Toyota Company

Hi everyone!

I would like to know more about working conditions for Toyota. I'd love to hear from anyone who has worked there, currently works there, or knows someone in the company.

What are the typical working hours each day?
What is the typical pay or salary?
Do you earn more money depending on which location you're at? (Tokyo, Nagoya)

And anything else you can tell me about working for Toyota.

Thanks in advance!

I think it might help people to answer your questions more fully if you could say what kind of job(s) you have in mind.

I'm not looking for a job there. My boyfriend would like to work in the Environmental Department at Toyota. He's been researching the company and has heard different things, so I thought posting a question on here might be helpful if anyone is somehow related with the company.

I work for Toyota. As for your pay, Toyota pays its employees some of the highest salaries in Japan in the industry. The pay rate is deterimed by how many years of experience you have (ie. how many years you have worked since you have graduated from university). Pay increases when you get promotions (not automatic, but generally based on the number of years since you graduated from university and your performance within the company). If we don`t know your boyfriend`s experience and age, it is hard to come up with a figure.

As for pay in Tokyo vs Nagoya, I haven`t heard that there is any difference. I doubt it, based on the method of determining your salary as mentioned above. It is `possible`, however, that the housing allowance in Toyko might me a little bit higher, but that is about the only thing that I can think of.

As for location anyway, more likely than not work that has to do with the Environment would be located in the headquarters in Toyota City (Aichi prefecture), as opposed to Nagoya or Tokyo, but that is just my guess.

Being a big company, Toyota adheres to the labor laws fairly striclty. In recent years there has been a crack down on the number of overtime hours and a push for a better work/life balance. I can`t speak for people in all departments within the company, but a general estimate of overtime is about 2 hours a day on average.

The biggest thing I found to adjusting to Toyota was that it is a huge company and has tons of rules. Sometimes rules get in the way of your personal freedoms, so be aware (like having to tell your boss your itinerary for your holiday etc). A lot of the rules make sense and I have gradually adjusted.

Toyota puts pressure on its employees to perform. The company gets many of the top graduates from good universities, so the quality of your fellow employees is quite high. I have found that to be a good because I have learnt a lot from them.
As well, Toyota puts a lot of effort into career advancement, so there are good opportunities for training.

My boyfriend is an international student studying in the United States. He has one more year left until he graduates. By the time that he goes back to Japan, he will be 23.

You talked about "housing allowance". Does that mean that Toyota gives a certain amount of money to employees each month to spend on housing, aside from salary?

My boyfriend read on a forum that some Toyota employees work hours from 8am to 10pm. I'm not sure what department they said they were from though. Is this true? Could you tell me, on average, how many hours Toyota employees work daily? I know that it could depend on the department but I'm just wanting to know an estimate.

Another question I have: How much vacation time do you get yearly?

Thank you so much for your response.

I have a question- in the current economic climate, with the Japanese automakers just having posted their biggest slump in exports and profit downturn ever and laying workers off left right and centre, why on earth would anyone be pinning their hopes on working for one of them right now?

Because it's one of his dreams. He's not going to give up just because the economy is bad right now. He isn't even trying to get the drop right now. It will be in a year or more, and we've got to hope that the economy is going to get at least a little better by then.

Hmmm...everyone's being very cagey about giving concrete info here. I must admit I'm curious, too, but maybe peeps are thinking it's too personal info to give in public?

Can I help the OP out with some specifics:

1. What would a 23 year old (engineer, etc) get as basic salary?
2. Bonus?
3. Benefits?
4. Annual vacation? (and can you actually TAKE the time owed, or is it frowned upon?).
5. Working hours/week and average overtime (is it paid overtime??)?
6. General conditions in the company? Positive atmosphere, etc?

hi!
sorry, I have no experinece with toyota but I like to try to answer some of your questions in general.
vacations depends on the company but usually have they the same vacation "system". In some foreign companies it is different but this is how we handle vacations at my company:
we have no long weekends. If there is a day off on workdays we have to work on saturdays instead.
working hours are usually from 9 til 5.30 but we don`t leave the office after 7. It`s more common to go at 8.
My friend is working as an engineer and he works from 8 til 8.30/9 o`clock.
so overtime work is common. And after work you often have to go with your superiors on a drink or so...

