Hey Magamo, did you know that in your username the "maga" is the hungarian word
for the respectful "you"? Just asking
Pronunication is exactly the same as it would be in japanese

sorry, I'll PM you instead magamo

Dear Magamo™,

I have a question actually. I am keen on doing a masters degree in Japan. In other words, I want to learn a subject in Japanese and I was thinking of doing an MBA.

I have currently completed a 3 year degree in "Visual Communication" which had subjects like Graphic Design, Web Design et al. I graduated from college in the year 2005. After graduating, I did a one year diploma specializing in Animation but I couldn't get a decent job.

While I was job hunting, I also starting learning Japanese because of my interest in Japanese Drama, Movies and Anime and things have changed because of that. Been learning for 3.5 years and I have also gone to Japan twice.

Right now I am working at Nissan Motors (Indian Factory) as a freelance interpreter and translator for the past 8 months. Completed JLPT N2, looking to complete N1 by next year.

So anyway, here's the question - I would like to know whether doing an MBA in Japan is worth the effort, time and money I am going to spend. Is a 3 year degree more than enough for applying for an MBA degree? Plus I am planning to gather work experience of at least 1 year before starting to apply. Is that enough or do I need more work experience like 2 or 3 years maybe?

An MBA from a US school will get you further in Japan than an MBA from a Japanese school.

Japanese MBAs are a very bad idea unless you are company sponsored and already have a post-graduation job lined up.

Womacks23 Wrote:An MBA from a US school will get you further in Japan than an MBA from a Japanese school.

Japanese MBAs are a very bad idea unless you are company sponsored and already have a post-graduation job lined up.

Hmmm. But that will defeat the purpose of me wanting to do Masters in JAPANESE. Or does that idea sound a bit stupid?

A couple of my friends also advised me against doing an MBA in Japan as an MBA in US will look better on the resume. But I am kinda stubborn about wanting to Ryuugaku in Japan and studying about business in Japanese (not english) sounds quite challenging (to me).

So would doing an MBA in one of the Top Colleges be worth the time, effort and money? Ofcourse getting into one of the top colleges will be quite a daunting task by itself.

Yes, an MBA from a Japanese school would be great for the Japanese but would be career suicide if you do not already have employment lined up in Japan. Corporate Japan is very different from the rest of the world. Japanese companies do not recruit from Japanese business schools. Japanese companies -send- their students to business schools.

Foreign companies in Japan and liberal Japanese companies will hire MBAs (esp. consulting, IB, marketing) but they have near zero respect for Japanese business schools and focus their recruitment abroad. This is why a a US degree will get you further in Japan.

It would be better to go to a US school (or even HKUST, NUS) and possibly exchange out to Japan to work on your Japanese. And pursue employment at the Boston Career Forum.

Just don't be surprise if you come to Japan and blow away 50,000$+ on an MBA only to find out you can't find a good job because no company recruits at your school and no one else has any respect for your degree... But your Japanese will be good.

Also

I assume you want to pursue an MBA to make a career switch. I'm doing the same thing right now. Well sending out applications, GMAT is all finished. In my school research I found a lot of interesting programs with strong international business and specific Japan ties. Might be good info for you.

University of Hawaii (afaik the only Japan focused MBA in the world)
University of Southern California
University of South Carolina (see IMBA- Japanese language track)
Thunderbird school of management

So if I secure a job first and later join an MBA program (Waseda looks respectable/expensive enough) it should be ok?

I'm still torn between MBA in Japan and US but considering I first have to get Japan/Japanese out of my system (it might take anything from 1 month to a couple of years), it would mean another migration (from Japan to US this time) and another 2 years down the drain. I'd be over 30 then (ie. old), no family (one started by me that is) and no cozy company to work for (just episodes here and there).

I hate being old...

That's the idea. The pain of joining a Japanese MBA program comes at graduation time and you find out that no companies recruit from your school. It's the nature of corporate Japan... Lifetime employment, promote from within, etc.

Also stay away from Waseda unless you want to be a lifer. Waseda is not AACSB accredited. AFAIK the only Japanese schools with accreditation are Keio, Nagoya, and Temple. Meaning the schools lack the basic requirements the rest of the world considers necessary in MBA education.

The way around this of course is to get a US degree, work on your Japanese in your own time, get your cushy job in your home country, put in a few years of hard work then put in a transfer to Tokyo HQ.

