Why did you decide to participate in the JET Internship Programme?

What type of work did you experience during the internship?

During the week of my internship, I assisted with various communications between the company and its many foreign clients. Order forms, as well as quotes and invoices, had to be created in both Japanese and English for redundancy, and as such, I assisted in the translation of these documents and their entry into the company’s system. I also helped perform support for a recently hired intern who was still completing his move to Japan. On his first day, I helped explain to him the process required to receive a residence card at his local city hall. Finally, I was assigned a project translating the user’s manual for a piece of the company’s proprietary software to English. I worked on this during any free time I had over the course of the week and was able to finish the project by Friday.

What did you get out of the programme & how do you hope to use this experience in the future?

This experience gave me the opportunity to experience what it is like to work in Japan outside the JET Programme. By participating in the programme, I now have a clearer understanding of the expectations and responsibilities placed on new workers in the Japanese job market as well as the qualities and skills valued by Japanese companies. I hope to use this understanding to assist my future job search in Japan once my time on the JET Programme is complete.

A few words to JET Programme participants who might consider participating in the internship in the future:

I would recommend this programme to any JET Programme participant who is interested in living/working in Japan beyond their time on JET. Do not underestimate the importance of language fluency in the Japanese workplace, as well as understanding when and how to use formal Japanese. You should not expect to be treated any differently just because you are a foreign employee, and you will often be held to the same level of expectation as the other employees in the company. I think that this programme offers an extremely valuable experience, and I hope anyone who chooses to participate in it is able to get as much out of it as I was.