Car virtual girlfriend iOS app

This is an interesting iOS application currently developing in Tokyo, Japan.

It is known as 助手席カノジョ (Virtual girlfriend)




It collects CAN data from car using a OBDII connector and the data will be sent to the cloud. CAN (Controller Area Network) data provides car information such as speed, steering angle, engine RPM and etc.

The virtual passenger girlfriend will react based on the CAN data. If the driver drives very fast, the virtual passenger will scream to alert the driver to slow down!

Small vs Big company!

I am currently working in a middle sized company which has >20 employees in Tokyo and half of my engineering department are "gaijins"!

So, what is a small company in Japan? those with <10 employees and those big company are >1000 employees! There are many MNCs (multi national company) in Japan such as Sony, Panasonics, Toyota and etc, they hired hundreds of thousands employees!

This is how company size is categorised purely based on the number of employees the company hired!

But, the most crucial point is most of the MNCs in Japan has way better working welfares compare to small company! Employee usually received better medical welfare, various allowances such as subsidized computer purchase (Rakuten), free meal (GREE), language training and Japanese culture adaptation (Toshiba), discounted rental (usually 60% cheaper than normal price - Asahi Glass) and the most important of all! the bonus! usually Japanese company will pay bonus twice a year - winter and summer bonus! for big company, their employee could get up to 5 months of bonus a year(Asahi Glass)!!! that hell lot of money!

However, there is a surprising fact that both actually pay almost the same starting salary for their staff! in fact smaller company pays slightly higher compare to the big company! the range of starting pay for engineer is > 210,000 yen!

Getting a Job!

If you looking for a job in Japan, you can try to be a English teacher!

Teaching English is one of the most popular job for foreigners in Japan. I have many friends from the Western countries work as a English teacher in primary school or language school! English teacher is the easiest way for you to come into Japan. If the language school is interested at you, they will sponsor your visa to allow you to stay in Japan for few years! and most of the language school do not require you to have Japanese! 

You can check the list of English school below:

http://www.eslbase.com/schools/japan

Nova is one of the biggest language school in Tokyo, they have advertisement in every train cabin! 

The average salary for English teacher is from 220,000 to 250,000 yen. It depends on which level you are teaching. If you are teaching the older students, you will get more! In addition, you can give private lessons and you can earn more! An average you can charge is 2000 yen per hour!

Is that salary enough for you to survive in Japan??? What is the working culture in Japan??? Stay tune! I will tell you more on my next update! :)

I am a mechanical engineer graduate specializing in mechatronics. I am currently working as a robotics engineer in Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo. To my surprise, Japanese companies are eagerly hiring foreigners! I always thought that Japanese is very closed corporate culture! But, now they are trying to shed off this image. The government is relaxing the rules, making the immigration process much easier and convenient for gaijin!

My company is the only commercial robotics company in Japan, you can google it and I am sure you can find it easily! The good news is my company is actively hiring foreign engineers! 

Furthermore, there are few job portals that you can look out for. If you are fresh graduate, you can try the link below:

http://www.topcareer.jp/inter/

or you can try the link below, but this is mostly language career
http://www.gaijinpot.com/

Starting engineering career in Japan don't pay well, the average salary is from 190,000 yen to 230,000 yen per month before tax. Besides, the net take home pay is about 80% of your base salary! But, Japanese company is known for their good bonus! If you are working in big company you can get about 5 months bonus per year! and bonus is paid twice a year! I will address those in the future post, stay tuned! :D

and again most of the starting career in Japan does not require you to know Japanese. This is my biggest surprise to me! So, do not let language as barrier for you to come here! Try to apply and woola you might land a job here! However, I strongly advised you to learn Japanese beforehand because most of the Japanese are really bad in English!, they usually cant speak but they are able to listen to you!