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“Can They Change My Contract?”: Protecting Your Workplace Rights in Japan 20 Apr 6:39 PM (9 days ago)

Right now, the General Union is handling cases at Japanese tech companies where well-established workplace practices have come under threat. These include businesses pushing for return-to-office mandates after years of remote work, eliminating flexible scheduling, and cutting bonuses and other forms of compensation.

Japanese labour law protects workers in two significant ways here. First, there’s the principle of established workplace practices (労使慣行, roudou kankou), protected through decades of court precedents, which can give unwritten customs the same legal weight as written rules. Then there’s Article 8 of the Labour Contract Law, which prevents employers from unilaterally changing documented working conditions.

But having these legal protections is only half the battle. While the courts have established strong precedents, as an individual, pursuing these rights can be prohibitively difficult. Taking an employer to court is expensive, time-consuming, and potentially career-damaging. This is where collective action through unions becomes essential. Unions provide both the legal expertise and collective leverage needed to uphold these rights.

By understanding their legal rights and organizing collectively, developers can effectively protect and even improve their workplace conditions in this critical moment.

How the courts protect you

A series of landmark cases in Japan created robust protections for workplace customs, also known as established employment practices. But what qualifies as an established employment practice?

Case 1: Post-Retirement Employment Practice (RECOGNISED)

東豊観光事件 (Toho Kanko), Osaka District Court 28, June 1990

In this order by the court, the company’s work regulations stated that the forced retirement age (定年, teinen) was 55. In practice, however, the company repeatedly kept employees on after they had reached this age. This custom continued for six years (1984–1990), during which 7 out of 8 employees who reached the age of 55 were retained. When the company terminated the 55 year-old plaintiff, citing the official retirement rule, the plaintiff sued for confirmation of employment status.

The court stated that the practice of continued employment after 55 had become an established workplace custom. That custom overrode the written regulations, despite its relatively short period of practice, because it had been consistently applied to almost all employees who had reached the retirement age during that time.

Case 2: Extra Pay for Substitute Holidays (DENIED)

商大八戸の里ドライビングスクール事件 (Syodai Yae-no-sato Driving School), Osaka High Court 25 June, 1993, and upheld by Supreme Court 9 March, 1995

Employees claimed entitlement to extra pay when working on a substitute holiday. The company’s policy was that every other Monday was a day off. If that particular Monday fell on a national holiday, Tuesday would become the substitute day off (振替休日, furikae kyuujitsu). The question was whether working on these Tuesday substitute holidays entitled workers to extra holiday pay.

Although this practice had existed for 10 years, both the Osaka High Court, and the Supreme Court denied that it was an established workplace practice because the specific situation—working on a Tuesday substitute holiday—had only occurred 8–10 times during that period. This case demonstrates that frequency matters. Even when established over a lengthy period of time, if the actual instances of the practice are rare, it may not be considered established.

Case 3: Bonus Amount Practice (PARTIALLY RECOGNISED)

立命館事件 (Ritsumeikan), Kyoto District Court 29 March 2012 (appealed, outcome uncertain)

This case involved a bonus dispute. For 14 years, according to labour agreements (労働協約, roudou kyouyaku), the company had paid a bonus of 6.1 months’ salary plus 100,000 yen. However, there was no provision about bonuses in the company work rules (就業規則, shuugyou kisoku). When the employer announced the forthcoming bonus would be only 5.1 months’ salary, employees claimed the higher amount was an established practice.

The court made an interesting distinction:

• It ruled that the specific amount (6.1 months + 100,000 yen) was NOT an established practice because there had been negotiations each year before agreeing on the amount, even though the final amount had always been the same.
• However, it recognised that “at least 6 months’ salary” had become an established practice, because the employer’s initial offer had never been lower than 6 months throughout the 14-year period.

This case demonstrates the nuanced way courts examine whether a practice has created a legitimate expectation that can’t be unilaterally changed.

These examples show that determining what constitutes an established workplace practice isn’t a simple matter of time. Courts look at consistency, frequency, specificity, and whether both sides understood the practice to be binding—even if they didn’t write it down.

Other cases of interest

The courts’ protection of established practices has occasionally been implemented in surprising ways. Take a case from 1968 that went all the way to the Tokyo High Court. The issue? Whether railway workers could continue their long-standing practice of using the company bath at 4 p.m. and clocking out at 4:30. At first glance, it might seem trivial—why fight over a bathing schedule? But the court’s decision was significant: after 13 years of this practice, with management’s knowledge and acceptance, it had become a legally-protected workplace custom that couldn’t be unilaterally changed.

In the 1973 Shishido Shokai case (宍戸商会事件), the Tokyo District Court ruled that a company must pay severance to a voluntarily-resigned employee because consistent payment to other departing employees had established a binding workplace custom. The court classified these payments as deferred wages, confirming that consistent practices can create legal rights without written policies.

Even when ruling in employers’ favour, courts have reinforced the importance of established practices. The 1982 Daiwa Bank case (大和銀行事件) upheld the bank’s long-standing practice of paying bonuses only to those still employed on payment dates, ruling that workers who left before payment weren’t entitled to bonuses despite working during the calculation period.

These court precedents have established principles that apply universally across all industries. Whether a railway worker’s bathing schedule from the 1960s or solidifying employer rights, established employment practices are a real concept that can be parlayed into tech workers’ fight to maintain their working conditions.

What does the law say?

Article 8 of the Labour Contract Law also protects you against unilateral changes to working conditions.

So, what constitutes the “contents of a labour contract”? Does this only deal with working conditions that are specifically written into your employment contract?

According to General Union Chair Toshiaki Asari, “The idea that long-standing practices can become part of the employment contract and receive legal protection—even if they aren’t explicitly written—is well-established as a legal doctrine. Therefore, long-standing practices should also fall under the protections of Article 8 of the Labour Contract Law, just like written working conditions.”

This perspective is supported by a significant 1991 Supreme Court ruling in the Hitachi Musashi Factory case (日立製作所武蔵工場事件). When an employee refused to work overtime during a production issue, claiming the request was unreasonable, the court found that the company’s consistent practice of requiring overtime in specific situations had become an implied term of employment—even without documentation. Because this practice was long-standing and implicitly accepted by employees over time, the court upheld the company’s disciplinary action. Though the ruling was in the employer’s favor, it also established that workplace customs, through consistent application and mutual understanding, can become legally binding components of employment contracts.

Does this mean an employer can never change any working condition? The short answer is: they certainly can. This right of the employer to change working conditions is established in both Articles 9 and 10 of the Labour Contract Law. However, Article 9 also sets up a fundamental principle: employers cannot unilaterally change working conditions to workers’ disadvantage by modifying work rules without employee agreement.

• Properly communicated to workers
• Reasonable given the degree of disadvantage to workers
• Necessary for the business
• Appropriate in their revised content
• Preceded by proper negotiations with unions or worker representatives

This framework ensures that while employers can adapt to changing business needs, they cannot do so by simply imposing disadvantageous changes on workers without justification or prior consultation.

The reality of defending your rights

But what do these legal protections really mean in practice? Terms like disadvantages, reasonable, necessary, and appropriate sound reassuring on paper. Yet their practical meaning becomes far less clear when your employer suddenly demands you return to the office after five years of remote work, or changes how raises are calculated, or alters stock option arrangements.

Taking your employer to court is a long, expensive process that could take years to resolve, and that’s not only in the case of established employment practices. Even the seemingly clear prescriptions of the Labour Contract Law can only be enforced through court action.

In the meantime, you’re stuck working under the contested conditions, while potentially damaging both your career and wellbeing. And remember, if you want to negotiate with your employer about changes to workplace practices, they have no legal obligation to even meet with you. They can simply ignore your requests or refuse outright.

The power of collective action

Unlike individual workers, who can be ignored or denied the chance to meet with management, employers cannot legally refuse to negotiate with a labour union.

Unions offer multiple pathways for protecting workers’ rights and established employment practices. One key strategy is establishing prior consultation agreements (事前協議協定, jizen kyougi kyoutei), which require employers to inform and consult with the union before implementing changes to working conditions. By securing a seat at the table early, unions can influence decisions and propose alternatives before changes are implemented, rather than fighting them after the fact.

Through collective bargaining, unions can also convert established workplace practices into written agreements, giving them stronger protection than relying on court precedents alone. By codifying these customs in collective agreements, they become immune to unilateral changes by employers. This matters because collective agreements sit at the top of the workplace rules hierarchy, superseding both individual contracts and company work rules—they’re the gold standard in protecting workers’ rights.

True, an employer might still break a collective agreement, but unlike individual workers who can only turn to courts or government agencies, unions have multiple ways to respond. They can file complaints with the Labour Commission, as violating a collective agreement constitutes an unfair labour practice under the Trade Union Law. Most importantly, unions retain the right to take direct action through strikes and other collective measures—options simply not available to individual workers.

While some employers might still attempt to violate the law, most understand that directly confronting unions by targeting their members creates more problems than it’s worth. Remember, your right to labour union representation is enshrined both in the Trade Union Law and Article 28 of the Constitution, which states that “The right of workers to organise and to bargain and act collectively is guaranteed.”

Unions can also push beyond merely protecting existing rights, into negotiating improvements that particularly matter to tech workers—like expanded remote work options, clearer overtime compensation for project crunch times, training and skill development budgets, improved parental leave policies, and protections against excessive on-call rotations. Unions can also establish guidelines on emerging issues like AI implementation policies and the right to disconnect after working hours.

Conclusion

For developers, this situation presents a unique opportunity for collective action. Japan’s tech industry, worth nearly 22 trillion yen in domestic IT investments alone, mirrors the automotive industry of mid-20th century America—a wealthy, rapidly growing sector desperately in need of workers at all skill levels. Like the auto plants of Detroit, modern tech companies rely on a diverse workforce ranging from highly-paid specialists to entry-level developers.

This combination—a wealthy industry, a significant labour shortage, and the critical role tech workers play in company operations—creates unprecedented leverage for collective action. Just as auto workers used their position to secure better wages and working conditions in the 1950s and 1960s, tech workers today could wield similar influence. The cost of lost productivity in tech companies can run into millions of yen per day, giving organised workers significant bargaining power.

Moreover, unlike in traditional manufacturing where production delays might only affect future sales, many tech companies lose revenue immediately when work stops. By maintaining critical systems, supporting client operations, and keeping online services running, tech workers’ daily tasks directly impact their companies’ bottom lines. Even a small group of organised workers can effectively advocate for better conditions.

Through union membership, you combine legal protection with collective power—that is, you have both the law on your side and an active organisation working to protect your rights, with real mechanisms to enforce them.

How to Grow Your Startup Through Community 25 Mar 3:02 PM (last month)

Over my career, I’ve spent at least one thousand working hours on supporting local developer communities. My current business, TokyoDev, has spent over 8 million Japanese yen (about 53,000 USD) on community sponsorships. What have I received in return? That depends on your viewpoint.

Those companies are:

• Mobalean, a technical consultancy that helped companies like PayPal, Match.com, and Estee Lauder build web apps for Japanese feature phones
• Doorkeeper, an event registration platform that hosted thousands of events per month
• TokyoDev, a job board that helps international software engineers get jobs in Japan

If I hadn’t volunteered for and donated to various developer communities, two out of those three businesses would never have been founded at all, and TokyoDev certainly wouldn’t be the success story it is today.

So, despite these “unequal” returns, one of the best strategies for my startups has been to get involved with communities whenever possible. I’ll go over some of the different ways communities have helped grow my businesses, and give specific examples of wins we’ve experienced over the years.

Growing through existing communities

There are two kinds of communities that can help you grow your startup: preexisting communities independent of your business, and communities you build around the business itself. My companies got their start due to my involvement in existing communities, and I think that is the easier place to begin. Already-established communities not only come with their own networks, but are usually easy to join and happy to receive support.

Volunteering

This was the origin of Doorkeeper. An industry event, Mobile Monday Tokyo, was registering hundreds of people for their events. Checking those people in at the door was always time-consuming, particularly as some names were in English and others in Japanese, giving no good way to sort the list. Seeing this, my cofounders and I proposed building some software to send out QR code tickets. Back in 2008, that was still a relatively novel idea. Mobile Monday was happy for us to do it, so we quickly built a one-off solution for them. We went further than that though—we also personally manned the doors for their events.

That sense of satisfaction wasn’t the only immediate payoff—because we got involved in the event, it also served as marketing for Mobalean, our technical consultancy. We made connections with people in the industry, and when they had projects related to mobile web development, they started coming to us.

Later, after we’d solved all of Mobile Monday’s event registration and ticketing needs, we thought other organizations might benefit from our work. We spent months rebuilding the tool to support multiple communities and launched it as Doorkeeper. Initially, though, it struggled to get users.

Meanwhile, we continued to volunteer with other communities we were interested in, such as Startup Weekend Japan and RubyKaigi, Japan’s (and possibly the world’s) largest Ruby conference. We didn’t directly ask those communities to use our software, but after we got involved with them, they decided of their own accord to start using Doorkeeper. Because these events made quite an impact on the tech community in Japan, they helped us grow immensely, leading Doorkeeper to become the most popular platform for developer events in Japan.

Business-wise, Doorkeeper was never a runaway success. We struggled for years to monetize it. The turning point was when we announced we’d go from being a freemium service to an exclusively paid one. A lot of organizers stopped using us, but enough continued that I could finally pay myself a decent salary from the product’s revenue alone. What’s more, there was almost no backlash against the move. I think this was because we’d been socially connected to the organizers for the entire history of the company, and they could see that we were being genuine when we said there was no other way forward. I’ve since sold Doorkeeper, but the lessons I learned still stick with me.

Speaking at community events

Over the years, I’ve delivered numerous presentations on software development and entrepreneurship at different community events. At least for someone like myself, who doesn’t regularly give talks, preparing for them can be quite time-consuming.

The closest we came to that was after speaking at a Ruby event about a library for handling subscriptions with PayPal. As part of the talk, we mentioned a new side project we were working on, a web app to make Japanese invoices. One of the attendees, a prominent member of the Japanese Ruby community, tweeted about the new service, effectively launching it. That initial buzz and the SEO-friendly domain name (the Japanese word for invoice), helped us become one of the top search results. The project didn’t end up going anywhere as a business, though, and we sold it around a year later.

Starting your own independent community

In 2010, I created Tokyo Rubyist Meetup, Japan’s first English-language community for Ruby developers. The goal of the group was to bring together the Japanese and international Ruby communities, and I believe we’ve succeeded.

I think my efforts in organizing that community may have been why RubyKaigi chose to adopt Doorkeeper for their event registration. It also helped me connect with some of Mobalean’s best consulting clients. Finally—and most importantly—it indirectly led to developing TokyoDev as a business.

Sponsoring existing organizations

The methods I’ve talked about so far involve a lot of time but no cost. Sponsoring existing organizations is the opposite: all it requires is money. The cost involved depends on the scale of the sponsorship, and the perceived value of the community.

I sought out some local organizations and offered to sponsor them, including a few that had never had sponsors before. Since then, TokyoDev has also sponsored local tech conferences, including RubyKaigi.

These sponsorships have ranged from 100,000 yen (about 665 USD) on the low end to 1.5 million yen (about 10,000 USD) on the high end. In total, TokyoDev has spent over 8 million yen (about 53,000 USD) on sponsorships. Some of the big-ticket sponsorships have come with booths at conferences, which do provide new opportunities, but also additional costs—staffing the booths, airfare, hotels, etc.

The more expensive conference sponsorships have directly resulted in several new clients for the job board, but not yet in any additional revenue (because we take a success-based approach, and those clients haven’t made any hires through us yet).

I think for sponsorships to be really cost-effective, the target audience of the community must match your startup perfectly. Part of our challenge has been that many of these communities are primarily composed of Japanese software engineers, who aren’t the main users of TokyoDev.

Still, while these sponsorships haven’t been a cost-effective way of improving our bottom line, they have helped communities and gotten the word out, as well as offering some other knock-on benefits. One specific example is from 2024, when we gave away one of our sponsor tickets to a job-hunting developer, and they found a position through a connection they made at the conference.

Another example is “in-house.” One of our contractors introduced her daughter to a community we’ve sponsored, which helps young women get into software development. This inspired her daughter to become interested in programming and eventually to enroll in the program—something nobody in her family had anticipated!

Growing your own communities

While TokyoDev got its start thanks to local, preexisting organizations, we’ve also worked hard to create our own TokyoDev community, both online and off.

Running an online community

One of the first articles I wrote for TokyoDev was in response to a reader’s question about how I got my job as a developer in Japan. Over the years, I continued to receive emails asking for personalized advice. While I was happy to respond to people individually, it felt like that knowledge could also be of use to other people, so I started a forum using Discourse. Over the years I’d get questions on there, and occasionally someone else might chime in with their experience, but it was mostly just me responding to queries, and so wasn’t anything I’d call a “community.”

Along the way, one of our contractors pointed out that it would be nice to create a space where we could casually talk to our users. After he brought it up several times, I made a Discord community. This quickly took off, and currently sits at about 7,000 members.

Growing such a community hasn’t been without its challenges. The primary difficulty is moderation—no matter how we handle it, some users feel alienated. Have too soft a hand? The loudest voices win, driving away other valuable contributors. Reprimand or ban people? You make enemies out of what were once fans.

We have seen several benefits from our online community. At least one client made a hire through us that I can directly attribute to our Discord. That said, it’s the indirect benefits that have proven most valuable. For instance, our Discord helped us identify common challenges that developers face when relocating to Japan, making it a good source of topics for articles. We’ve also been able to ask members with unique experiences to write articles for the site, and their posts have been some of the most popular, such as one on Japan’s digital nomad visa.

Organizing offline events

As our Discord community grew, members started asking us to host offline meetups. We held our first one with a dozen or so people at a space we rented out ourselves, and provided soft drinks. This cost us about 30,000 yen (200 USD).

The meetup was a success and we continued to host. Eventually, one of our members offered to hold the meetups at their company. This change allowed us to grow the meetups further, and we started regularly maxing out their capacity with 40 or so attendees. It also meant we only needed to pay for the soft drinks, bringing our cost down to 5,000 yen (33 USD). Not only was that quite cost-effective, but the company hosting the event eventually became a client of ours.

We also started using our offline meetings to bring our clients together with the larger developer community, by holding collaborative events where the client gives presentations that are technically interesting to our audience. We’re careful to make sure these aren’t direct recruiting events, as I think that would drive away the very people our clients are looking to hire. By indirectly highlighting why it is interesting to work with them, however, our clients have been able to find more prospects.

Initially, we catered these events with pizza and soft drinks, which cost around 30,000 yen (200 USD) for a 40 person event. Since we haven’t been charging clients for organizing these talks, we began asking them to provide food and drinks instead.

In addition to this offline community for software engineers, we’ve also started to build another offline community for the internal recruiters using TokyoDev. We began by hosting small dinners with internal recruiters from three or four different clients. This gave them the opportunity to share about the challenges they faced hiring international engineers. Hosting such a dinner cost us about 30,000 yen (200 USD), and led one company that was on the fence to start using TokyoDev.

The dinners have proven to be a big success, and recruiters tell us they want to attend more, but there’s only so much time we can spend on them. To augment these networking meals, we’ve also started holding seminars on the topic of hiring engineers, so we can bring together a larger number of our clients at once. These don’t have quite the impact as the small dinners, but they are more scalable.

Conclusion

Communities have been key to all of my businesses. If my focus had been solely on maximizing revenues, I think the time and money I’ve spent on community involvement could have been better used elsewhere.

But the nice thing about being an entrepreneur is that you get to choose your own metrics for success.
For me, helping others has always been more important than personal profit. That’s why growing my companies through the community has been the perfect strategy.

If you’re an entrepreneur looking to combine business and the common good, I recommend finding ways to build your company through the community as well. Whether it’s by spending your own time volunteering, contributing part of your business’s revenues to causes you care about, or building up a community around your brand, all these avenues can help both your enterprise and the public at large.

Reduced Hours and Remote Work Options for Employees with Young Children in Japan 23 Mar 8:23 PM (last month)

Japan already stipulates that employers must offer the option of reduced working hours to employees with children under three. However, the Child Care and Family Care Leave Act was amended in May 2024, with some of the new provisions coming into effect April 1 or October 1, 2025.

The updates to the law address:

• Remote work
• Flexible start and end times
• Reduced hours
• On-site childcare facilities
• Compensation for lost salary
• And more

Legal changes are one thing, of course, and social changes are another. Though employers are mandated to offer these options, how many employees in Japan actually avail themselves of these benefits? Does doing so create any stigma or resentment? Recent studies reveal an unsurprising gender disparity in accepting a modified work schedule, but generally positive attitudes toward these accommodations overall.

The current reduced work options

Reduced work schedules for employees with children under three years old are currently regulated by Article 23(1) of the Child Care and Family Care Leave Act. This Article stipulates that employers are required to offer accommodations to employees with children under three years old.

Eligible employees for the reduced work schedule are those who:

1. Have children under three years old
2. Normally work more than six hours a day
3. Are not employed as day laborers
4. Are not on childcare leave during the period to which the reduced work schedule applies
5. Are not one of the following, which are exempted from the labor-management agreement
   1. Employees who have been employed by the company for less than one year
   2. Employees whose prescribed working days per week are two days or less

Although the law requires employers to provide reduced work schedules only while the child is under three years old, some companies allow their employees with older children to work shorter hours as well. According to a 2020 survey by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, 15.8% of companies permit their employees to use the system until their children enter primary school, while 5.7% allow it until their children turn nine years old or enter third grade. Around 4% offer reduced hours until children graduate from elementary school, and 15.4% of companies give the option even after children have entered middle school.

If, considering the nature or conditions of the work, it is difficult to give a reduced work schedule to employees, the law stipulates other measures such as flexible working hours. This law has now been altered, though, to include other accommodations.

Updates to The Child Care and Family Care Leave Act

Previously, remote work was not an option for employees with young children. Now, from April 1, 2025, employers must make an effort to allow employees with children under the age of three to work remotely if they choose.

From October 1, 2025, employers are also obligated to provide two or more of the following measures to employees with children between the ages of three and the time they enter elementary school.

1. An altered start time without changing the daily working hours, either by using a flex time system or by changing both the start and finish time for the workday
2. The option to work remotely without changing daily working hours, which can be used 10 or more days per month
3. Company-sponsored childcare, by providing childcare facilities or other equivalent benefits (e.g., arranging for babysitters and covering the cost)
4. 10 days of leave per year to support employees’ childcare without changing daily working hours
5. A reduced work schedule, which must include the option of 6-hour days

How much it’s used in practice

Of course, there’s always a gap between what the law specifies, and what actually happens in practice. How many parents typically make use of these legally-mandated accommodations, and for how long?

The numbers

A survey conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in 2020 studied uptake of the reduced work schedule among employees with children under three years old. In this category, 40.8% of female permanent employees (正社員, seishain) and 21.6% of women who were not permanent employees answered that they use, or had used, the reduced work schedule. Only 12.3% of male permanent employees said the same.

Of those employees who prefer the shorter schedule, how long do they typically use the benefit? The following charts, using data from the 2022 survey, show at what point those employees stop reducing their hours and return to a full-time schedule.

From the companies’ perspectives, according to a survey conducted by the Cabinet Office in 2023, 65.9% of employers answered that their reduced work schedule system is fully used by their employees.

What’s the public perception?

Some fear that the number of people using the reduced work program—and, especially, the number of women—has created an impression of unfairness for those employees who work full-time. This is a natural concern, but statistics paint a different picture.

While attitudes may vary from company to company, the public overall doesn’t seem to attach any stigma to parents who reduce their work schedules.

Is this “the Mommy Track”?

Others are concerned that working shorter hours will detour their career path. According to this report by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 47.6% of male permanent employees indicated that, as the result of working fewer hours, they had been changed to a position with less responsibility. The same thing happened to 65.6% of male non-permanent employees, and 22.7% of female permanent employees. Therefore, it’s possible that using the reduced work schedule can affect one’s immediate chances for advancement.

However, while 25% of male permanent employees and 15.5% of female permanent employees said the quality and importance of the work they were assigned had gone down, 21.4% of male and 18.1% of female permanent employees said the quality had gone up. Considering 53.6% of male and 66.4% of female permanent employees said it stayed the same, there seems to be no strong correlation between reducing one’s working hours, and being given less interesting or important tasks.

Reduced work means reduced salary

These reduced work schedules usually entail dropping below the originally-contracted work hours, which means the employer does not have to pay the employee for the time they did not work. For example, consider a person who normally works 8 hours a day reducing their work time to 6 hours a day (a 25% reduction). If their monthly salary is 300,000 yen, it would also decrease accordingly by 25% to 225,000 yen.

Previously, both men and women have avoided reduced work schedules, because they do not want to lose income. As more mothers than fathers choose to work shorter hours, this financial burden tends to fall more heavily on women.

Returning to the previous example, this stipend would grant 10% of the reduced salary, or 22,500 yen per month, bringing the total monthly paycheck to 247,500 yen, or 82.5% of the normal salary. This additional stipend, while helpful, may not be enough to persuade some families to accept shorter hours.

The childcare short-time employment benefits are available to employees who meet the following criteria:

1. The person is insured, and is working shorter hours to care for a child under two years old.
2. The person started a reduced work schedule immediately after using the childcare leave covered by childcare leave benefits, or the person has been insured for 12 months in the two years prior to the reduced work schedule.