Womacks23 Wrote:That's the idea. The pain of joining a Japanese MBA program comes at graduation time and you find out that no companies recruit from your school. It's the nature of corporate Japan... Lifetime employment, promote from within, etc.

Also stay away from Waseda unless you want to be a lifer. Waseda is not AACSB accredited. AFAIK the only Japanese schools with accreditation are Keio, Nagoya, and Temple. Meaning the schools lack the basic requirements the rest of the world considers necessary in MBA education.

Thanks for this info. I guess I have to investigate this a little bit more. It will join my "post JLPT" to-do list.

Womacks23 Wrote:The way around this of course is to get a US degree, work on your Japanese in your own time, get your cushy job in your home country, put in a few years of hard work then put in a transfer to Tokyo HQ.

Yeah but it still means I'm putting my life on hold for a long time just to get a degree and I don't get to see Japan anytime soon There is also the risk that I won't like Japanese way of life/work at all so putting all this effort into transferring there will be a waste (language is not because I just like how it works/sounds).

On the other hand, the thing that makes US MBA so tempting is that they have an international flavor that is just unmatched and opens doors everywhere. Japanese one would be local or at best respected in a few countries (though it probably includes Poland)

Womacks23 Wrote:Yes, an MBA from a Japanese school would be great for the Japanese but would be career suicide if you do not already have employment lined up in Japan. Corporate Japan is very different from the rest of the world. Japanese companies do not recruit from Japanese business schools. Japanese companies -send- their students to business schools.

Foreign companies in Japan and liberal Japanese companies will hire MBAs (esp. consulting, IB, marketing) but they have near zero respect for Japanese business schools and focus their recruitment abroad. This is why a a US degree will get you further in Japan.

It would be better to go to a US school (or even HKUST, NUS) and possibly exchange out to Japan to work on your Japanese. And pursue employment at the Boston Career Forum.

Just don't be surprise if you come to Japan and blow away 50,000$+ on an MBA only to find out you can't find a good job because no company recruits at your school and no one else has any respect for your degree... But your Japanese will be good.

Womacks23 Wrote:Also

I assume you want to pursue an MBA to make a career switch. I'm doing the same thing right now. Well sending out applications, GMAT is all finished. In my school research I found a lot of interesting programs with strong international business and specific Japan ties. Might be good info for you.

University of Hawaii (afaik the only Japan focused MBA in the world)
University of Southern California
University of South Carolina (see IMBA- Japanese language track)
Thunderbird school of management

Womacks23 Wrote:That's the idea. The pain of joining a Japanese MBA program comes at graduation time and you find out that no companies recruit from your school. It's the nature of corporate Japan... Lifetime employment, promote from within, etc.

Also stay away from Waseda unless you want to be a lifer. Waseda is not AACSB accredited. AFAIK the only Japanese schools with accreditation are Keio, Nagoya, and Temple. Meaning the schools lack the basic requirements the rest of the world considers necessary in MBA education.

The way around this of course is to get a US degree, work on your Japanese in your own time, get your cushy job in your home country, put in a few years of hard work then put in a transfer to Tokyo HQ.

Yes, you are right about the fact that I want to pursue MBA for a career switch. I definitely want some work experience before I even think of applying for an MBA. Of course I need to write GMAT as well. Even though I am working as a Japanese Interpreter/Translator at the moment and will be completing JLPT N1 very soon, I want to work in Japan and therefore I require a marketable skill apart from Japanese. That’s another reason I want to do an MBA.

So if I want to do an MBA from a good business school in Japan, then my only options are Keio/Nagoya/Temple. Temple University is American, so removing that from the list, I have Keio and Nagoya if I want to pursue MBA in Japan. I was also considering NUS as one of the options. And thanks for giving me the list of American universities with Japan ties. The IMBA course at the University of South Carolina piqued my interest in particular. I am definitely looking into the MBA course details from the other universities in the list as well.

But since I have just started working (been 8 months), I still have at least 1.5 years to go before I even think of applying for MBA as I want to work for at least 2 years before I start applying. Meanwhile, I am preparing myself to apply by writing TOEFL/IELTS and GMAT.

Anyway, thanks for the help and prompt replies. I really appreciate it and I am glad that I wasn’t the only person thinking of doing an MBA in Japan. 今後とも宜しくお願い致します。

P.S. For now, I am planning to keep Keio as my number 1 option (as the international exchange program with either the German or the French University looks interesting), the American universities (University of South Carolina in particular) as my fall-back option and NUS as the “if all else fails” option. Or is it better if I keep the American universities as my number 1 option?

