Working in Asia

Hey all,

I wanted to see if there are any experience with work visas for Europeans in Asia, specifically Japan and Korea that you guys like to share?
Just trying to get a sense of the difficulty for designers to live and work in the far east.

Thanks!

Hey Beptser, quite interesting topic! What about Taiwan? I’ve heard good things about the country, they have good design schools and companies doing good design there. I’m also interested on this :slight_smile:

Japan is an awesome place to live / work, but is very different from the West.
I’m from there; I haven’t really worked professionally there aside from a 6 month internship at an architectural design consultancy in Shinjuku. I would say that the work environment is a lot more strict than the US, more emphasis on company society, more greater of a hierarchical structure. Tradition and society is strong (we’re talking about a society that’s 2000+ years old), and design and art has its own unique history. People are polite and respectful for the most part and very low crime rate. If you’re single and adventurous, Tokyo is a fantastic metropolis to work at. Tons and tons of museums, events, etc.


As for visa, I don’t really know. I think it’s similar to the US, fairly strict and you need a sponsor. You should check out the Japan subreddit, there are bunch of experience stories on there.