Conclusion

Japan’s newly-mandated options for reduced schedules, remote work, financial benefits, and other childcare accommodations could help many families in Japan. However, these programs will only prove beneficial if enough employees take advantage of them.

As of now, there’s some concern that parents who accept shorter schedules could look bad or end up damaging their careers in the long run. Statistically speaking, some of the news is good: most people view parents who reduce their hours either positively or neutrally, not negatively. But other surveys indicate that a reduction in work hours often equates to a reduction in responsibility, which could indeed have long-term effects.

That’s why it’s important for more parents to use these accommodations freely. Not only will doing so directly benefit the children, but it will also lessen any negative stigma associated with claiming them. This is particularly true for fathers, who can help even the playing field for their female colleagues by using these perks just as much as the mothers in their offices. And since the state is now offering a stipend to help compensate for lost income, there’s less and less reason not to take full advantage of these programs.

Top Coworking Spaces in Karuizawa 9 Mar 9:41 PM (last month)

Since November 2023, I’ve been living in Karuizawa, a small resort town that’s 70 minutes away from Tokyo by Shinkansen. The elevation is approximately 1000 meters above sea level, making the summers relatively mild. Unlike other colder places in Japan, it doesn’t get much snow, and has the same sunny winters I came to love in Tokyo.

With COVID and the remote work boom, it’s also become popular among professionals such as myself who want to live somewhere with an abundance of nature, but who still need to commute into Tokyo on a semi-regular basis.

While I have a home office, I sometimes like to work outside. So I thought I’d share my impressions of the coworking spaces in town that I’ve personally visited, and a few other places where you can get some work done when you’re in town.

Sawamura Roastery

Sawamura Roastery is technically a cafe, but it’s my personal favourite coworking space. It has free wifi, outlets, and comfortable chairs. While their coffees are on the expensive side, at about 750 yen for a cafe latte, they are also some of Karuizawa’s best. It’s empty enough on weekday mornings that I feel fine about staying there for hours, making it a deal compared to official drop-in coworking spaces.

Another bonus is that it opens early: 7 a.m. (or 8 a.m. during the winter months). This allows me to start working right after I drop off my kids at daycare, rather than having 20 odd minutes to kill before heading to the other places that open at 9 a.m.

If you’re having an online meeting, you can make use of the outdoor seating. It’s perfect when the weather is nice, but they also have heating for when it isn’t.

The downsides are that their playlist is rather short, so I’m constantly hearing the same songs, and their roasting machine sometimes gets quite noisy.

Gokalab

Gokalab is my favourite dedicated coworking space in Karuizawa. Technically it is in Miyota, the next town over, which is sometimes called “Nishikaruizawa”. But it’s the only coworking space in the area I’ve been to that feels like it has a real community.

When you want to work here, you have three options: buy a drink (600 yen for a cafe au lait—no cafe lattes, unfortunately, but if you prefer black coffee they have a good selection) and work out of the cafe area on the first floor; pay their daily drop-in fee of 1,000 yen; or become a “researcher” (研究員, kenkyuin) for 3,000 yen per month and enjoy unlimited usage.

Now you may be thinking that the last option is a steal. That’s because it is. However, to become a researcher you need to go through a workshop that involves making something out of LEGO, and submit an essay about why you want to use the space. The thinking behind this is that they want to support people who actually share their vision, and aren’t just after a cheap space to work or study. Kind of zany, but that sort of out-of-the-box thinking is exactly what I want in a coworking space.

When I first moved to Karuizawa, my youngest child couldn’t get into the local daycare. However, we found out that in Miyota, Suginoko Kindergarten had part-time spots available for two year olds. My wife and I ended up taking turns driving my kid there, and then spending the morning working out of Gokalab.

Since my youngest is now in a local daycare, I haven’t made it out to Gokalab much. It’s just a bit too far for me (about a 15-minute drive from my house, while other options on this list are at most a 15-minute bicycle ride). But if I was living closer, I’d be a regular there.

232 Coworking Space & Hotel

If you’re looking for a coworking space near Karuizawa station, 232 Coworking Space & Hotel is the best option I’ve come across. The “hotel” part of the name made me think they were focused on “workcations,” but the space seems like it caters to locals as well.

The space offers free coffee via an automatic espresso machine, along with other drinks, and a decent number of desks. When I used it on a Monday morning in the off-season, it was moderately occupied at perhaps a quarter capacity.

Everyone spoke in whispers, so it felt a bit like a library. There were two booths for calls, but unfortunately they were both occupied when I wanted to have mine, so I had to sit in the hall instead. If the weather was a bit warmer I would have taken it outside, as there was some nice covered seating available.

The decor was nice, though the chairs weren’t that comfortable. After a couple of hours I was getting sore. It was also too dimly lit for me, without much natural light.

The price for drop-ins is reasonable, starting at 1,500 yen for four hours. They also have monthly plans starting from 10,000 yen for five days per month.

What I found missing was a feeling of community. I didn’t see any small talk between the people working there, though I was only there for a couple hours, and maybe this occurs at other times. Their webpage also mentioned that they host events, but apparently they don’t have any upcoming ones planned and haven’t had any in a while.

Shozo Coffee Karuizawa

Shozo Coffee Karuizawa is a cafe on the first floor of the bookstore in Karuizawa Commongrounds. The second floor has a dedicated coworking space, but for me personally, the cafe is a better deal. Their cafe latte is mid-tier and 700 yen. In the afternoons I’ll go for their chai to avoid over-caffeination. They offer free wifi and have signs posted asking you not to hold online meetings, implicitly making it clear that otherwise they don’t mind you working there.

Location-wise, this place is very convenient for me, but it suffers from a fatal flaw that prevents me from working there for an extended amount of time: the tables are way too low for me to type comfortably. I’m tall though (190 cm), so they aren’t designed with me in mind.

Roundabout Cafe

After first publishing this article, I had several people recommend I check out Roundabout Cafe. It’s located within WORK × ation Site, which is a coworking space that seems to be aimed at companies having corporate off-sites. I don’t exactly get if the Cafe is an independent business, but on the day I visited, there wasn’t anyone using the coworking space area, and the proprietor said I could use it while having my coffee.

I really wanted to like this space. The proprietor was quite friendly, and the space had good lighting and a nice view. But unfortunately the cafe latte wasn’t to my taste, and the seating was a bit hard, so an hour or two was the max I’d use it for. If I was ever looking to rent a place to host twenty plus people though, I’d definitely consider using it.

Sheridan

Sheridan is a western breakfast and brunch restaurant. They aren’t that busy on weekdays and have free wifi, plus the owner was happy to let me work there. The coffee comes in a pot with enough for at least one refill. There’s also some covered outdoor seating.

I used this spot to get some work done when my child was sick and being looked after at the wonderful Hochi Lodge (ほっちのロージ). It’s a clinic and sick childcare facility that does its best to not let on that it’s a medical facility. The doctors and nurses don’t wear uniforms, and appointments there feel more like you’re visiting someone’s home. Sheridan is within walking distance of it.

Natural Cafeina

If you’d like to get a bit of work done over an excellent cappuccino, Natural Cafeina is a good option. This cafe feels a bit cramped, and as there isn’t much seating, I wouldn’t want to use it for an extended period of time. Also, the music was also a bit loud. But they do have free wifi, and when I visited, there were a couple of other customers besides myself working there.

Nakakaruizawa Library

The Nakakaruizawa Library is a beautiful space with plenty of desks facing the windows and free wifi. Anyone can use it for free, making it the most economical coworking space in town. I’ve tried working out of it, but found that, for me personally, it wasn’t conducive to work. It is still a library, and there’s something about the vibes that just doesn’t inspire me.

Karuizawa Commongrounds Bookstore Coworking Space

The renowned bookstore Tsutaya operates Karuizawa Books in the Karuizawa Commongrounds development. The second floor has a coworking space that features the “cheap chic” look common among hip coworking spaces. Unfinished plywood is everywhere, as are books.

I’d never actually worked at this space until writing this article. The price is just too high for me to justify it, as it starts at 1,100 yen for a mere hour, to a max of 4,000 yen per day. At 22,000 yen per month, it’s a more reasonable price for someone using it as an office full time. But I already have a home office and just want somewhere I can drop in at occasionally.

There are a couple options, seating-wise. Most of the seats are in booths, which I found rather dark but with comfortable chairs. Then there’s a row of stools next to the window, which offer a good view, but are too uncomfortable for me. Depending on your height, the bar there may work as a standing desk. Lastly, there are two coveted seats with office chairs by a window, but they were both occupied when I visited.

The emphasis here seems to be on individual deep work, and though there were a number of other people working, I’d have felt uncomfortable striking up a conversation with one of them. That’s enough to make me give it a pass.

Coworking Space Ikoi Villa

Coworking Space Ikoi Villa is located in Naka-Karuizawa, relatively close to my home. I’ve only used it once though.

It’s part of a hotel, and they converted the lobby to a coworking space by putting a bunch of desks and chairs in it. If all you need is wifi and space to work, it gets the job done. But it’s a shame they didn’t invest a bit more in making it feel like a nice place to work.

I went during the summer on one of the hottest days. My house only had one AC unit and couldn’t keep up, so I was hoping to find somewhere cooler to work. But they just had the windows open with some fans going, which left me disappointed.

This was ostensibly the peak season for Karuizawa, but only a couple of others were working there that day. Maybe the regulars knew it’d be too hot, but it felt kind of lonely for a coworking space.

The drop-in fee starts at 1,000 yen for four hours. It comes with free drinks from a machine: green tea, coffee, and water, if I recall correctly.

Karuizawa Prince The Workation Core

Karuizawa Prince The Workation Core is a coworking space located in my least favourite part of the town—the outlet mall. The throngs of shoppers and rampant commercialism are in stark contrast to the serenity found farther away from the station. This is another coworking space I visited expressly for this article.

The fee is 660 yen per 30 minutes, to a maximum of 6,336 yen per day. Even now, just reading that maximum, my heart skipped a beat. This is certainly the most expensive coworking space I’ve ever worked from—I better get this article done fast.

The facilities include a large open space with reasonably comfortable seating. There are a number of booths with monitors. As they are 23.8 inch monitors with 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, they’re a step down from the resolution of modern laptops, and so not of much use.

Though there was room for 40 plus people, I was the only person working. Granted this was on a Sunday morning, so not when most people would typically attend.

I don’t think I’ll be back here again. The price and sterile corporate vibe just aren’t for me. If you’re staying at The Prince Hotel, I think you get a discount. In that case, maybe it’s worth it, but otherwise I think there are better options.

Sawamura Bakery & Restaurant Kyukaruizawa

Sawamura Bakery & Restaurant is across the street from the Roastery. It offers slightly cheaper prices, with about 100 yen off the cafe latte, though the quality is worse, as is the vibe of the place as a whole. They do have a bigger selection of baked goods, though.

As a cafe for doing some work, there’s nothing wrong with it per se. The upstairs cafe area has ample seating outside of peak hours. But I just don’t have a good reason to work here over the Roastery.

The Pie Hole Los Angeles Karuizawa

The name of this place is a mouthful. Technically, it shouldn’t be on this list because I’ve never worked out of it. But they have wonderful pie, free wifi, and not many customers, so I could see working here. The chairs are a bit uncomfortable though, so I wouldn’t want to stop by for more than an hour or two.

While this place had been on my radar for a while, I’d avoided it because there’s no good bicycle parking nearby—or so I thought. I just found that the relatively close Church Street shopping street has a bit of bicycle parking off to the side.

If you come to Karuizawa…

When I was living in Tokyo, there were just too many opportunities to meet people, and so I found myself having to frequently turn down offers to go out for coffee. Since moving here, I’ve made some local connections, but the pace has been a lot slower. If you’re ever passing through Karuizawa, do get in touch, and I’d be happy to meet up for a cafe latte and possibly some pie.

The Challenges Faced by Multinational Teams and Japanese Companies 16 Feb 3:37 PM (2 months ago)

It’s a fact that Japan needs more international developers. That doesn’t mean integrating those developers into Japanese companies, as well as Japanese society, is a simple process. But what are the most common challenges encountered by these companies with multinational teams?

To find out, TokyoDev interviewed a number of Japanese companies with international employees. In addition to discussing the benefits of hiring overseas, we also wanted to learn more about what challenges they had faced, and how they had overcome them.

The companies interviewed included:

• Autify, which provides an AI-based software test automation platform
• Beatrust, which has created a search platform that automatically structures profile information
• Cybozu, Japan’s leading groupware provider
• DeepX, which automates heavy equipment machinery
• Givery, which scouts, hires, and trains world-class engineers
• Shippio, which digitalizes international trading and is Japan’s first digital forwarding company
• Yaraku, which offers web-based translation management

According to those companies, the issues they experienced fell into two categories: addressing the language barrier, and helping new hires come to Japan.

The language barrier

Language issues are by far the most universal problem faced by Japanese companies with multinational teams. As a result, all of the companies we spoke to have evolved their own unique solutions.

AI translation

To help improve English-Japanese communication, Yaraku has turned to AI and its own translation tool, YarakuZen. With these they’ve reduced comprehension issues down to verbal communication alone. Since their engineering teams primarily communicate via text anyway, this has solved the majority of their language barrier issue, and engineers feel that they can now work smoothly together.

Calling on bilinguals

While DeepX employs engineers from over 20 countries, English is the common language between them. Documentation is written in English, and even Japanese departments still write minutes in English so colleagues can check them later. Likewise, explanations of company-wide meetings are delivered in both Japanese and English.

Still, a communication gap exists. To overcome it, DeepX assigns Japanese project managers who can also speak English well. English skills weren’t previously a requirement, but once English became the official language of the engineering team, bilingualism was an essential part of the role. These project managers are responsible for taking requests from clients and communicating them accurately to the English-only engineers.

In addition, DeepX is producing more bilingual employees by offering online training in both Japanese and English. The online lessons have proven particularly popular with international employees who have just arrived in Japan.

Beatrust has pursued a similar policy of encouraging employees to learn and speak both languages. Dr. Andreas Dippon, the Vice President of Engineering at Beatrust, feels that bilingual colleagues are absolutely necessary to business.

I think the biggest mistake you can make is just hiring foreigners who speak only English and assuming all the communication inside engineering is just English and that’s fine. You need to understand that business communication with [those] engineers will be immensely difficult . . . You need some almost bilingual people in between the business side and the engineering side to make it work.

Similar to DeepX, Beatrust offers its employees a stipend for language learning. “So nowadays, it’s almost like 80 percent of both sides can speak English and Japanese to some extent, and then there are like two or three people on each side who cannot speak the other language,” Dippon said. “So we have like two or three engineers who cannot speak Japanese at all, and we have two or three business members who cannot speak English at all.”

But in the engineering team itself “is 100 percent English. And the business team is almost 100 percent Japanese.”

“ Of course the leaders try to bridge the gap,” Dippon explained. “So I’m now joining the business meetings that are in Japanese and trying to follow up on that and then share the information with the engineering team, and [it’s] also the same for the business lead, who is joining some engineering meetings and trying to update the business team on what’s happening inside engineering.”

“Mixed language”

Shippio, on the other hand, encountered negative results when they leaned too hard on their bilingual employees. Initially they asked bilinguals to provide simultaneous interpretation at meetings, but quickly decided that the burden on them was too great and not sustainable in the long term.

Instead, Shippio has adopted a policy of “mixed language,” or combining Japanese and English together. The goal of mixed language is simple: to “understand each other.” Many employees who speak one language also know a bit of the other, and Shippio has found that by fostering a culture of flexible communication, employees can overcome the language barrier themselves.

Meeting more often

Another method these companies use is creating structured meeting schedules designed to improve cross-team communication.

Givery teams hold what they call “win sessions” and “sync-up meetings” once or twice a month, to ensure thorough information-sharing within and between departments. These two types of meetings have different goals:

• A “win session” reviews business or project successes, with the aim of analyzing and then repeating that success in future.
• A “sync-up meeting” helps teams coordinate project deadlines. They report on their progress, discuss any obstacles that have arisen, and plan future tasks.

In these meetings employees often speak Japanese, but the meetings are translated into English, and sometimes supplemented with additional English messages and explanations. By building these sort of regular, focused meetings into the company’s schedule, Givery aims to overcome language difficulties with extra personal contact.

Beatrust takes a similarly structured, if somewhat more casual, approach. They tend to schedule most meetings on Friday, when engineers are likely to come to the office. However, in addition to the regular meetings, they also hold the “no meeting hour” for everyone, including the business team.

“One of the reasons is to just let people talk to each other,” Dippon explained. “Let the engineers talk to business people and to each other.”

This kind of interaction, we don’t really care if it’s personal stuff or work stuff that they talk about. Just to be there, talking to each other, and getting this feeling of a team [is what’s important]. . . . This is hugely beneficial, I think.

Building Bonds

Beatrust also believes in building team relationships through regular off-site events. “Last time we went to Takaosan, the mountain area,” said Dippon. “It was nice, we did udon-making. . . . This was kind of a workshop for QRs, and this was really fun, because even the Japanese people had never done it before by themselves. So it was a really great experience. After we did that, we had a half-day workshop about team culture, company culture, our next goals, and so on.”

Dippon in particular appreciates any chance to learn more about his fellow employees.

Like, ‘Why did you leave your country? Why did you come to Japan? What are the problems in your country? What’s good in your country?’ You hear a lot of very different stories.

DeepX also hopes to deepen the bonds between employees with different cultures and backgrounds via family parties, barbecues, and other fun, relaxing events. This policy intensified after the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Japan’s borders were closed and international engineers weren’t able to immigrate. When the borders opened and those engineers finally did arrive, DeepX organized in-house get-togethers every two weeks, to fortify the newcomers’ relationships with other members of the company.

Sponsoring visas

Not every company that hires international developers actually brings them to Japan—-quite a few prefer to hire foreign employees who are already in-country. However, for those willing to sponsor new work visas, there is universal consensus on how best to do it: hire a professional.

Cybozu has gone to the extent of bringing those professionals in-house. The first international member they hired was an engineer living in the United States. Though he wanted to work in Japan, at that time they didn’t have any experience in acquiring a work visa or relocating an employee, so they asked him to work for their US subsidiary instead.

But as they continued hiring internationally, Cybozu realized that quite a few engineers were interested in physically relocating to Japan. To facilitate this, the company set up a new support system for their multinational team, for the purpose of providing their employees with work visas.

Other companies prefer to outsource the visa process. DeepX, for example, has hired a certified administrative scrivener corporation to handle visa applications on behalf of the company. Autify also goes to a “dedicated, specialized” lawyer for immigration procedures.

Thomas Santonja, VP of Engineering at Autify, feels that sponsoring visas is a necessary cost of business and that the advantages far outweigh the price.

We used to have fully remote, long-term employees outside of Japan, but we stopped after we noticed that there is a lot of value in being able to meet in person and join in increased collaboration, especially with Japanese-speaking employees that are less inclined to make an effort when they don’t know the people individually.

“It’s kind of become a requirement, in the last two years,” he concluded, “to at least be capable of being physically here.”

However, Autify does prevent unnecessary expenses by having a new employee work remotely from their home country for a one month trial period before starting the visa process in earnest. So far, the only serious issues they encountered were with an employee based in Egypt; the visa process became so complicated, Autify eventually had to give up. But Autify also employs engineers from France, the Philippines, and Canada, among other countries, and has successfully brought their workers over many times.

Helping employees adjust

Sponsoring a visa is only the beginning of bringing an employee to Japan. The next step is providing special support for international employees, although this can look quite different from company to company.

DeepX points out that just working at a new company is difficult enough; also beginning a new life in a new country, particularly when one doesn’t speak the language, can be incredibly challenging. That’s why DeepX not only covers the cost of international flights, but also implemented other support systems for new arrivals.

Dippon at Beatrust believes that international employees need ongoing support, not just at the point of entry, and that it’s best to have at least one person in-house who is prepared to assist them.

I think that one trap many companies run into is that they know all about Japanese laws and taxes and so on, and everybody grew up with that, so they are all familiar. But suddenly you have foreigners who have basically no idea about the systems, and they need a lot of support, because it can be quite different.

Santonja at Autify, by contrast, has had a different experience helping employees get settled. “I am extremely tempted to say that I don’t have any challenges. I would be extremely hard pressed to tell you anything that could be remotely considered difficult or, you know, require some organization or even extra work or thinking.”

Most people we hire look for us, right? So they are looking for an opportunity to move to Japan and be supported with a visa, which is again a very rare occurrence. They tend to be extremely motivated to live and make it work here. So I don’t think that integration in Japan is such a challenge.

Conclusion

To companies unfamiliar with the process, the barriers to hiring internationally may seem high. However, there are typically only two major challenges when integrating developers from other countries. The first, language issues, has a variety of solutions ranging from the technical to the cultural. The second, attaining the correct work visa, is best handled by trained professionals, whether in-house or through contractors.

Neither of these difficulties is insurmountable, particularly with expert assistance. In addition, Givery in particular has stressed that it’s not necessary to figure out all the details in advance of hiring: in fact, it can benefit a company to introduce international workers early on, before its own internal policies are overly fixed.

This information should also benefit international developers hoping to work in Japan. Since this article reflects the top concerns of Japanese companies, developers can work to proactively relieve those worries. Learning even basic Japanese helps reduce the language barrier, while becoming preemptively familiar with Japanese society reassures employers that you’re capable of taking care of yourself here.

If you’d like to learn more about the benefits these companies enjoy from hiring international developers, see part one of this article series here.

Want to find a job in Japan? Check out the TokyoDev job board.

If you want to know more about multinational teams, moving to Japan, or Japanese work life in general, see our extensive library of articles.

If you’d like to continue the conversation, please join the TokyoDev Discord.

Why Do Japanese Companies Hire International Developers? 11 Feb 3:37 PM (2 months ago)

TokyoDev has already reported that Japan really needs international developers. But the more Japanese companies we’ve interviewed, the more we’ve realized that a talent shortage is not the only reason for Japanese companies to hire from overseas. There are a host of other advantages to recruiting internationally, and a growing number of managers are beginning to recognize the benefits.

To gain more perspective on how multinational teams enhance their Japanese companies, we conducted interviews with the following businesses:

• Autify, which provides an AI-based software test automation platform
• Beatrust, which provides solutions to help companies maximize their human capital
• Cybozu, Japan’s leading groupware provider
• DeepX, which automates heavy equipment machinery
• Givery, which scouts, hires, and trains world-class engineers
• KOMOJU by Degica, a payment processor
• MODE, which pioneers innovative solutions to connect the digital and physical worlds
• Yaraku, which offers web-based translation management

Below we’ve compiled the top reasons they gave for hiring international developers, and the specific ways in which those developers have improved their businesses. These range from the obvious—a greater talent pool to draw from—to surprising and even counterintuitive upsides, such as improved domestic recruiting and sheer enjoyment.

The global talent pool

Because Japan is suffering a developer shortage, and particularly lacks specialized and senior engineers, Japanese companies are expanding their recruiting efforts worldwide to find the staff and skill sets they need.

That was DeepX’s initial motive for hiring international engineers: they needed employees with advanced technical skills. At first, when the company was founded in 2016, DeepX only intended to hire Japanese engineers. However, robotics is a fairly rare specialty in Japan, and those engineers who have studied it were reluctant to work at a newly-formed startup. Consequently, in 2018, DeepX hired their first international engineer; now they employ engineers from 20 different countries.

Givery ran into the same issue. Though founded in 2009, the company spent five years trying to find enough staff to develop its B2C programming learning service, but struggled to attract talent because the company wasn’t yet well-known in Japan. In 2014 they received an application from a recruitment service, for an international front-end engineer who didn’t speak much Japanese. Since management was already discussing how best to globalize, they decided to seize this opportunity, despite the fact that many managers did not speak English. Seven years later, half of Givery’s development team of 120 are non-Japanese and hail from 20 different countries.

The immediate benefits of widening the applicant pool speak for themselves. However Makoto Mizukami, head of Customer Engineering at KOMOJU by Degica, thinks recruiting internationally isn’t just a solution for today: it’s future-proofing.

According to Mizukami, this applies to more than international engineers: companies must create an environment that can accept a highly diverse range of workers, including immigrants, women, people with disabilities, and the elderly. As will be seen later in this article, hiring international workers often has the side effect of creating a more favorable work environment for all.

Recruiting at home

But hiring international workers has a surprising secondary benefit: it improves domestic recruitment as well. KOMOJU found this out firsthand when they hired Shogo Ito as Staff SRE, since his primary motivation for joining KOMOJU was to improve his English. In Ito’s previous job, while he’d had the opportunity to collaborate with overseas teams, he hadn’t felt immersed in an English environment. But since at KOMOJU English is the primary form of communication, Ito felt confident he’d have a chance there to improve his skills.

Givery has also benefited from this trend. It was their initial struggle to find engineers locally that led them to recruit internationally. As their multinational development team grew, though, they discovered that their diversity attracted more Japanese talent as well. As a result, Givery is one of the few tech companies in Japan to meet its recruitment goals on a regular basis.

International knowledge

Companies that hire internationally usually discover that their new employees bring more to the table than expected. It’s not just a question of tech skills—they carry with them fresh information that broadens companies’ knowledge bases overall.

In the case of Beatrust, information from international employees contributes directly to their product. “We have a talent collaboration platform,” explained Dr. Andreas Dippon, the Vice President of Engineering at Beatrust. “The focus is [helping] employees better work with each other. Currently we’re focused on selling this product to big clients in Japan, which all already have some diversification.

