[noodle]

I'm not even going to pretend I know what documents you are talking about!

How do you know he had a visa in hand? I don't even know that! And like I said earlier, the hardest part for a foreigner is to get hired without going through a company exchange program, so once you get hired above any Japanese, you must have something to offer, hence the higher pay!

Now what you're talking about is the recession. I don't know if you're following foreign affairs much, but what you've described is happening everywhere! Not long ago, Deutsche Bank investment devision in London made a big chunk of its employees redundant for fresh grads at cheap. The company I worked for, for the last two summers has started outsourcing more than just a bit of its IT GROUP to India!

Anyway, this'll go on forever! I'm either terrible at English and not making myself clear or I really don't understand what you're saying at all! Either way, I apparently suck at English! To me, I get the impression that you're telling people to not even think about trying for a higher salary because of this recession! But for someone that's heavily invested in engineering and economics/finance, I see a different picture! The recession has changed a lot of things for a lot of countries. Just barely a week ago, I read an article about how Japan is steering away from the marriage to one company business practice! Part time work and contracts are becoming ever more popular due to the recession.

So, lets just say, in Japan as a foreigner, "Hope for the best, but expect the worst", is that fair?