I tried many different part time jobs in Japan, and none of them lasted longer than 3 months. I had to hide some of them on my resume in order to get a new job. The main reason why I resigned was not the work itself, but because I didn’t fell respected.
I remember back in the day when I was working at a Japanese company in Shanghai doing office work. Although the attitude of my superiors was harsh, everyone respected me and I was happy to work there. Even a famous American company gave me an offer. Now, some Japanese people are just treating me like random foreign trash.
My last job was helping tourists, though some superiors made me clean toilets, not to mention that all my shifts lasted until midnight. I didn’t think these things were a big deal. However, one of superiors said to me, “Even if you can speak multiple languages you’re still useless, I can do everything you can.” This was said to me not once, but twice. I quit that job immediately and told everything to the manager.
I set a rule for my job hunting:”No Chinese and less foreign colleagues”. Here is my theory. If I was the only foreigner on the team, it would be difficult for Japanese to keep me out of their group because one man can’t form a group. Since I have a Japanese name and I can speak comparably fluent Japanese, they may threat me “normally” like other Japanese people.
Fortunately, I found one job that exactly matched my needs. It’s working as a waiter at a cafe near a famous big book store. I couldn’t believe that there are still shops which din’t have foreign workers in downtown Tokyo. Everyone looks nice and the work itself doesn’t seem hard. At least I don’t have to work at midnight. However, I realized something weird.
First, I was almost forced to attend a tea party after work, having talks with each other. To be honest, I was scared by this at first. After it being implied I could lose my job, I attended it once and found it was not as difficult as I thought. Then, some colleagues don’t leave when their shifts are over. They’ll stay in the kitchen and chat with others. They even help out sometimes without being paid. I can’t figure out why the heck they would do that and I am worrying if I should do the same in the future.
Well, maybe that is exactly what a traditional Japanese work place looks like. I’m not sure. I thought I knew Japanese culture, but now I am starting to doubt it. Maybe I should feel happy becuase they treat me fairly and let (or force) me to be one of them. Besides that, the work is literally OK.
The more important thing is that everyone respects me. In fact, people don’t talk to me much. Due to attending the best university in Japan, every time I say my school’s name it sounds like showing off. Trust me, I don’t want to and I don’t have to show off. Being able to speak English makes things even worse because other Japanese can’t speak English even if they attend a good university. What’s more, they seem to fear speaking with foreign customers, so most of the time they make me deal with them.
In conclusion, I don’t want to lose this job which is already good enough. The tea party part and the odd work relationships concern me a lot. I hope it won’t cost me too much. After all, the main purpose for why I’m doing a part time job is for money.