“Of course in Japan it’s mainly Japanese people, but you also have international engineers joining the big companies as well. So how can we support them collaborating in their company where there’s a language barrier, where there are cultural differences?”

 Having engineers of different backgrounds, especially with our product, helps us better understand how users think.

KOMOJU also credits their global team with improving their product. As every country has unique payment methods and financial rules, the “insider knowledge” of employees from that country has proven invaluable. KOMOJU specifically cited China, which uses a number of payment methods such as Alipay and WeChat Pay that are unfamiliar in Japan; according to them, Chinese employees have been extremely helpful in explaining those systems to the rest of the team.

Other tech companies we spoke to cited the benefits of international knowledge more generally, but Cybozu in particular knows the value of global perspectives. An earlier attempt to take their product, Cybozu Office, to the US via a subsidiary failed—in part, executives decided, due to differences in business customs between the US and Japan.

That was why, in 2022, Cybozu approached international expansion differently. This time they created the New Business Division, an English-first multinational development team specifically designed to help Cybozu adapt existing products to the global market. In addition, the team has been tasked with building new products from the ground up, with an international audience in mind.

Staying abreast of new tech

Another plus to hiring international engineers, and particularly those who speak English, is earlier access to new tools and technology. Ito at KOMOJU pointed out that information on new services and tools is usually spread through English online media, and that most Japanese engineers don’t keep up with English articles on the subject.

In addition, since KOMOJU’s official company language is English, there’s no concern about finding software with a Japanese UI, which greatly expands their options. Ito explained that KOMOJU uses services that are not very familiar in Japan, such as JumpCloud, Tenable, Vanta, and Honeybadger.

Takuma Tatsumi, a recruiter for Yaraku, confirmed that the latest technology is overwhelmingly in English, leading to asymmetry of information. Even at previous companies, Japanese CTOs would ask the international engineers, “What are the current technology trends?” But since Yaraku has hired a number of international members, they’re now able to keep up with the latest development trends and incorporate new technology when it is, in fact, new.

Changes in work environment

Most Japanese companies with multinational teams end up making substantial culture changes to accommodate international employees. This could be considered a downside; instead, those we spoke to agree that the evolution of their company’s work environment was one of the top benefits of international recruitment.

“The advantage I can see is with a mix of mindsets and [thoughts on the] future of work from so many different places,” said Thomas Santonja, VP of Engineering at Autify.

I found a lot of very, very rich discussions about what to do, what not to do, and why, and a lot of debate, which is at least in my experience rarer in a pure Japanese environment.

“Canadian and American staff are the ones that are the most vocal about why and how to do stuff, and [they] try to engage to get other people’s opinions,” he added. “That actually created a culture which is not necessarily super common. . . . I believe injecting a North American mindset in the mix is very valuable for a Japanese company, from my side of the fence.”

Scott Tullis, head of Global Recruiting at MODE, also endorsed a mix of non-Japanese and Japanese work styles. “We’re a unique hybrid,” he said.

Thanks to our Bay Area origins, we have the Silicon Valley tech startup culture in terms of entrepreneurship and innovation, and we also incorporate some of the great aspects of Japanese work culture around teamwork and collaboration.

“We’re fortunate to not have any of the more notorious elements of Silicon Valley startup culture here,” he added. “The term ‘bro culture’ comes to mind and is well known in the Bay Area, which we thankfully do not have at MODE. Rather, we foster a more collaborative, thoughtful, and humble culture where people are truly trusted.”

While the Japanese side of the company has inspired an atmosphere of humility and cooperation, the American side has contributed a fully remote work policy which, as Tullis pointed out, “is a relatively newer concept in Japan.”

“We have offices in San Mateo and Tokyo, as it’s still important to have face-to-face interactions to collaborate effectively and continuously build our culture,” he said. “At the same time, the option to work remotely makes our work environment very flexible, which is beneficial for many team members, especially working parents. Our team comes from a diverse range of backgrounds, so this flexibility is key to better meeting the needs of each individual.”

When it comes to work policy, Dippon at Beatrust has leaned on his European background. “ So I come from Germany, with German work culture,” he said, “which is like, we take care to take holidays and take time off and don’t do immense overwork and so on. So I try to bring that culture into my team, which is often difficult, because especially [people from] Japan, China, Taiwan, and so on—they used to work lots of overtime all the time.”

So when I told them, ‘Please take the day off,’ and they said, ‘Okay, I’ll take the day off, but I can work in the morning and evening,’ I told them, ‘No, take the day off, don’t come in.’ They were confused at first, but over time I think they adapted to some extent, and now they really enjoy it, and when they come back they come back fully-refreshed and eager.

That being said, Dippon takes great care not to impose his own European work paradigms too much. In fact, he finds the cultural differences amongst his team members both fascinating and useful. “Every day is very interesting,” he said. “You learn a lot about their countries, about their work style, and you can benefit from their experience in their work style as well.”

Like Santonja, Dippon has noted how international hires lead to a more open style of communication. “The culture benefit is huge . . . when you can foster open communication in your engineering team, which we have achieved now. . . . So everybody can clearly state their opinion and not hold back,” Dippon said.

“Which is very different from Japanese culture, from what I’ve heard,” Dippon added. “Even the Japanese people we have, they like that, so they can clearly say their opinion without having to fear any rejection.”

All three of the executives quoted above are, notably, international hires themselves. But many Japanese managers also cite the benefits of adapting their company’s work environment. In fact, Tatsumi of Yaraku compared the company’s international members to the introduction of Western culture into Japan at the end of the Edo period, which led to profound cultural changes.

Makiko Nakayama, Yaraku’s Human Resources manager, agreed with this.

Foreign members are very frank about the issues they face, which is why we’ve created an environment that’s easy for them to work in.

Those changes include a new approach to employee communication and collaboration. When work output is low or the team runs into difficulties, rather than immediately thinking, “Maybe someone is slacking off,” Yaraku employees tend to ask, “Why is it like this?” and “How can we improve it?” They said that the chance to actively communicate and think of ways to improve together creates a cooperative corporate culture, which has become one of the biggest attractions of working at Yaraku.

International hires also led to new policies around paid leave. As Nakayama explained, employees from overseas told HR, “It takes four days to go home and back, so even if I use my paid leave, I really don’t have much time to rest.” As a result, Yaraku now allows employees to work remotely overseas for 30 days a year.

Likewise, DeepX reported that its foreign engineers enjoy their new holiday substitute leave system. This system allows engineers to take a lump sum of vacation any time they like, by treating normal Japanese holidays as working days, and granting the same number of paid holidays. In this way, engineers can take longer vacations when returning to their home countries.

But according to Satomi Makino, the system isn’t just used by international hires—many Japanese engineers are happy to take advantage of it as well.

I feel DeepX is a comfortable working environment that incorporates the good points of overseas companies.

In our interview with Givery, they offered some specific recommendations to other Japanese companies looking to build multinational teams. They suggested starting hiring early in the formation of the company, before internal policies had been well-established.

Their newly-hired international employees, Givery’s management found, had different needs and expectations from their Japanese workers. For example, international engineers made requests like, “Can I go to the gym for two hours during lunch?” or “I want to go back to my home country in December. Can I take a month off?”

It’s fun

It may seem like an odd consideration, but multiple interviewees cited an interesting reason for hiring international employees—it’s fun!

Yaraku’s engineering team was born out of CEO Suguru Sakanishi’s question to himself:

What would happen if I created a global engineering team in my own company?

Before founding Yaraku, Sakanishi had previously been to the US and worked in an international environment. This experience made him realize how fun it is to work with people from various backgrounds, and inspired him to hire people from abroad.

KOMOJU shared a story about a newly-hired Indonesian member’s introduction to Japan.

Members at KOMOJU believe that seeing and appreciating cultural differences, especially through casual conversations like this, is one of the unique attractions of multinational teams.

Dippon, at Beatrust, describes this kind of cultural sharing as “one of the biggest pluses for me.”

It’s so interesting, sitting together after work and talking about, ‘Oh, what’s going on in your country?’ . . . You get this kind of information in the news and so on, but you almost never hear from a person from that country.

Conclusion

For developers interested in working at Japanese companies, these interviews should offer insight into why Japanese managers are also interested in hiring them. Most businesses like these are looking for candidates who can bring more to the table than their work skills alone. They’re searching for applicants who can contribute the international knowledge and English proficiency that their teams need to level up.

These companies also don’t necessarily expect candidates to conform to Japanese business norms. In fact, employees who forthrightly (but politely) explain their needs and expectations can benefit all the workers at the company, not just those from overseas.

That being said, developers should be prepared to meet these companies halfway, mostly by being genuinely interested in Japan. It isn’t just a question of being willing to adapt to a new country: these managers appreciate the fun and interest of employing someone from another culture, so they’re keen to share their own as well. As Yaraku put it, they place importance on whether or not the candidate is specifically interested in this country, because that’s one of the greatest values that Yaraku can offer: “enjoying Japan.”

If you’d like to learn more about the difficulties these companies face when hiring international developers, see part two of this article series.

To learn more about how you can work in (and enjoy) Japan, check out our job board or extensive library of articles.

To continue the conversation, join the TokyoDev Discord.

TokyoDev’s 2024 Recap: Challenges, Milestones, and the Road Ahead 26 Dec 2024 7:30 PM (4 months ago)

In 2023, I scaled TokyoDev from a one-man operation to a team. The idea was to get some tasks off my plate, but while I’ve succeeded at passing off responsibilities to others, I somehow didn’t gain any more free time. This is because working with new people also created new ideas and opportunities, which I haven’t been able to pass up.

In 2024, we saw the first fruits of this collaboration, achieving things I never would have been able to pull off by myself. For instance, we started producing Japanese-language content teaching employers how to build international teams, had a sponsor booth at Japan’s largest Ruby conference, brought the developer community and our clients together through events, and built an editing process that increased the overall quality of our content, and found new contributors who have written some extremely popular articles.

As the year winds to a close, I’ve been reflecting on both these accomplishments and the challenges we’ve faced, and how they’re paving the way for what is to come.

65 developers got a job via TokyoDev

In 2024, we tracked 65 developers who were successfully hired after applying for a position on TokyoDev. This number was down from last year’s 71 developers. Interestingly, while the total number of hires decreased, the number of companies that hired successfully went up, from 29 to 31.

One reason for fewer hires was that several of our most successful clients shifted their focus away from non-Japanese speaking engineers in favour of fluent Japanese speakers. TokyoDev has always been most successful at helping companies with hiring talented engineers with little-to-no Japanese skills, and so with their change in focus, we haven’t been able to help them to the same degree as last year.

However, another factor was simply timing. We count successful hires based upon when we receive a fee for them. The time between when a company posts a job to when we receive the fee is typically 3–6 months, as it takes a while for a company to interview candidates, make offers, secure visas, and so on.

This means that, even though we currently have a lot of successful hires in the pipeline, they won’t be reflected in this year’s stats. For instance, while we had six successful hires per month in January and February 2024, we have nine projected successful hires in both January and February 2025

I’m optimistic about how we’re going to do next year.

60 articles written by 19 authors

One of our greatest accomplishments in 2024 was establishing a repeatable editing process that has allowed us to create extremely high-quality articles. The top five articles by number of visitors were:

1. How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan by Christian Mack
2. The English Paradox: Four Decades of Life and Language in Japan by Tom Gally
3. The rise and fall of D&D in Japan by Masaki Yanagida
4. How I obtained a J-FIND visa in Japan by Oguzhan Karagözoglu
5. Japan Needs International Developers by Rebecca Callahan

The cool thing is that four of the five articles draw upon external contributors’ unique personal experiences, which allowed them to share information with our community that no one else could.

Besides our English articles, we also launched a new sub-site that’s helping Japanese companies build global engineering teams. It’s still in its infancy, but we already have 18 articles for it, and we have some other great ideas for the coming year.

18 developer stories published

We write developer stories to highlight the experiences of employees at our client companies to give candidates a better understanding of what it’s actually like to work there. This year, we released 18 developer stories. The top five stories by number of visitors were:

1. Realising Dreams of AI and Japan at Recursive
2. “We’re the first global team in Fukuoka”: English Evolution at Money Forward
3. Bringing AI to the Construction Industry with EARTHBRAIN
4. Becoming a Tech Lead at KOMOJU
5. Succeeding as a Senior Engineer at Kraken

814 developers answered our survey

Since 2019, TokyoDev has conducted an annual survey of international software developers living in Japan. The 2024 edition was the biggest yet, with 814 developers sharing details on their salaries, working conditions, and the technologies they use.

I’ve had people tell me how useful our survey is—some even used it to negotiate better salaries when applying for jobs—so I’m glad it has continued to grow and add to the community.

2,800+ people joined our Discord server

In 2024, over 2,800 people joined TokyoDev’s Discord server. This community has proved incredibly valuable. Not only has it helped people get their lives up and running in Japan, but it also has been a great source of inspiration for article topics, and a way to find potential contributors to the site.

7 events hosted

In 2024, we continued to expand the in-person meetups we held. Highlights included a pair of events in Okinawa during Ruby Kaigi, an excellent beer garden in collaboration with WAY equity partners (at least I hear it was good, I got COVID the day before), and the launch of our TokyoDev Talks.

5 organizations sponsored

TokyoDev owes its origins to the developer community in Japan, so it’s important to me that we use our success to give back to it. We have continued to do this through supporting the following organizations:

• RubyKaigi: The main Ruby conference in Japan. Attending the 2010 edition was what inspired me to start blogging on this site.
• Rails Girls Japan: Holds free workshops to help women pick up Ruby on Rails.
• Tokyo Test Fest: The first edition of an international software quality conference in Japan.
• Women In Technology Japan: A community that bridges the gender gap in tech and promotes diversity and inclusion in Japan.
• Women Who Code: This one was heartbreaking for me, as they went bankrupt almost immediately after our sponsorship. That community was succeeded by Women in Software Engineering Japan, where I’m serving as an advisor.

9 people contributed to our team

Besides the contributors who wrote articles for the site or made illustrations for them, we have a number of people doing work for us on an ongoing basis.

• Daniel López Prat improved the infrastructure that runs the TokyoDev site, including adding additional monitoring and keeping our libraries up to date.
• Keiko Kimoto helped with translation and other administrative tasks, including helping us obtain a trademark for TokyoDev.
• Mathieu Mayer helped with product design, UX, and frontend development, such as refreshing our articles index.
• Michelle Tan conducted developer story interviews and helped with full stack development by building things like an admin interface for our clients to use.
• Rebecca Callahan interviewed contributors, wrote articles for us, and led our editorial team and process.
• Sacha Greif continued to refine the software that runs our survey, and helped with creating this year’s survey.
• Sayana Takagi acted as our client representative and led the creation of our sub-site aimed at Japanese companies.
• Scott Rothrock moderated our Discord community, wrote articles for us, and contributed to our editorial team and process.

Looking ahead to 2025

We have a number of exciting things in the works. We’re in the planning phase of several in-person events and have plans to sponsor more communities, and are also working on a new way of connecting international developers with Japanese companies that I hope to be able to talk about soon.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us this year. I’m looking forward to continuing to grow together through the next!

So You Want to Be a Game Dev in Japan 23 Dec 2024 6:41 PM (4 months ago)

Given how many of us grew up playing classic Japanese games, it’s no surprise that people are keen to work on games in Japan.

But what’s the reality on the ground? What skills do you need to succeed in the Japanese game industry, and what challenges can you expect to encounter?

To find out, I interviewed a number of current and former members of the game industry here in Japan, for their thoughts on:

• What makes Japanese game development different?
• The upside of working on games in Japan
• The downside
• How they got started in the Japanese game industry
• Their top tips for success
• Conclusion

Our interviewees hail from five different countries, work in roles ranging from studio head to entry-level programmer, and have developed everything from Nintendo games to 18+ eroge.

• Marc Trudel is the Studio Head at Wizcorp, a studio specializing in visual effects, porting games, and developing custom tools and engines for the Japanese game industry. He’s Canadian and has lived in Japan since 2009.
• Mathieu Siboulotte is a French developer hired as a game designer at the international creative company Studio No Border in 2020.
• Tristan Metz came from the Netherlands in 2024 to work as a game programmer at AVR Japan, an XR solution company.
• Minh Nguyen is a Vietnamese developer who worked for DMM Games, which specializes in erotic games (eroge), from 2017–2020 before switching industries.
• Jared Hays is an American who was employed by the Nintendo-affiliated company Good Feel between 2011 and 2017. He now works for a gaming company in the US.

What makes Japanese game development different?

Tristan Metz pointed out the most obvious difference: “In the Netherlands we tend to stick to only English, whereas in Japan both Japanese and English often tend to be required.”

I also feel that in Japan there is much more of a hierarchy and emphasis on your position within the company. . . . I do think that even the Japanese language itself inherently makes interacting with people feel more formal.

“This might also have to do with the fact that the Netherlands tends to have a very flat hierarchy for many organizations,” Metz concluded.

Minh Nguyen doesn’t see as much difference in company structure. “I think in terms of team composition it won’t differ that much compared to other countries. We would have a product owner (the term is “director”) who makes initiatives for overall game direction; planners, who design game specs, feature, and gameplay-balancing; designers, who create art and models for the characters and environments and UIs in-game; and developers, who implement back-end or front-end. Testers are usually from outsourcing companies who do testing and verify behavior, and planners would also have to test new releases themselves.”

According to Nguyen, the development process is about the same as well. “We would also use Scrum/Kanban to iterate development cycles, as seen in other software companies,” he said.

What he has noticed is that Japan focuses on a different category of games.

Games in Japan are mostly RPG-flavored [social] games that have characters and a lottery system called gacha to make money. If you are more into MOBA/FPS/strategy then unfortunately those are nonexistent here.

For Marc Trudel, the real appeal of developing in Japan is the intense passion of those in the industry. “I had one client that’s head of R&D,” Trudel told me, “and we’re having dinner together, and we’re talking about what games do we play when we have time off, and he says, ‘I don’t play games.’ I was like, ‘Okay, so what do you do?’ ‘Well, I read about neurology in infants and children, to try to understand how the brain works in the context of gaming.’”

“He’s not leading game projects,” Trudel added, “and yet he clearly has an interest in how those game projects can have a beneficial impact on younger people. . . . It impresses me.”

That dedication, and that passion [Japanese developers] have . . . I don’t want to say it’s not found overseas, but here it seems to me like it’s so consistent. Everyone I talk to is going to have a story of their own, a focus of their own.

But Jared Hays thinks that trademark passion can easily manifest as stubborn single-mindedness. “There’s a certain amount of, ‘If it’s not working, just try harder.’

“One of the biggest differences, and certainly the biggest in work culture, was that in Japan there was very little interest in improving processes. So it was, ‘Well, we made the last game this way and it’s shipped, and it sold, and we made money, so we’re just gonna make the next game the same way.’”

And there was really no room to say, ‘Have you tried doing X?’ Or, ‘Yes, we made the game, but we did this thing that drove people crazy, people quit, everyone got burned out.’ It was not a good way to make the game. [They] just said, ‘Yes, but it worked.’

Hays offered an example: “Yoshi’s Woolly World was really built on top of Kirby’s Epic Yarn, on top of the tech stack that they had built, which was in turn built on top of a WarioWare game they had made. So those first two were for the Wii, and then Woolly World was for the Wii U. And as they moved onto the next game, the scale of the game and the things they tried to do got bigger, because players expected more. . . . So, Woolly World had no project management, no production, zero. There was no issue tracking. There was no schedule planning, nothing.”

I went to school for both computer science and game development, and one of the courses that I found incredibly valuable was a course, not in the nuts and bolts of programming, but in software engineering that really taught working in a team and coordinating with people, communication, delivering milestones, all of the things that most modern devs consider the other 80 percent of the job. And they just had none of that.

“If we could align our schedules so that people aren’t sitting around waiting for other people half the week, maybe people wouldn’t need to work overtime,” Hays said. “Maybe the director wouldn’t need to keep a sleeping bag under his desk.”

A lack of project management was the biggest difference Hays found, but he also pointed out that Japanese developers are working with more limited resources than their counterparts overseas. “Japanese devs are really harmed by the lack of a Japanese Stack Overflow.”

Because in English, if you Google a programming problem, there is an answer. And in Japanese, you Google and it’s just some random guy’s blog where he’s like, ‘Hey, I tried using Unity for the weekend and here’s what I found out.’ So there’s much less centralized information and information exchange between developers.

The upside of working on games in Japan

For some developers, the best part about working in the Japanese game industry is the games themselves.

“My favourite thing about game development in Japan,” said Metz, “are the cool projects and opportunities it brings, which was also the biggest reason for me to move here. Japan is well-known for its famous games from Nintendo, Sega, Square Enix, and countless more. There are a plethora of opportunities in this country and that really excites me.”

Hays concurred.

I literally made a game with Yoshi. I would never, ever get that here [in the US].

Hays and Metz agreed that collaborating with their coworkers proved an incredible perk. “Like I said,” Hays told me, “some of the people who started the company were super veterans and were incredibly knowledgeable. And it was really awesome to get to work with most of the people, [though] not all of the people. So experientially, it was great.”

Trudel has also enjoyed working with Japanese game developers.

They know all the games through and through. They have really pointed opinions on what they think is good. . . . It’s a craft for them. It’s something they dedicate their life to.

Sometimes, that dedication proves almost uncomfortable, at least for Nguyen. “The games I had worked on were all 18+. . . . During the title alpha/beta release they made the whole company playtest it. I had to play through explicit content along with the surrounding people.”

Still, he was impressed by how wholeheartedly they tackled each project. “For an adult game title, the people around me were extremely serious and very committed to making the game become a hit. That was a unique feeling and experience for me.”

It’s a bit different for Mathieu Siboulotte, working at a small studio with an international team. “So far, the working environment in my studio is kind of unique. We almost never do any overtime, we have some flexible hours and some remote work days. We are a very small structure of only four people, so we kind of come when we want and leave when we want, as long as we do our hours! For my project, my team is split between France and Japan, so my hours are mostly in the late morning until the evening, so we can share many hours together!”

But like the other designers, he draws inspiration from his colleagues. “I regularly join a meetup of French game devs in Japan or the Tokyo Indie Game Show in Akihabara. It is great to test new prototypes and connect with people there!”

The downside

As for the downside of game development in Japan, Trudel mourns the vanishing culture of mentorship. “I feel like this is kind of getting lost in Japan,” he explained, “that senpai [older mentor] that’s going to take you under their wing.”

Maybe it’s specific to the game industry, but I’m starting to see there are not a lot of people that even want to take those responsibilities—or for those who do, sometimes it’s going to be a bit more of a power trip.

In general, he explained, game projects in Japan tend to lack both money and expertise. “They’re all built on custom engines, yet every R&D project is underfunded. And not only is it underfunded, but they just can’t find the resources to really do the job to bring their technological assets to the next level, right?

“It’s true in R&D, and to some degree it’s true for game-making proper as well, where they don’t quite have the technical abilities to really fully [realize] their creative vision. So that’s really where we [Wizcorp] come in . . . to try to fill in the gaps.”

Hays also noted the lack of good leadership.

The mentorship wasn’t great, and people I was supposed to be seeking advice from as more senior engineers often were senior because they’d been there a while, and not necessarily because they were incredibly knowledgeable or good at passing that knowledge along.

He explained that “Right after I worked on Woolly World, I worked on a game that was on mobile and on Facebook, and that was part of our foray into self-published first party IP.

“It was me and one senior dev. He was doing all of the client stuff, I was doing all of the server stuff. It was in Unity, which I had used in school, and the backend was on Google Cloud Platform, which I had also used in school. And we approached a milestone that was like, it should be playable by now. We got to a point where the server was stood up enough and the client was stood up enough that they should connect and you could actually experience gameplay.

“And we turned it on and the client performance was so bad, it was unplayable. And I turned to the senior dev, who, again, has been in the industry probably since I was born. . . . I was like, ‘Did you run the profiler? I looked at the profiler. . . . ‘It’s going crazy doing all of this sprite rendering, but it looks like you wrote this rendering code.’

“He’s like, ‘Well, yeah, that’s how you have to render the sprites.’ No, it’s a game engine. It does that. You didn’t need to do this. And so again, as the only server engineer, I had to take several weeks to rewrite the client because he had no idea what he was doing and didn’t attempt to find any of this information.”

In general, Hays found, the emphasis on appearances undermined genuine efficacy. “Shortly after I started, the head of the programming department took me aside. [He said], “People don’t like that you’re leaving on time.’ ‘Am I behind on any of my work?’ ‘No, it just looks bad.’”

This was the same head of the programming department who told me that the company wouldn’t hire female programmers because they would distract the male programmers.

“Never mind the fact that probably 30 to 40 percent of the company is women,” Hays said. “The art department had no problem hiring them. The design department was fine. It was just the programming department.”

Nguyen confirmed that most game developers in Japan fit a narrow profile: young, unmarried, and willing to put in any amount of overtime. “Once you have a family, things change,” he said. “Most game companies’ demographics are single and young people, often with little to no responsibilities outside work, and once your priorities shift from games to family you start feeling like you are an outsider.”

The long hours in particular are difficult to manage, according to Nguyen. “There are crunch times before each release, and this can be stressful depending on how the project is managed.”

My friend and I used to have to work long hours of overtime during the pre-release period. It can suck when people around you have no responsibilities outside work and happily put in the hours while you can’t.

It was these pressures that led Nguyen to switch to a different industry. He also agreed with Trudel that the tech at many game companies is outdated. “There is an inertia to upgrade,” he said. “The most important thing in a game is not tech, it is gameplay and art.”

