This man. This man right here knows what he's talking about, especially given that he lives in Japan part-time (right?). Mandrake, please, please, PLEASE pack your bags and get your butt to America. We could always use a few more good men and if you work at Hasbro, you basically get to tell Takara what to do! We don't bite, I promise.

 

Hang in there, I'm coming over.

 

Awesome! We'll have chips and queso waiting when you get here!

 

IIRC Hironori Kobayashi got hired at Takara because of his custom work, his fan built Arcee pretty much got him the job and was the basis for the Generations Arcee. So actually doing custom figures in the Radicons section might not be a bad way to go.

 

But that is one case though. It doesn't seem to be the standard operating procedure for Takara.

 

I've heard this too.

 

I don't go study in America because I've invested too much effort into Japanese to afford letting it go to waste, and America's tuition is hefty too (it's all about money - 3rd world problem). Plus there are sill a certain number of things I like in Japan, Kyoto's picturesque scenery, Akihabara's geek heaven, Transformers with superior paint job......

And who the sl*g said I'm afraid of your bite, my bite could break a sugar cane in half and it almost made a bully bleed to death in primary school!!!!  
Sorry, lame joke.

 

^just curious ... are you still a kid studying in college? If so, sorry to break the harsh reality to you.. whatever impressions of Japan really isn't all that its cracked up to be..  

Getting into Japanese-toy and entertainment based companies will not be easy.. especially for foreigners.

 

I already know, I'm not that naive   , but thank you for warning.

 

No, I think you need to really understand. Japanese companies, hiring policies and general culture can be very racist, particularly if you are from another Asian country/aren't Caucasian. Even if you ARE white American/British/Australian, getting an inroad into a Japanese country is only really possible if you have either an EXCEPTIONAL skill that the company can't get internally, or you hired specifically for a role such as international relations etc.

It's great you have a dream, but I think you really, REALLY need to look at the reality. Accross all fandoms there are LOTS of young people who want to/think they can go to Japan to be a manga artist/game designer/anime animator or... toy designer.

But you need to think, really think, about WHY would TT hire YOU? You need to make sure what you can bring to the company, what exceptional talent do you have that will make TT decide to break deeply ingrained cultural norms and a large slice of xenophobia and hire you?

And would you be willing to work for TT in ANY of their departments or are you tunnel vision set to Transformers (which as a side note is nowhere near as popular in Japan as it once was, which makes it even harder to get in)? Because you could very much get stuck for many many years designing baby toys or doll houses. You don't just get to go 'Hire me to make robots'.

Next, I think, like others have mentioned, you really need to look into how well you'd cope generally in Japan. It's not just Akihabara, nice old buildings and a veneer of politeness. You need to really think "am I willing to possibly be treated as a second class citizen?" because Japan still has a problem with being quite xenophobic and racist, particularly against other Asians. Will you be ok with being denied service at some restaurants and businesses because you aren't Japanese, with having to carry ID on you at all times, with never REALLY fitting in or being accepted by your working peers, always being 'the foreigner' no matter how good your language skills or cultural knowledge is and being legally discriminated against in issues such as housing, banking, health care etc?

Japan is, believe it or not, great to live in IF you can accept a lot of downsides. But you need to be thick skinned and not be hoping to get there on a pipe dream that no one else can answer cause its not really done.

And you actually aren't asking in the right place. You should be stalking sites like linkedin and glassdoor or visit Takaratomy's website and go to their careers/employment page (spoiler alert, I already did. 採用情報TOP｜タカラトミー).

 

What's the '(Rick)' bit about?

--Moony