Recently I don’t renew this blog, but it’s not because of my laziness, but because of my move to Kansai.
Kansai, this second largest region in Japan is very interesting for foreigners, so what kind of image of Kansai is for you?
Kansai is the historical region composed of 6 provinces as the map above. Kyoto, the traditional city where it was the capital of Japan for 1000 years, Osaka very lively, these cities are very popular for tourism.
Currently the city where I live is Kobe. It is a quiet port city, but I will explain it in other articles. Today we are going to study in the broader point of view about our country. Entocecs is what let’s see the difference between Kansai region and Kanto.
The comparison between Kanto and Kansai
To begin with I will explain you the easy indexes of two regions. They are like this.
Kansai
Population: 20,700,000 inhabitants
GDP: 810,000,000,000,000 dollars
Education environment: Very high
Major cities: Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe
Kanto
Population: 36,000,000 inhabitants
GDP: 1,536,900,000,000,000 dollars
Education environment: Very high
Major cities: Tokyo, Yokohama, Saitama
Both regions are very large, for example GDP of Kanto is as large as that of Mexico, and that of Kansai is as powerful as that of Argentina.
The population of the two regions is as large as that of some European countries, so it means that there is a very attractive market for doing business.
In addition, the level of school institutions is very high, not bad for raising your children, although there is a doubt that Japanese education is suitable for international families.
I have no doubt if you are preparing your suitcase to emigrate to Japan.
So both areas are very good for foreigners, but when you are looking for a job in Japan, it seems that there are not many in Kansai, particularly if you are in IT work.
There are not many IT jobs in Kansai.
Kansai has a lot of advantage for living, for example the prices in Kansai are more affordable than Kanto. If you want to live in central Tokyo, a 30m2 apartment costs $800, but in Kobe it costs only $400. So the quality of life in Kansai is much better than Kanto.
But there is a big problem in Kansai, and Osaka, its central city. There are not many jobs that foreigners can do. Particularly the number of IT jobs in Osaka is only 20% of that in Tokyo.
In fact, we are now going to look at a website to search for jobs. This website “Duda” shows us the reality of the lack of jobs in Kansai.
This time I am going to look for SE(System Engineer) jobs, then the result is like this.
In Tokyo: 10,000 jobs
In Osaka: 2,000 jobs
You can understand that there are not many IT jobs in Osaka from this result.
Although Kansai is a very big region and progresses, but the structure of economy is totally different from Tokyo.
Politics and economy are concentrated in Tokyo.
Do you know Japanese politics? Normally the Japanese government wants to concentrate its economy and political position in Tokyo. This position is reflected in the number of listed companies in the capital. Now the listed companies in Tokyo are the 1700, but there are only 430 in Osaka. So Kansai is a region as large as Kantou, but in terms of economy it is relatively smaller than Kantou.
IT companies tend to want to gather in Tokyo.
Just as U.S. IT companies want to congregate in California, Japanese IT companies want to congregate in Tokyo. This is a very typical IT industry custom. That’s why people who are in IT work don’t want to work in Osaka.
If you are a student, Kansai is better.
Computer work is good to have visa like foreigners, but Kansai is not the right place to look for it. However if you are a university student, this area is very good to live cheaply. The prices are cheaper than Tokyo, there are tourist places, and you can have a lot of opportunity to speak Japanese because there are not many foreigners. To study Japanese life here is perfect.
In short, Kansai is a good place to “live”, but for “work” it is not, that is my conclusion. Normally jobs for foreigners exist in international cities. In this country this city is only Tokyo. If you are not a foreigner who has talent to adapt in Japanese culture, you should be in Tokyo.
Well, today I have told from the point of view of work. In other articles I want to explain the more everyday differences.
