Anna Matsushita

 New COVID variant is now spreading across Japan. I almost lost track of how many waves passed by, but the media reports that this is the 7 th wave here. The number of positive cases doubled over the past two weeks. Tokyo now sees more than 30,000 patients.   Despite this depressing news, I saw few positive changes.   My former employer, a travel company selling tours from Japan to Europe and Middle East, has brunch offices across Europe. These offices are now hiring some specialists who has experience working for group tours from Japan. It seems that European offices are ready to prepare for incoming tours from Asia.   The company used to handle tours from Asian countries to Europe and Middle East. With COVID-19, I heard that the offices in Japan is half closed, some comes to office for quotation and few tour operations. The employees there have been given temporary jobs at various institutions and organizations. I was relieved to hear that my former co...

The state of emergency was declared at many authorities in Japan from early .July to the end of September 2021. The number of Covid-19 positive case was high, and it persisted nearly 2 month and half. During this period, I was looking for a job. I briefly worked at a call centre in Tokyo, but I left there due to my lack of high-quality voice, as well as professional speech needed at call centre. Job market was quite fast during the spring of 2021. To be on safe side, I looked for permanent job, or temporary to permanent job, since I will be turning 50 years old soon, and I needed a stable position. While browsing on job agent’s websites and platforms, I came across many temporary position open for young people newly graduated from schools and colleges. It reminded me of recent concern for the job market for young generation in Japan. As far as media reports said, many young college or university graduates in Japan were reportedly struggling to find permanent job. Many can’t get c...

Since I left a travel company last year, a call centre in Tokyo gave me an opportunity to work. However, jobs at call centre did not agree with me. I discussed with my manager, and we both agreed that I should go and look for another opportunity. I left there in mid August. I started my 2 nd job hunt from July 2021. This time, job market was picking up its pace compared to last year. There were more openings, and more choices.   I also looked for temporary jobs in a hope that there might be a chance to get full-time contract. I heard from several people that when an astronaut came back to work, he sent out 1000 resumes to company for his next job. They all said that I should follow his example. Since July, I sent out about 60 resumes in three month. This is not a considerable amount compared to what I intended. I used several job agencies, and applied from their websites. This time, I had few chances to speak with agents online. Once they know that I was actively looking f...

 “Wold you go and buy some milk “? My mother stormed into my room while I was having an online job interview. The day before the interview, I informed my parents about my schedule, and asked them to be quiet from 13:00 on. Apparently, my mother needed fight an urge to interfere. She said she knew I will be having something from 13:00. By the clock struck 13:00, she could not help but walking up to my door and say something – and she did. It was an embarrassing experience, but it continued. My friends, who are expert on working from home, suggested to put a notice on my door while I am busy. I told my parents that I will put a notice on my door when I am having an online interview. However, my mother said she can’t be sure if she can keep quiet. “More I am told not to do, I get temptation to break the rule”. What a childish opinion. Later I learned that there is psychological theory called “ Psychological Reactance ”, the tendency for people to react negatively when they f...

  Our neighbour’s cat came to our garden for an afternoon nap. He has his favourite spot underneath the cherry tomato cage. The roses were in bloom and lavenders were budding. It was fine day, the weather was warm and dry, and everything seemed peaceful. I reflected the past 6 months. Since September 2020, I have been unemployed. The company I worked for needed to lay off 70% of workforce due to COVID19. Somehow, I managed to stay positive while unemployment, with occasional ups and downs. The main reason, I recall, was that I was with my family, also I was in touch with my friends and job advisors through SNS and e-mails. One of the person who supported me was a job counselor. I met my job counselor at his office in Yokohama. He was gentle and always helpful, suggested many job vacancies at stable businesses. My career at travel companies were not in the mainstream of their business. I was working on specialist’s visit abroad. The field of client’s fields were vast, from local or ...

