I'm thinking about trying to find work in Tokyo when I graduate from architecture school in London. I'll be too old for a working holiday visa and am wondering if anyone knows if UK architects can work in Japan and how to go about looking for work?
i have never had to try for the working visa as have been married to a japanese lady and free to work where i want, but i know lots of foreigners who work here, many not married, and mostly from europe, so it must be possible.
the thing about my friends is that they all came on research scholarships (not the only way, just that is the world i currently inhabit), made contacts and went to offices from there. cold calling i have not heard of but assume it must happen.
you might have a chance with klein dytham as they are doing work in uk as well now, but i think such positions ultimately come down to timing...nothing lost by trying.
one warning, wages here for starting out are quite low. many of the MArch students i know are working for the equivalent of 800 pounds a month, which means a bit of small living for a while at least. and depending where you work hours can be seriously dangerous to your health. but tokyo is cool to live in and there are always interesting things happening...
Yup, Mark is a powerhouse, an inspiration, and a 24-hour partier. I tried to chat him up after we both presented here at PK, but he was already toast, bless him.
Following on this thread and others, what do you make of Riken Yamamoto's new Y-GSA graduate studio at Yokohama? They offer an option for a semester working in an office. Paying to work is one thing, but, besides language, what's the skillset one would need for such a placement?
funny i just spoke to mark at party earlier this evening. and saw him at party a few weeks ago too. he sure does get around ;-)
i don't know so much about the Y-GSA program except for what i have heard from someone tangentially related to the group who are running the show. From what i understand they are trying to compete with the berlage and the famous American school with the similar anagram name. so they are certainly ambitious.
whether that means the education is actually worth the price of admission i wouldn't care to hazard a guess. i actually had thought the point of the program was to create world-class graduates who could then move on to work for OMA and siza and MVRDV...but the students themselves are facing the limitations of their language. so maybe now the deal is to attract foreign students to work in japan???
if so, then i would remind you that while the experience of working for a starchitect in japan is particularly grueling, though i imagine also potentially quite rewarding. the chief problem being of course that free staff who are also very very competent is not so hard for them to come by, so the chances of the experience leading to permanent work may be rather slim...
i am just guessing about the above, so please don't take my word for it. i do think the easiest route into japan as an architect is as a student however. if you can do it that way, then yeah, i definitely recommend it. more than the professional career thing though living in Tokyo is a kick, for sure. same as living in London or new york. whatever you do in the future the experience is certainly worth it.
wups, sorry i just reread your question and totally didn't answer the impt bit about what skillset is necessary....
again i am just guessing but language may not be such a big issue. i cannot guess about what sejima or yamamoto look for when they hire staff. i think proven record of excellence wouldn't hurt. a good introduction from someone they know is also probably quite useful (which may be the value of the Y-GSA)...on other hand if you are talking about a "hot desk" job (or maybe it is called open desk, but either way it translates to model maker for no pay) then i think the only real requirement is a relatively good brain and willingness to work for free. such positions are advertised at my university every year.
... Now that you mention it, the Dutch guy who did the New Museum with SANAA mentioned in a lecture that he'd started as a floater, and decided to stay. Also, he's about my age. I'm many years out of school, with more construction administration experience than design. I don't see how that translates to a stand-out graduate school application, unless I get funded for some bogus research project like "gin-baru: the re-surgence of retail street culture...". I'm too tired after fielding calls from the GC all day to go home and work on a competition for my portfolio, so I can compete with kids half my age. But CA is exactly what this guy was doing for Sejima, that and sourcing stamped metal from England, or rolled glass from China, flying around attending jobsite meetings...
I'd always planned to move to Japan, but tied down for years with ill spouse, bills, student loans, layoffs, replacing the washing machine, all the stuff most fresh graduates don't have to deal with. I'm re-married to a Japanese-speaker who wants to apprentice to a Kaiseki chef or develop a cafe concept there. I study intermediate conversational Japanese after work, but I'd pick it up faster living there. I lurk around Jean Snow's blog. When we do go, it will be as a team, but one of us needs a paying job to pull it off.
it is certainly possible. i don't know how it works exactly. probably for everyone it is different.
there is certainly a fair amount of questionable research being carried out under the monbukagakusho program, but their is also a lot of good stuff as well.
for me i came on holiday to japan about 16 years ago, and ended up working for a small office in rural japan. more recently i received monbukagakusho scholarship to do phd with dr. hidetoshi ohno at university of tokyo (graduated 2 months ago). there are a lot of challenges for working as foreign architect in japan. being a student is really the least stressful version. but getting here on that ticket is not easy. for me i had to get into a group of a dozen finalists for all of canada - luckily i had a good looking resume, with awards and all that junk, and so i made it through.
it isn't fair, but really the awards and so on do help when trying to get into jobs here. contacts are by far the absolute best way (an introduction from your friend to Sejima would be the best way to go if you can swing it), but failing that the recruiters for the starchitects literally have their pick of the best - and they will either take students from the top schools who will work for free or they will take scholarship students who also don't need pay.
if they have a special need for an english speaker then you might get lucky. That kind of position would probably come down to luck and timing.
As a final thought, if you want a career as a foreigner in Japan it is not likely you will ever be given a high position in a japanese office. it doesn't matter if you are fluent in the language, it just won't happen. this is a common complaint that i hear from long-timers here. unless you start own firm is maybe best to treat any time in japan as an excursion from your career rather than as extension of it...
good luck.
Nov 7, 08 6:04 pm ·
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work in japan?
