[Narcodran]

I was emailed by a representative of Fullcast Technologies about going through their program in Japan upon graduation. There are a few concerns that I have and I would like to know your opinions about my thoughts.

Major - I am majoring in Aerospace engineering and they don't really have a large field for that over there, but the CAD design opportunites seems like the best option. I can always get a job closer to my major once I move back to the states (or at least I hope I can).

Pay - This is the biggest concern for me. From some sources, they say that the 9 month training period is unpaid while I've heard that it's about 10000 yen/month and a 30000 yen/month loan if needed. After the training period, then you get paid about 200K yen/month on top of working long hours, which I heard is normal for a Japanese starting salary, but MUCH less than what I have seen in US Jobs. I hear that Japan has a high cost of living so I'm not sure if surviving on 200K yen/month is very doable, though I've heard that it was possible.

Future - Despite the seemingly peanut pay, I have been thinking about how this might affect my future as an engineer. While I feel that the pay and benefits suck in the beginning, I would hope that it would turn out better for me in the long run. I don't plan on staying in Japan for the rest of my life, so maybe better job opportunities will open up by saying that I worked in a foreign country and have language skills. Of course, this is just hopeful thinking and I don't know the true situation about this.

Of course, I don't even know if I will be accepted or not, but I just want to have some more information to back up my decisions. Have any of you on here been with these people and can tell me your experiences with them? Is it possible to live off of the salary comfortably? Most importantly, what are you guy's opinion about working in Japan, especially as an American?