# Urgent -Indian Relocating to Japan (salary Queries)



## naadanparinda1

Hello,

I want to know if a Japanese company is hiring a candidate for the post of Marketing manager ( with 7+ years experience) in Yokohama , what would be the average salary ? The minimu job duration they said will be for 12 months and can be extended upto 3 years

Company A (japan) is a client of Company B(India). The hiring is happening through the Indian counterparts. I have been told by Company B that they will decide the salary and send it to japan for their approval.

My question is:

1. Will the salary be in Indian currency or JPY ?

2. The Compnay B asked me for my salary expectations, I said 40% hike in my current India salary , which comes around INR 1,00,000 a month roughly 1,50,000 JPY . I now this salary (per month) in Japan is very low. So now the question is, when the Company B offers the salary, how much should I expect -the minimum benchmark to survive- keeping in mind I will be staying alone in Japan with a good lifestyle

3. How much time it will take to get the COE? What re the documents that I need to submit to the Company B? 

4. I have lost the work experience certificate from my first job, which I started in 2005, will this be absolutely required?

5. The salary will be paid by Indian or Japanese company?

6. How easy it is to get the Work visa 

Thanks

Naadan


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## larabell

Your salary, including what currency it's paid in and where, are things you should be negotiating with your prospective employer -- nobody here can predict the answers to those questions.

You're right that 150,000 JPY per month is fairly low. You'll spend over half that just on housing. You didn't mention whether housing is paid by your employer. That makes a huge difference, of course. Since you'll be applying for a working visa, your employer can't pay you significantly less than they would pay a Japanese in the same position. That could work in your favor.

Once you've signed a deal with the Japanese company, the visa should be no problem. See if you can get the company to handle the paperwork. If not, the requirements for a COE can be found on the Immigration Bureau's web site. If you have a degree of some sort, you probably won't need to show past experience but if you don't have a degree, you need to be able to show "equivalent experience". The annoying thing about the Japanese visa procedure is that there are very few rules about what you do or do not need. You need to convince the examiner that your experience equals a college degree. On a good day, a resume (CV) might be enough. Having a signed deal with a Japanese company certainly helps in that respect -- which is another reason to try to get the company to handle the visa paperwork.


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## naadanparinda1

Thanks a lot for the help. The accommodation was provided to the employees who went earlier , so I believe they will provide it. Regarding the degree, I have a Master degree in Management from Europe with 7 years of work experience- in India as wella s in Germany (combined). I believe the COE will become easier in this case.

How much should I expect from the company in terms of Salary keeping in mind my exp and education . Also, I have heard that for the first year the tax is exempted. Is it true?


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## helloworld232

may I ask you more details on how u manage to find a sponsorship company? as I've been trying to do this myself here in Canada with no luck.


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## larabell

helloworld232 said:


> may I ask you more details on how u manage to find a sponsorship company?


According to the original post, the Japanese company is a client of the poster's current employer and they apparently have a history of sending people over to work in Japan. That's the route I suggest. Find a company in Canada that either has an office in Japan or a distributor/client. Establish a track record with the company and then make it known to management that you'd like to work in Japan. If you pick a company with a relatively sophisticated product (ie: software or certain kinds of industrial machinery, for example), where the Japan office needs frequent help from the factory, there's a decent chance you might be able to come over as a "factory expert". But you first have to become an expert in something the Japanese need.

Trying to find a company that will sponsor you sight-unseen is a real uphill battle and almost impossible if the "skill" you offer is one that the company can easily find in a Japanese employee. There's additional cost and risk on the company's part when hiring a non-Japanese employee so you have to be prepared to offer something that makes the cost and the risk worthwhile.


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## helloworld232

larabell said:


> According to the original post, the Japanese company is a client of the poster's current employer and they apparently have a history of sending people over to work in Japan. That's the route I suggest. Find a company in Canada that either has an office in Japan or a distributor/client. Establish a track record with the company and then make it known to management that you'd like to work in Japan. If you pick a company with a relatively sophisticated product (ie: software or certain kinds of industrial machinery, for example), where the Japan office needs frequent help from the factory, there's a decent chance you might be able to come over as a "factory expert". But you first have to become an expert in something the Japanese need.
> 
> Trying to find a company that will sponsor you sight-unseen is a real uphill battle and almost impossible if the "skill" you offer is one that the company can easily find in a Japanese employee. There's additional cost and risk on the company's part when hiring a non-Japanese employee so you have to be prepared to offer something that makes the cost and the risk worthwhile.


thanks for the reply; so it basically I need to have some special skill set that the company cannot find from its local citizens (even with an internal company transfer.) But this raised another question. ( hope i dont come off too negative) . As the OP have a master in Management with 7 years experience which I don't think is is too unique to the J immigration ? and with salary with YEN$150,000 I doubt this a highly specialized position.. so how did the OP manage to get a sponsorship for this role...am I missing something here?


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## larabell

helloworld232 said:


> As the OP have a master in Management with 7 years experience which I don't think is is too unique to the J immigration ? and with salary with YEN$150,000 I doubt this a highly specialized position..


