After three years in China procuring parts for a Japanese furniture company, Akira Seijo, 64, faced the prospect of returning to his home country and easing into retirement.

　　在中国为一家日本家具公司干了3年零部件采购工作后，现年64岁的Akira Seijo面临“告老还乡”。

　　But Mr Seijo was not ready to retire, so he sought a second career – in China rather than Japan.

　　可Seijo不准备退休，于是他找了第二份职业——在中国而不是在日本。

　　“I wanted to work in China because it is still growing and I can use my experience,” says Mr Seijo, who now puts his production management expertise to use at a Japanese manufacturer in Shanghai.

　　“我想在中国工作，因为中国还在继续发展，我的经验在这里会有用武之地。”Seijo目前供职于上海一家日资制造企业，把他在生产管理方面的专业知识应用在了新工作上。

　　Mr Seijo is among a growing number of Japanese, many of them approaching retirement age, who are finding work in fast-growing China, where their years of experience or technical knowhow have helped them to find new opportunities rather than retire in Japan.

　　越来越多的日本人——其中许多人快到退休年龄——在中国找工作。凭借多年的工作经验或专业技术，他们在快速发展的中国找到了新的工作机会，不用在日本过退休生活。

　　As Japan’s sluggish economy, high corporate tax rate and strong yen force companies to seek production sites and new markets overseas, jobseekers are also being forced to look beyond Japan’s shores for opportunities that are lacking at home.

　　由于日本经济增长乏力、公司税税率高、再加上日元坚挺，日本企业被迫到海外寻找生产基地和新市场，而日本的求职者也被迫把目光投向海外，因为国内的工作机会较少。

　　In the early 20th century, thousands of Japanese economic migrants sought a new life across the Pacific in Brazil. But for today’s Japanese in search of employment, China, with its geographic proximity and increasingly close economic ties with Japan, is a natural choice.

　　上世纪初，成千上万日本经济移民穿越太平洋，在巴西找到新生活。但对今天的日本人来说，如果要到海外工作，那么地理位置毗邻日本、与日本经济联系日益密切的中国才是当然之选。

　　Trade between China and Japan rose 17.9 per cent year-on-year in the first half of 2011 to a record for the half year of $163.15bn, according to the Japan External Trade Organisation.

　　根据日本贸易振兴机构(Japan External Trade Organisation)的数据，2011年上半年，中日双边贸易额同比增长17.9%，达到1631.5亿美元，创下有史以来最高的上半年纪录。

　　Recruit Agent, a Japanese recruitment company, which is trying to place 880 Japanese workers in China, says the number of Japanese seeking work in China has been rising strongly.

　　日本招聘公司Recruit Agent正在努力为880名日本人在中国物色工作。该公司表示，日本人在中国找工作的人数一直在强劲增长。

　　Yasutaka Matsuda, business development manager at the recruitment firm, says one reason for the trend is the increase in Japanese companies opening R&D sites and sales offices in China.

　　该公司的业务拓展经理Yasutaka Matsuda表示，越来越多的日本企业在中国开设研发基地和销售代表处，这是导致上述趋势的原因之一。

　　For example, Sony-Ericsson, the mobile handset maker, opened an R&D centre in Beijing this July.

　　譬如，手机生产商索尼-爱立信(Sony Ericsson)就于7月份在北京开设了一家研发中心。

　　Mr Matsuda adds that increasingly many of these companies prefer to hire Japanese staff, including managers, locally, to avoid the expense of shipping expatriate employees from Japan. Those Japanese managers recruited in China often face a cut in their pay of at least 50 per cent, says Mr Matsuda.

　　Matsuda还表示，许多日资公司日益倾向于在中国雇用日本人、包括管理人员，这样可省下把员工从日本外派至中国的费用。他说，那些在中国得到聘用的日本经理通常薪水会减少一半以上。

　　“But these people are generally not that concerned about pay. Rather, they are keen to put their experience and expertise to good use,” he says.

　　“不过这些人总体来说并不是那么在意薪水。相反，他们迫切希望让自己的经验和专业知识创造出价值。”

　　Kazuhiro Matsufuji, for example, came under pressure to take early retirement from the Japanese food manufacturing company he worked for just before his 55th birthday.

　　例如，Kazuhiro Matsufuji原先在日本一家食品生产公司工作。就在自己55岁生日前夕，他迫于压力提早从这家公司退休。

　　A decade later, Mr Matsufuji is back at work – in China – as senior project leader at Lead-S, another recruitment company that introduces Japanese workers to companies in China.

　　10年后，Matsufuji重返职场——不过这次是在中国工作。他目前在Lead-S担任高级项目负责人。Lead-S也是一家介绍日本工人到中国工作的招聘公司。

　　Not all Japanese workers are seeing their salaries shrink. Experienced Japanese production managers and Japanese engineers with expertise in advanced technologies that the Chinese companies want to develop, such as solar batteries and electric cars, can command relatively high salaries, according to recruitment agencies.

　　并不是所有日本人到中国工作后都会面临薪水缩水情况。据招聘公司表示，富有经验的日本生产经理、以及掌握先进技术（比如太阳能电池和电动汽车等中国企业希望开发的技术）知识的日本工程师，就能拿到相对较高的薪水。

　　Metalworking engineers, for example, can command monthly salaries as high as Rmb50,000 ($7,840), according to Lead-S.

　　例如，据Lead-S表示，金属加工工程师能拿到高达5万元人民币（合7840美元）的月薪。

　　Darryl Green, head of the Asia business at Manpower, the recruitment group, which has placed 1,000 Japanese managers in jobs in China in the past 18 months, says Japanese engineers are “a great source of ... experience for emerging market countries.”

　　招聘集团万宝盛华(Manpower)亚洲区负责人戴瑞尔?格林(Darryl Green)表示，日本工程师是“为新兴市场国家带来经验的一大源泉”。万宝盛华过去一年半里为1000名日本人在中国找到了管理工作。

　　They are typically engineers who “couldn’t quite get a top position” at their Japanese employer, so were lured to China by the high salaries and benefits.

　　他们一般是以前在日本公司“爬不到最高层”的工程师，被高薪和高福利吸引到中国来。

　　“They’re a bit like movie stars with their contracts,” says Mr Green.

　　格林表示：“他们有点像签约的电影明星。”