The Challenges of Chinese Students Working Part-time in Japan

Abstract

International students in the Japanese part-time labor market are a large group that cannot be ignored. Among them, the largest population of international students in Japan are Chinese students (Japan Student Services Organization, 2020). Studying at school, simultaneously working part-time, little attention has been paid to their part-time working challenges in the service areas, such as convenience stores, restaurants, supermarkets, drug stores, and etc. This study examined the challenges of Chinese students working part-time in Japan and how they grapple with these challenges. It revealed that (1) the main challenges the Chinese students experienced in their part-time jobs were linguistic challenges (eg. listening, speaking, dialects) and working cultural challenges (eg. bowing, greeting even though no one is there); and (2) the strategies the Chinese students adopted were internal learning (eg. take notes, memorize frequently used phrases) and external learning (eg. learn and imitate Japanese coworkers) strategies. The results of this study could be helpful for Chinese students to develop working cultural and language skills. More importantly, it may help the students find a way to integrate into the Japanese part-time workplace.