As for Metz, he mostly would like to be paid more.

My least favourite thing about game development in Japan is probably the low wages. Wages in Japan are a lot lower than in the Netherlands, but I have the impression that programmers have better financial opportunities in other programming industries outside of gaming.

“I have the impression this difference is also not as big in the Netherlands,” he added, “but I could be completely wrong on that.”

Hays encountered the same pay problem. “The pay is terrible. Just for reference, I looked up one of my old withholding slips from 2013, and I was taking home less than 4 million. That is bad. And I tripled my salary by moving back to the US.”

How they got started in the Japanese game industry

Some of our interviewees landed in the Japanese game industry mostly by accident. Trudel, for instance, originally came to Japan for the martial arts. Between 2007 and 2009 he visited Japan whenever he could, for anywhere between a weekend to several months at a time.

“During [one of my longer trips], I would basically be training three times a day, five or six days a week,” he said. “I would just be dojo-hopping basically, to kind of get my bearings in terms of figuring out if I saw something in it. But what I ended up sticking to was basically the classical martial arts of Japan.”

He finally moved officially to Japan on October 20th in 2009, on a working holiday visa. “I didn’t actually have the job lined up when I came in,” he explained.

I had a little bit of money set aside. I figured okay, well, let’s just try to find a job. Now that I’m here [in Japan], I can visit people in person. You didn’t really have Zoom at the time. . . . When I started at Wizcorp, I was hired at the same time as one other person, but I was essentially employee number three.”

“At the time I was hired as an engineer,” Trudel said, “and ended up doing all the IT stuff.” His official title was System Architect and Network Administrator. “And from there, once we started to move gradually into games from 2010, I started to take [on a] technical leadership position.”

Having also served as CTO and COO of Wizcorp, Trudel became the Studio Head in February of 2023. As of now, he’s worked at Wizcorp for over 15 years.

Nguyen also was always interested in coming to Japan.

Our uni curriculum offered Japanese lessons and allowed the credits to accumulate as well, so I had studied Japanese and gotten my N1 even before my very first trip to Japan. A big thanks to my uni, which made this miracle happen!

By contrast, Siboulotte chose the game industry, but not Japan specifically. He started learning game development with RPG Maker when he was 16, but didn’t study game development in university. “I thought joining this industry was impossible,” he said.

Instead, he majored in international trade, while continuing game projects on the side. He then received a bachelor’s degree in cultural product marketing, which gave him the opportunity to join an animation studio as a producer’s assistant.

“However, game development was still on my mind,” Siboulotte said, “so I decided to leave and start university again from scratch, to study game design, in 2017.”

He got his lucky break with Studio No Border, an international creative studio that’s affiliated with the French entertainment group Ankama. “I joined this project in 2020,” Siboulotte said, “right before Japan closed in a lockdown. It was also my first ‘real’ position in the game industry.”

I honestly absolutely arrived here by chance. I was just looking for my first gig after my graduation and internship, and this job happened to be the first one to give me a reply!

“I applied on the website AFJV, a French website listing games positions in France or with French language involved, and after around four months of tests and interviews, I finally got a green light to come to Japan!”

Hays and Metz were both specifically interested in working on Japanese games. While still a college student, Hays spent time in Osaka and loved it. After graduating in 2011, he returned to Japan and was quickly introduced to Good Feel, where he got to pursue his dream of working on Nintendo games.

Metz told me there was a specific moment that clinched his desire to come to Japan.

The final push to want to commit to the game dev industry in Japan was a 2017 GDC talk by Nintendo about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

However, Metz was also well-prepared for the move. “I have always been fascinated with Japanese culture from a young age,” he said, “and have been self-studying the language off and on for around 9 years.”

Their top tips for success

The most consistent advice interviewees offered: learn Japanese.

“It might be obvious for those wanting to work in Japan,” said Metz, “but I think that game development in Japan is much more reclusive than IT companies in Japan and will require a very high level of language fluency.”

Nguyen agreed.

You need to speak a very high level of Japanese. N3 or even N2 might not be enough to collaborate effectively.

From there, however, the advice began to differ, depending on whether interviewees thought that game development in Japan was a good long-term career goal, or whether it should be for the short-term only.

“Be sure to get out of the industry while you are still young and you want to advance your career more in tech,” Nguyen stressed. “The game industry doesn’t usually put as much emphasis on tech as others and it is certainly not a tech-driven industry, so staying there a long time can be detrimental to your career.”

If you value experience working with tech, plan your departure even before entering the game industry. My friend and I struggled a lot when we were trying to jump ship.

Hays concurred with Nguyen’s advice. “Treat it like a gap year,” he said. “Spend three, four, five years doing this because it’s what you really want to do. And then probably take that and go home.”

“I’m not going to say, ‘No, never do it, stay away, don’t touch it with a 30 foot pole’,” Hays also said. “But make sure you understand what you’re getting yourself into and that in all likelihood, you’re probably sacrificing some career progression and certainly income for the sake of this opportunity.”

Above all, Hays believes it’s important to do your research before going in.

I will say as someone who loves video games, loves Japan, loves Japanese video games, if you’re doing it because you have an idealized vision of what working on your favorite games must be like, then you should spend time looking at real-world information.

“Look for testimonials of people who worked at [those] companies, look for information about the pay and the working conditions. Just because it’s your dream doesn’t mean you shouldn’t research the company like you would a company in your home country.”

Trudel also emphasized the need for research beforehand. “Do visit first. Being a tourist is not the same thing as living here, but it’ll give you some idea.”

From there, Trudel’s advice differs, because he’s more optimistic about game development prospects in Japan. It does require, he believes, a great deal of commitment and the willingness to adapt.

Japanese society works very differently. The game industry works very differently. Every client is going to work very differently, culturally speaking, and you need to find a way to acclimate to that, and blend in to some degree.

“You need to be able to find a way to communicate,” Trudel went on, “where it’s going to make things move in the right direction.” It can be tricky, he told me, but “it’s not impossible.”

Japanese ability of course helps immensely: “I mean, the one big mistake that I made was not learning the language enough before coming here,” Trudel admitted. “This set me back some years.”

But language skills aren’t the whole picture. “I know that for me, as much as I struggled with language early on because I couldn’t understand what people were saying. . . . Because I couldn’t understand, I had to pick up on nonverbal cues more and on all etiquette stuff a lot more quickly, just to not get into trouble. Basically, it made me pay more attention to things.”

Language is not enough. Language is just the gateway to the culture, really. From there, you have to walk through it.

“I think a good way to do that,” Trudel advised, “is to engage in cultural activities. It could be sports, I mean, you can go and join a volleyball team for all I care, but having these kinds of activities where you need some form of interaction, some form of communication, verbal and nonverbal, to be able to engage in the activity, will make a big difference.

“Plus it’s going to give you a bit of a network, beyond just having colleagues at work.”

Trudel is strongly in favor of all forms of networking, even before you come to Japan. “Reach out,” he suggested. “I mean, you have LinkedIn, you have Facebook, you have all these social networks where there are some groups for the Japanese gaming industry. Talk to people, ask questions, see what they’re about.”

He clarified, though, that you’ll get better results if you focus on gathering information over clinching a job. “[Those who message me about jobs], every time I’m going to tell them there’s an application process and a candidate selection process, and I’m out of the loop there.

“But if you were just asking about whether you might find something to your liking [in Japan], I’m happy to jump on a 30 minute call with you and try to figure it out and just have that discussion. I’m assuming that not everyone is going to be necessarily as willing to engage like that, but it’s just a numbers game, right?

“You know, the more people you reach out to, the more people are going to answer back, and then you’re going to be better informed.”

Conclusion

While the experiences shared here have been subjective, two of the major points—the low wages and the need for Japanese ability—were confirmed in TokyoDev’s 2024 survey.

So if you’re interested in being a game developer in Japan, it’s best to start studying Japanese as soon as possible (and perhaps to be independently wealthy). But if a conventional Japanese game company isn’t for you, there are also a number of international game studios that can offer a more flexible and English-speaking environment.

If you’re both ambitious and determined, like Siboulotte, you might aim to strike out on your own.

The [Japanese] indie scene looks huge, and it gave me the will to make my own indie game besides work. I am really looking forward to BitSummit in Kyoto to try and show my prototype at a big fair again!

Wizcorp and other game companies in Japan are hiring now, so check out our game development jobs page.

Want to hear more experiences? Continue the discussion in our Discord community.

Remote Worker Rights In Japan 4 Dec 2024 3:27 PM (4 months ago)

Are you working remotely for a Japanese company? What happens if your company suddenly issues a return-to-office mandate?

Will you have to move back to Tokyo? What if remote work is in your contract—do you have the right to refuse to return to the office? What standing do you have to negotiate with your company? What are your chances of persuading management to change their minds?

These are the questions TokyoDev set out to answer, because return-to-office mandates are on the rise in Japan.

Return-to-office mandates: the numbers

The TokyoDev 2024 survey showed that, among respondents, only 9% worked five days a week in the office. However, companies are increasingly switching from fully-remote to a hybrid working pattern. In 2023, 43% of survey-takers could work fully remotely if they wished, but in 2024, only 38% could say the same.

This trend is not confined to Japan. According to Morgan McKinley, in Hong Kong 91% of companies insisted their employees return to the office, while only around 40% of companies in the UK and Canada are asking the same. Japanese companies come in around the middle, with 62% requesting that their employees come back into the office at least some days.

49% of survey-takers valued the ability to work remotely over everything else. Meanwhile, those who had to attend an office were more negative about their workplace in every aspect except job security than those who could work fully remotely.

In short, tech companies in Japan should be advised that insisting on in-office work, or even hybrid work, could strongly affect their recruitment and retention of employees. By contrast, those who allow fully-remote work can expect to see a rise in applications.

What the Tokyo Labor Bureau has to say

For those developers whose companies issue a return-to-office mandate, what are their rights under Japanese law? And what is the experience like for those developers who try to enlist the help of Japan’s foreign worker resource centers?

To find out, I called them myself. Each time I represented myself as a developer dealing with an increasingly typical situation: though I had always worked remotely, and had moved to a distant prefecture while doing so, I was suddenly being ordered to report to the Tokyo office once a week. What could I do about it?

Labor Standards Advice Hotline

I started by calling this hotline, which quickly set me up with an interpreter. With each question she listened to me in English, then spoke to her superiors in Japanese and translated their reply back to me.

However, they did tell me that most of my case depended on the exact wording of my contract. If it was specified in my contract that I could work fully remotely, regardless of changes in the company’s work plans, then I had a good chance of insisting on continuing to do so—or, at the very least, negotiating from a position of strength. If, however, my contract said that I could work remotely with the company’s permission, or contingent upon company circumstances, then my only hope was to ask for some kind of compromise.

If remote work was specified in my contract, I was told, and the company continued to insist that I come to the Tokyo office when I already lived in another prefecture, then I could be eligible for leave allowance, or a payment of 60% of my salary. They weren’t able to give further details on the subject, however, and again directed me to one of the labor bureaus for more details.

The Tokyo Labor Bureau

When I rang the Tokyo Labor Bureau and presented them with the same dilemma, it was easy to locate someone who spoke English, but their answers were less optimistic. Essentially, the woman on the phone said, there was no provision for return-to-office mandates—-or indeed, anything about remote work—in Japanese law. This left me with limited options.

In general, while certainly willing to help, she didn’t seem too optimistic about my chances of pushing back against the company’s order. It would be “kind of hard,” she admitted.

Since this was more about my particular contract than general labor law, she also suggested that this was really a matter for the lawyers, and gave me the number for the Foreign Residents Support Center.

The Foreign Residents Support Center

When I first called the center, their lawyer was busy, but the woman on the phone apologized profusely and asked if they could call me back, which they did within a few hours.

The lawyer I spoke to had yet another set of suggestions for my return-to-office scenario, but of the people I’d asked so far, he seemed the most optimistic regarding my chances. Unfortunately, it seems that hard-and-fast answers are difficult to come by.

If there is some rational reason for the once-a-week visit to the office, he went on, then the company would be obligated to pay my commuting costs from the distant prefecture to the Tokyo office. However, like me, he considered it unlikely that the weekly meeting was really all that necessary. Instead, he thought I could press for doing the meeting via video call, and that this would fulfill my obligation to the company without incurring additional hassle or expense for either side.

The tricky part was that all of this was speculative, and a lot would depend on specific qualifications. For example, when discussing whether the return-to-office order was actually illegal, he said it depended on several different factors:

• Was fully-remote work promised in my contract?
• Could my job be done fully remotely?
• Does the company have an important reason for this order?

Of course, the last question is the hardest to nail down. The company has to compare the necessity of the order to the disadvantage of the employee, I was told, which appears to leave a lot of legal wiggle room for a strict or unscrupulous company. And contrary to what the Labor Standards Advice Hotline had suggested, he did not think I would be eligible for leave allowance.

If the company refused to budge, he said I should contact my local bar association or city hall to find representation. If I was unable to locate a lawyer on my own, I was free to call back and they would assist me again.

Given my specific circumstances, he suggested that if the company covered the commuting costs, I could perhaps offer to return to the office once every two weeks. In general, he assured me that I shouldn’t be afraid to bargain in this way, particularly if I worked for a small company that might find me difficult to replace.

A less positive experience

Sadly, sometimes neither negotiation nor legal action are possible. Several TokyoDev members spoke anonymously on their companies’ return-to-office mandates, and one of them described his own experience in consulting a lawyer.

It was a lawyer [where] you get 30 minutes of pre-consultation. I sent him my job description, my contract and stuff, and then he looked it up. He said that even though it’s written in the contract that remote work is possible, there’s no precedent in the Supreme Court. . . . He said that if you want to fight, of course I can help you fight it. But in the end, if you lose or if the company dismisses you in the middle of it, then you have bigger problems.

Although the opportunity for remote work had been promised in his job description, the actual employment contracts were more vague in their terms. Technically, the company wasn’t violating the contracts. Employees suspected that the company was using this return-to-office mandate to reduce their workforce without violating Japanese employment laws, but such an assertion would be difficult to prove.

In the end, the developer decided against legal action. “I did not try to lawyer my way through because I know, once I file a lawsuit or something like that, then it’s going to be big trouble for me.” He is, however, actively searching for a new role, as were other developers we spoke to who had been ordered back to the office.

To be clear about the prospect of retaliation, Japan law is strict about the circumstances under which an employee can be terminated. An employee negotiating in good faith around remote work isn’t an acceptable reason, and would run afoul of Japanese law:

An employer is only allowed to dismiss an employee if there are objectively reasonable grounds for dismissal, and dismissal is deemed to be appropriate in light of socially accepted ideas. Furthermore, all possible grounds for dismissal must be clearly stated in the work rules if the dismissal of an employee is to be valid.

The union option

To Dennis Tesolat, General Secretary at the General Union, the solution to these return-to-office mandates is obvious. He calls it “union math.”

If tech workers were to get together, they could command a lot at the negotiation table.

I met with both Tesolat and Sonomi Terao, the Executive Officer at the General Union. They believe most developers don’t consider unionizing because they’re office workers rather than in the trades, but they are in a great situation to do so. “There’s power in numbers,” Tesolat said, “but [also] just one person joining can be effective.”

The General Union, which is headquartered in Osaka but accepts members from all over Japan, already has at least one worker dealing with an unwanted return-to-office mandate. They wouldn’t mind taking on more such cases.

Companies don’t want to fight, they want to make money. But we’re a union, it’s our job, so we don’t mind.

In fact, Tesolat said, sometimes zero confrontation is required. Just sending in the notification of an employee’s General Union membership often causes management to back off their demands.

“At least somebody else now is watching you,” said Tesolat. “Is it a big help, is it going to change your whole situation? No, but they might leave you alone.”

And if they don’t, “You just have more options [with a union]. The chance to negotiate, to be supported by colleagues, the right to dispute. The option of court is always there, but it’s not the first option. Nine out of ten times we solve things without using that court option.”

What’s key, he said, is not approaching the negotiating table alone. “Dispute and negotiating—that’s our job. . . . And once you [mess] it up, we can’t help you at that point.” This is especially true if you’re an international developer working for a Japanese company, “because the whole manner of negotiation is different. . . . The chance for a lot of misunderstanding is there.”

That’s the thing about negotiating on your own. It’s hard, you don’t always know what to do it . . . and if there’s retaliation from that, ‘So what?’ But if the union does it, and there’s retaliation, there’s trade union law that says you can’t do that.

What about retaliation for joining a union? Tesolat laughed and said that in his thirty years of experience, he’s seen fewer than ten straightforward retaliation cases. That leaves open the possibility of indirect retaliation, but Tesolat again pointed out that the union exists to deal with precisely that sort of issue.

In short, “I would worry about a lot of other things before I’d worry about joining a union.”

Two years ago, the General Union didn’t even have an IT branch. During the pandemic, however, the General Union—which had initially confined its membership to the Kansai area—began accepting applications from all over Japan, and from a greater variety of professions.

“People were getting fired, they weren’t getting paid, and we couldn’t say no,” Tesolat said, “so we opened the door.” As a result, membership shot up by 35%.

Recently, they’ve seen another surge in tech worker applications: “A lot of people started getting scared after the layoffs in America.” With return-to-office mandates increasing, the General Union may see their numbers continue to rise—and that’s good for “union math.”

How to reverse your company’s return-to-office policy

One anonymous developer we spoke to successfully reversed the return-to-office policy for his entire team.

During Covid, he told us, the team worked fully remotely, but after the pandemic was over the management team insisted that developers return to the office five days a week. Eventually our interviewee was able to persuade them to restore remote work, first on a hybrid basis, and later full-time.

“This was at a very small company though,” he explained, “where we had more leverage than what you would normally expect in a midsize or big company. Since the push also came from me as the lead developer, management eventually accepted it.”

“I was the first developer in the company,” he added, “and I was often asked about what we needed to do to get a dev department running.

“One of the things I mentioned is that it is hard to keep developers for a long time, so you need incentives. You either give them a raise, or benefits, or both. Since it was a small company it had no way to compete with bigger ones when it came to benefits and salary. So, what else can you do? If you are small and agile, you can afford to give remote work benefits, as it will cost you little or nothing to do so.”

From the company’s perspective, my point was more about being able to retain people and also have an easier time finding new ones. The cost of hiring and onboarding a new developer is quite high in my experience. If you have a good worker and you are not in a position to be giving raises to everyone, remote work is an easy way to keep your devs happy. The fact that other companies do not offer it also means that it is harder for them to be poached.

I asked if he had any advice for other developers who wanted remote work. “If I were to give any tips to other developers that are unhappy with their situation,” he said, “it would be to let their company know about it.

“For example, they probably have a one-on-one discussion with their manager every so often. This is a good opportunity to ask if the company is considering remote work, [explain] why they want it, and so on. I would not expect a change immediately, especially if they are in a more traditional Japanese company. But consistently asking about it and showing that it really matters is what made the devs here get remote work.

”[Ask the company to] try running a trial with just one developer or two, and evaluate the pros and cons. If the company outright states that it will never allow it no matter what, or it becomes clear that they will not do it, I would start looking for new opportunities that provide the benefit.”

So, it is always about leverage. If the company does not think you are worth what you are asking, your only choice is to go to a place that thinks you are worth it. And, of course, keep studying and learning to improve the chances of someone thinking that you are.

Conclusion

In the TokyoDev 2024 survey, there’s a clear correlation between in-office work and job-hunting. Full-time office workers are looking for new opportunities at the highest rate, followed by hybrid workers, whereas only 10% of fully-remote workers are looking for new roles. As more companies become aware of how highly their employees prioritize remote work, we should expect to see a decline in return-to-office mandates.

Even those who don’t wish to change jobs may be able to use this trend to negotiate with their companies. Of course, not all of those negotiations will be successful, and the advice offered by Japanese labor bureaus and legal support centers can be highly variable. However, most of the people I contacted were supportive and helpful. Perhaps, if you encounter negativity or opposition from government workers, you should avail yourself of the old immigration tactic: if you don’t like the answer you got, ask someone else.

Has your company asked you to return to the office? We have a list of fully remote developer jobs for you.

If you want to continue the conversation, join our Discord community.

TokyoDev supports the legalization of same-sex marriage in Japan 2 Dec 2024 7:19 PM (4 months ago)

Japan’s lack of recognition for same-sex marriage doesn’t affect me personally, but it does affect people I care about. So when I saw Business for Marriage Equality, a campaign that highlights 500+ companies and organizations that support legalization of same-sex marriage, I immediately had TokyoDev join it.

TokyoDev unequivocally supports LGBT+ rights, including same-sex marriage.

Japan does not currently recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions. While the same-sex partnership systems offered by municipalities and prefectures cover 85% of the population, these provide limited benefits, and are not equivalent to legal recognition. Several courts have ruled that the lack of legal recognition is unconstitutional, most recently the Tokyo High Court. But the fact remains that same-sex couples in Japan lack the fundamental rights granted to heterosexual ones.

Beyond the moral issues this inequality raises, it also causes practical ones. Globally, same-sex marriage is recognized in 36 countries, whose citizens represent 20% of the world’s population. Lack of a clear legal framework for acknowledging same-sex unions makes the relocation of foreign same-sex couples to Japan fraught with difficulty.

For instance, if both partners are non-Japanese and one of them relocates to Japan on a working visa, the other may be able to come on a designated activities visa, though those visas can be difficult to acquire. However, a non-Japanese person married to a Japanese citizen is ineligible for such a visa.

This uncertainty about whether a couple can relocate together—not to mention the questions it raises about what discrimination they may face—means that talented individuals who would otherwise enthusiastically relocate to Japan are not doing so. I’ve observed their reluctance firsthand. As Japan needs international developers, this lack of legal equality for same-sex relationships is holding the country back by damaging its impression among skilled talent overseas.

I’m optimistic about the future, though. Momentum continues to build around the legalization of same-sex marriage here, and I think it is inevitable that it will eventually be achieved. I hope that our support contributes in a small way to help those affected, until the day of legalization arrives.

AI Disrupts The Traditional Hiring Process 21 Nov 2024 2:16 PM (5 months ago)

In the face of AI, there are two strategies: embrace the algorithm, or embrace being human.

As a job board operator, this has been weighing on me. I see hints that AI will disrupt the industry and transform the hiring process, perhaps not for the better.

Ultimately, I’ve decided that TokyoDev will not use AI to influence the hiring process. We will instead focus on doing what AI cannot: building a supportive community, crafting high-quality resources to help individuals become stronger candidates, and leveraging our deep expertise to help companies showcase what makes them unique, attracting the talent they seek.

Challenges posed by AI

Since AI has entered common usage, it has created a number of issues in the hiring industry, both for candidates and for companies.

AI makes it incredibly easy to send customized job applications

Since online job applications became common, candidates have been able to apply for countless positions in a short period of time. Anecodetally, I’ve heard of people submitting 1,000+ job applications. The initial downside to this approach was that candidates couldn’t spend a lot of time customizing those applications, so they tended to be low quality. Now AI tools have emerged that not only allow candidates to automate their job applications, but to submit a fully-customized application based on the job description and their resume.

While I believe these tools won’t yield the best results, for many, the temptation to use them is just too high, particularly for candidates who aren’t getting job offers. This means that positions are receiving an increasing number of applications that seem to be tailored to them and are superficially passable.

The more people use such tools, the worse the problem becomes. This is particularly true for positions that support remote work globally. For example, by some estimates, there are 28 million software developers worldwide. If even only 0.01% of all developers were to use AI tooling, a position could potentially receive 2,800 such unthoughtful, AI-generated applications.

Only after human reviewers have invested some time in reading the AI-generated application will they see the cracks in the facade. Countless human hours will therefore be spent filtering out AI-generated applications, unless recruiters take the next logical step.

Large application volume makes AI screening attractive

This can lead to a technological arms race: as candidates seek to lower the effort spent on job applications, those screening the applications will seek to do the same. Recruiters have always spent only a short amount of time reviewing a given application: some estimates put it at seven seconds. In our previous hypothetical of 2,800 applications, that adds up to almost 5 ½ hours of review. This is a time sink that recruiters will jump at the chance to cut down.

Now, AI-based screening tools are starting to be built into Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). These tools don’t automatically accept or reject candidates. Rather, they opt to assist in evaluation, usually by assigning scores based on how well candidates match the job description. You can see an example of how this works with Workable’s overview of their AI screening assistant.

Even though these tools do not explicitly reject candidates, they implicitly do so. If a recruiter sees a candidate has a low match score, they’re likely to just click the button to reject the candidate themselves. If they weren’t going to trust the evaluation and were going to read the application themselves, why would they bother to use the AI evaluation to begin with?

AI is an existential threat to job boards

Before TokyoDev was a job board, it was my personal blog with a mailing list. Despite the mailing list only having a couple hundred subscribers on it, and me only posting opportunities every once in a blue moon, several people got jobs through it. This meant we had an incredibly high signal to noise ratio.

Since turning the mailing list into Japan’s first job board for international software developers, the number of applications we process has skyrocketed. On our job board, positions that accept overseas candidates will often receive hundreds of applicants from us alone. While our clients have compared the quality of our candidates favourably to competitors, the fact remains that our signal to noise ratio has worsened.

I can see that, as AI-created applications become more common, they could grow to be an existential threat to our business. Our value lies in the superior candidates that we provide to our clients; if all of the applications through us are the same as other job boards’, why would clients choose us? Furthermore, these automated tools make it likely that a company’s own ATS will be getting ever-increasing volumes of applications. If their ATS does a good enough job of highlighting qualified candidates, there will be no need to bother with third party sites such as ours.

