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Even though, Japanese has been taught at Bishop's University since 1988, the program of Japanese Minor is quite young. Officially, it started in 2005. And the students graduating with the Minor started coming out these days. Still I can mention the following notable students, who predate the Program of Minor in Japanese Studies:
David Leangen CEO, Bioscene Informatics, Kobe, Japan
Hélène Ouvrard Covalence, Geneva, Switzerland
There is a serious lack of experts on Japan in Quebec (and in Canada). The importance of Japan for Canada is unquestionable. Yet, unlike the situation in the United States, our universities don't seem to produce enough number of Canadians fully capable of functioning in the Japanese milieu. In a manner of speaking, it is going to be a sellers' market for a long time to come. To what extent, you ask?
A good example is one of our graduates, Marie-Eve Bédard (Sociology 2004) who completed the 3 levels of Japanese. A modest mention of this fact in her CV led to a job at the Montreal Urban Community Police as special investigation officer. Recently, Marie-Eve moved onto a new job, but it is quite apparent that there is a ton of work to be done in this area, using Japanese.
Another example. Stéphane Gagné, a graduate of the Université de Sherbrooke in Economics, 1993, studied Japanese at Bishop's for two years. Now he makes over 20 trips to Asia (including Japan) for a bio-technology company he works for.
It is not that there is a ready-made market where you can simply go in and pick up a job, as if it were a treasure hunt. It is up to you to find or even create a job.
I can, however, mention the following:
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For a long term job, there is always the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of the federal government of Canada. You will see that Japanese proficiency is highly valued by the federal government. In the Frequently Asked Questions at the website:
9. Q. Why is a proficiency in Arabic, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian or Spanish valued?
A. They are relatively important in fulfilling our mandate. They are difficult to learn and require expensive and labour-intensive training.
Foreign Service Officers must be bilingual when hired. As indicated above, for those candidates who do not meet the second language requirements, up to 52 weeks of second language training will be provided at government expense. Only upon successful completion of the language training will candidates be hired into the Foreign Service.
10. Q. What is meant by a working ability in Arabic, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin (Chinese), Portuguese, Russian or Spanish?
A. Individuals successful in the candidacy examinations will have their foreign language proficiency tested if they have indicated on their application that they have a working ability in one or more of the stated foreign languages.
Working ability means the individual can satisfy routine social demands and limited work requirements in a particular language, and can handle routine work-related interactions that are limited in scope. The individual can handle with confidence, but not with facility, most normal, high-frequency social conversational situations including extensive, but casual conversations about current events, work, family and autobiographical information. The individual can get the gist of most everyday conversations, but has some difficulty understanding native speakers in situations that require specialized or sophisticated knowledge. Linguistic structure is usually not very elaborate and not thoroughly controlled; errors are frequent.
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JET Programme. This is a great way to go to Japan and work.
According to the website of the JET Programme for Canadians, "The Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme seeks to enhance internationalisation in Japan and to promote mutual understanding between Japan and other nations. The Programme also aims to enhance foreign language education in Japan, and to promote international exchange at the local level through fostering ties between Japanese and foreign youth. These objectives are being achieved by offering JET Programme participants the opportunity to work in local Japanese authorities as well as in public elementary, junior high and senior high schools."
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For a short term job, there are numerous jobs of teaching/tutoring English.
