Canadian Ken Boisjoly-Moreau and his girlfriend traveled to Japan four times over the course of two years, “fell in love” with the country and started studying Japanese. The pieces were falling into place to fulfill their goal of living in Japan when Boisjoly-Moreau was offered a job at a multinational company’s Japanese subsidiary. It was a win for his employer as well, as people with his specialty in cybersecurity are hard to find in Japan, and the company had been looking for someone to fill the position for over a year and a half.
Boisjoly-Moreau was awarded a certificate of eligibility (COE) and an engineering visa in March, sold his belongings and prepared to depart for Japan on April 13. However, coronavirus-related travel restrictions made his trip impossible, and in May he started doing his job remotely from Canada.
“Having to work overseas, with a 13-hour time difference, in a language different than mine certainly has been a challenge,” he says. Being in a different time zone from the rest of his team causes delays in work and some friction with team members.