80% of people from abroad who work in Japanese companies drop out

I’ve been a working adult in Japan for around a total of seven and a half years. It’s not a particularly long time, and I know I have a long way to go, but during this time, around 80% of my friends from abroad dropped out. Probably around 60, 70% of those people hadn’t properly finished their Japanese studies. Generally speaking, in Japanese society, not being able to speak the language ends up handicapping career growth. So many of my friends had to experience having this handicap, and dealt with things such as having slower promotions than others around them. The other challenge was work hours. In Japanese salaryman culture, many workers have to stay at their companies for long hours, and many people from abroad are unable to keep up with this.

I have one example of someone who succeeded, although I don’t know if it can be considered a good example. I have a friend from abroad who’s one year my senior. He’s an extremely hard worker, and can’t speak Japanese. Understanding that, he was primarily assigned projects that could be done in English, and using his skills there, he was able to advance his career at a pace comparable to the Japanese people around him. It wasn’t that he was particularly fast, just equal to those around him. That’s the important part.