I understand what you are trying to do with your MBA.

But using a degree from a Japanese business school to break into the Japanese corporate world just doesn't happen. At the minimum it will be extremely difficult and certainly would not be worth the costs involved.

Remove Keio from your list unless a Japanese company is sponsoring you. If you go to Keio looking for a career change into business in Japan you will hurt yourself badly. When you graduate you will literally be at the bottom of the recruitment pile. Everyone you went to school with already had jobs lined up before starting their MBA work because they are company sponsored. Liberal firms and foreign firms looking for MBAs are going to go recruit at schools abroad. Even people with zero Japanese skills will be recruited abroad for positions in Tokyo before they even look at your resume. Companies will -not- come to Keio looking for graduates. Your only hope will be at job fairs like the Boston Career Forum ... But you'll be fighting a very lopsided battle against other Japanese speakers who went to better schools than you.

If you are post N1 in your Japanese and get an MBA from a good US, European, or Singaporean school you won't have a problem finding a job in Tokyo.

I know the logic sounds insane. Staying away from Japanese schools if you want to do business in Japan....it's just that Japanese corporate culture really is unique and the only way to use an MBA to break into it is to come from abroad.

The elite class of the developed world--the people who get all the money and respect--is 能力よりも達成よりも資格。 Any time you're applying to a large organization, you have to deal with some gatekeeper HR peon. If he says "let's hire this guy, he really knows his stuff," that's a subjective judgement. If he says "let's hire this guy, he's got an Ivy League MBA," that's an objective judgment--at least in the sense that the subjective judgment "Ivy League MBA" = "good thing" has already been made for you.

The first rule of survival in a large organization is "avoid responsibility." If the MBA you hired is a piece of crap, it's the school's fault. If the non-MBA you hire is a piece of crap, it's on your head.

Now, imagine some weirdo comes to you with a Japanese 経営学修士 that he went out and got himself (weirdo) are you going to stick your neck out to hire him, when you know you can find good, normal candidates elsewhere. Remember, you keep your job by making the decisions your boss would make--and he knows less than you do. Justify everything and cover your ass.

If you really want that post in the big organization, you'll have to be normal. So get a nice American MBA and the appropriate 国語資格.

能力よりも資格　　達成よりも資格　それは世の習いである　仕方がない

@Womacks and wildweathel

Let me summarize what you're trying to say. Correct me if I am wrong.

Japanese companies do not hire from Japanese Business schools unless the Japanese company is sponsoring the MBA

But then are there any foreigners who are actually jobless right now after doing MBA from a Japanese Business School? I mean, I am sure there are Japanese and foreign students out there who graduate from a Japanese business school. And I am pretty sure all of them don't end up jobless. I understand what you are trying to say though. It will be extremely difficult for me to secure a good job if I graduate from a Japanese Business school and that your advice consists of the safe route for securing a good job as a lot of money is going to be spent for studying in a Business School.

Yes. People normally do not spend that much money for the possibility of high Japanese skills and a (probably) crappy entry level job in Tokyo. It just isn't worth the money unless you are getting a free ride and have a job already lined up.

Some high-ranking business schools (e.g. London Business School) have overseas exchange programs, so you could look into that if you're desperate to live in Japan while you study.

＠Womacks23

Right. I perfectly understand what you mean.

harhol Wrote:Some high-ranking business schools (e.g. London Business School) have overseas exchange programs, so you could look into that if you're desperate to live in Japan while you study.

Its more about me wanting to do a masters and learn something in JAPANESE (using the language) rather than being desperate to live in Japan.

atreya Wrote:Its more about me wanting to do a masters and learn something in JAPANESE (using the language) rather than being desperate to live in Japan.

Why not learn another language using Japanese? I plan on learning Spanish using Japanese books made for natives once my Japanese gets to a high enough level.

Or pick something else you're interested in and order books on it in Japanese. If you're really decided on getting a masters, you could do those things while doing your masters at a much more reputable school. I did Heisig during the last semester of my MBA in Australia.

captal Wrote:

atreya Wrote:Its more about me wanting to do a masters and learn something in JAPANESE (using the language) rather than being desperate to live in Japan.

Why not learn another language using Japanese? I plan on learning Spanish using Japanese books made for natives once my Japanese gets to a high enough level.

