Looking for Insights from Japanese Locals

[Marconius]

Hey Whatsup!

You can call me Marco, I'm a Thai living in the Netherlands doing my studies. For a while, I have been fascinated by the philosophy of Ikigai and reading up on it.

The idea of purpose, and finding what we truly love to do through healthy routines and mindset was a fresh insight. After graduating high school, I assume many struggle to find what they enjoy doing for their studies and profession. Many make choices that aren't what they initially thought they would be, spending a lot of time and money. In Japan, I heard there's a tough hiring culture, and general working culture after graduating high school with seasonal hiring Shushoku Katsudo and other traditions such as Shushin Koyo and Shanai Shoshin. I'd love to hear all perspectives and experiences from your graduation -> job-hunting journey (ups/downs) in Japan (if you're comfortable sharing).

I'm new to this forum, I hope this message belongs in the right place and the context is acceptable.

 

[nice gaijin]

Welcome aboard, @Marconius
I hope you can get some insight, we have a handful of native Japanese users, but a majority of us are either expats or foreigners with interests in Japan. I've personally avoided "shu-katsu" and regular Japanese working environments because I don't think Japanese companies do work-life balance all that well. It's kind of ironic to me that a concept of ikigai even comes from a place where companies notoriously demand the highest priority in their workers' lives, and death by overwork is frequent enough to have its own word: 過労死.

Coincidentally, we just got a couple of books on the subject of Ikigai. I can't find one but the other is this one:

https://a.co/d/bVCC6hk

 

[Lothor]

Welcome, Marconius!

I do some work for both a Dutch company and a Japanese company (though from home). I agree with nice gaijin's comments on life at Japanese companies, though the larger, more international companies appear to be a lot better.