I'm thinking about trying to find work in Tokyo when I graduate from architecture school in London. I'll be too old for a working holiday visa and am wondering if anyone knows if UK architects can work in Japan and how to go about looking for work?
any good contacts?
i have never had to try for the working visa as have been married to a japanese lady and free to work where i want, but i know lots of foreigners who work here, many not married, and mostly from europe, so it must be possible.
the thing about my friends is that they all came on research scholarships (not the only way, just that is the world i currently inhabit), made contacts and went to offices from there. cold calling i have not heard of but assume it must happen.
you might have a chance with klein dytham as they are doing work in uk as well now, but i think such positions ultimately come down to timing...nothing lost by trying.
one warning, wages here for starting out are quite low. many of the MArch students i know are working for the equivalent of 800 pounds a month, which means a bit of small living for a while at least. and depending where you work hours can be seriously dangerous to your health. but tokyo is cool to live in and there are always interesting things happening...
actually, after a quick ook at your website sems you have an inroad to mark and astrid. why not call them up and start from there?
sorry...LOOK at your...
jump:
Yup, Mark is a powerhouse, an inspiration, and a 24-hour partier. I tried to chat him up after we both presented here at PK, but he was already toast, bless him.
Following on this thread and others, what do you make of Riken Yamamoto's new Y-GSA graduate studio at Yokohama? They offer an option for a semester working in an office. Paying to work is one thing, but, besides language, what's the skillset one would need for such a placement?
funny i just spoke to mark at party earlier this evening. and saw him at party a few weeks ago too. he sure does get around ;-)
i don't know so much about the Y-GSA program except for what i have heard from someone tangentially related to the group who are running the show. From what i understand they are trying to compete with the berlage and the famous American school with the similar anagram name. so they are certainly ambitious.
whether that means the education is actually worth the price of admission i wouldn't care to hazard a guess. i actually had thought the point of the program was to create world-class graduates who could then move on to work for OMA and siza and MVRDV...but the students themselves are facing the limitations of their language. so maybe now the deal is to attract foreign students to work in japan???
if so, then i would remind you that while the experience of working for a starchitect in japan is particularly grueling, though i imagine also potentially quite rewarding. the chief problem being of course that free staff who are also very very competent is not so hard for them to come by, so the chances of the experience leading to permanent work may be rather slim...
i am just guessing about the above, so please don't take my word for it. i do think the easiest route into japan as an architect is as a student however. if you can do it that way, then yeah, i definitely recommend it. more than the professional career thing though living in Tokyo is a kick, for sure. same as living in London or new york. whatever you do in the future the experience is certainly worth it.
wups, sorry i just reread your question and totally didn't answer the impt bit about what skillset is necessary....
again i am just guessing but language may not be such a big issue. i cannot guess about what sejima or yamamoto look for when they hire staff. i think proven record of excellence wouldn't hurt. a good introduction from someone they know is also probably quite useful (which may be the value of the Y-GSA)...on other hand if you are talking about a "hot desk" job (or maybe it is called open desk, but either way it translates to model maker for no pay) then i think the only real requirement is a relatively good brain and willingness to work for free. such positions are advertised at my university every year.
... Now that you mention it, the Dutch guy who did the New Museum with SANAA mentioned in a lecture that he'd started as a floater, and decided to stay. Also, he's about my age. I'm many years out of school, with more construction administration experience than design. I don't see how that translates to a stand-out graduate school application, unless I get funded for some bogus research project like "gin-baru: the re-surgence of retail street culture...". I'm too tired after fielding calls from the GC all day to go home and work on a competition for my portfolio, so I can compete with kids half my age. But CA is exactly what this guy was doing for Sejima, that and sourcing stamped metal from England, or rolled glass from China, flying around attending jobsite meetings...
I'd always planned to move to Japan, but tied down for years with ill spouse, bills, student loans, layoffs, replacing the washing machine, all the stuff most fresh graduates don't have to deal with. I'm re-married to a Japanese-speaker who wants to apprentice to a Kaiseki chef or develop a cafe concept there. I study intermediate conversational Japanese after work, but I'd pick it up faster living there. I lurk around Jean Snow's blog. When we do go, it will be as a team, but one of us needs a paying job to pull it off.
ah, i see.
it is certainly possible. i don't know how it works exactly. probably for everyone it is different.
there is certainly a fair amount of questionable research being carried out under the monbukagakusho program, but their is also a lot of good stuff as well.
for me i came on holiday to japan about 16 years ago, and ended up working for a small office in rural japan. more recently i received monbukagakusho scholarship to do phd with dr. hidetoshi ohno at university of tokyo (graduated 2 months ago). there are a lot of challenges for working as foreign architect in japan. being a student is really the least stressful version. but getting here on that ticket is not easy. for me i had to get into a group of a dozen finalists for all of canada - luckily i had a good looking resume, with awards and all that junk, and so i made it through.
it isn't fair, but really the awards and so on do help when trying to get into jobs here. contacts are by far the absolute best way (an introduction from your friend to Sejima would be the best way to go if you can swing it), but failing that the recruiters for the starchitects literally have their pick of the best - and they will either take students from the top schools who will work for free or they will take scholarship students who also don't need pay.
if they have a special need for an english speaker then you might get lucky. That kind of position would probably come down to luck and timing.
As a final thought, if you want a career as a foreigner in Japan it is not likely you will ever be given a high position in a japanese office. it doesn't matter if you are fluent in the language, it just won't happen. this is a common complaint that i hear from long-timers here. unless you start own firm is maybe best to treat any time in japan as an excursion from your career rather than as extension of it...
good luck.
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