Modern Japan

Friday, November 25, 2005

Japanese Universities

Recently on Asahi Newspaper, I read an article regarding companies in Japan are hiring Japanese who graduated from American universities rather than Japanese universities.

Here is the link if anyone is interested:
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200511240149.html

I've been saying this all along, Japanese universities is a joke. It seems like companies in Japan began to realize whenever they hire a new graduates coming from a Japanese universities, they wind up being extremely useless with the skills they have in the working world. The other problems with Japanese corporate culture is, once you are hired, it's almost impossible to get fired because they have this lifetime employment policies.

The most recent company I worked for was a Japanese style company and I was so surprised that I was surrounded by useless idiots. They make me look like a genius, and I am not. Most of these colleagues that I worked with graduated from a typical Japanese university and they do this, "Shushoku-Katsudo" and once they are in, they sit around and do nothing. I can see why so many Japanese companies are being forced to restructure, because most of the employees are getting paid for doing nothing. One night I had dinner with these group of people and most admit that they did nothing but partying when they were college student. One female employee didn't like my Japan bashing, and took my remarks personally. I hate to say it, but it's true. Japanese universities are completely useless. I exchanged at 2 Japanese universities which is supposed to be considered as one of the elite universities. Other than learning the Japanese language, I didn't learn a damn thing. All I had to do was put a half-ass effort and I'd be in the dean's list. When I was at USC, I had to study like crazy just to pass the class.

Here is what I remember during my experience at Japanese universities. I remember there was a lot of drinking, watching pornos in the dorms, chasing women, and playing majan. I don't know how many corporations would consider that educational. At a Japanese university, it's like taking a 4-5 year summer vacation.

Back then, once you find a job at a large corporation, you are set for life because of the lifetime employment policy. Now that Japan is no longer a bubble economy, Japanese corporation are being forced to restructure such as Sony, Nissan, and Fujitsu. When these guys lose their jobs, they have difficult time finding a decent job because their skills are completely useless.

At my current company, I am making every single penny. They are making me work in odd hours, but this is reality. You don't hear many companies where you can take 3 hour cigarette breaks.

Anyway, I can go on and on. Enjoy reading the article.