If everyone else believes that second-round hires are also second-rate hires, you can't necessarily break the standard alone. First-round hires will see you as a bad company and pass, and business partners will doubt your work and look to your competitors.
Not all systemic inefficiencies are available to be fixed by individual companies; if the rest of society will punish you too badly for deviating then the inefficient solution is the "smart" one.
(Of course, there might be an opportunity to staff an American tech startup or something that doesn't need those social connections.)
Foreign language teaching in Japan is notoriously poor, which severely limits the opportunities for remote work. Remote work wouldn't provide many of the non-cash benefits of being a salaryman - social status, access to housing and credit and a multitude of other things.
Aha, that sounds reasonable. But still, can't help but think that there is some untapped potential here. Imagine someone from the outside learning Japanese and then hire a bunch of "second tier" japanese would-be-but-never-became salarymen. Is it unthinkable that this could foster a special loyalty to this hypothetical company?
If everyone else believes that second-round hires are also second-rate hires, you can't necessarily break the standard alone. First-round hires will see you as a bad company and pass, and business partners will doubt your work and look to your competitors.
Not all systemic inefficiencies are available to be fixed by individual companies; if the rest of society will punish you too badly for deviating then the inefficient solution is the "smart" one.
(Of course, there might be an opportunity to staff an American tech startup or something that doesn't need those social connections.)