The short version Hi there, I’m Shirokuma! If you’re thinking about construction work in Japan, there’s one question you want answered before any of the others, and most articles about working here skate past it. What does it pay? This article is about construction wages in Japan, and Japan has an unusual answer to that […]
The short version Hi there, I’m Shirokuma! There’s a particular kind of helplessness that comes from being handed a Japanese construction drawing you can almost read. The geometry is fine. A wall is a wall, a column is a column, a section is a section — drawing is close to a universal language and it […]
The short version Hi there, I’m Shirokuma! Here’s a question I’ve never been asked by a Japanese colleague and have been asked several times by people from outside Japan: who writes the construction schedule? In Japan, nobody on the site writes it. By the time a construction company has the job, the length of the […]
The short version Hi there, I’m Shirokuma! When I started as a site supervisor, the craftspeople on my site didn’t really talk to me. Not rudely. They just had no particular reason to. I was young, I was from the contractor’s side, and I hadn’t done anything yet that would make my opinion worth listening […]
The short version Hi there, I’m Shirokuma! People who visit a Japanese construction site usually describe it the same way: strict. Helmets and harnesses without exception. An induction before you’re allowed through the gate. Someone walking around all day checking. It can look like excessive caution from the outside. It isn’t caution, though. Most of […]
The short version Hi there, I’m Shirokuma! If you dropped onto a Japanese construction site tomorrow morning, the first thing you’d notice isn’t the equipment or the scaffolding. It’s the clock. The day has a shape here, and almost everyone follows it. Work starts at the same time, stops at the same time, breaks at […]
