Japan Foundation Reviews

- Low pay for local staff. - Little career or pay advancement. - Menial tasks make up the bulk of most roles. There is a lot of sitting at a desk emailing people or making excel sheets in between the occasional interesting and varied work. - Main office area has no windows which makes the office feel a bit gloomy and sterile. - Fairly high turn over of staff due to Japanese staff being reassigned and local staff having few advancement opportunities.

If you’re considering applying for the position in the Arts and Culture team at the UK office, I strongly advise against it. Just don’t. Although the job might seem appealing with the prospect of working with art and films, the reality is far from it. I worked in this position, and it was a nightmare. You’ll spend most of your time working one-on-one with a difficult boss and occasionally with another assistant. The boss, an extremely traditional and rigid Japanese woman, has been with the company for ages. She constantly called every five minutes, creating a high-stress environment and making it impossible to concentrate on your work. Reporting this to the director only provided temporary and minor relief. Her incessant yelling was so stressful that I ended up in A&E from a heart attack. Upon my return, she suggested I take medication for mental health, but I refused. There is no HR department to handle harassment or bullying complaints, and the director is powerless to make any changes as they only stay in the London office for a few years. This boss holds the most authority, and no one can stand up to her. The job itself is monotonous and offers no growth opportunities, primarily involving administrative tasks. The boss's English proficiency is poor, requiring constant translation (Japanese/English). She lacks basic computer skills, including Excel, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Zoom, which I had to teach her. However, she wouldn’t listen - when I tried to explain formulas in Excel, she would cut me off, saying, "I am too busy to listen to what you’re saying." - in Japanese. She also doesn’t understand anything about social media and would always make it a rule to add hashtags for irrelevant keywords on Twitter and Facebook. I can understand using hashtags on Instagram, but Twitter and Facebook aren’t really suited for this (especially Twitter for the word limit). She also insisted on adding QR codes in emails when a simple link would suffice, as no one will scan their email with their phone to access the link. Another assistant joined, unaware that Japanese language skills were necessary, as it did not say so in the job description due to the boss's inability to communicate in English properly. Tasks like booking flights are tedious and manual, with no modern systems in place. We handle questionnaires after events manually, and any attempts to streamline processes are thwarted by the boss's micromanagement. The computer system is painfully slow, taking five minutes to open an Excel file. Shipping is done manually through DHL and Royal Mail, wasting time without team cooperation. I also handled some tasks with the other assistants from a different team, but their mistakes always led to me being blamed. Despite having annual and sick leave (as written in the contract), taking time off is challenging as the boss makes snide remarks. Once, when I had norovirus and was vomiting all day, I requested to work from home, but she made snide comments as there was work she wanted me to do in the office. The online platform for newsletters is difficult to use for complex designs. A small, unavoidable white line between paragraphs infuriated the boss, leading to an hour-long phone rant. Reporting this to the director resulted in no changes. I requested a team change, but it was denied. There is no future, progress, or raises in this job, and budget constraints constantly hinder projects. Lunch breaks are nonexistent for me, as I had to answer calls while people from other teams took breaks. The boss's unprofessional behaviour led to numerous complaints. During one event, she mocked someone with ADHD in front of everyone (and we received complaints), which was disgusting and solidified my decision to leave. There are even more issues, but I'll stop here as I’m starting to have flashbacks. I was fortunate to find a better job with great people where I could improve my skills, but job hunting while working in such a toxic environment was challenging. If you’re thinking, "Well, I’ll give this a go. If it’s horrible, I’ll just quit and find another job," I still advise against it. Just don’t. —— A few things I forgot to mention: There is a very busy period lasting a few months with almost non-stop work. During this time, you might find yourself working until late into the night, often until midnight, while starting the next day at 9am. There are of course no days off on Saturdays or Sundays. Additionally, the boss shows racist behaviour. She once commented on the event attendees' names, noting that many had Chinese-sounding names, and expressed a preference against having Asian-looking individuals at her events, claiming it would not appear 'international.' She also insisted on increasing the number of white attendees, which was unacceptable. Moreover, she made racist remarks about Koreans. Although I never mentioned having Korean family members, her stereotypes about Koreans were unpleasant to hear. She also criticised my English as not being 'native', despite being born and raised in London. I thought she was behaving this way to force me to quit. However, funnily, I still receive messages from the organisation even though I left several months ago.