Instead of trying to get responses from people who could only guess or give you their own personal situations, why doesn't you boyfriend just go ask an HR recruiting rep? In a few short months, job hunting season begins and companies are going to start attending numerous job fairs (ie. Boston Career Forum, Tokyo Career Forum, etc).

What's the rush, is the amount of vacation days and hours worked going to change his mind or something? I'm always of the opinion that you worry about that stuff after you receive job offers from numerous companies... If he's basing his decision on benefits and perks, the job probably isn't for him anyways...

Jackson

Each to his/her own, but I would have thought matters such as working hours and holidays are central, not peripheral, factors when job hunting and best researched well before hitting the job offers stage.

Also, recruiting agencies will undoubtedly give useful information and advice, but there's little to beat the insights to be gained from insider personal experiences.

Dave, dotcom, Rick - thanks for your help!

As for " basing his decision on benefits and perks, the job probably isn't for him anyways...", when making an important decision, all factors should be taken into consideration.
He does happen to want a family someday and would like to be able to spend time with them often. Even though this isn't a reality for some and it's true that we can't always get what we want, it's still important to him. Working hours and vacation time affect that. But we all make sacrifices to accomplish our goals and dreams.

So, you are wanting more specifics...

The starting pay for a university graduate at Toyota is about 220000 yen per month for a 40 hour work week. This may seem low to someone from overseas, but it is a typical starting salary in Japan. For a very general equation, add 10000 yen to your monthly salary for every year experience that you have. These increases won`t happen every year, but with a promotion, it will follow that rate.

Overtime is payed on top of your base pay. Most departments limit overtime to an average of 30 hours a month. This is a big improvement even from several years ago. Many other companies require more overtime from their employees, so I think Toyota is one of the better ones right now. (If Toyota breaks the labor laws, it makes front page news in Japan, so the company is very careful these days) I know that smaller companies have a habit of getting around these laws, so be careful.

For engineers, we work on a flexible schedule, so I can leave work an hour early today and make up the extra hour the next day or whatever. I quite enjoy that concept. Depending on the work, there are somedays that I go to work on Saturday or Sunday, but it is usually to check on equipment that I am getting repaired and I can take a weekday off of work in exchange for the weekend work.

Bonuses are paid out two times a year and in recent years have been about 3 to 4 times your monthly salary. With the economy as it is now, most likely they will be less this year.

We recieve between 16 and 20 payed holidays a year (I`m not actually sure what the number is in the first year, but after a few years you will be up to the max of 20 days). On top of that, you will recieve 5 or 6 days off each at New Years, Golden Week and Obon. It depends on where you work within Toyota, but the headquarters in Toyota City and factories do not have days off for public holidays. The Nagoya and Tokyo offices have fewer days off at New Years, GW and Obon, and get the public holidays off instead. I don`t know why.

As for the work environment, as I said earlier, you are employed to perform and produce results. I can feel that pressure within the company. The atmosphere entirely depends on the department that you work for. I can`t speak for all, but mine isn`t too bad even if the guy/girl ratio is about 50 to 1. Most people come from good univesities and with good backgrounds, so the calibre of people is very high.

I worked previously for another company so I can understand how other companies work and function, but I do find that my fellow employees can`t quite think outside that box in some respects. It isn`t really a complaint, but Toyota employees are 恵まれている (a little spoiled).

As for things, there are many sports teams that Toyota sponsers and fitness complexes that we can get reduced rates for. We can buy Toyota cars at a lower price and get good deals on insurance and life insurance. As I said earlier, for a certain number of years you can recieve some money to cover your housing (typically in the 30000 yen range per month, but it may vary depending on the apartment). Otherwise, you can live in the dormitory or company housing for cheap.

Yes, there are times that you go out drinking after work, but I don`t think there is too much pressure if you don`t want to. It entirely depends on the people around you and you don`t have to participate.

In conclusion:
Good things about the company: pay, benifits, job security, training, chance to work overseas, career devolopment, opportunity to move around to different departments with in the company.

Things that you may not like: lots of rules, pressure to perform, not much individual work (group work is encouraged).

Good luck.

Thank you so much for all the information! You have been a huge help! It's been much appreciated.