This was a very informative piece. I worked for Yomiuri Shimbun in the US for two years. I got the job after an entry level grammar and a entry level writing course at University. I was clearly unqualified for investigative journalism at the scale required. I didn’t end up changing much. Following my termination, which was based on three articles I wrote about golf, pineapple, and one other broad area that did not get published. I returned to the University, where I thrived as a features writer. I later obtained a paralegal certificate where I garnered an A on every assignment and test. It was my experience that my inexperience and lack of training was what did me in. My bosses, both, worked incredibly hard, insanely hard, and I was jealous of them. I wish I had taken more journalism courses, because I might have succeeded. It was a very serious experience about how hard Japanese work, but also about my irrelevance to that particular job at that particular time.