting carded by the police afterwards. You wouldn't be required to keep ID (cuz you'd be Japanese) and they would not believe you. They would drag your bum to holding until they could verify.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

They can easily naturalize after marrying a local. and why would you want to naturalize? becoming a J citizen mean forfeiting your other citizenships. Just get permanent residency, almost the same rights as a Japanese national, and if one day you've had enough of Japan you have an easy escape route.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

@Megumi, it's nice to see someone who's actually on the front lines make a comment about an issue featured in JT.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

@performingMonkey: I'm working at Lawson and I believe I was trained properly and is getting the same salary as my Japanese co-workers. Even a little higher cuz I work night shift.

Though, convenience store jobs are only good for us who cannot work full-time due to other responsibilities.

@MyhumbleTake: I think convenience store hourly wage is decent. Off course it depends on the place where that convenience store is located. Hourly wage in major cities are higher than hourly wage in countryside.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Good to see more and more and there hasn't been too much disruption in my experiences, especially the Chinese workers who seem to be working very hard

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Immigration kicking in by default.

Expect that modern "slavery" to grow like any other country because of greed. Japan will turn like my country did into a melting pot with local culture waning.

6% today , 20% in 5-10 years on average I foresee...

No possibility for part timers to get Japan nationality ever.

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

As long as they are properly trained and paid the same as their Japanese counterparts.

I work in Kobe, and I have noticed a sudden increase in the number of Chinese people working in convenience stores.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

There would be more foreign workers if the hourly wage was decent.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

There has been a massive increase in foreign staff in the last few years, from zero to (occasionally) full house.

I hope they are training them all up on how to use the ticket machines though - the guy I asked about how to get my Amazon pickup hadn't a clue. Not his fault.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

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