Why TokyoDev does not use AI screening

In the face of these challenges, I’ve seen other job boards begin to implement their own AI-based screening, scoring candidates in a similar fashion to ATS. After all, it’s incredibly easy to use services like ChatGPT to do this: any AI will happily give you back such a score, whether or not it’s meaningful or would correlate with what a skilled human evaluator would give.

Screening candidates would be illegal

In Japan, recruiting is a regulated industry. We’re regulated as a job board, not a recruitment agency. That means we’re prohibited from screening candidates or modifying the applications they make.

Some job boards in Japan have registered themselves as recruitment agencies, allowing them to do such screening. While TokyoDev could do this too, I’ve intentionally not pursued this option, as getting involved with screening would take away from our primary focus: sharing opportunities in Japan with international developers.

Transparency is a guiding principle

My belief in the importance of transparency is why we’ve been explicit about how we make money, and how that influences our operations.

An AI-based screening system is fundamentally not transparent. Such a system would mean putting candidates at the whim of an AI, the processes of which cannot be deeply or thoroughly inspected.

Those job boards utilizing AI screening could attempt to frame this as a good thing; they could say that “AI highlights your strengths,” or that it allows exceptional candidates to shine. But even so, it wouldn’t make sense to ever show how well a candidate was scored by an AI, as revealing that information to applicants would encourage and allow them to game the system, reducing the quality of applications that the client eventually receives. The process would need to be kept mysterious, which is antithetical to the way I’ve always run TokyoDev.

AI tools have been shown to be biased

Amazon used AI to screen candidates, but scrapped it after they uncovered that it preferred male candidates, and was doing things like penalizing resumes that included the word “women’s” in it. While AI has progressed a lot in the last 10 years, and it may theoretically be possible to create an unbiased tool, I think it is quite challenging to actually do so, let alone definitively prove that it doesn’t have unacceptable bias.

Tackling the gender divide in our industry is an important issue to me. TokyoDev supports communities that empower women in technology, and provides companies with advice on how to improve gender diversity. It would be counterproductive for us to inject additional bias into the hiring process.

Companies developing ATS have more resources to invest in AI

TokyoDev is a niche job board with finite resources. We’re not going to be able to build a better AI-powered screening system than companies with development teams producing ATS products. I wouldn’t want to come up with some haphazard solution myself, either.

If I were to implement some AI screening system, and it failed to identify even a single qualified candidate who might have gotten the job otherwise, that would weigh too heavily on my shoulders.

How TokyoDev works to improve the process

This is not to say that we’re doing nothing in the face of AI. Rather than leveraging AI to reject poor candidates, TokyoDev is working to increase the number of high-quality candidates.

For example, when candidates are troubled by an unclear job description or application process, they can reach out to me directly, and I am usually able to cut through the bureaucracy and find a truthful answer. This is something AI cannot do.

On a broader scale, we invest in the hiring ecosystem by building our community, educating applicants, and helping companies highlight their best qualities to attract top talent. We also work to better the software industry as a whole in Japan; these improved work conditions will then attract more qualified candidates.

Community building

I’ve been volunteering at and organizing tech events since 2010. As we’ve seen success with TokyoDev, I’ve worked to reinvest back into the local developer community, through sponsorship and more. We’ve also started our own community, both online through a Discord server, and through hosting in-person events. Our primary motivation is the value these create for our members, but they also have a positive impact on our business.

Because a community promotes peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, it’s helped our members become better candidates. A prime example is the “resume review” channel in our Discord, where members can post their resume and get feedback from others. I’ve seen firsthand how members have used the channel to develop an insta-reject resume into one that successfully passes screenings.

We also educate our members on immigration-related processes, settling into life in Japan, and successfully dealing with diverse personal and professional stresses.

Besides that, many talented developers seek out our events, to hone their skills and make connections. By having these people in our audience, it’s more likely that they’ll choose to use our job board over others, which means we have higher-caliber applicants.

Informing candidates

Alongside the peer-to-peer education members of our community get, we also invest in creating high-quality resources that can help people become better candidates. Some examples include our articles on writing resumes for jobs in Japan, using recruitment agencies in Japan, and a guide to software engineer visas in Japan.

In addition, we write articles about Japanese work culture, the process of moving to Japan, and how to live here comfortably with pets, children, and more. This is because Japan is in need of talented and senior developers, and we want to do everything we can to attract those kinds of people to the Japanese companies we work with. Good candidates are hungry for information so that they can make informed decisions; the smoother and more appealing we can make the process of immigration, the more top-notch international candidates will be interested in applying.

Besides our articles, we also conduct an annual survey of international developers living in Japan, which enables people to better understand the market. These resources help all potential candidates, regardless of where they ultimately apply.

Helping companies highlight themselves

In-demand candidates have the choice of where they want to work, so they won’t bother applying to a company that doesn’t look attractive to them.

This is especially important in Japan, where English-speaking postings are often created by using machine translation, and can be missing crucial information for international engineers or contain confusing, ambiguous English.

We also write developer stories to help companies demonstrate that their own employees have a positive view of their work environment. These stories highlight the culture of the company in a genuine way, and provide an “insider” perspective for would-be candidates.

Conclusion

TokyoDev has grown to be a much greater endeavour than my personal blog ever set out to be. Through it, I have been able to help hundreds of developers find their paths to Japan. We have made measurable change in our industry by educating people about their rights, supporting diversity, and assisting companies in understanding how to attract and retain international engineers.

AI screening contains inscrutable processes that are biased against certain classes of applicants and prevent communication on a meaningful, human level. Building it into TokyoDev would turn it into a cold, sterile service that runs counter to the warm and welcoming place we currently are.

Instead of turning to a machine to overcome modern hiring challenges, we will continue to embrace our humanity, by connecting with people on a personal level to grow and promote high-quality candidates. We will do this because we believe it’s not only the right way to hire, it’s genuinely the most effective, transparent, and helpful method.

The 2024 TokyoDev Developer Survey Results Are Live! 20 Nov 2024 4:43 PM (5 months ago)

In September 2024, TokyoDev conducted our sixth annual survey of international developers living in Japan. This year’s survey had a total of 814 respondents, up 14% from last year’s survey. The results are now live, so please check out the full results, or read on for some of the key findings.

Minimal changes to the job market

The median compensation of respondents was ¥8.5 million per year, the same as last year’s survey. This is down from ¥9.5 million in 2022.

The current market for international developers appears similar to 2023 in other ways as well. For instance, 17% of respondents were actively searching for a job, compared to 19% in 2023, and 2% of respondents were unemployed, the same as the previous year.

Highest pay for English-speaking roles in international companies

As in previous years, we observed that those working at internationally-headquartered companies made significantly more than those at Japanese-headquartered companies. Employees of international companies made a median of 47% more than employees of Japanese companies. This gap was larger in 2023, when employees of international companies made 73% more.

English usage also correlated with higher compensation, with those frequently or always using English at their job making 73% more than those who rarely or never use English. Likewise, respondents with higher English proficiency also made more.

However, Japanese ability had little correlation with compensation, and Japanese usage had a negative correlation with compensation. This appears to run counter to what others have told us: to advance your career in Japan, you need Japanese. Properly exploring this is beyond the scope of this article, but one factor is that many of our respondents worked in an environment where Japanese abilities weren’t needed, with only 32% of respondents frequently or always using Japanese.

Less remote, more challenges

Companies are switching from allowing employees to work completely remotely, to a hybrid model requiring them to come into the office at least some of the time. While in 2023 43% of respondents could choose whether or not to come to the office, that number fell to 38% this year, with those subject to a hybrid policy increasing by a corresponding amount.

The less an organization embraced remote work, the more likely a respondent was to be actively looking for a job. While only 10% of respondents who could choose whether or not to work remotely were on the job hunt, a whopping 39% of those who had to work full-time at an office were. Hybrid workers fell in the middle, with 18% of respondents looking for a new job.

Additionally, those who had to attend an office were more negative about their workplace than those who could work fully remotely, on every aspect we surveyed except job security.

Overall, remote work was respondents’ most important benefit, with 49% of survey-takers valuing it over anything else. It seems companies that continue to embrace a fully-remote environment will have an advantage when it comes to recruiting.

Even with experience considered, women still earn less than men

The median compensation of male respondents was 46% higher than that of female respondents.

This was partially explained by male respondents having more professional experience. While men had a median of 7 years of professional experience, women had 6 years. Furthermore, men had a 75th percentile of 13 years of experience compared to 9 for women.

However, even when comparing cohorts with similar levels of professional experience, male respondents continued to make more, and the disparity in pay actually grew with seniority. While men with 4–6 years of experience made 7% more than women, men with 7–9 years of experience made 31% more.

The reasons behind this disparity are complex, but it’s clear that women continue to face challenges in the Japanese tech industry. For ideas on how your company can take concrete action to solve this, please see this article.

Professional happiness prevails among international developers

62% of respondents were happy or very happy with their professional lives in Japan. Stack Overflow’s 2024 survey asked a similar question, and found only 20% of respondents were satisfied with their current professional developer role.

While Japan internationally has a reputation for poor work-life balance, that didn’t seem to be the case for most of our respondents. 70% reported enjoying a good work-life balance, 72% worked at most 40 hours in a typical week, and 55% planned to use 80-100% of their paid leave.

It’s important to note that our respondents don’t represent the overall Japanese developer market. Their relatively high compensation suggests they may work at companies offering particularly favorable environments, which could explain their high professional satisfaction.

Plus so much more

Not only are there many more insights to be found in the full survey results, we also offer the ability to create your own custom charts, allowing you to explore the data further. So please, dive in and take a look, and if you find any other interesting connections, please share them with our community!

The English Paradox: Four Decades of Life and Language in Japan 6 Nov 2024 4:58 PM (5 months ago)

For more than forty years, I have been trying to understand the role of English in Japan. Over my first two decades in this country, I went from one extreme to the other: from seeing English as important here, to regarding it as a niche, inessential aspect of Japanese life.

My views changed yet again after I switched careers in 2005 and started working full time at the University of Tokyo. I gradually came to realize that English’s role in Japan is more nuanced and complex than I had imagined.

Now, with increased immigration from multiple countries, new roles for international developers in the tech industry, and the advent of AI, English’s place in Japan is transforming yet again. New questions have entered a long-standing debate, including:

• Should English remain the focus of Japan’s foreign language education?
• Is it possible for language education based on machine translation or AI to be instituted “fairly” in Japan?
• Can English-speaking workers build careers in Japanese-speaking companies?

These dilemmas may be modern, but their roots run deep, for the role of English in Japan has always been a controversial subject. To properly understand English’s evolving role in this country, it’s necessary to delve into the past—in this case, when I landed in Japan in 1983.

English in Japan is essential

My first months here, I realize now, led me astray. I knew no Japanese when I arrived in August of 1983. Unable to read the signs in train stations, few of which were in English then, I took a slow local train from Narita to Ueno, where an American friend was to meet me.

After a couple of hours I reached Ueno and called my friend, and he took me to a “gaijin house” in Setagaya, where I would stay for the next month. The landlord’s English was weak, but everyone else staying there—an Israeli artist, two bar hostesses from the Philippines, a Polish sailor who had jumped ship in Yokohama and was seeking asylum in Japan, and a Japanese college student living there for the international experience—could all speak English well.

In the weeks ahead, nearly everyone I met either spoke English or wanted to learn. A few days after I arrived, the landlord introduced me to an English conversation lounge in Takadanobaba. I would go there, chat with the customers in English for a few hours, and get paid 5000 yen. I quit after a couple of sessions, as the place made me uncomfortable; I even wondered if it was a front for some other kind of business. But on the surface at least, everyone was there to speak English.

My subsequent regular jobs—working as an editor at a small publishing company in Yoyogi, teaching at a conversation school in Shinjuku—were also focused on English. Those jobs existed because Japanese companies needed to publish PR materials in English and because Japanese individuals were willing to pay money to learn English from an American.

My media consumption, which included the Japan Times and Daily Yomiuri, U.S. armed forces radio, Time magazine, and Hollywood movies, was also entirely in English. All of the friends I made, both Japanese and foreign, spoke English too.

English in Japan is peripheral

Six months after I arrived, my views began to change. I started taking classes at a Japanese language school in Harajuku five mornings a week. I had been interested in foreign languages since high school and had majored in linguistics in college and graduate school, but this was my first opportunity to study a language in a country where it was spoken. Except for an evening English teaching job, I spent nearly all of my time either attending Japanese classes or practicing kanji and memorizing vocabulary on my own.

After two years of intensive work, I became able to use the language pretty well. Using my reading skills, I started freelancing as a Japanese-to-English translator. While I continued to teach English part-time, translation would be my main career for the next two decades.

In some ways, working as a translator reinforced my impression that English was important in Japan. After all, most of my clients—Japanese companies and government agencies—paid me good rates to translate their product brochures, advertisements, video scripts, and speeches into English. Clearly, English had economic value to them.

A client might pay me to translate their corporate brochure into English, but when it was done they would have only a hundred copies printed, while their Japanese brochure had print runs in the thousands. A national theater paid me to translate synopses of its plays. My translation took up only one page out of thirty-two in the printed program—all the rest were in Japanese, as, of course, were the plays themselves. An oil company paid me to produce English spec sheets for the lubricants they supplied to Japanese car factories overseas. While the 30 or so types of engine oil and grease seemed like a lot, they accounted for less than 10% of the company’s line of lubricants. Yes, English had some economic value in Japan, but it was dwarfed by the much greater importance of Japanese.

Learning Japanese and freelancing as a translator meant that I had transitioned to living most of my life in Japanese as well. My two daughters grew up with Japanese as their first language. When they were small I tried to speak only English with them, but once they entered the local elementary school I often had to switch to Japanese so that we could talk about what they were learning. Since all my clients were Japanese, I rarely had to speak English for my translation work. In my evening English classes I did speak to my students only in English, but other than that, and some short trips to the U.S. every year or two to visit family, I was rarely immersed in an English-speaking environment.

English in Japan is complicated

In 2005, I was hired by the University of Tokyo, and I spent my first few years at the university helping to develop and manage a course on science writing in English for first-year undergraduates. Most of the science majors there go on to careers in research or industry, and the university wanted them to learn how to structure and write a research paper in English, the lingua franca of the sciences.

Their lukewarm attitude toward English contrasted strongly with messaging from both educational leaders and the government about the importance of English skills in the “age of globalization.”

Working at the university also gave me broader exposure to English education throughout Japan. I often visited other universities and talked with the English educators there. While the students at other top universities were similar in English ability and interest to those at UTokyo, the situation at second-tier and third-tier universities was quite different. Not only did the incoming students have weaker English competence, their interest in becoming fluent was also much lower. With few exceptions, they did not see English as useful to them now, nor did they expect to need or want to be able to use English in the future. Though the students were required to take English classes for a year or two, the level was usually quite basic, and few of those students would graduate with significant English ability.

In the 1950s and 1960s, rock and pop music from the U.S. and U.K., Hollywood movies, and American TV shows had played an outsized role in Japanese life. Many older fluent English speakers I have known acquired their ability mainly through a youthful obsession with some form of English media. While occasionally I still meet college students intensely focused on, say, hip hop or American TV dramas, young people in Japan today seem much more content with the pop culture of their own country.

English in Japan is controversial

My perspective broadened further a few years after I joined UTokyo, when I started teaching and doing research in its graduate school. I began to advise graduate students on their research in language education, and I chose topics related to English education for my graduate seminars. I became especially interested in controversies that have persisted in Japan about English education for more than a century.

Those controversies revolve around fundamental questions. Should all children be required to study English in school? If so, at what age should English study begin? Is the primary goal for studying English to become able to use the language for practical purposes? Or should the language be studied more for personal enrichment? Should English teaching emphasize grammar and vocabulary, or focus more on communication? Is it better for teachers and students to use Japanese in the classroom, or should they speak only English? How should English ability be assessed for university admission and employment?

While people still disagree on those issues, government policy and the educational system have largely reached a consensus.

The national curriculum calls for English to be taught only in English, though many teachers continue to use Japanese in the classroom. Educators remain divided about the role of testing, but most seem to believe that tests like EIKEN, TOEIC, and high school and university entrance examinations measure language ability accurately and that higher test scores are an appropriate target to aim for when studying English.

In recent years, though, cracks have appeared in that consensus. Around the late 2010s, the government proposed adding a new section to the English part of the common university entrance examination, which was called the Center Exam and was taken by a half million people on the same day each year. The test already assessed English vocabulary, grammar, and reading and listening comprehension, but to encourage high schools to emphasize speaking in class more, the government planned to add a speaking component to the test.

However, the proposal ran into fierce objections on both pedagogical and logistical grounds. Because most Japanese children had no immediate need to speak English, it would be better, the opponents argued, to first give them a solid grounding in grammar and vocabulary so that they would be able to speak English correctly if and whenever they needed to. The government’s plan to outsource the speaking test to private testing companies was also criticized. Those private tests, it was believed, would favor children from wealthier families in urban areas. The opposition proved too much for the government, and the plan was abandoned in late 2019.

A controversial reform that did get enacted was moving the start of regular English classes from age twelve to age ten. Until 2019, English was a required subject beginning in the first year of junior high school. After decades of debate about whether starting English earlier would benefit or harm Japanese children, the government decided to begin English two years earlier, in the fifth year of elementary school. The national curriculum was revised, new textbooks were prepared, and elementary school teachers had to learn how to teach a subject that few of them had been trained for.

English in Japan must be fair

At the heart of the controversies about English education in Japan is an assumption that is rarely questioned or made explicit: whatever policy is decided, it must apply equally to all children. People argued about whether to start English classes at age 12 or 10. The idea of starting some children at 12 and others at 9 or 11 or 13 depending on the individual child’s preferences and abilities was never on the table. Similarly, the speaking component was either going to be added to the Center Exam for all test-takers or for none. Anything else, it was assumed, would be “unfair.”

The need for fairness and uniformity even extends to minutiae such as classroom layout: at nearly every elementary school, children sit at individual desks arranged in rows facing a front blackboard, with the windows to their left. Teachers often try to resist this uniformity and adapt their lessons as much as they can to the specific needs of their students. But their hands are mostly tied, as they still have to prepare their students for the standardized exams that await them in the years ahead.

As a result, English education through high school and even, sometimes, at the university level is basically one-size-fits-all. Although every child learns differently and has their own interests and motivations, educational debates implicitly assume that all children should be taught with the same curriculum and teaching methods at the same pace.

Of course, wealth and social status still affect students’ English education. Parents who can afford it may sign their children up for individual or group lessons from private tutors, or send them to English-focused cram schools. Students who have access to these resources can receive more individualized attention in smaller classroom settings, allowing them to not only study beyond the normal school curricula, but also to learn more efficiently. This disparity is one reason why the expansion of the Center Exam was so vehemently opposed on grounds of “fairness”—low-income families simply don’t have these options.

The uniformity of the education system also contrasts with the diversity of Japan’s society and economy. Some adults in Japan do indeed need English—in their work or in their personal lives—and of course some people who went through the Japanese education system later live overseas, where ability in English is often very helpful. Such people complain about how inadequate school-taught English has been for them.

On the other hand, most Japanese people never leave Japan; currently, fewer than one-fifth of Japanese citizens even have a passport. While some of them work for companies with an international presence and need to use English domestically, as shown by the social scientist Takunori Terasawa, the majority of them never use English. Most soon forget nearly everything they learned in school.

English in Japan isn’t enough

Another problem with the foreign language educational policy is that it remains focused on English, while Japan is steadily becoming a multilingual society. Recent statistics from the Ministry of Justice paint a revealing picture: of the nearly three million foreign residents in Japan at the end of 2023, the largest group by far consists of Chinese citizens, numbering over 820,000 and growing at nearly 8% annually. The second-largest group comprises Vietnamese residents, with more than 565,000 people and a robust growth rate of 15.5%.

Particularly striking are the growth rates among some smaller but rapidly expanding communities. Indonesia’s resident population surged by over 50% in a single year, while Myanmar’s grew by nearly 54%. The Nepali community expanded by more than 26%. In contrast, the number of U.S. citizens in Japan—around 63,000—grew by just 4.3%.

English in Japan is changing

Meanwhile, advances in technology are transforming both language use and language needs. Around 2016, advances in machine translation (MT) started to challenge assumptions about the practical need for English. Some Japanese people wondered if the effort to learn English was really worth it when they could just use Google Translate or a smartphone interpreting app. But the education system was very slow to adapt to the improvements in MT. As late as 2022, when I searched the website of the Ministry of Education for machine translation (機械翻訳, kikai honyaku), I found no mention of the technology’s implications for English education.

Such issues have been amplified by the appearance of large language models. One of the most attractive applications for today’s AI is creating interactive learning experiences tailored to the individual student.

The insistence from teachers, students, parents, administrators, and broader Japanese society that education be delivered “fairly” will make it very difficult to adopt truly individualized AI-based tutoring, guidance, or assessment into schools, as students will no longer seem to be progressing through the same material at the same pace.

English in Japan at work

In the technology sector, today’s reality is complex: while many Japanese tech companies officially promote English use and seek international talent, the daily work environment often operates primarily in Japanese.

To address this issue, some companies aim to switch entirely to English, while others, like Givery and Cybozu, have created in-house, English-speaking multinational developer teams. Even within the same company, however, practices can vary sharply between departments, and there’s frequently a language gap between English-speaking developers and the Japanese executives who manage them.

The advent of AI translation tools is also changing the landscape. Many companies now use them for documentation and communication, though their effectiveness varies depending on the context.

English in Japan: my advice

Looking back over the four decades since that hot August day when I stumbled onto the local train to Ueno, my understanding of English in Japan has evolved from seeing it as either central or peripheral to recognizing its nuanced role.

The most successful international professionals I’ve observed are those who remain flexible about language use, taking advantage of English when possible while gradually developing their Japanese skills. When looking into the labor shortage, TokyoDev found that many companies are specifically seeking senior-level candidates with excellent communication skills, even in Japanese.

Beyond the tech sector, the manufacturing and service industries are increasingly dependent on immigrant labor. Japanese respondents to a 2023 government survey rated Japanese language ability as the most important skill for those foreign workers, and a law passed in 2019 aims to comprehensively promote policies related to Japanese language education, creating an environment where foreign residents in Japan can conduct their daily lives alongside native Japanese-speaking citizens.

Understanding how English is learned and used in Japan can also help you work more effectively with Japanese colleagues. Many of them studied English primarily through textbook study and test preparation, with limited opportunities for natural communication. This background often explains why some colleagues or clients, despite years of English study, may be hesitant to speak English in meetings or social situations, while being more comfortable with written English in documentation or email. Being aware of this context can help you better support your colleagues and build stronger working relationships.

The tech sector, with its international outlook and need for global talent, may well lead the way in developing more flexible approaches to language use in Japan. Until then, understanding that companies’ attitudes and practices have been shaped by the complex, often contradictory status of English in Japan may help you make informed decisions about where and how to build your career.

How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan 20 Oct 2024 5:31 PM (6 months ago)

“Should I live here, in Japan?” That thought crossed my mind almost as soon as I landed at Tokyo’s Haneda airport. So I began my very first, brief and spontaneous trip to any Asian country, in February of 2024. I’m sure I wasn’t the first or last tourist with such ideas either!

As soon as I returned home to Berlin, Germany, I started scheming up ways to accomplish the move. However, after a few days of browsing through job boards (including, of course, TokyoDev), examining visa requirements, and observing discussions about life in Japan on Reddit, reality started setting in.

Relocating from one country to another is always a daunting task, though I’ve done it a couple of times already. Moving to a different continent, where you are unfamiliar with most of the customs, the language, the work environment, and even food etiquette, is life-changing on a whole different level.

After eight years in Berlin, I’d grown roots in a city known worldwide to be an attractive place to live. My friends and family also lived close by. I had just accepted a great job opportunity after a turbulent bankruptcy had shut down my last employer. Moving to Japan on a whim was too much of a risk.

Plus, visiting a country as a tourist is significantly different from actually living in it. I needed more time to judge whether I should take the leap to move there or not. Now, how could I make that work?

What didn’t get me to Japan

My first thought was to work remotely and use the 90 days permitted by the tourist visa. Yet working in Japan on this visa is a gray zone at best and a practice I would stay away from. In fact, the US Embassy in Japan strictly advises against this:

Persons found working illegally are subject to arrest and deportation.

Persons believed to be entering Japan without a working visa but who intend to work here can be denied entry into Japan. This means that you will not exit the airport and will be required to return directly to the U.S.

Japanese Immigration officials are aware of the pattern of people staying for 80-90 days as “tourists,” spending a few days in Korea, Guam or some other nearby area and then seeking to re-enter Japan for another 90 days. Persons with such a travel pattern can expect to face questions at Japanese Immigration and may be denied entry with the suspicion that they have been or will work illegally in Japan. In that Japanese Immigration records are computerized, a “lost” passport does not serve to mask long stays in Japan.

I therefore revisited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs visa page and looked at other options. Two possible opportunities for others, the Working Holiday and Cultural Activities visas, were not going to work for me. The first, because I (sadly) had passed the age of 30, and the second because I was uncomfortable at the thought of draining my savings to visit a language school without working in the meantime. Seeing no other suitable option, I capitulated for a while.

