With international pandemic-era restrictions mostly lifted and the global economy settling into a new "living-with-COVID" phase, some young Japanese workers have found that with a little chutzpah and a lot of hustle there are opportunities to be had and money to be made beyond the nation’s borders.
Shizuoka native Takaya Kenjo, for one, recently built up a significant nest egg as a participant on the Working Holiday program — a form of intercultural exchange aimed at 18-30 year-olds — over the course of two years in Australia, where the national minimum wage of 21.38 Australian dollars (¥1,990) per hour is more than double the ¥961 available in Japan.
“I was working at a hotel for $29 an hour on weekdays, and if I worked on a Saturday, it was $32, on Sunday $38, and on public holidays, $54 an hour,” the 24-year old — now in Canada after leaving Australia in July — said via video call, the sense of disbelief still evident in his voice.