A fairly new addition to the lexicon of foreign word borrowings in Japanese is waa-hori, short for "working holiday."
Those who travel to Australia to take part in this program, warns the headline in Weekly Playboy (Sept 23), risk being treated like rubbish.
Australia permits non-immigrants between the ages of 18 to 30 years to work legally for up to one year. Which, increasing numbers of young Japanese have been learning, is easier said than done.
"For the first two and a half months I planned to study to boost my English skills, while working in a cafe or restaurant," said a 28-year-old former nurse named Yuri. "I handed out my English resume to various establishments but didn't get a single call for an interview."
Well then, how about hunting for work via the internet?
"Naturally, the first thing I did was to send out mails with my resume attached, but as that went nowhere, I had to start knocking on doors," Yuri relates.
Finally after approaching some 150 places, Yuri finally landed a job at a Japanese restaurant owned by an Indonesian. She received the Australian minimum wage, which at that time was $23.23 (about ¥2,416) per hour.
"But about a month after I started, the owner decided to close the place for renovations and laid off the entire staff," she sighed.
If foreign holiday workers desire a one-year extension, they are required to put in three-month stints on farms or in such sectors as forestry, fishing or mining. A 29-year old woman named Kaori found a job picking grapes after translating a help-wanted ad posted online from Chinese.
"The pay was based on the volume we picked, so it wasn't very good," she relates. "And when we needed to go to the toilet, you either had to get someone to drive you to one, or else squat down in the grass. And they didn't even call you by your name, just by a number. I was 2014."
And workers' dormitory, she said, jammed 100 people into a space designed to accommodate half that figure.
A woman named Mayumi, age 29, pointed out that while Australia's minimum wage is around ¥2,400 per hour, about twice that of Japan, rents and consumer prices are much higher than Japan's.
"It's a rough situation, both financially and psychologically," she said. "On Japanese-language SNS here I've seen posts warning about swindlers who target Japanese. It would seem that Japanese in desperate straits make easy marks."
Word on the street is that some Japanese are left with no choice but take on jobs for below the minimum wage, because they're easily expendable.
Weekly Playboy asked Tomoyuki Matsutani, now a chef at a popular Japanese restaurant in Sydney, what he thought of the working holiday program.
"Actually I am one of those Japanese who first came here on the working holiday program, back in 2005," Matsutani told the magazine. "After being in Australia for nearly 20 years, I've sensed major changes in the types of Japanese coming here for waa-hori.
"First there's an oversupply of labor. Young people come here from all over the world, and since many businesses have sufficient workers, nothing appearing on anyone's resume is going to help them find work.
"Also, because of the devaluation of the Japanese yen, fewer tourists have been visiting from Japan these days, so demand for Japanese-speaking workers has dried up.
"That makes for a big disadvantage for the many Japanese who are not good at speaking English," Matsutani added.
Matsutani admits that while he himself was not good at English, he had nearly 10 years of experience back home, where he could refine his work skills.
"So within my first year here I was able to find a real job and able to obtain a working visa," he said. "Whether food preparation or driving heavy machinery, if you want to go to Australia for work it's better to have some marketable skill. And, of course, you have to be tenacious. With the right attitude, things will open up for you."
Because many Japanese who come to Australia lack English, job skills and tenacity, they've developed an unfavorable image, making things more difficult for Japanese to find work, Matsutani observed.
"To be frank, I myself would be more favorably disposed toward Japanese, but from the perspective of an employer, hiring people who come here starting completely from scratch is a problem for me."
Still, few would deny that overcoming the various challenges can help mold young people's character.
"Yes, the going had been rough for a while," reflects the above cited Mayumi. "Still, it was something I never could have experienced in Japan. I'm hoping that experience will mean something for my future."
There's an old saying in Japanese that goes, "The school of hard knocks is a good teacher." So even if the going does get rough at times, asks Weekly Playboy, can the waa-hori experience really be all that bad?
© Japan Today
19 Comments
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NCIS Reruns
Many years ago I went for a working holiday in a country whose name I shall not mention here. I corresponded from Japan and had a job and accommodations lined up before my arrival. The system wasn't perfect, but it worked. Perhaps the Australian government should develop a similar system, so that people can find a job before they board the plane in their home country.
GBR48
@NCIS Reruns.
I'm surprised those entering Australia for this can get past customs without having something legit lined up. They are quite tough on border entrance and visa rules. The days of just going abroad and looking for a job may have ended. Nobody seems to like foreigners any more.
Moonraker
"On Japanese-language SNS here I've seen posts warning about swindlers who target Japanese."