One afternoon in February, I met one of my friend in Yokohama for a lunch. It was just the day after I turned down a job offer from an organization in Tokyo. I initially informed my friend a good new of being offered a position. However, my instinct told me not to take that offer, as the people I met at the interview seemed so unhappy, frightened, hollow and lethargic. I know that I should take any chance, but meeting these people simply put me off and I wasn’t excited to receive the job offer at all. I met my friend at a restaurant and informed my decision. He has been helping me through the past months, introducing to various job agents and giving me plenty of advice when changing job. He is a cheery chap who is quite talented manager in banking and insurance field with lots of experience. I wanted to meet him, to get better influence from a successful person. Furthermore, I wanted to catch up with him as we haven’t met about 5 years or so. He suggested to meet at a restaurant which ...

  The state of emergency continued on in Kanto area, Japan. I carried on with my job hunt since I left the travel company in September 2019, due to the outbreak of COVID-19. The winter in Japan is quite cold and gloomy. Since the outbreak of COVID, I reckon many people missed chance to re-unite with their friends and family and longed for the reconnection with them and have some fun together. During a quite frustrating day sending out my resumes to companies, an idea hit me. To organize a book club online. I did this during Christmas period, and many people joined. It was fun to connect with people who only meet on social media, but they posted many photographs of the books they have read. I took the opportunity to organize a reading event, this time the theme was Valentine’s day. I was thinking of reading books of love – whether it is romantic love or love of family, or unconditional towards things you love. Some people showed interest. However, one thing that I found was that the...

  “ Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes ! “ That is how the opening song of the musical “RENT” goes. 1 year counted in minutes. How have we lived those minutes in 2020 ? In my case, I have never applied for a job vacancy and sent out so many resumes in my life. I practically researched companies every day and wrote why I was interested in their business and the open positions. I think I spent my two hundred and twenty thousand minutes writing resumes and researching companies and applying for job vacancies. Some people told me that a famous astronaut had sent out 1,000 resumes to get a job after his or her flight to the space, and I should follow his/her example. I duly noted the wisdom. Job market in Japan was quite slow from the end of 2020 to the beginning of January 2021. Still, luckily, there were some openings so I could at least try for my chances on them. Looking around, so much seem to have changed and we needed to adopt to so-called “New normal”. Whether...

  One of the major incident after leaving the job was to claim unemployment benefit. It was the first time ever for me to be one the dole. Unemployment benefit is something that not people want to claim in everyday life. I have never expected to be in the situation like this before the Covid-19 pandemic. I have changed jobs before. But I didn’t receive unemployment benefit as I was unable to work straightaway because of injury or other health issues. In autumn 2020, I claimed my first unemployment benefit. The benefit itself is what I have already paid as unemployment insurance, however, I was so uncomfortable to receive this. I wanted to get paid for what I worked for. I continued sending out more resumes to various companies through my job agents. I wanted a position, just a small position where I could work. Unfortunately, it led me nowhere. 

  October flew fast. I sent out my resume practically every day to my job agents. No reply came from companies that I applied I registered more job agents, hoping that it will lead to more opportunities. Some of agent started to suggest few openings, and I sent my resumes. No result either. I couldn’t even get to job interview. Having started using job agents, I realized that their recommended system rely on computer or AI system, which were not exactly accurate for sending me the job position that I wanted. For example, if the see a word “manage (管理)” in my resume, they send loads of managerial job opening, which I have no experience whatsoever. Or, it I write “assistant” on my resume, then they started sending “Assistant IT support” or assistant vice president” jobs. If I wrote “Operation”, they sent out “CAD operation”. None of these matches my job experiences. The more I register job agents, the more I got confused. To relax from these strain, I gave myself a little treats. I p...

  September 2020 was busy period. As I agreed on early retirement, I started look for a job on the internet every day. At the same time, I updated my resume and CV. Due to reduced working days and paid leave, I only went to office half a day each week. While at office, I shared information with my colleagues on what we would be doing next. We were all forty something, or we should call it around fifty in Japanese way. Many of them have been working at the company over 20 years, and we did brain storming for their career, what they did during their term in the past 20 years. I started using a job agent from mid-September. The company recommended the job agency, and one job consultant took me under his wings. He was very modest, experienced person, agreeable and helpful. Adding to the job agent, I also registered several other job agency. It has been several years since last time I changed job, and I was amazed how the job application process has been changed over the years. Last tim...