You may be getting a couple of things mixed up. Immigration doesn't care whether someone has unique skills, just that they have some skill (or at least some training or experience). They also care that the sponsoring company isn't just bringing in foreign workers because they're cheaper than Japanese workers. It's the sponsoring company who is going to require some unique skill. It costs time and money to jump through all the hoops of visa sponsorship and few companies are willing to do that when they already have a pile of resumes from equally qualified local workers.

In the OP's case, as I pointed out already, the sponsoring company is a client of his current employer. It's quite likely he has specialized knowledge regarding the product or service his current employer was providing -- something they couldn't get just by hiring some duff off the street. He will also have a personal connection to his former company which could be an advantage if the Japanese company has to deal with his former employer on a regular basis. Except for language teachers and those on spousal visas, I'd be willing to bet that's why most ex-pats are in Japan -- to serve as liason between their Japanese sponsors and a foreign company to which they're somehow connected. That's why I suggest you start your search in Canada -- to establish that all-important relationship that some Japanese company will find valuable.

If you establish a (presumably good) reputation with a company in Canada which happens to have an office in Japan, there's a chance you might be able to get them to send you over -- special skills or not. If you start your search by looking specifically at companies in Japan, you're going to need to give them some reason to choose you over a local employee. That's just a matter of competition. You don't run into problems with Immigration unless you're completely unskilled or you're working for substantially less money than a local worker would get for the same job.

BTW, 150,000 yen is not a whole lot of money. It's about $1500 USD these days. That may be low enough to raise some eyebrows at Immgration but, if you read the thread carefully, that figure was just a guess.


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## naadanparinda1

Hello everyone,

Thanks for your replies. I have few more questions, the total relevant work experience is 5 years, I believe there are some confusions so I am stating everything clearly, please guide.

I will be having a telephonic interview with the client in the last week of Sep 2013. Before I proceed with the questions, I would share my profile
Profile:
Bachelors of Engineering: 4 yrs degree (full time)
Master of Tech Management : 18 months degree (full time)
Work exp: 5 years – have worked in Europe and did my masters from Germany
Current Industry: Advertising – Digital Marketing
Current status:
I am working into Digital advertising in India with one of the largest advertising agencies in India. I got a call from a Company in India (Company A) in India that their client in Japan (Company B) wants to hire the professionals who can work in Japan office. I have cleared 2 rounds with Company A , they were telephonic interview which lasted 90 minutes – a very detailed interview completing all the aspects of my job profile. The Japanese company (company B) is a client of Company A which will finally do the hiring
I have got a call form Company A that as I have cleared all the rounds, there will be a final round with the Japan client, it is supposed to happen after 23rd Sep 2013. Now my questions:
1.	What kind of questions can I expect from the Japanese client during the telephonic interview?
2.	Based on my profile and exp- what kind of salary can I expect – if thy ask me my expectations
3.	I have done 3 jobs in India and 1 job in Germany- regarding the work experience certificate, I do not the certificate from my first job , I only have a relieving certificate which says that they have accepted my resignation and everything is cleared at my end. So is this certificate absolutely needed?
4.	I have read somewhere that EITHER a Bachelor’s degree (normally 4 years ) from an accredited university or relevant work experience is needed (3- 10 years). I think as I have Master and Bachelor degree that too from Germany and India respectively , both from known and accredited universities, I will have no issues
5.	Regarding the German job, the company shut down its operations in 2009, in case if I submit the work experience certificate, what would be the verification procedure? Say if they call on the number on email, they will not get response. Will this affect or do I have to mention it somewhere
6.	What kind of documents do I need to submit to prospective employer for COE processing 
7.	How should I prepare for my Japanese interview- any specifics


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## larabell

As far as how to prepare for your interview and what sorts of questions you might be asked, I doubt anyone here can answer that. There are plenty of resources online that deal with preparation for an interview and there's no reason to expect someone else to do your research for you. If it helps, one of the most common suggestions I've read is to know something about the company -- which I suspect you already do since they've been a client of yours.

As for salary... unless there's someone on the forum who happens to work in Marketing, you're not going to get an answer to that, either. There are plenty of salary surveys online so with a bit of research you should be able to come up with a ballpark number. 150,000 JPY per month (about $18K USD annually) is way too low, in my opinion. You can make that working at McDonalds. If you want someone to pull a random number out of the air, ask for $50K USD. But that number has no relation to reality and if they really did suggest that low-ball figure, you might end up pricing yourself out of a job. Do you know anyone at the client company who does more-or-less what you do? If so, ask them.

Whatever proof your client requires to prove your experience is between you and them. Unless someone on the forum works for that company, I doubt you'll get an answer to that question, either. As for the company that shut down, if your client asks for references, I'd be up-front and tell them that they're not going to get a response from that company because it no longer exists. They're not stupid... they know that companies can disappear. But you might be asked to supply other references -- from companies that still exist. Again, that up to them. Nobody here can tell you what they're going to ask for.

Immigration doesn't care about your experience unless you're using it in lieu of a college degree. I doubt they'll ask you for anything other than a copy of your degree (and they might not even ask for that -- it depends on the situation). If your Japanese client submits the COE application, your resume might be enough (by the way, I believe I answered that question already in a previous post).

The Immigration Bureau's website has lists of the documentation requirements for a visa application. It depends on the visa for which you're applying. Check out the web site and if you have specific questions, post them here. But at least show us that you're willing to do some of the research yourself.


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