The experiences of Japanese expats

Nice story in the English-language Japan Times about the increasing numbers of Japanese who are choosing to live and work overseas.  Almost one million Japanese now live outside of their country, a 40 percent increase in ten years.

The newspaper asked several of those expats to share their experiences from Argentina, France, Spain, the United States and other countries, even Libya and Burundi.  There are a number of interesting responses, such as the following one from Australia that points out some of the cultural differences between the individualistic Aussies and the group-oriented Japanese.

This experience taught us the different attitudes toward work between Japanese and Australian people. We Japanese tend to consider work as the center of life … Contrary to this, Australians consider that work is just a part of life…

We were also surprised by the difference in education curricula. When we arrived here, we had to send our older son to a local kindergarten. His classroom was divided into several playing sections, and each pupil was doing what he or she wanted. Some were drawing pictures or building blocks and others were playing with personal computers.  In Japan, pupils have to do the same thing all together in class, and if a pupil cannot or will not join in, then they might be left out of the group and eventually become a target of bullying.

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