Introducing the Digital Nomad visa

Luckily for me, things were about to change. Fast forward to April 2024, when the Japanese government introduced the Digital Nomad visa. This visa allows visitors to legally work remotely from within Japan, albeit with stricter requirements than many other nations offering a similar permit. Those requirements are:

• Must be a national of an eligible country
• Must be insured against death, injury, or illness for an amount larger than 10 million yen or more for the length of their stay
• Must show an annual income of 10 million yen or more

10 million yen is equivalent to 67,000 US dollars or 61,000 Euros at the time of writing. This amount makes most workers around the world ineligible, despite the yen currently being quite weak. Additionally, the visa restricts the period of stay to a maximum of six months, making it much shorter than visas offered by other popular digital nomad destinations such as Thailand, Portugal, or Spain.

I had a lot of questions that the brief Japanese Immigration webpage about this new visa did not answer (you might find answers to those in the FAQ section below). Nevertheless, thanks to the weak yen, I was privileged to meet the income requirements. No longer defeated, I started investigating this new way to accomplish my goal of living, at least for a while, in Japan.

Receiving permission to work remotely

The first step was actually getting my relatively new employer on board with me working from a whole different continent for so many months. Fortunately for me, my company had taken a remote-first approach since its inception, so I already had the freedom to work remotely from anywhere in Germany, a benefit that I find to be priceless in a tech industry plagued by arbitrary return-to-office mandates. However, I was still a new hire and on probation, so I bided my time.

Once I had successfully completed my probation period at work, I approached my boss, asking if I could work for six months in Japan. To my surprise, he agreed without hesitation, barring any issues with HR. The latter confirmed that, since I would be working fewer than 183 days outside of Germany, no tax or contractual problems would arise. This was something I had not considered before; I’d only thought that the visa might be too short for my objective of trying out life in Japan. It appears, however, that the six month duration has some benefits.

Planning my arrival date

The next question was, when should I aim to arrive in Japan? My first issue was that I wasn’t sure how much time was needed to acquire this visa. There was no mention of processing time on the official Japanese Immigration website.

I browsed a few mega-threads on Reddit about this, hoping to find an answer. It had only been three months since the rollout of the Digital Nomad visa, after all. I saw one or two replies advising people to submit the application at least three months before the date of intended arrival in Japan.

I’d hoped that the waiting time would be less, but now I aimed to arrive in Japan around the 1st of December, which left almost four months for the application to be completed and accepted.

Starting the application

With my company’s blessing secured, I proceeded to start filling out the visa forms and gathering the required documents to drop off at the Japanese embassy.

The visa application form was quite standard, yet two fields, “address in Japan” and “phone number in Japan,” proved difficult. I had not looked for a place to stay in Japan yet, and I wouldn’t get a local phone number until I was in Japan.

I went to Reddit again, hoping to find someone who had encountered the same problem. Unfortunately for me, there were no answers about this particular issue. Quite the contrary—the few Redditors genuinely interested in the visa also had a plethora of other questions that nobody seemed able to answer with confidence. The limited number of replies is an indicator of how new and relatively obscure this visa is. If the length were extended or if there was a possibility for renewal, perhaps there would be more interest from the digital nomad community.

Opting to ask the authorities themselves, I called the visa hotline that the embassy recommended on their website. However, the person on the other end wasn’t yet aware of the Digital Nomad visa, despite it having been rolled out three months before. While I empathized with them knowing nothing about this seemingly mysterious process, I was still stuck with a half-empty application form. I decided to use my German phone number for the respective field, while leaving the address field blank for the time being.

I then continued with the document that required me to state my planned activities and places I intended to stay. Once again, I wasn’t sure what to fill in here. This time, I decided to be pragmatic, so I copied this example description from the document: “Based on the employment/sales contract with (Company name) in (Country), I will work remotely for XX hours per week, including meetings and document preparation.” I then listed Tokyo as my city and prefecture.

Collecting proof of income

Next, I had to gather the documents to prove my income. Since I am a full-time employee, I could just deliver my tax statement for the last year and call it a day. However, since I was laid off in December, I was fearful of running into trouble for using a document that showed me having a small gap in employment.

I decided to use the proven method of “the more paper, the better” that bureaucracy loves. I added the tax statement, my current work contract, and my last three payslips, which proved that my annual salary would exceed the 10 million yen threshold. It is worth mentioning that I submitted all documents as they were, with some in German and others in English. Please note that they only returned my work contract, so be sure to save copies of the papers you hand in.

Getting travel insurance

Finally, I had to deal with the travel insurance required for those six months. This proved to be tricky, as I didn’t feel comfortable booking a flight until I knew for certain that my visa would be approved. However, booking a trip is a common requirement before being able to apply for insurance.

In my case, I was lucky that my German public insurance company, TK, and its travel insurance subsidiary, Envivas, were willing to offer a policy with an unlimited amount of coverage for the dates I was free to specify. I was now finally ready to hand over my application.

Visiting the embassy

As soon as I had gathered all the documents possibly needed for the visa, I headed to the Japanese embassy in Berlin, which is conveniently a few bus stops away from my home. I didn’t need to book an appointment: I could just show up.

I was the only person there on a Wednesday in August, shortly before noon. A kind employee greeted me right away, immediately taking a look at the stack of papers I had just handed her. While she sifted through the papers, I asked whether she could give me an estimated timeframe for when my visa would be processed. She nervously replied that they had not issued a single digital nomad visa yet, so she wasn’t able to give me an answer!

I was unknowingly a pioneer who, barring a rejection, would probably be among the first in Germany to receive this new, mysterious document. She assured me that they would be in touch via email if they had any questions.

Waiting for the visa

Weeks passed without receiving any word from the embassy. In the meantime, I looked for an apartment in Tokyo. Unfortunately, because I would not be a resident, I could not opt for the cheaper accommodations reserved for those staying a year or longer in the country. This Reddit thread was helpful in my hunt, and I ended up booking an apartment through Hmlet.

Finally, at the beginning of October, about six weeks after sending in my application, I received an email indicating that my digital nomad visa had been approved. The joy I felt was inexpressible. I felt that my experience of truly* living in Japan would become a reality, and December couldn’t come fast enough.

Will I truly be a resident?

*Why the asterisk on truly above? While spending six months as a digital nomad in Japan will undoubtedly give anyone a much better insight into living there, I personally don’t think it is equivalent to a person moving to the country long-term.

For starters, you will be working for a company not based in the country, so you will miss out on a big part of the work culture. You’ll also be missing out on the chance to meet your coworkers and get to know new people.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you are legally not a resident. This means that you will not have a residence card and will have difficulties signing any contracts or agreements that require one. When your visa ends, you will not be able to renew your visa and continue to stay in Japan as a digital nomad.

Other preparation

I have been diligently learning Japanese since May, so I can converse at least to a limited degree with non-English speakers. I’m hoping this also shows prospective acquaintances that I’m not just a working tourist spending six months in the country, but somebody actually making an effort to integrate and perhaps settle there in the future.

Speaking of acquaintances, it’s a given that meeting people in a new city is difficult anywhere in the world. Japan is not the exception, especially given the language barrier. I plan on attending tech meetups, as networking and meeting new people go hand in hand, but finding groups with similar hobbies is also a possibility.

Because always working from home in my Tokyo apartment would also be a bit too much, even for my introverted self, I’ve decided to visit a co-working space once or twice a week. Many hold events in the evenings, too. While renowned companies like WeWork or Regus offer a wide array of locations all over Tokyo, perhaps smaller, independent spaces are more up your alley. You can also check out this TokyoDev article on coworking spaces.

Conclusion

I’m not sure if six months will be enough for me to gauge whether I can imagine myself moving to Japan. I know some people decide that they don’t need a temporary period in the country to take the leap and start applying for jobs, and I salute their courage. Nevertheless, if you are on the fence like I am, and fulfill the requirements for this visa, I hope this new way of experiencing the country will also appeal to you.

FAQs

The Ministry of Justice recently released their own FAQ, which didn’t exist when I first started researching the topic. I will address the points raised in my article as well as some additional concerns.

Note that these responses are derived from personal research or experience. For definitive guidance, it is advisable to seek advice from the appropriate authorities or engage the services of an immigration lawyer.

What are the main requirements of the Digital Nomad visa?

To qualify for the Digital Nomad visa, you must:

• be a national of an eligible country
• be insured against death, injury, or illness for an amount larger than 10 million yen or more for the length of your stay
• show an annual income of 10 million yen or more

Is the JPY 10 million income requirement gross or net?

Gross.

How can I prove that I make more than the 10 million yen threshold?

Recent tax statements and similar documents where your annual income is shown to meet the criteria should be sufficient.

If you’re a freelancer, run your own business, or have been unemployed recently, then adding pay slips, contracts, etc. may help. The more statements and proof you can provide, the higher the chance your application will be accepted.

Do I have to pay income taxes in Japan?

Since you are not a resident, you will not be taxed on your income.

What if I can’t get travel insurance without booking my flights first?

First of all, ensure that you send your application at least three months before your intended stay in Japan. If you cannot find insurance without flights, buy a ticket for your intended arrival date in Japan. Make sure that the tickets are refundable or the dates changeable, if that gives you more peace of mind.

Did you fill out all the fields in the visa application form?

I left the address field blank and used my German phone number rather than the requested Japanese one. If the embassy requires further information, they will contact you.

I don’t plan to stay in a fixed place in Japan for the duration of the six months. Do I need to fill out more fields on the “planned activities” document?

It would probably be a good idea to list other places you will visit and live in during your stay. If you are only doing short trips, though, I don’t think it should be necessary.

How long does it take to get the visa?

I received my visa in about six weeks, but you should allow at least three months after the date of submission for your visa to be processed.

How can I find housing in Japan if I will be there less than a year?

I recommend perusing this Reddit thread for ideas and resources. I personally ended up booking an apartment through Hmlet.

If I move to Japan with my spouse on the digital nomad visa, are they allowed to work?

The documentation does not make this clear. If your spouse also qualifies for the visa, I would strongly advise them to apply independently of your own process.

I did not understand the “re-entry permit” sections of the Immigration FAQ on leaving Japan, e.g. for a short trip.

I actually have an email from the Ministry of Justice: “If you need to leave Japan for a while, you need to apply for a re-entry permit at the nearest Immigration Office, since you don’t have a residence card.” This means that you need to visit a regional immigration office and follow this procedure. I sincerely hope this requirement is changed, as digital nomads will not be keen on queuing up at the immigration office every time they wish to leave the country for a short trip.

Does the Digital Nomad visa grant residency in Japan?

No, the visa does not grant residency status, and you will not receive a resident card.

Can I renew or extend my Digital Nomad visa?

No, it is not possible to renew or extend the Digital Nomad visa. You must wait six months after the initial visa’s expiration date to apply for a new one.

What other preparation do you recommend before arriving in Japan?

I recommend studying Japanese, looking into meet-ups for your hobby or profession (such as TokyoDev’s tech meetups), and finding some co-working spaces.

Who can I contact if I have other questions about the Digital Nomad visa?

You may consult the Ministry of Justice’s Foreign Residents General Information Center:

• Via phone: +81-03-5796-7112, for VoIP and callers located outside of Japan.
  Available on weekdays from 8:30 am to 5:15 pm Japan time.
  Please note that they receive a large volume of inquiries, so you might have to try and call them several times until you reach someone.
• Via email: info-tokyo@i.moj.go.jp
  You might need to wait several days for an answer.

For more information visit their contact page.

Japan Needs International Developers 10 Oct 2024 6:49 PM (6 months ago)

No one should be surprised that Japan, with its declining and aging population, is facing a severe labor shortage. A report by the Teikoku Databank states that across all industries, 52.6% of Japanese companies say they don’t have the workers they need. 260 bankruptcies in 2023 were caused by a lack of employees; compare that to 146 cases in 2022, and 118 cases in 2021. And with 163 new labor shortage-related business closures reported just between April and September of 2024, those numbers don’t appear to be going down soon.

For international developers who dream of relocating to Japan, this may sound like a golden opportunity. Misconceptions on this labor shortage are, however, unfortunately common. You may have heard that Japan doesn’t want immigrants, that only low-paid service industries are running short of workers, or that speaking Japanese is a requirement to get a decent job. Conversely, some believe that, with a labor shortage this severe, even a new graduate can land a job in Tokyo.

This article aims to address those concerns via the latest statistics, and to share some qualified good news.

Is Japan’s labor shortage a good thing?

First, it’s important to address Japan’s long-term prospects. This workforce decline may sound like bad news for Japan’s economy, and a doomed economy is hardly appealing to immigrants. Yet that’s not necessarily the case.

Japan’s labor practices for decades have been geared around lifetime employees who work long hours, often for stagnant wages, in exchange for company loyalty and security. This model worked well from the 1950s to the 1970s, when investing in and retaining employees helped Japan catch up technologically. Having a large, stable employee pool meant that Japanese companies were able to promote high-value employees from inside. In later decades, however, those same labor practices, and the preference of Japanese businesses to cut costs and salaries while retaining their employees, has resulted in a stagnant economy and persistent mild deflation.

Now, Japanese companies find themselves needing to attract experienced workers rather than selecting them.

In actuality, the absolute number of people who are employed is going up, and the ratio of openings to applicants is improving. Companies still perceive a labor shortage, however, and for a promising reason: Japan’s economy is recovering after Covid.

There’s another excellent reason for the labor shortage, which is the overtime limit enacted in April of 2024. Companies now need to hire more people rather than overworking the ones they have, which is of course great news for both employees currently in Japan, and those considering immigrating here.

Since the Japanese workforce overall continues to shrink, though—the birth rate fell to a record low of 1.20 in 2023—even more changes will be required.

Japan needs more immigrants

Japan increasingly relies on immigrant labor to bridge the gap. Reuters reports that the number of foreign workers more than quadrupled in the last fifteen years; now the foreign worker population in Japan is at an all-time high, with over 2 million present in the country as of October 2023. Nonetheless, experts project that Japan will still be short by one million foreign workers in 2040, if Japan wants to achieve its targeted annual growth rate of 1.24%.

Those numbers might be hard to achieve, but Sayaka Sasaki, a talent sourcing specialist at Tech Japan Inc., is feeling optimistic on Japan’s ability to draw international talent.

People in several countries are looking for the security of Japan rather than economic wealth.

She believes immigrants from other developed countries are increasingly attracted to Japan for “its high standards of service, sanitation, and security.”

Japan needs tech workers, specifically

As suggested by the statistics above, every industry in Japan needs more workers. Tech, however, ranks as one of the most affected sectors. Of Japanese companies, 52.6% have trouble finding and retaining staff—but 77% of Japanese IT companies reported that issue. What’s more, the problem is worsening, since the percentage was 73.1% in 2022, and only 65.7% in 2021.

The problem may be even more widespread than those numbers suggest. A 2021 report by the government found that a higher percentage of IT workers in Japan are employed by IT-related companies, as compared to western countries. This implies that there are a number of non-tech companies in Japan who would probably benefit from having IT workers, but who either can’t find good candidates, or can’t attract those candidates away from bigger tech companies.

In addition, that same report found that the majority of IT workers are employed and live in Tokyo; again, there are likely a high number of companies in other prefectures who would benefit from having IT employees on staff, but who are unable to compete with the pull of Japan’s capital.

Of course, there is another way to account for this statistical disparity. As TokyoDev editor Scott Rothrock explained, “Most Japanese SMBs [small and medium-sized businesses] resist technology; many are happy to use Excel and paper filing.”

They may not be able to continue on that path much longer, however, as Japan prepares for a wave of digital transformation or, as it’s commonly known here, “DX.”

Japan requires technological innovation, right now

This tech labor shortage has come at the moment when Japan needs those workers most, as Japanese companies emphasize digital transformation as a solution to pressing social issues.

Digital transformation in Japan

According to Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, digital transformation is defined as “a process where companies prepare to adapt to rapid changes in their industries by using data and technology to transform their products, services, and business models based on customer/society needs, as well as changing their operations, organization, processes, and internal cultures to be more competitive.” This can encompass everything from incorporating AI or storing information on the cloud, to accepting payments via LINE.

“I believe there are several factors that contribute to the current rush to DX in Japanese society,” Sasaki said. She laid out three primary reasons why technological innovations, and the skilled professionals who drive them, are needed in Japan now more than ever.

“Issue one,” she said, “Japan is an aging society. You are probably aware that the Japanese still use fax machines. Our technology is embarrassingly behind that of most developed countries. For example, the [Covid] vaccine rations were managed in Excel.”

The second problem, according to Sasaki, is the growing divide between urban centers and rural areas. “The working-age population is concentrated in the urban centers, while the elderly are concentrated in the rural areas. This disparity is a major obstacle to the promotion of cashlessness and digitalization.”

Ignorance leads to various gains and losses, not only in business, but also in taxes, social welfare, online shopping, hometown tax payments, and more. The supply of information is not keeping up, which means DX is lagging behind.

The real heart of the issue, however, is the “shortage of human resources,” Sasaki said. “As the working population of Japanese society declines, the workforce will have no choice but to rely on foreigners, technology, robots, and AI. It is not only in terms of labor. Demand is tightening in all areas, including welfare, medical care, disasters, and national security.”

“Perhaps,” Sasaki speculated, “the pandemic has made the Japanese government realize how far behind it has been in its efforts.” She added, “Our Japanese strengths are hard work and unity in times of disaster, but our greatest weakness is our inflexibility to change.”

AI solutions

A number of Japanese companies agree with Sasaki’s evaluation that new technology—and particularly AI—may be the only way to compensate for the declining population.

Taking farming, for example. The BBC reports that farming is one of the most rapidly-aging industries in Japan; the average Japanese farmer is 68.4 years old. Both farmers and the companies that supply them are turning to AI as a means to keep up with and even increase production despite the rapidly-dwindling number of active farmers.

One example is Nihon Nohyaku, a company that manufactures agricultural chemicals, but has also developed a smartphone app called Nichino AI. If the farmer discovers that the crop is failing, he can take a picture of the ailing plants, run it through the app, and receive a diagnosis and a suggestion of which pesticides to use. The accuracy rate is reported to be between 70-80%, so it’s not as good as an experienced farmer might be, but it enables more inexperienced or overworked farm personnel to manage the health of the plants.

A number of TokyoDev clients are also developing AI solutions for pressing industrial and social problems. NABLA Mobiity is optimizing flight operations for the airline industry using data analysis and AI/ML. Tensor Energy is using AI to manage renewable assets and accelerate the transition to a zero-carbon economy. Both MODE and Tektome are applying it to the construction industry, and companies such as Exawizards, Recursive, and Corpy are all using AI to address social challenges like aging societies and environmental preservation.

What this means for international developers is that AI/LLM skills are in very high demand. What’s more, AI could represent an especially easy path to Japan, according to Paul McMahon, CEO of TokyoDev.

From talking to some of our clients, there’s the perception that the AI field is more advanced outside of Japan, and so that’s one of the reasons they seek international talent.

What, exactly, are Japanese companies hiring for?

Given the overall labor shortage, the particular lack of skilled tech workers, and Japan’s simultaneous turn toward digital transformation and AI, it’s clear that talented international developers are welcome in Japan. But not every developer has the exact skill set Japanese companies are looking for, or the “soft skills” and language abilities that will enable them to succeed in a Japanese company.

Following is a breakdown of what Japanese companies, recruiters, and economic analysts have described as the most-needed tech positions and skills in Japan today.

Senior leaders

When Japanese tech companies discuss the developer shortage, they aren’t just talking about getting warm bodies into chairs. They’re focused on hiring high-quality talent.

This suggests that Japan is far more interested in attracting senior engineers and other experienced workers than fresh graduates.

Soft skills

In addition to managerial experience, Japanese companies consistently report that they’re looking for engineers with communication skills. In fact, one recent report suggested that employers place more value on applicants’ ability to communicate well than their development skills.

Sasaki stressed this in our interview. “As a career software engineer, I believe that what is lacking in Japan are . . . engineers with communication skills.”

When it comes to good engineers in Japan, 90% of them are . . . not good at communicating with clients and other members of the team.

She added that the other soft skills companies and recruiters are looking for are “leadership, people management, and Scrum.”

Abilities in demand

Having referenced a variety of industry and recruitment sources, here’s a brief list of the most in-demand languages and skillsets in Japan.

Backend

“I would say backend is always the role that’s the most common,” Clement Chidiac, Senior Technical Recruiter at Mercari, said when asked what companies were looking for.

The biggest volume of English-speaking roles will be on the backend side.

Indeed, backend experience is the number one requirement of job postings listed on TokyoDev. While it’s not the most desired skill of Japanese companies in general, as Chidiac points out, it is one of the roles that is most likely to not require Japanese. Companies are therefore usually more open to hiring international developers for backend positions.

Python

Python is consistently ranked as one of the most in-demand languages in Japan, and the one also suffering the greatest skill shortage. For example, a survey by the temp agency アクサス株式会社 found that there’s an 8% gap between the companies that want Python engineers, and engineers who know Python, which is a larger gap than for most other languages.

Morgan McKinley’s article “Skill Shortage Impacts Technology Growth in Japan” also ranked Python as #1 in the “Development and Testing” skills in demand, #3 in “Cyber Security,” and #4 in “Analytics.” It was listed more often than any other experience or language in the guide.

Sasaki confirmed that Python skills are sought-after in Japan. Also, during TokyoDev’s 2023 survey of developers in Japan, 41% of respondents indicated they regularly use Python as part of their job. In addition, Python is ranked within the top ten most popular job requirements on TokyoDev’s job board.

AI/Machine learning

Unsurprisingly, given Japan’s embrace of AI as a potential solution to population decline, AI and machine learning experience is particularly desirable. Japanese companies tend to consider other countries more advanced in AI, so they’re especially keen to avail themselves of international developers’ experience.

AI is listed twice in Morgan McKinley’s compilation of skills in demand—more than any other skill except for Python—and machine learning is highly ranked in TokyoDev’s list of most popular job requirements.

Chidiac did caution that the landscape is changing. “For LLM and machine learning, there are more roles than a year ago. It’s still not a big, big volume, but there are a few more roles.

“The need for machine learning has evolved a little because a year ago, or even before, there was a lot of [demand for] the machine learning model development part. Now it is a bit more end-to-end, like engineering on top of machine learning requirements.”

Others

Aside from those three skills, there is less consensus between sources. Based on TokyoDev’s job board, however, remaining top job requirements include:

• TypeScript
• React
• Full Stack
• Frontend
• Ruby
• Go
• JavaScript
• Quality Assurance
• DevOps

Sasaki mentioned AWS, and Chidiac discussed a UI/UX design skill shortage in Japan. “The UX talent in Japan, local talent, tends to be focused on UI only, so these profiles tend not to fit with modern tech companies,” he said. “Also, because most companies build products for Japan users, there is often a bilingual requirement, which makes the search for talent even harder.” 

Finally, Morgan McKinley’s lengthy table of in-demand jobs and skills in Japan is well worth taking a close look at.

Do you need to speak Japanese?

The answer to this common question is a clear, definite “Maybe.”

On the one hand, TokyoDev operates an entire page of job roles in Japan that require no Japanese language ability, proving that you do not necessarily need to speak Japanese to find an engineering job. There’s no real consensus on the topic, however, as other recruiters and companies stress the need for Japanese ability to build an ongoing career.

Sasaki was apologetic on the subject, saying it’s a common question from international developers. “I always say to them, ‘Unfortunately, Japan lags behind in globalization. It is obvious you are very talented, but you need to learn Japanese. If you can acquire N2 level Japanese skills, you will be at the starting point to develop your career. There are careers out there without learning Japanese, but your options will still be limited.’”

Chidiac, by contrast, sees the potential for career advancement in Japan without speaking Japanese—but not necessarily very far.

I’ve seen a lot of foreigners being promoted to manager, etc. There’s sometimes a natural ceiling when it comes down to getting to leadership roles without very high-level Japanese. How do you deal with the head of the business who might not master English? How do you deal with the CEO or the back office?

“But coming to Japan, there’s the element of a long-term commitment, right?” he added. “So you might start looking for a job now and find your job in a year. You might start studying Japanese now and be fluent in five or 10 years, to be able to use that to work.” It takes that sort of long-term commitment, he stressed, to be successful in Japan.

“This is perhaps part of the labor issue in the first place,” McMahon pointed out.

Almost all software engineers who speak Japanese are already in Japan. Despite having a developed economy, it can’t easily incorporate immigrants into its workforce.

“This extends to outsourcing to other countries too. An extra translation layer is often needed here.”

But if you don’t speak Japanese, McMahon said, that “doesn’t eliminate the possibility entirely—if you are technically skilled enough. If your tech skills are just passable, it gives you another route too—learn Japanese!”

See our article about interpreting Japanese language requirements on job postings for more on the subject.

Are multinational development teams the solution?

Some Japanese companies are taking the bull by the horns, and creating teams or entire workplaces that are designed to be welcoming to international workers.

• Cybozu, a well-established Japanese tech firm, has recently created its own international engineering team, specifically to tap into more global sources of talent.
• MoneyForward is aggressively pursuing its policy of “Englishnization” and aims to transition to a completely English working environment by the end of 2024.
• Givery recently touted its success in creating a multinational development team, and described how its workplace diversity actually attracted more Japanese engineers to join the company.

If these companies are indicative of the general trend, then we can expect to see an uptick in English-speaking, multinational development teams in Japan. Naturally this benefits developers from other countries, but it’s also a necessary adaptation by Japanese companies to remain competitive in global markets.

Chidiac is concerned, though, that creating a separate, English-speaking team can cause problems down the road. “I’ve seen some companies that managed to grow quite well, [but] you end up with a company that’s also split between the business side and the engineering side, with two different cultures within the same company.

