Japanese facing difficulty in getting job

Hello,

I'm an Indian national and my wife is Japanese national studying in Japan, she is pursuing a master's degree from a renowned university and she says that she can not get a job in Japan after master's as Japanese companies prefer Bachelor's Japanese more than Master's and if a Japanese national is pursuing master's then he has to go out of Japan to gain some international experience and then only they can get a job in Japan.

I want to know if that is true

I am a Ph.D student in Japan, many Masters student in our laboratory decide to not go for a Ph.D and instead enter the workforce after their Masters, they never have any particulr issue.

May be field-dependent, however...

Yes, she says that since she is from the social Education field, there are very less chances for her to get hired in Japan, and only in August there is a Job fest and no one wants to hire Master's professionals cause they think that Master's people's brains are polluted and they're too old to work.
You seem like a expat studying in Japan, so may be there's no problem for you

I don't know about "brains... polluted," but a phrase I've heard before is "over-qualification." Some corporations might have the idea that they want to hire people who are younger, more adaptable to the corporations' own ways of doing things, willing to learn and work obediently, rather than people who have been academics for a couple of years and might already have their fixed ways of doing things or have strong opinions, might not have positions that are suited to them, and might not want to pay the hire salaries. (From a Japanese woman in Japan)

So that means its true,
Thank you so much
You were a great help

I can't imagine how useful of "social education" in private companies.
she may try to find a job in city offices or government.

She's not required to tell potential employers that she holds a Masters degree when she is applying for jobs.

I'm not really sure if I understand what she means, but maybe she's talking about something like this:

Nowadays, it's quite normal for a youth to gain a Bachelor's. So in other words, a youth with a Bachelor's doesn't really have any added value so-to-speak. For this reason, many students pursue Master's.

For example, in the old days, people went to college so that they can get a better job than those who only graduated high school. But nowadays, everybody goes to college, so in order to get better jobs than others, you need to get a Master's.

BUT, if you're majoring in something less special such as social education or literature, all you can hope for is to become a teacher or something. And those majors are usually easy to graduate too.

So, big trade enterprises may usually need those who are skilled in economics. Or depending on the merchandise an enterprise is developing, maybe they need someone skilled in chemistry. But they usually don't need a social ed major who is fresh out of a comfy campus, if there are better economic/chemistry majors.

AND the downside for a company is that they need to pay more for people with higher education, because typically Japanese companies pay wages depending on the youth's degree rather than his/her actual skills (and most young people fresh out of schools in Japan don't have real skills yet).

This becomes a totally different story if the social ed graduate has experience in a "real" society. For example, if she has seen the world, have done "real" studies in competitive universities abroad, and perhaps have done some field work, and then had linked that experience to his/her Master's education, then that could work as added value.

But the truth is that it really depends. If her experiences in college is convincing enough for the employers-to-be, that might work. Or if she has observed a society well enough, and then aims for a media company that focuses on that society, that might work too. Or some companies may not be interested in majors at all. But then, they might be companies she's not interested in, in terms of jobs, payment and working hours etc.

Also, while she doesn't have to say that she has Master's, job interviewers will ask, "Then what have you been doing all these years?"

Either way, applying for jobs is not an easy task in today's Japan. Maybe she just needs a hug.

The funny part is that you trust the opinion of strangers on forum and not what your wife is telling you :)

I assumed that he was looking for more details, because what you'd usually want to do to your beloved is to convince her/him that the world is a better place or that there can be different ways to interpret the situation. But you can't do that until you read something different than what the pessimistic beloved is saying. And I'm sure he's already been through the "You don't know, because you're don't know Japan!"

Thanka Uco,

I just wanted to get the correct information, it had nothing to do with strangers and beloved ones.
Since ive never been to Japan i have no idea about it and also there's no content on the internet whoch says masters can't get work so asking people here was the best i think i could do.

Anyways
Thanks everyone

I am a gainjin and i really find it hard to find a job here so i am thinking to start a business.

Why dont you both start a business as well? It a perfect tandem: an indojin and nihonjin :)

Cardcaptorsakura
I might be hijacking the thread but you made interesting point, why is hard for you to find job? What industry to work?
I see so many gaijin these days in IT, finance industry is full to foreignera, English teaching is all foreigners, many in blue collar industry like factory or even conbini- mostly all night shifts done by Chinese youngsters

And how come business is easy, Japan is very tough to sustain business

This happens here in the State too somewhat, when your applying to a company. you learn that depending on the job your applying for its best that you have to leave a lot of things out of your resume. I have 3 different style of resume depending on what kind of job I am applying for.

Your wife should not bring up her masters if she knows how they are going to react or not looking for someone with a masters, but only talk/bring up her Bachelor degree. My sisters has her master degree she was told at a job agency you should remove your master depending on the job she's applying for and the position.

Best move for your wife to do the same leave out the masters get the teaching job while she continue looking for a better job where she can use her masters. Or after she gets the job in teaching, see if the school/company looking for someone with higher degree where she can apply within the company/school

I hope my answer help

I did not say business is easy, it is just a personal passion of mine. If you think negatively about business or you are not really into business then i dont advice you to do so.

I have work already but i am not satisfied, its just work to have money. Thats it. Again, its me. Because no job can make me feel contented if having a business is what really my heart desires.

On the bright side, there are gaijins who succeeded in having a business here in japan. Many english schools are owned by gaijins.

I adviced business because, comparing to my situation, having a japanese wife or husband can make establishing a business a lot easier. So if you and your japanese wife is open to try out self employment then try. It will not be easy but its worth it. It might not be successful but there will be skills that you both will develop that can be useful in your future careers.

Mr. Cardcaptorsakura

You're right!! Everythinf we do in our life could it be business or Job we always get to learn something from it, you gave me a good idea to think about it, as I already have a business New Delhi, India.

It's better to expand the same and bring it to japan