Those who have never left (their rooms in) Japan will find this hard to stomach but - and this was carefully avoided, it seems - a majority of those swindlers will be Japanese too. Yuri was lucky to get the minimum wage for even a short time and I have known Japanese unwittingly work for almost nothing on farms for three months in order to get the extra year. Some Japanese women get lucky and find an Australian to enter into a 'de facto' or even marriage with and get to stay. The men are not so lucky, sadly. But they always miss Japan more than the women anyway.
Bad Haircut
I'm almost certain that part of the WH visa application process includes proving you have a certain amount of savings to tap into while you travel or look for a job, so having a job already lined up isn't necessary. Seems like more and more of them will need to rely on those savings, or just curt their losses and go home.
DanteKH
How about the "hard time" facing the rest of us working in Japan, that are suffering due to inflation and devaluation of the currency?
falseflagsteve
Dante
Some of us do better when the Yen is devalued, it’s all swings and roundabouts you see.
DanteKH
@Steve
99.9% of foreigners living and working in Japan are payed in local currency. Offcourse, since the Yen lost it's power, we got pretty much affected, especially when traveling abroad, where our salaries just lost 40-45% their value compared to 3-4 years ago..
Dirk T
You won't hurt the country's collective feelings if you name it. By naming it you not only make your own story more credible and interesting, you might even help someone.
Dirk T
Are farm workers no longer needed in Japan? I suspect that they are ...
Mocheake
Welcome to reality. Many people, especially from looked-down-upon developing countries have some of those same experiences here in Japan.
Dirk T
Sorry, I meant to ask, Are farm workers no longer needed in Australia? I suspect that they are ...
mountainpear
@DirkT I think it he might be talking about Israel. Maybe worked on a kibbutz.
Ricky Kaminski13
Have been sending young Japanese hopefuls home to Australia for years. Try and give them a foot up with a place to stay and some contacts etc. Some survive, some thrive but some just don't cut it. In fact I was just talking to a mate who lives in Sydney last night and trains people for customer service certification and he says, "Guess who the hardest students are?" Yep, our darling young Japanese punters. They show up on time all right, well groomed and presentable, but don't communicate well, are very nervous and the worst thing he said is they won't ask for help or advice in a pickle. The passivity kills them and they just end up in the way. No boss wants to have to spoonfeed anyone, and in customer service (cafes, bars, restaurants, hotels etc) there's simply no time.
The blame squarely lies within the Japanese educational system here, kids aren't taught to think for themselves on their feet and interpersonal communication skills are often lacking.
Having said that though, those who do make it through the first six months, harden up, and find some courage to be more proactive with their situation have a life-changing experience. Good money to be earned too, if you can hack it. 30 bucks an hour in a cafe if you are certified. How about them apples!
Dan
Iam an Australian living in Brisbane, I hosted a 28 year old Japanese woman in my apartment for her working holiday last year. She was relatively easily able to get 3 jobs at once on good average wages, 2 as Barista in nice cafes and 1 in korean owned japanese restaurant. She only had limited experience at the start. I think her key to success was persistance in researching, physically handing out resume and a nice positive smile. Ps we had fun learning names for coffee cup as English was not fluent. She was better than the Australian workers.
Tamarama
If their English is up to a casual working environment level, they'll be completely fine. In fact, the Australian employers will appreciate their sense of customer service and attention to detail to their job.
Their Australian colleagues might find that a little....foreign, though.
Jim
They fail to find proper working holiday jobs and also they fail to enjoy the time in Australia because of their super limited English skill. Some of these working holiday Japanese people can’t speak even a basic sentence in English so they will always get jobs only in Japanese restaurants or something related to farm work which is extremely challenging and in isolated areas. To top it all up, many of these working holiday people form their own Japanese groups to hangout during their free time and talk only in Japanese while in Australia so naturally their English doesn’t improve at all. So it’s meaningless to travel to Australia on a working holiday visa if your English level isn’t above a basic beginner level as you’ll encounter extreme disappointments when looking for “ cool jobs “ and you’ll end up stuck working at a Japanese restaurant or farm!
tigerjane
Dente, every country is suffering due to inflation. Next, if you are expecting for Japan to bail your foreign butt out of trouble, no. There is so many Japanese elderly who need the help first before you. I prepared for the rainy day, single foreign mom and all, and yes it sucks that prices have gone up, but it is not only Japan, and I just stay within my means. Maybe it is something you could try instead of crying.
factchecker
Australia is far too expensive for everything. No wonder they struggle. It costs a fortune on a regular non working holiday.
windspiel
Any experience of Japanese working WH in Germany?