“And then sometimes that leads to difficult conversations that come down to, ‘Hey, the business team is in the office. The engineering team doesn’t want to be in the office because the culture is different.’ How do you bridge this?”

McMahon explained that if Japanese companies can overcome these difficulties, they will have one definite advantage when it comes to recruiting international talent: the ease of Japan’s visa processes.

Japan makes it quite easy for companies to sponsor visas, compared to a place like the US. The fees are low, it’s often possible to do it without getting a specialist involved, and there isn’t a cap on the number of immigrants from a specific country like there is in the US.

That being said, it’s still an investment on the part of the company to recruit from overseas. “Because bringing someone to Japan,” said Chidiac, “requires a lot of admin—the visa and all that—and there’s a risk factor in terms of, ‘Do we want to hire someone that could leave us within six months to a year?’”

To overcome this hesitation, Chidiac recommends that candidates state upfront the reason they want to come to Japan.

The people who pass interviews at the first step, in my experience, usually have a bit of a story behind why they want to come to Japan. ‘I’ve started learning [Japanese] on my own,’ ‘I’ve visited Japan multiple times,’ and so on.

Conclusion

The worker shortage is a serious threat to Japan’s ongoing well-being. Given Japan’s aging population and falling birth rate, immigrant workers are both a natural and much-needed solution to keep the country’s economy afloat. In particular, tech companies in Japan report struggling to find, attract, and retain talent.

To recap what sort of tech workers Japan needs now:

• Talented senior developers
• Those with management, leadership, and communication skills
• Backend developers
• Developers who know Python
• AI and Machine Learning specialists
• People who know or are willing to learn Japanese

If any of these sound like you, then check out jobs in Japan TokyoDev’s job board.

If you want to know more about developer salaries in Japan, visas for software engineers in Japan, or how to bring your pets or family with you, check out our articles.

If you want to discuss your options with developers who’ve already made the leap, join the TokyoDev Discord.

A Win-Win: Multinational Development Teams at Givery 29 Sep 2024 4:59 PM (7 months ago)

There is a shortage of skilled tech workers in Japan, and a growing number of Japanese companies have responded by building new, multinational development teams. An in-house multinational team, which typically uses English as a first language, can allow a Japanese company to take better advantage of the global talent market.

But what’s it like for the international developers working on those teams? Are there communication issues with management? Is career advancement possible? Are Japanese companies inflexible, or are they willing to accommodate the needs of their international employees?

To help answer those questions, we’ll take an in-depth look at the company policies of Givery Co., Ltd., which has successfully developed and maintained a multinational development team since 2014. Mr. Yamane, an executive at Givery, recently gave a presentation on the impact of this multinational team, which granted us some insight into the company’s inner workings.

Currently the Givery development team consists of about 120 people, more than half of whom are not Japanese. Mr. Yamane reported that such diversity has had a positive impact, not only on the company’s growth, but also—unexpectedly—upon the recruitment of Japanese engineers. In fact, Givery credits its multinational team for much of its business success, and has set new company policies to help its international developers grow and succeed.

This is a win-win situation for both Givery and its international engineers, which we’ll explore in greater depth below.

Why does Givery hire international engineers?

Givery began hiring international engineers in 2014, five years after it was founded. Initially, Givery was developing a programming learning service for B2C. The market was limited to Japan, but they hoped eventually to expand their product overseas.

At the time, however, the company was not well known in Japan, and recruiting new engineers was a slow and difficult process. That was when Givery decided to take a bold step.

The opportunity to hire their first international engineer

Givery was already discussing how to ​​invest in establishing a more global organization. Then, they happened to receive an application through a recruitment service, from an international front-end engineer who didn’t speak much Japanese.

The company decided that, if they were aiming for global expansion, it was only natural to employ people regardless of nationality. At that time there were only a limited number of managers who could speak English; nevertheless, they decided to hire the engineer anyway.

With that engineer at the forefront, the team swiftly became increasingly multinational. Two years later, the team had grown to about 10 people, most of them non-Japanese. The official language gradually switched to English.

As of now, around half of Givery’s 120 development team members are Japanese, and half are non-Japanese. Those international members are also diverse, hailing from 20 different countries.

Company benefits of hiring international engineers

Givery soon discovered several unanticipated benefits of employing international engineers, especially at an early stage in the company’s development.

A more flexible company

In 2014, when Givery hired their first international engineer, their own internal systems and policies were not well-established. This actually proved to be beneficial in the long run.

The newly-hired international employees, Givery’s management soon found, had needs and expectations that differed from standard Japanese business practices. For example, international engineers had requests such as, “Can I go to the gym for two hours during lunch?” or “I want to go back to my home country in December. Can I take a month off?”

Because Givery didn’t have too many procedures in place, it was able to consider suggestions like these and implement more flexible, globalized workplace practices. If Givery had waited to build its multinational development team until its policies were more firmly established, it may have struggled more to adapt to the needs of its international employees.

Effects on local recruitment

One might think that a multinational, English-speaking team might prove a deterrent to Japanese-speaking engineers, and that Givery’s local recruiting numbers would continue to drop. Interestingly—and promisingly—the opposite was the case.

According to Givery, the company’s diversity and forward-thinking policies appeal to Japanese applicants. As a result, the company gradually became more successful in recruiting local developers as well. Now, Givery is one of the few tech companies in Japan to meet its recruitment goals on a regular basis.

A multilingual workplace

That’s not to say that Givery hasn’t experienced challenges with its multinational team. In particular, communication has become a company priority. The official language of the development team is English, but other departments mostly use Japanese, so encouraging collaboration between departments is critical.

Overcoming language barriers

One of Givery’s methods is to place bilingual employees in key positions. For example, the Product Marketing Manager (PMM), who compiles primary information collected from the sales team and conducts user interviews, is a Japanese person who can also speak English. Some development teams have a non-Japanese member as their Product Owner (PO), so this enables the PMM to work closely with all the POs at the company.

In addition, the three international members of the executive management team can speak some Japanese, and more than half of the Japanese executive officers are currently studying English.

Proactive information sharing

Communication efforts at Givery extend beyond language study, however. Each team also holds win sessions and sync-up meetings once or twice a month to ensure thorough, ongoing information-sharing between departments.

What is a win session?

A win session is a meeting to review business or project successes. The main objectives are to share those important stories, analyze the factors that led to success, establish best practices for the future, and in general make continuous improvements.

Through this process, it is expected that the entire team can benefit from the experience, increasing the success rate for upcoming projects.

What is a sync-up meeting?

A sync-up meeting is when teams gather to coordinate project timelines. Each member reports on their progress and achievements, shares any problems or obstacles they are facing, and considers solutions. They may also plan future tasks and clarify the division of roles.

When speaking in Japanese, they also usually translate the meeting into English, so there are no comprehension issues for team members. In addition, they sometimes provide English explanations via chat and other materials.

With these sync-ups, important information can be shared from the sales team to the development team, such as customers’ answers to the questions:

• Why did you choose this product?
• Which features were appealing?
• What features do you expect to see in the future?

Information from the development team, such as “Features we are prioritizing for release” and “When and what features can be released,” can also be shared with the sales team. This allows the sales team to deliver those updates to customers in a timely fashion.

Multinationals in management

In anticipation of the boom in generative AI and future global expansion, Givery has gone out of its way to ensure that international employees are involved in all company discussions and decision-making.

For example, Givery established a specialized executive officer system in 2024 and appointed three international employees to its management team. The international members, who were originally engineering managers (EM) and the VP of Engineering (VPoE), were thus brought into the managerial core of the company.

In addition, many of the current Engineer Managers leading individual teams are non-Japanese.

The company hopes that more non-Japanese members in management will help the company continue its foray into world markets, and also collaborate better with overseas companies.

This should also be reassuring to international developers who are concerned that moving to Japan may hinder their career advancement. The three new executive officers speak some Japanese, which suggests that language ability remains crucial to promotion; nonetheless, Givery’s public statements on the importance of non-Japanese in management seems promising for both that company in particular, and the general trend in Japan.

Conclusion

There are certainly challenges to overcome when operating in a multinational development team at a Japanese company. Even if the team works primarily in English, it still needs to collaborate with Japanese-speaking departments. Bilingual employees in key positions can ease the language barrier, but it’s also important to have communication systems in place, such as Givery’s win sessions and sync-up meetings.

In addition, the company must be realistic about the needs and expectations of international employees, which may differ from those of local developers. Givery had the advantage of hiring international engineers at an early stage, which allowed it to adapt its company policies before they’d been set in stone.

To get the most out of a multinational team, the team members also need opportunities for career advancement, and to have a say in the company’s decision-making processes. Not only does this create a better work environment for employees, but it allows the company to take advantage of their experience, especially when collaborating with overseas companies. That Givery has already brought three international members into its managerial core speaks volumes for the company’s foresight in this regard.

In short, Givery is a great case study for how to build a multinational development team from the ground up. The company took a risk by starting the team when they “weren’t ready,” but that risk appears to have paid off in better recruiting rates, a more adaptable workplace, and greater opportunities overseas.

If you’re interested in working at Givery, check out their open positions on our job board.

If you want to hear more about working in Japan, join the discussion on our Discord.

Helping Japanese companies build global engineering teams 11 Sep 2024 6:33 PM (7 months ago)

TokyoDev has launched a new Japanese language blog focused on aiding Japanese companies in building English-speaking engineering teams. This is our first step towards our goal of helping these companies internationalize their engineering departments, which will allow them to take advantage of a much larger pool of eager applicants who have specialized knowledge or experience that they have trouble hiring for domestically.

Although companies such as Mercari, Money Forward, Smart News, and Cybozu have succeeded in this transition, they’re by far in the minority. Other companies have been paying attention and considering how they, too, can incorporate developers from around the world. What’s hindering them is a lack of information.

So far, we have had a lot of success helping Japanese companies hire international software engineers. Those companies already had international engineering teams in place, though, so we’ve been augmenting what was already there.

Now, we are thrilled to provide resources in Japanese, relevant to companies interested in developing new global teams. Our launch articles include:

• A case study of how Givery built an international development team by Sayana Takagi
• 5 benefits of building a diverse engineering team by Sayana Takagi
• Visa application procedures for hiring foreign engineers by Keiko Kimoto
• Three types of companies that hire foreign engineers by Sayana Takagi
• How much do foreign engineers make in Japan? by Paul McMahon
• A four-stage approach for hiring women on your engineering team by Ann Kilzer

In addition to the blog articles, Sayana Takagi will help support companies looking to make this transition. She’s been assisting companies in hiring international engineers for five years, and so has firsthand insight into the challenges and benefits. I’ve been working with her for almost a year now, and am thankful to her for helping make this possible. If your company is interested in her services, you can reach out to her directly at sayana@tokyodev.com.

Helping Japanese companies become more international will directly aid our existing audience by growing the job pool for international software engineers, who are perhaps more fluent in languages like C, Python, or Ruby than they are in Japanese. By increasing the number of companies who are able to hire English speakers, we’ll create new opportunities for our readership.

Beyond that, this initiative will expand the economic opportunities of the country I’ve called home for almost two decades. I’m excited for us all to begin this next chapter together.

To -San or Not to -San? Addressing Japanese People in English 10 Sep 2024 10:11 PM (7 months ago)

It’s your first day at your new Japanese company, and your coworker approaches with a smile. “Hello!” she says in English. “My name’s Rin Takahashi. I look forward to working with you.”

“Likewise!” you say. “It’s nice to meet you, Takahashi-san.”

“Oh, you can call me Rin!”

Oh no, you groan internally. The can of worms has officially been opened. Because you know—having read many articles like this one—that if you were both Japanese, you’d address her as Takahashi-san.

Now, however, you’re floundering, caught in the boggy middle ground between her culture and yours. Using a first name is normal in English, but strangely informal in Japan, so . . . should you say “Rin-san,” to meet Japanese standards of politeness? “Ms. Rin,” since you’re both speaking English? Just “Rin,” with no honorific at all?

And why, you wonder, do so many Japanese people introduce themselves to foreigners by their first names, but to other Japanese people by their family names?

Poor Rin—and every Japanese coworker, friend, and student she represents—is surely unaware of the dilemma she’s posed to you. But with more international workers coming to Japan, and more Japanese companies reaching for English as their official language, this is a scene that will only become increasingly common.

So, what is the best way to address a Japanese person in English?

This isn’t really a “how-to” article, because it’s not a question that can be answered in tidy, easily-digested bullet points. It’s an ongoing discussion of the crossroads between Japanese customs and English conventions, and can be affected by a number of different factors: the age of the people involved, their status, whether you’re inside or outside Japan, and your personal relationship with them.

Japanese people use honorific titles regularly, which is a concept that is largely missing in English in the West. Honorifics can be used for people of all ages and show the relationships between people. For example, -kun is often used for young boys, while -chan is used for young girls. For adults, -san is the most common honorific for peers, and even friends.

In business or other hierarchies, such as sports, the role often takes the place of the honorific: Tanaka-shachou (社長, company president/CEO), Yamanaka-buchou (部長, manager), or Okita-kantoku (監督, coach). If you are a normal worker in the company and you address the CEO without the correct honorific, that could be a major faux pas.

For many Japanese people, attaching honorifics is a subconscious reflex: Akita-san is not just “Akita” in their memory, but “Akita-san.” Most foreigners are at least superficially aware of this, so even when a Japanese person asks you to address them by just their first name and no honorific, it can lead to a mental disconnect and anxiety over the “correct” way to address them.

With that in mind, I’ve interviewed a number of experts in international business and cross-cultural communications, to see what they have to say on the topic. The general takeaway: context is everything.

Appearance of Equality vs Appearance of Inequality cultures

It all comes down to politeness, Brooke Brown believes. The difficulty is that cultures can define politeness quite differently: some with an “Appearance of Equality,” and others with the “Appearance of Inequality.”

Brooke Brown, a cross-cultural expert for Link and Motivation, has led communication seminars for Rakuten and Uniqlo. She learned the Appearance of Equality/Inequality framework from American interculturalist Robert Hilke, and uses it often to discuss naming conventions, as well as much broader areas of potential culture clash.

“Appearance of Equality cultures tend to create a more casual atmosphere in most situations,” she wrote to me. “We ‘appear’ equal/friendly because that is ‘polite.’ So, based on our behavior, who is in the higher position (boss/team member, for example), is hard to distinguish.

“We call our boss by their first name. We shake hands, [make] small talk, use humor, make strong eye contact, even sometimes sit on tables, etc.”

In other words, it’s good manners for work superiors to act as if they’re on the same social and organizational level as their employees, and it’s equally correct for everyone else to behave as if this is actually the case. This is a polite fiction, of course, but to many it’s natural office culture. In fact, if a boss doesn’t adhere to this fiction—if they emphasize hierarchy—it can engender bad feelings.

But this is obviously not the case for Japan, Korea, Thailand, or other Appearance of Inequality cultures. “Appearance of Inequality cultures tend to adjust language and behavior depending upon the situation or person,” Brown wrote. “We ‘appear’ unequal and show the gaps/make the gaps bigger to be ‘polite.’ Who is in the higher position is quite easy to distinguish based on behavior/language. It is not always formal behavior, but initially it is quite formal.”

This often confuses people from Appearance of Equality cultures, who perceive it as cold and unnecessarily hierarchical. However, people native to the culture feel that it is modest and self-effacing—and, in its own way, just as much of a polite fiction as the egalitarian behavior in Appearance of Equality cultures. In this case, many Japanese workers are ahead of the game, especially those who work at international corporations. They tend to quickly grasp the difference between Equality and Inequality cultures, and compensate accordingly by using their first names, or even a nickname, with their English-speaking coworkers.

“If in Japan, I think the best advice is to follow the cultural norm, which means to address people by family name + san,” Brown clarified. “In our seminars, we ask participants to choose what they would like to be called. (Depending on the company, more than half choose their family name).

“That being said, many Japanese working in more global situations use first names or nicknames given to them by colleagues overseas, which is sometimes a ‘your name is difficult to pronounce’ excuse, but hopefully more of an Appearance of Equality casual environment response.”

Looking for more insight into adopted names, I met with a Japanese businessman who’d been given a nickname by his English-speaking business partner—in 1961.

A different era

As Brown says, it’s not uncommon for Japanese people who do a lot of business in English to adopt a nickname. This has gained a more controversial reputation as of late; in the post-war period, however, things were a bit different.

Makoto Takada, the 89-year old founder of Yako Co, Ltd. in Hachioji, spent decades doing business in both the U.S. and Japan. One of his very first American friends, a saxophone player named Tommy Palmer, was struggling with his name.

“He said, ‘I won’t remember that, it’s too difficult. Can I call you Mr. TK?’ And I said, ‘Sure.’ And since age 26 I’ve been Mr. TK.”

A lifelong English enthusiast, as well as a fan of American culture, Mr. TK embraced the nickname. Even decades later, he still introduces himself to any English speaker as “Mr. TK.” “A lot of my English friends don’t even know my real name,” he said with a chuckle.

In his Japanese office, of course, it was a different story. “In Japanese I’m always referred to by my name, Takada-san, or my title: kaichou [chairman] or shachou [president].”

Given that he’s now retired, and also that he’s always enjoyed America’s Appearance of Equality, Mr. TK favors a more casual appellation. But there are certainly situations in which it’s better to err on the side of formality, and the upper levels of business and government are among them.

Starting at the top

When considering how to address high-ranking Japanese officials in English, I consulted with Timothy Langley. Langley was the first foreign national to work in Japan’s government; starting in 1982, he served as a policy secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nakayama Taro. He went on to found Langley Esquire, which specializes in helping foreign companies navigate the confusing and somewhat treacherous waters of Japanese government relations and policy making.

“Japanese companies constantly engage with government stakeholders to affect laws and regulations that impact their business, and foreign nationals can do the same,” he wrote on his website. “But the world of Japanese politics is a rarefied atmosphere. People use an elevated form of speech to conduct business; they hold themselves differently and even dress in particular ways.

“There is a set way of approaching government engagement, and foreigners naturally do not really know where to start. That world is, to some degree, closed to them.”

A small part of that “rarefied atmosphere” would be figuring out what to call important politicians in English. When I asked him, Langley stressed that no matter how informal the meeting is, or how casually the minister behaves, one should not slip into Appearance of Equality mode.

“Regarding how to address politicians in particular,” he told me, “they are invariably addressed as sensei. If they are a Minister-of-State, then daijin. . . . Itoh-daijin instead of merely Itoh-sensei. Ambassadors also have a separate title: taishi. So Itoh-taishi instead of -san or -sensei.”

In English, he said, the best substitute for daijin is simply “Minister.” This would apply even if that minister invites you to call him by his first name. “Here, even in the face of ‘Oh, please call me Jiro!’ it is always better to err on the side of more rather than less formality. Not always when speaking [formal Japanese], but always when addressing people.”

Becoming a minister is an important distinction, Langley explained, one that most Japanese politicians carry with pride. The title is part of the package, and it’s best not to try to dispense with it. “Itoh-sensei is still going to be Itoh-sensei or Hajime-sensei . . . not -san. With a minister it would be Minister Itoh or even Minister Hajime. They might complain, but they actually love it!”

Naming your (social) equals

What about addressing your social equals—say, your Japanese coworkers? Rochelle Kopp is the founder and Managing Principal of Japan Intercultural Consulting, an international training and consulting firm focused on Japanese business. In her site’s Japanese Business Etiquette Guide, Rochelle Kopp offers a pragmatic solution: ask.

“Since preferences vary,” she wrote, “ask the people you are dealing with what they want to be called.”

Since this won’t always be an option—during business email exchanges, for example—she also offered a basic, fallback protocol. “Use the last name and either Mr./Ms. or –san unless you are asked to use first names or nicknames. You can never go wrong using a last name. Also, if you receive email from a Japanese person whose name is not obviously male or female, the use of -san is convenient because it is unisex.”

She also explained something that had initially puzzled me when I came to Japan: why, if it wasn’t the cultural norm, did so many Japanese people introduce themselves to me by their first name?

“Japanese know that in many cultures, using a first name conveys a warm connection,” she wrote. And when they address a foreigner in English, many Japanese people find themselves reaching for a combination of conventions. “Non-Japanese may find themselves called by their first names plus -san. … Using -san connotes respect. Take it as a compliment!”

More on -san

Satoko Shimooka, CEO of SIJIHIVE and an experienced marketing localization professional, offered some additional insight into the Japanese use of -san.

“When we need to address Japanese colleagues in front of clients or external people in business meetings or at an industry event, “ she said, “we usually address them [by their] last name without -san. It is to show humbleness by intentionally not addressing internal people with honorific titles.” So if you’ve ever witnessed this at a Japanese business event, and been confused by the seeming disrespect, the omission of -san in this case is following Japanese language conventions and is not derogatory.

As for herself, and when speaking English, Shimooka prefers “being called by first name only, or first name with -san. As I speak English, I have been used to being addressed as such, and it makes me feel more relaxed and welcomed.”

Of course, even well-intentioned English speakers don’t always get her name right. “It seems my name is confusing for some countries,” she explained. “People don’t know which is my first name and which is last, especially when they are not familiar with Japanese names. People usually think female names end with an ‘a’ sound, so they think Shimooka is my first name and just call me Shimooka. It sounds super strange to me!” she added, obviously amused.

The preference for first name or last name may boil down to just how comfortable a Japanese person is with English, Shimooka believes. But in general, she thinks most Japanese speakers prefer to be addressed by their first names in English. “I have rarely seen people who are addressed with their last name, unless someone preferred to be called as such. Maybe it’s easier to say than the last name, or calling them by their last name is already familiar.”

Is -san racist?

Not everyone agrees that -san is respectful, however, Tim Sullivan warned me. Labeling himself the “Cross-Cultural Curmudgeon” on LinkedIn (as well as “Bull in a Ramen Shop” and “Professional Grandpa”), Sullivan is a bilingual educator who spent twenty years running cross-cultural training seminars for major Japanese and American corporations. Now he cheerfully declares himself “retired but not dead,” and adopts a strategy similar to Rochelle Kopp’s.

“I’ve met Japanese with different preferences,” he told me, “so when I meet Japanese folks for the first time, I simply ask how they’d like me to address them.” This applies whether he’s speaking English or Japanese.

When he hasn’t had a chance to ask, he’ll default to the Japanese “surname given-name” order, and add -san as well. For most of his career, that worked perfectly well, with one very notable exception.

“The suffix ‘-san’ is another can of worms that I never thought about,” he told me, “until I read a Twitter post a few years ago by a Japanese writer who said it is ‘racist’ if used when speaking English. I had never once heard that in all my years dealing with Japan, so I was both surprised and suspicious.”

The tweet read: “Use ‘san’ if you are fluent in Japanese and speaking in Japanese and know how that should be used. If you are speaking English, please stick to English. San does not belong in that language except to brand that race.”

A little shocked by this opinion, Sullivan engaged with the tweet-writer—and the exchange did not go smoothly. Some context did emerge, though. It seems the original writer was generally referring to conversations being held outside Japan, in which the majority of speakers were non-Japanese, and only the Japanese person was being addressed as -san. This is not dissimilar to the situation many foreigners encounter in Japan, where they are the only people at their company regularly addressed by their first name and -san.

Curious as to whether this was a widespread opinion, and whether it might apply in other social or work situations, Sullivan issued an informal survey. He wrote up the results, and his own apologetic take on the debate, in his blog post “Is It ‘Racist’ to Use the Japanese Suffix ‘San’ with English?”

Most of the Japanese respondents to the survey were equally surprised that -san could be construed as disrespectful or racist. In general, the consensus was that they do not expect people to use -san when speaking English, but if someone does, they usually feel either neutral or appreciative. Only in a few specific contexts—such as being the only Japanese person in an English-speaking workplace, or receiving a LinkedIn cold call—was -san likely to offend them.

At the end of his post, Sullivan reiterates that it’s important to take people’s preferences and personal situations into account. “It makes sense that we should all strive to be more sensitive, and, before making assumptions, ask Japanese people (and anyone for that matter) how they would like to be addressed, then follow their wishes accordingly.”

Mixing it up

Sullivan’s article certainly raises an interesting question: how does location affect the way you should address Japanese people? In these days of globalized workforces, you might easily find yourself speaking English with a Japanese coworker at the company office in France. How much of a difference does that make?

Or what about when multiple languages are spoken by multiple nationalities, as is also increasingly common in international companies? Will that affect naming conventions in both English and Japanese?

Several members of TokyoDev have experience in such international corporations. Sayana Takagi worked at a company that, despite being based in Japan, was founded by an American CEO and employed only a few Japanese people. Since English was the primary company language, the Japanese employees adapted.

“I was called Sayana,” she said. “However, the Japanese employees called me Sayana-san.” They did so even when speaking English, she added.

Takagi’s next company was Japanese, but she worked in an overseas location and spoke English. However, “The local people were accustomed to Japanese business practices, so they called me Takagi-san.” She usually called them by their first name plus -san.

What’s her preference these days? “Honestly, I don’t really mind being called by any of these names (Sayana, Sayana-san, or Takagi-san). However, I am more used to being called Takagi-san, and being called Sayana in Japan is usually reserved for close friends, so it might feel slightly unfamiliar. But being addressed by my first name itself is not a problem at all.”

