<h3><span class="strongInContent">Australia &#8220;issued a record number of work holiday visas&#8221;; UK &#8220;quadrupled&#8221; its quota for accepting Japanese.</span></h3>
<p> Luxembourg 407,092 yen, Australia 369,002 yen, Netherlands 346,575 yen, UK 343,809 yen, New Zealand 327,037 yen. &#8230;&#8230;</p>
<p> These are the &#8220;monthly incomes&#8221; (as of September 10, &#8217;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 &#8220;2024 Working Holiday Minimum Wage Monthly Income Survey by Country.</p>
<p> 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.</p>
<figure id="attachment_400772" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-400772" style="width: 4583px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="7f242f4d"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/11/9fcb40344fb8b8e96202b12a299851c0.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-400772" class="wp-caption-text"> Luxembourg, which began accepting working holiday visitors to Japan this year, is a small country about the same size as Saga Prefecture, but its average annual income is about twice that of Japan!　It boasts a high economic power centered on the financial industry.</figcaption></figure>
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<p> The &#8220;monthly income&#8221; 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 &#8220;monthly income&#8221; was calculated by multiplying the minimum wage of each country by the stipulated working hours and ranking the countries.</p>
<p> In Japan, the minimum wage (hourly wage) is 1,054 yen, so a full-time worker (8 hours x 20 days) would have a &#8220;monthly income&#8221; 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.</p>
<p> 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.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> 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,&#8221; said Hidemoto Ota.</span></p>
<p> Is Luxembourg, which was found to have the highest monthly income in the Schoolwize survey, also attracting attention as a work-holiday destination?</p>
<figure id="attachment_400773" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-400773" style="width: 1058px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="95377cc0"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/11/51494b66b20eaec11fe501f5bdf797f4-1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-400773" class="wp-caption-text"> The highest monthly income was 407,092 yen in Luxembourg, about 2.4 times that of Japan! (Source: Schoolwith survey; monthly income figures are based on the exchange rate as of September 10, 2012; price scores are from the Global Peace Index, NUMBEO, and Sekaihab)</figcaption></figure>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> 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.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The most popular countries are still English-speaking countries such as Australia, Canada, the UK, and New Zealand.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> 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.</span></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Influenced by YouTubers and influencers..."></div>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent">Japanese rush to &#8220;farm and dishwashing&#8221; jobs where they don&#8217;t have to speak English &#8230;&#8230;</span></h3>
<p> Mr. Ota himself experienced studying abroad. His motivation was this.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> It all started when I met Mr. Yoshinori Yokoyama, former head of the Tokyo office of McKinsey &amp; 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, &#8220;You have misunderstood the meaning of the word &#8216;global.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I didn&#8217;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.</span></p>
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<p> Do you think there are many working people studying abroad in Japan?</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I think it is about 30% of the total. Incidentally, about half of our company&#8217;s students are working adults who quit their jobs in their mid to late 20s and study abroad under the work-holiday system.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> 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.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> 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.</span></p>
<p> They go abroad on a &#8220;spur-of-the-moment&#8221; basis under the work-holiday system, with no purpose and no future prospects. It is hard to imagine that their stay will be meaningful. &#8230;&#8230;</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> 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.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> 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,&#8221; he says.</span></p>
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<p> The media has often reported on the harsh conditions faced by Japanese who travel to Australia for work-holiday purposes.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> 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.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> 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&#8217;t speak much English. However, with the popularity of the &#8220;work-holiday&#8221; program, young Japanese are flooding farms and restaurants <b><wbr></wbr>, making it difficult for them to find work. If you are not good at English, you are at a disadvantage, and there seem to be a certain number of people who struggle.</b></span></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Successful&quot; and &quot;unsuccessful&quot; people in the working holiday"></div>
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<p>However, some people may give up and return to their home country after less than a year.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> 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.</span></p>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent"> Successful&#8221; people on a work-holiday</span></h3>
<p> Of course, there are successful workaholics, too.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> 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.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> 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.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> 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.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> 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.</span></p>
<p> Lastly, Mr. Ota&#8217;s &#8220;recommended countries to visit on a working holiday.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In Australia, a special &#8220;pandemic visa&#8221; 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.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> 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.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In terms of expectations for a challenge, I would recommend Luxembourg.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> If you are interested in a working holiday after improving your English skills, I would like you to consult with us.&#8221;</span></p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent">Hidetoshi Ota</span> was born in Miyagi Prefecture in 1985. While in college, he started Oceanize Inc. with his friends. He was involved in the &#8220;Tadakopi&#8221; 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 &#8220;We Still Don&#8217;t Know a Millimeter of the World&#8221; (Gentosha Bunko) and &#8220;Philippines &#8216;Super&#8217; Cheap English Study Abroad&#8221; (Toyo Keizai Shinposha).</p>
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<p><a href="https://schoolwith.me/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Click here for the <span class="strongInContent">Schoolwith website</span>.</a></p>
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 Sayuri Saito

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 Luxembourg 407,092 yen, Australia 369,002 yen.... These are the "monthly incomes" of countries where Japanese people can take a working holiday. We hear and see a lot of talk about working holiday programs these days, but what is the reality?

Luxembourg is 410,000 yen per month!　Japanese are rushing to find jobs on farms and as dishwashers&#8230; The harsh reality of the popular &#8220;work-holiday&#8221; due to the weak yen.

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.

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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.

Access Ranking

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.