Luxembourg is 410,000 yen per month! Japanese are rushing to find jobs on farms and as dishwashers… The harsh reality of the popular “work-holiday” due to the weak yen.
Australia “issued a record number of work holiday visas”; UK “quadrupled” its quota for accepting Japanese.
Luxembourg 407,092 yen, Australia 369,002 yen, Netherlands 346,575 yen, UK 343,809 yen, New Zealand 327,037 yen. ……
These are the “monthly incomes” (as of September 10, ’24) of the top five countries where working holidays are available for Japanese nationals. In October, Schoolwith, a study abroad agent in Tokyo, revealed this information in its “2024 Working Holiday Minimum Wage Monthly Income Survey by Country.
Working holiday (working holiday) is a system that allows people between the ages of 18 and 30 to work during their stay abroad for vacation or study. Starting with Australia in 1980, Japan has introduced this system with 30 countries and regions (as of June 2012), including New Zealand and Canada.
The “monthly income” mentioned at the beginning of this report is based on a survey conducted by Schoolwize in 25 of the 30 countries that have minimum wages in place for workaholism. The “monthly income” was calculated by multiplying the minimum wage of each country by the stipulated working hours and ranking the countries.
In Japan, the minimum wage (hourly wage) is 1,054 yen, so a full-time worker (8 hours x 20 days) would have a “monthly income” of 168,640 yen. Luxembourg, the most expensive country, is a whopping 2.4 times that of Japan. I am sure that some of the younger generation will be unintentionally moved by this.
We see and hear a lot of talk about work-holiday programs these days, but what are they really like? We interviewed Mr. Hidemoto Ota, the representative of School with us.
We are a study abroad agency and do not offer local jobs, but because the yen has been weakening and the cost of studying abroad has been increasing, more and more people want to combine a language study abroad program with a working holiday. While overseas travel is at 60-70% of its pre-COVID-19 crisis level, study abroad has recovered to around 90%, and will probably return to 100 percent next year,” said Hidemoto Ota.
Is Luxembourg, which was found to have the highest monthly income in the Schoolwize survey, also attracting attention as a work-holiday destination?
Luxembourg only began accepting working holiday visitors to Japan in June of this year. In response to the results of this survey, we tried to find people who are on working holiday in Luxembourg, but unfortunately we have not been able to find any at this time.
The most popular countries are still English-speaking countries such as Australia, Canada, the UK, and New Zealand.
In fact, Australia has issued the largest number of working holiday visas to Japanese ever. Canada has a quota of 6,500 working holiday visas for Japanese nationals, but this year the quota has already been reached. The United Kingdom has quadrupled its quota for accepting Japanese nationals to 6,000 this year.
Japanese rush to “farm and dishwashing” jobs where they don’t have to speak English ……
Mr. Ota himself experienced studying abroad. His motivation was this.
It all started when I met Mr. Yoshinori Yokoyama, former head of the Tokyo office of McKinsey & Company. I happened to have a chance to talk with him when I was a university student and thought I was invincible. He beat me to a pulp saying, “You have misunderstood the meaning of the word ‘global.
I didn’t speak English at the time, and I only had one foreign friend. I realized for the first time that I knew too little about the world, and I decided to see what the world was like. Two years later, in 2010, I quit my job and went to the Philippines to study English for three months.
Do you think there are many working people studying abroad in Japan?
I think it is about 30% of the total. Incidentally, about half of our company’s students are working adults who quit their jobs in their mid to late 20s and study abroad under the work-holiday system.
The purposes of study abroad for working adults include improving their English skills for career advancement and experiencing a different culture and life overseas. Some people want to earn money abroad, but in that case, they are probably thinking mainly of a workaholic program rather than studying abroad.
However, the most common type of person may be those who just want to live abroad for a year or so in their long life.
They go abroad on a “spur-of-the-moment” basis under the work-holiday system, with no purpose and no future prospects. It is hard to imagine that their stay will be meaningful. ……
If you are going to study abroad, you need to improve your English language skills accordingly, or else you will wonder what your one year abroad was all about. If you are planning to work in a foreign country, we advise you on how to study abroad effectively in order to acquire the English skills necessary to work.
This is because if you do not speak some English, you will be very limited in the jobs you can get on your working holiday,” he says.
The media has often reported on the harsh conditions faced by Japanese who travel to Australia for work-holiday purposes.
There were news reports of young Japanese on work-holiday waiting in line at a soup kitchen in Australia. The majority of Japanese who are unable to find work as workaholics are those who went to Australia with little or no English skills, and I think YouTubers and influencers telling them that they are earning money is having a small impact.
In addition, since last year, there has been a fierce competition to find work in Australia. For example, people can work on farms, in factories, and as dishwashers in restaurants, even if they don’t speak much English. However, with the popularity of the “work-holiday” program, young Japanese are flooding farms and restaurants
However, some people may give up and return to their home country after less than a year.
Even if you travel to Australia with 1 million yen as a war chest, you will run out of money in about three months because of the high cost of living. If they cannot find a job during that time, they will have no choice but to return home. It is said in the industry that 20 to 30% of the total number of such people are in this category.
Successful” people on a work-holiday
Of course, there are successful workaholics, too.
For example, there are people who start working in Australia under the work-holiday program, extend their work-holiday visa to three years with the support of a local company, and continue working.
Or, there are a certain number of people who acquire English language skills and then use their non-language skills, such as programming and design, to advance their careers. I think there are many success stories of people with skills such as sushi chefs, baristas, beauticians, and manicurists.
I guess it depends on what you consider success, but if you can advance your career based on the experience of working abroad for one or two years and your improved English skills, I think you can call it a success.
The working holiday itself is a wonderful program, and I hope that more and more Japanese people will make wise use of it and go out into the world.
Lastly, Mr. Ota’s “recommended countries to visit on a working holiday.
In Australia, a special “pandemic visa” was issued to foreigners who could not return to their home countries during the Corona, but it seems that many of those visas will expire this year. It is said that the departure of foreign workers may alleviate some of the difficulty in finding work. Although we need to wait and see a little more, Australia would still be an essential country of choice.
The UK has increased the number of people it accepts this year, so you may want to look into what kind of work Japanese people can do there and consider it.
In terms of expectations for a challenge, I would recommend Luxembourg.
If you are interested in a working holiday after improving your English skills, I would like you to consult with us.”
Hidetoshi Ota was born in Miyagi Prefecture in 1985. While in college, he started Oceanize Inc. with his friends. He was involved in the “Tadakopi” advertising business. After working for 5 years, he quit his job and went to the Philippines to study English for 3 months. After that, he traveled around the world for about 2 years, visiting 50 countries. In 2001, he founded Schoolwith and became its president. He is the author of several books, including “We Still Don’t Know a Millimeter of the World” (Gentosha Bunko) and “Philippines ‘Super’ Cheap English Study Abroad” (Toyo Keizai Shinposha).
Interview and text by： Sayuri Saito PHOTO： Afro
