A former Japanese resident writes about the issue of stagnant wages in Japan
I work in the civil engineering industry. I graduated from a Japanese technical high school (architecture) and university (civil engineering), dropped out of graduate school (infrastructure engineering), got a job at a general contractor in Boston, worked as a field engineer for large-scale construction projects, worked as an environmental design consultant in Hawaii, and then worked for a highly specialized contractor in Boston. I am a mother who returned to full-time work at that same specialized contractor after a 14-year break to raise my children with disabilities. By the way, I regained my engineering skills within two weeks of returning. I learned analysis software, BIM, and Dynamo in two seconds. Or rather, I should say they were easier and more convenient than they used to be.
In addition to 14 years of child-rearing, I also started a business. If I had kept working at the same company, I probably wouldn't have developed... well, let's see...
Mental strength. Courage. The knowledge to navigate complex social procedures.
My English reading comprehension and communication skills have improved, so I can read specifications and call people out twice as fast as I could when I was young.
In other words, those 14 years were not a "blank" period.
First of all, this is the first reason for the problem of low wages in Japan.
You should hire middle-aged women like me. Lol
To those who oppose this and say things like women are stealing jobs from men, I have this to say.
Are you scared? Lol
That is called discrimination. Racism and xenophobia are the same thing.
I dared to use the term "middle-aged woman" (obachan), but for me, being a "middle-aged woman" is a status. You need this kind of mentality.
Now, for the next point: the issue known as Japan's multi-layered subcontracting structure.
The differences between Japan and the US are:
1) The client uses construction management. (General contractors specialize in construction. They can't just do whatever they want.)
2) Being a subcontractor doesn't mean you have to suck up to those above you. New entrants are also aggressively entering the market.
3) Unions are strong. Well-trained workers earn 2-3 times more than in Japan with full benefits. (Depending on the state)
4) Competition is transparent. It is extremely strict.
5) Prices are determined by technical skill. There is no concept of cutting labor costs or forcing subcontractors to do the impossible. Actually, this is my job.
Oh. There were huge differences. Lol
What's strange about that is, while construction costs are of course high in the US, they are also quite high in Japan.
Even though wages are low.
Some might argue that "Japanese buildings are high quality and have high earthquake resistance," but I don't think that's the case.
The scale of construction in America is incredible, isn't it?
The scale of disasters, not limited to earthquakes, is also huge. Even in areas with few earthquakes, the ground can be too hard to dig, and environmental regulations are extremely strict. At the very least, the civil engineering industry is half like an engineering corps. There is no such thing as shoddy construction.
You can tell just by looking at ordinary houses; in the Northeast, basements are the default, and they are gorgeous compared to the average Japanese house.
In other words... I think it's a problem of the differences I wrote about above.
Come to think of it, I took a construction management class in graduate school to internationalize Japan's construction system, but I wonder what happened to that...