Job Discussion Forums

JRJohn · Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 175

A couple of years back I went to Japan, and spent longer than the year I intended to. I was with Shane, and got to know the kanto area well. Heart Corporation have offered me an interview, and I wondered: Has anyone ever worked with them? What are they like? When in Japan, in 2008, I was told they would pay only 230000 yen, but that the rent would be limited to 55000 yen or less, and NO KEY MONEY at all. This is what Heart Corporation says too. An English guy I met worked with them in Saitama, and much preferred this system to working with Interac, partly because there was no key money. He had previously completed a contract with Interac too, and got severance pay, so he was covered, financially.
I have several thousand pounds just now, so I will be covered till pay day. I am tempted by Japan, because I learned a bit of Japanese and so on. I found it easy to keep fit, living in the kanto area. I can do this again.
So if you have worked with Heart, give me a fair appraisal, please.

ssjup81 · Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 1:52 am Post subject:

You could check out the following threads....

HEART English School Interview Tips
Heart English School and New Path Recruitment
Anybody accepted an offer from HEART?

I suppose you can get an idea based on those. In a way, seems it's mixed.

OneJoelFifty · Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 463

I voted for option 2.

OneJoelFifty · Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 463

May as well give an opinion on what I understand to be the situation with accommodation...

I was sent three different forms for application for company accommodation with Heart. They are all the same other than the rent on each one - 60,000 Yen, 63,000 or 66,000. Rent price is inclusive of a 10,000 utilities bill. Additional utilities costs will be charged if the usage exceeds 115% (so 11,500 Yen worth).

Moving in costs amount to the first month's rent and a 50,000 Yen 'service fee' which is given back on completion of the lease, or kept as 'processing fee' if you leave early.

Apartments are furnished with basic appliances and futon, but not cooking or dining equipment (or curtains! Apparently) and the like.

Seems fairly straightforward. The one thing I was wondering about is that the rent seems relatively cheap from what I've seen. Yet Heart make it clear that rather than simply waiving the key money etc, the costs are spread out over the course of the year so that the new occupant is faced with less initial cost. Heart goes as far as to say that it's a good idea for your first year in Japan, but if you plan on staying longer then it would be more cost-effective to find somewhere independently (ie. staying in the same Heart apartment for three years means you are effectively paying three years' worth of moving in expenses).

So the question that comes to my mind is, how come the rent is relatively cheap even when the start-up costs are included as part of it? The conclusion I've come to is that they are simply very small/old/basic apartments. Or there's more to it that I haven't found out yet.