Or pick something else you're interested in and order books on it in Japanese. If you're really decided on getting a masters, you could do those things while doing your masters at a much more reputable school. I did Heisig during the last semester of my MBA in Australia.

Yea, I was planning to buy some books and learn something. Recently, I have been listening to "西川里美は日経1年生" podcasts and I was planning to buy the books to get a better understanding of what they were talking about.

Ah well, my dreams of doing a masters in Japan have come crashing down. Thanks for the advice. If I am going to spend 50000$ for an MBA, might as well make sure I land up with a good job.

I am still curious as to how Magamo would respond to my question ^^;

atreya Wrote:I am still curious as to how Magamo would respond to my question ^^;

I'm not very familiar with MBAs and stuff, so you should take whatever I say in this post with a huge grain of salt.

If I understand it correctly, an MBA from a Japanese business school doesn't make your resume look much better in most cases. Maybe it's better than nothing. But I'm almost certain that there are plenty of much more reasonable ways to invest your time and money. I hear some negative things about business schools in Japan too (And sources are professors in different departments.). If you're sure what you're doing by getting an MBA in Japan, it might be wroth it, I guess. But if you have no concrete plan about your career after graduation, I can't recommend it. In any case, MBAs aren't what Japan is famous for. If it's important for you to learn something in Japanese living in Japan, you might want to pick a subject Japan excels in.

That said, at the end of the day, it's your own career so it's all up to you. If you really really really want to go to Japanese business school, it might turn out to be great. It's just that if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't go to Japan to get an MBA. I didn't get the impression that you definitely think you need to get an MBA from a Japanese business school no matter what.

Hmm... Does this help?

＠Magamo

Thanks Magamo. I guess it is only logical to study a subject which Japan excels in and if MBA is not one of them, then I guess I shouldn't squander my money and end up jobless. Thanks Womacks23 and everyone else for their input.

とても、感謝しております。

Dear Magamo,

Could you help me with this inquiry?

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...6#pid81296

Essentially I would like insight into how to parse/translate this sentence, purely because no matter how I do it, it feels wrong. That に especially is throwing me off, somehow.

その精神はむしろ冷徹なばかりに揺らぎなく安定している。

I posted this on another thread, but didn't get any help.
So, please Magamo can you help me?

寿司と食べようと言うから行ったら作れと言われる、お茶飲もう、だから緑茶持ってきてくれと言う、パーティするからカレー作れないか、と言う。

What does this sentence mean?
Especially I don't get why 「と」in「寿司と食べよう」is used.

nest0r Wrote:Dear Magamo,

Could you help me with this inquiry?

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...6#pid81296

Essentially I would like insight into how to parse/translate this sentence, purely because no matter how I do it, it feels wrong. That に especially is throwing me off, somehow.

その精神はむしろ冷徹なばかりに揺らぎなく安定している。

I think your first translation is already good. It carries the meaning of ばかり well. I didn't check the context, but probably it's the "as if" kind of ばかり you mentioned in the linked thread. Here are the original text and my translation:

この人は間違いなくある種の狂気の中にいる、と青豆は思った。しかし頭が狂っているのではない。精神を病んでいるのでもない。いや、その精神はむしろ冷徹なばかりに揺らぎなく安定している。

"She lives by a different kind of reason," 青豆 thought. She is not a maniac or being mentally ill. If anything, her calm mind reflects serenity and acuteness.

By the way, translation requires a whole different skill set than speaking two languages. I don't think understanding a foreign language through translation helps much. It may be a good stepping stone for total beginners. But it seems too different to be of much use to serious learners.

jettyke Wrote:寿司と食べようと言うから行ったら作れと言われる、お茶飲もう、だから緑茶持ってきてくれと言う、パーティするからカレー作れないか、と言う。

What does this sentence mean?
Especially I don't get why 「と」in「寿司と食べよう」is used.

Probably it's a typo. I think it should read:

寿司を食べようと言うから行ったら作れと言われる。お茶飲もう、だから緑茶持ってきてくれと言う。パーティするからカレー作れないか、と言う。

"Come and have sushi," he invites me. And I'm the one who is making it. "How about the two of us drink some tea?" And he proceeds to say, "So go get some green tea." He even asks me if I can make a curry when he plans a party.

@Magamo

thanks!

I suspected that it was a Wo...but I still couldnt make out the meaning!