I asked if “Sayana-san” was preferable to “Sayana,” and she said it was difficult to decide. “It might be more about the position/age rather than nationality. If the person is younger or my staff member, being called Sayana-san doesn’t feel too strange. However, if the person is older, I might think it’s ok to just call me Sayana. . . . I don’t really have a strong preference.”

Keiko Kimoto is also comfortable being addressed by her first name in English. “Usually, they call me ‘Keiko.’ Some people used to call me ‘Keiko-san,’ but in my experience, it’s only international clients based in other Asian countries such as Singapore or Korea.”

To those who understand Appearance of Inequality cultures, this makes good sense, but it did put Kimoto in a dilemma. If everybody was speaking English, and these international clients were not Japanese, what was the polite way to respond?

“I initially tried to address them in the same way,” she explained. “[For example], if you called me Keiko-san, I tried to call you Rebecca-san. But at some point, I thought it was very unnatural, so I just called them by their first name instead (although they kept calling me ‘Keiko-san’).”

On the whole she feels that Keiko sounds more natural in English than Keiko-san, but either is preferable to the alternative: “I might feel they are being too polite or think they are trying too much to be ‘Japanese’ if my English-speaking coworkers called me ‘Kimoto-san’ though.”

Don’t worry about it too much

If this article has left you with more questions than answers, then MANABI Limited CEO Masafumi Otsuka would urge you not to overthink it.

Although he’s Japanese, Otsuka spent the first 12 years of his life in the US, and describes himself as “one third Japanese, one third American, one third confused.” Now, as an intercultural facilitator and executive coach, he’s mentored many foreigners who live in Japan on this and related subjects.

Like several others in this article, he advocates simply asking the Japanese person what they prefer to be called. But if you do make an honest mistake? Don’t worry about it too much.

“One thing that I’m always telling people,” said Otsuka, “is if I’m going to a different country, like Malaysia, I don’t want to offend the Malaysians. Or Vietnam, or Cambodia . . . you want to be polite, right? But that doesn’t mean you have to act exactly like them. It’s not like they’re going to hold you to the same standard as them. And Japanese are exactly the same.”

“I wouldn’t say take advantage of the situation,” he clarified, “because that sounds like a negative thing. But I think Japanese [people] would be much more open if you don’t try to act too much like a Japanese [person], and just be aware of the situation, to be polite.”

Otsuka pointed out that in Japan, “90% of the population would sacrifice for the 10%. That’s how this country is . . . so people are so careful [because] they don’t want to cause trouble to others.” That includes Japanese people proactively adapting to English conventions, and introducing themselves by their first names.

In many cases, Otsuka explained, this has simply been drilled into them as the polite thing to do when speaking English. “There are so many different [English] textbooks,” he said. “I think everything is written ‘First Name, Last Name.’ And there are so many dialogues on how to introduce yourself, right? So I think, ‘First name, Last name,’ and then your preferred name.”

One thing foreigners in Japan can do to return the courtesy is to adopt a nickname—not a Japanese name, but “at least a short nickname that a Japanese person can remember. . . . They’ll forget right after they ask you [your name], and then Japanese want to be polite, so they’ll never ask you [for your] name again.”

Conclusion

Times are changing, and rapidly. More international corporations are coming to Japan. More Japanese companies are going global. More and more tourists keep flooding Kyoto and Mt. Fuji. All these phenomena suggest that English usage in Japan will only increase, which means that naming conventions may alter as well—at least, in foreign languages.

So what’s the best way to address a Japanese person in English? Obviously there’s no simple answer, but the experts we consulted agree on one thing: you should ask what that person prefers. Given that this was the advice of every expert we consulted, you can hardly go wrong clarifying, from the beginning, how your coworker or acquaintance prefers to be addressed.

For example, in the hypothetical that opened this article, your coworker has already expressed her desire for you to call her “Rin.” But does she prefer Rin only, or Rin-san? Although it may feel awkward, the evidence suggests it’s best to ask, at that moment, which version of her name she prefers. And the more we normalize asking upfront, the fewer uncomfortable moments we’ll all experience.

If you can’t ask for whatever reason, you’ll just have to listen closely and read the room. When in doubt, it can’t hurt to go more formal than is strictly required, such as Langley advises when speaking with government officials.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t general trends. Our Japanese interviewees do prefer to be addressed in English by their first names, with or without -san. It feels “relaxed,” “natural,” and “polite.” Still, exceptions exist, such as Mr. TK, who prefers his 60-year old English nickname to the extent that many friends don’t even know his Japanese name.

Most foreigners come to Japan prepared to adapt to Japanese culture, but Japanese people appear equally prepared to adapt to more global customs. Kimoto pointed out that forcing the issue and using someone’s surname might actually appear to be “too Japanese” and create awkwardness. As is usually the case in Japan, it’s better to go with the flow.

And since so many Japanese people freely use first names in English, it makes sense that most non-Japanese people are also usually addressed by their first names. Some foreigners experience this as alienating, and would prefer to be addressed by their last names, as is “proper” in Japan. But given that many Japanese people view using first names as the “proper” form in English, it should instead be understood as a courtesy.

I personally am considering Otsuka’s advice to adopt an easy-to-remember English nickname. I know all too well how embarrassing it is to forget someone’s name, especially since I’m still learning Japanese names myself. With that in mind, I asked Otsuka (who asked in the interview for me to call him “Masa”) if “Becky” could be more easily recalled than “Rebecca.”

“There’s a famous entertainer named Becky!” he said. “So yes, I think it will be easy for Japanese people to remember.”

The "No, I Don't Live In Tokyo" Series: Developing in Kansai 3 Sep 2024 4:45 PM (7 months ago)

There’s more to Japan than Tokyo and its Kanto region! Would you consider living and working in Kansai instead?

The Kansai region of Japan most famously encompasses the prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara—Osaka being Japan’s second-largest city after Tokyo, and Kyoto and Nara having both served as prior national capitals. The area also includes the prefectures Wakayama, Hyogo, and Shiga, and even, by some definitions, Mie, Fukui, Tokushima, and Tottori.

As a whole, the Kansai area is distinguished by its dialects, which differ noticeably from Tokyo’s speech patterns. While it’s difficult to assign a culture to an entire region, people from Kansai are often seen as more easygoing, louder, more direct, and funnier than their Kanto counterparts, thanks to a long history of mercantilism and comedy. Individual prefectures and cities, however, boast their own highly distinct specialties and reputations. Nara is known for its “bowing deer,” Wakayama for its fresh tuna, Kyoto for its passive-aggression, etc.

To get the real scoop on living in Kansai, TokyoDev asked three developers working in Osaka, Kyoto, and Shiga Prefecture to share their experiences and advice. Our biggest takeaway: while stereotypes about this region abound, they rarely match the facts.

Working in Kansai

Osaka

What’s it like working for a company in Kansai?

“Before I answer,” said Ben Johnson, an American developer in Osaka, “I’d like to provide a bit of context about my company and my job position.

“I work at Cosmic Lab, a small multimedia and live visual entertainment development company in Osaka. We specialize in creating and installing live video and lighting systems for international and domestic concert events and physical installations, utilizing real-time graphics engines such as Unreal Engine, Unity, and TouchDesigner.

“A few of our public installations include the new 360-degree LED visual contents system at Zepp Shinjuku, the Conan Skate video game at the Gosho Aoyama Manga Factory, and even the giant 2025 Osaka World Expo Fist statue in Dotonbori street.”

In other words, Johnson’s company probably wouldn’t be considered typical anywhere. That said, it’s not as unusual in Osaka as one might think.

Osaka companies do seem much more willing to embrace new and creative ideas at times. I think this is probably due to Osaka’s history in different creative fields like comedy and art.

That’s a key difference from the atmosphere in Tokyo, according to Johnson. “Overall, people here are very laid back and there is a very strong underground art culture in Osaka. This culture makes it much easier to work with a lot of people and I think that has been the key to my company getting to work with many different bands in Japan, both big and small, like GLAY, BUCK-TICK, flumpool, 7ORDER, JP THE WAVY, and more.”

In other respects, though, working in Osaka is _exactly _like Tokyo. “There are still many of the same downsides you will experience in most companies in Japan. For example, people always seem to like to talk around issues and never say exactly what they want, they will regularly change their minds up until the last minute, or they will give you a high priority task at the last minute or end of the day.

“I don’t think there is really any way around these work culture issues . . . but that being said, I think the fun and exciting work environment of an Osakan company makes these problems a bit more bearable.”

What about long-term career prospects? “Overall,” Johnson answered, “I think working in Osaka has been a positive experience for me, despite some challenges. While my programming career development may have slowed slightly, I feel like I have experienced rapid growth from when I first joined Cosmic Lab. Since joining, I became immediately responsible for designing new live visual entertainment systems using experimental and custom hardware.”

Fewer developers in Osaka means less competition, which means more opportunity for growth roles and cross-skilling. The primary downside? The lack of English speakers and resources.

I feel like the language barrier between Japanese and English may have hindered my ability to talk to other developers, and could be potentially limiting the rate in which I grow as a developer.

The language issue causes difficulties networking as well. “Unfortunately, I can’t say I know too much about co-working and networking in Osaka. Personally I’ve always worked in the office as I feel that is better for a person’s wellbeing, and networking is a bit difficult with my level of Japanese.” In Johnson’s opinion, a certain level of Japanese ability is by definition required for effective outreach.

Osaka also isn’t the hub of developer events that Tokyo is. “I have tried a few developer meetups such as Ichi Pixel (which unfortunately shut down during Covid) but I haven’t really found any events that seemed particularly interesting to me as a developer.”

But,” Johnson added, “since Osaka is a pretty big city, there is a lot of opportunity for these kinds of things.” It’s possible another developer might stumble upon events he’s unaware of; if they’re ambitious, they might even have an opportunity to establish a network of their own.

Kyoto

Alexander Chen didn’t technically work for a company in Kyoto; instead, he worked remotely for Mercari, which is based in Tokyo. Post-pandemic, remote options are becoming increasingly common, so this is a likely set-up for any developer who’s interested in exploring options outside of Tokyo.

Chen had already been working at the Mercari offices in Tokyo for about a year and a half. As soon as the business offered remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic, though, Chen straightaway moved to Kyoto. “I studied abroad here ten years ago and I loved the city, so I always wanted to come back.”

Live in Kyoto, that was the dream—and it came true.

There were practical advantages as well. “As I started my life here, I was a brand-new junior level engineer, with no real experience. Working from Kyoto was obviously nice, with all the remote aspects. I can do the same job, while living in a lower-cost area. Because it was cheaper here, I was able to afford a much nicer home and make a really comfortable remote work set up . . . I couldn’t do that in Tokyo, because I could only afford a shoebox.”

That being said, Chen stressed that remote work outside of Tokyo can be great, but only if you’re doing so with the right people and the right support. “Your team and your company culture will probably make or break your experience as a remote engineer,” he said.

Chen’s personal recommendation is a lightly-hybrid arrangement, in which a developer travels to the main office in Tokyo (or wherever it might be located) around once a month. “Thankfully my company was willing to pay for the shinkansen ticket up to a certain amount,” he said, “if I wanted to go to the office.”

This sort of once-a-month check-in is very possible from Kyoto, if not always simple.

It was harder [to commute] than it seems, I will say that. It sounds easy on paper, cause you’re like, oh, you just go to Kyoto station, hop on the shinkansen, and boom! Two hours later I’m in Tokyo.

“But in reality, it’s more like three and a half hours door-to-door. It’s a bit tiring, spending three to four hours in the morning in transit, and that’s time I spend not working, which makes me feel unproductive. So sometimes I try to work on the shinkansen, but that doesn’t really work out for me, because the Internet cuts out every few minutes. I get motion sickness fairly easily, so that also didn’t work out too well.

“What I’d usually do was try to go the night before and stay at a hotel, and then go to work the next day, although that would come out of my own wallet—the company would pay for my train ticket but not the hotel. That also discouraged me from going more frequently.”

When he remains in Kyoto, Chen usually goes to a coworking space or cafe two to three times a week—or, at least, he tries to. “In reality, because I’m not being forced to leave my house, a lot of days I’ll plan to go, but before I realize it, it’s still two p.m. and I’m in my pajamas.”

“There are surprisingly quite a few [coworking spaces] in Kyoto,” Chen said. In particular, he noted that Space Kante, .andWork, and Impact Hub are quite popular. But while these may be good places to get work done, they’re not so good for networking in the developer community—although, Chen clarified, some of that might have come down to bad timing.

“To be fair, most of [my experience] was in 2022, so it was still kind of during Covid times. Border restrictions were still a thing, so there weren’t a whole lot of other people at the spaces, and it didn’t feel like such a social environment. I think if it was not Covid [times], those spaces would have been holding social events.”

In general, though, Kyoto is just not a developer hub.

I don’t know anybody else in the city who is also a developer. Nearly all of my friends here work non-technical jobs or have non-traditional lifestyles.

“Tokyo has a ridiculously strong developer community, so that’s a big plus if that’s important to you. But outside of Tokyo, it’s pretty sparse I would say.”

In this, Chen echoed the experience of other non-Tokyoite developers, almost all of whom said that their cities lacked the extensive networking opportunities and developer events Tokyo offers.

Shiga

Interestingly, it’s the developer from Shiga Prefecture who seems to know the most about networking in Kyoto and Osaka.

“I have attended a meetup in Kyoto that was very informative and very fun,” Mitchell Fernandez explained. “They are probably the closest and most often running meetup [group], running monthly in both Osaka and Kyoto.”

I highly recommend them: Osaka/Kyoto Web Designers and Developers Meetup.

Part of the reason Fernandez is familiar with the group is that, in his own words, “I have not found any networking opportunities in Shiga.”

“Shiga is a very quiet prefecture,” he said, “with lots of factories, but I would say not many technology-focused companies.”

Like Chen, Fernandez works remotely, in the small rural town of Ryuuou-chou. The similarity ends there, however. Rather than being employed by a major company based in Tokyo, Fernandez is working his way up in a small travel company.

“As this is my first job in the IT industry, I am an IT admin,” he explained. “I do development at a junior level for the company’s website, etc.”

“I am the only IT person in my company,” he went on, “so it is very much learning-on-the-job for me after I completed my coding bootcamp.”

Just because it’s a small business, however, doesn’t mean there isn’t a good chance for career development; Fernandez is slated to become the company’s lead developer as the business expands. In the meantime, “I like it here,” Fernandez said. “It is a good company, with a small team that allows us to work from home.”

The job is fully remote, as the team is divided between Japan and Australia. Though there is a company office in Hakuba—in Nagano, north of the Kanto region—the team is never required to attend meetings there.

This suits Fernandez, who favors remote work specifically for family reasons. “[They] are very flexible with our work hours and appointments, children getting sick, etc.”

The chief downside of working in Shiga, according to Fernandez, is the salary.

For my position, and the cost of living being much cheaper, I feel comfortable with my salary and living in the countryside.

But, he admits, “I would say the salary is lower than that of Tokyo, Kyoto, or Osaka.”

Living in Kansai

Osaka

Johnson may entertain some reservations about career growth in Kansai, but when it comes to Osaka’s quality of life, he’s quite enthusiastic: “Overall, I really like life in Osaka.”

Then again . . . “I’m both pretty humble and pretty amazing, so I don’t think I am capable of hating anything,” Johnson clarified. Obviously, he’s lived long enough in Osaka to pick up the city’s notorious sense of humor!

More seriously, Johnson laid out Osaka’s advantages and disadvantages. “Osaka of course has many of the same annoying issues as the rest of Japan (no central AC so bathroom trips are hot and sweaty, you have to carry your trash home, almost every restaurant is either curry, ramen, rice bowl, or if someone is feeling particularly cheeky, sushi) but it’s a great place to live.

Everywhere feels very safe, housing is cheap, eating out is cheap, medicine is decently priced.

“Things can be difficult at times,” Johnson clarified. “There’s the occasional old guy telling us to leave Japan, or a restaurant telling us it is full when it clearly isn’t, but overall everything is great.”

Osaka is sometimes considered unsafe compared to Tokyo, but Johnson says the stereotype doesn’t reflect reality. “I think one of the best things about working in Osaka has to be the people. I know Osaka has a somewhat bad reputation on TV for crime, but I can’t say I’ve ever witnessed anything other than some minor verbal harassment and a couple random tourists in Dotonobori pinching my butt a couple times.”

Johnson is happy enough to fully commit to Osaka: he and his wife, who is also American, have recently bought a house in Shijonawate. “It was really affordable compared to US homes, and the bank (SMBC) and real-estate company (Murakumo Corporation) were both really helpful in making that happen.” In particular, Johnson recommends the Murakumo Corporation for anyone else who might be house-hunting in the area.

He also had some specific recommendations for anyone new to the area, whether they’re moving there for work or simply visiting. “Occasionally when we miss home, we like to head into the Nama area (where my company is) and swing by some of their great restaurants like Fuu’s Hotdogs (which for some reason only sells sausages), Tri Ân Quán (for good Vietnamese food), or The Hearth (a board game cafe with kangaroo burgers). . . . Or we will head over to MINT records to buy as many second-hand records as 2,000 yen can get us. I often like to swing by the Silicon House Kyoritsu in Denden to pick up parts for electronic engineering work.

“If you are in the area I recommend all of these places, plus they are close to Dotonobori and Denden, which seem to be a must stop location for all tourists in Osaka.”

In conclusion, Johnson is happy where he is, and encourages others to join him.

I highly recommend working in Osaka for foreigners that are tired of Tokyo, there is much more space and freedom overall.

“Sure, there are fewer foreign restaurants (don’t worry curry fans, India always has your back here), and it can be difficult to find stuff you are comfortable with, but I think it is much better if you really plan on committing to being in Japan long term.”

Kyoto

“Kyoto has everything in a city that I love,” said Chen.

“My first three years in Japan were on JET, and I was in Shimane Prefecture, which is generally considered ‘ultra-inaka.’ That wasn’t a great fit for me personally. A lot of people around me loved it, but for me, it was just a little too out there and lacked the excitement I wanted at the time. So I left after three years.

“So then I went straight to Tokyo, and lived there for about three years. And then it was kind of the opposite—it was fun, it was exciting, but also a bit too much.

“Then I moved to Kyoto, and it’s perfectly in-between, and it hit all the sweet spots for me personally.”

One particular sweet spot: the cost of living.

It’s so affordable. Vegetables are cheaper, homes are cheaper . . . everything’s cheaper.

Chen offered his own rental experience as an example. When he lived in a Kyoto sharehouse, he paid 54,000 yen a month for his room. After that, he rented a detached house for 85,000 yen a month. Now he shares an apartment with his partner for 100,000 yen a month; the higher price is justified, he feels, because the apartment is a 1LDK in a quite nice part of the city.

Living in a central area isn’t required, however. “The city is pretty compact,” Chen said. “You could live on the outskirts of the city, and you’re still twenty minutes away from the fun stuff.” So if you’d prefer to live in the suburbs, you’re not missing out on social opportunities. “You can have spontaneous meet-ups. It’s totally doable.”

What about public transportation? “Personally, I’ve very rarely felt inconvenienced by public transportation here,” Chen said. It’s not as extensive as in Tokyo, but “it’s more than good enough,” especially if you’re willing to walk a bit further to and from the station.

For himself, Chen prefers to cycle. “It’s such an easy city to cycle in. Whenever the weather is good, you can pretty much cycle anywhere you want to. Assuming you’re not trying to traverse from one side of the city to the other, if you’re just trying to get from your home to the downtown area or your friend’s house, it very rarely takes more than thirty minutes. More often it takes less than twenty minutes.”

One of the oft-cited downsides of Kyoto is the elaborate, perhaps passive-aggressive modes of politeness preferred by its residents. Chen, however, feels that Kyoto has gotten a bad rap.

Kyoto has a lot of stereotypes about it. To me, those are more like memes made up by Japanese people.

In general, according to Chen, people in Kyoto are actually more easy-going than their counterparts in Tokyo. “People are more laid-back here. There’s a lower concentration of your typical salarymen and office workers, not as many stressed-out people. I think people are just a bit friendlier and easier to get along with.”

On the other hand, the younger generation remains a bit intimidated by its elders, who can occasionally demonstrate what one might call the “Kyoto attitude.” “Some of my friends who were born and raised in Kyoto,” Chen explained, “they’re fantastic, they’re super-friendly, and they’re really down-to-earth. But they say things like, ‘Oh, my grandma is so scary! I don’t know what she’s thinking all the time!’ Even Kyoto people think Kyoto people are scary, but I think it’s just a generational difference.”

Which might not matter as much as you think—given that many of the people Chen met in Kyoto were not born and raised there. Almost all of his friends there are Japanese, but most hail from Osaka, Kobe, or Shiga rather than being Kyoto natives.

One reason Chen’s friends are almost entirely Japanese is that he’s more likely to meet them outside of work. In Tokyo, 99% of his friends were work friends, and so included a higher ratio of expats and English speakers. In Kyoto he doesn’t encounter many other developers, and tends to make friends with those in many different occupations.

“I don’t have any English-speaking friends here, now that I think about it,” said Chen. Which could be a downside for those who are still learning Japanese. “Fortunately,” Chen said, “I speak Japanese fairly comfortably, but if that were not the case, it would be a lot harder for me to have a healthy social life here.”

There are other stereotypes about Kyoto that Chen would like to debunk. For example, there’s the idea that Kyoto is overrun by foreigners and tourists, making it difficult for local residents. According to Chen, that’s really not the case. “As someone who just lives here, I never see them, unless I go to the Kyoto Station area.”

And while you might associate Kyoto with tea ceremonies, Chen pointed out that Kyoto has the highest rate of coffee consumption in Japan. “We also have the highest concentration of bakeries. Your average Kyoto resident freaking loves drinking coffee and eating bread. . . . There is a very strong independent coffee-roasting/coffee-brewing scene. I think because the cost of housing and running businesses is cheaper, there are so many more small, family-run or individually-run businesses here than there are in Tokyo.”

“Really, really good coffee. Really, really good bread,” Chen added with a laugh.

I asked Chen what would, ultimately, make him recommend Kyoto to others, and he had a ready answer.

My favorite part of Kyoto is the river, Kamogawa. It’s a giant river that cuts through the city, and it’s an amazing place to go and relax and go for a jog or a walk. I have a dog, I walk her there every morning.

“That’s one of the things that made me fall in love with the city,” he concluded. “If you’re in Tokyo, you’re probably surrounded by concrete most of the time. I was, at least. It takes a bit of effort to go find somewhere peaceful, to just relax. In Kyoto, it’s never far away.”

Shiga

For his part, Fernandez heartily recommends Shiga Prefecture, especially for anyone who enjoys outdoor activities.

Shiga is quiet and beautiful with Lake Biwa in the center and nice weather.

“It has everything you could ask for,” he said. “Swimming and fishing, hiking . . . and snowboarding and skiing in the winter.”

Lake Biwa is, of course, a particular draw. Fernandez especially recommends the west side of the lake, for the “great campgrounds, with swimming!”

“Also, GRANSNOW Okuibuki is a nice resort in Shiga,” he added, “with good snow, but busy on weekends!”

While it may not be a hopping urban center, Shiga isn’t entirely lacking in nightlife, either. “Kusatsu is a fun town,” said Fernandez, “with many izakaya and bars for drinking and eating.”

The best part is that you get all the benefits of Shiga, plus the upsides of Kyoto and Osaka. “It is also in close proximity to Kyoto and Osaka by train,” he pointed out—so you won’t miss out on any of the benefits described by Ben Johnson or Alexander Chen above.

But at the same time, Shiga Prefecture is “quite a safe area to live in,” which is particularly beneficial for those with children, like Fernandez.

The small town I live in has Kodomo Hiroba [free Japanese language classes], and lots of free activities for kids.

However, one of the top benefits of living in Ryuuou-chou is financial: “Residential taxes are very low in my small city.” This is due to the presence of a Daihatsu factory, Fernandez believes. “Because they pay high company taxes, ours get to be lower!”

Conclusion

Do Osaka, Kyoto, or Shiga Prefecture sound like a good fit for you? Are you interested in working in the Kansai region? Check out our job board for positions in those areas, or for fully remote roles that will let you live anywhere in Japan.

If you want to network with developers living in Kansai, you can meet some in our community.

Announcing the 2024 TokyoDev Developers Survey 1 Sep 2024 8:56 PM (8 months ago)

The 2024 edition of the TokyoDev Developer Survey is now live! If you’re a software developer living in Japan, please help us by taking it. All questions are optional, and we expect it to take less than 10 minutes to complete. The survey will be open until September 30th.

Last year, we had over 700 responses, and we saw some indicators that the tech market in Japan was becoming more challenging. Median compensation was down, the number of respondents actively looking for jobs was up, and fewer respondents had the option to work fully remotely. Help us understand if these trends have continued into 2024, or if things have stabilized.

One new feature of this year’s survey is that we’ve made it possible to take it in English or Japanese. Not all developers who move to Japan from abroad are comfortable with English, so this will make our survey more accessible to a wider audience.

Additionally, we’d love to better understand the experiences of Japanese developers working in international companies in Japan, to see how it is similar (or different) from their non-Japanese peers. We hope this will allow us to collect data from them, too.

The survey is anonymous, and we will only release aggregated data to avoid disclosing any personally identifiable information. The more responses we get, the more interesting and statistically meaningful insights we’ll be able to offer, so please help out by answering the survey and sharing it with your peers!

LinkedIn’s Broken Automation Took Down My Company’s Page Without Warning 1 Sep 2024 6:10 PM (8 months ago)

TokyoDev is a job board and community that helps international software developers begin and grow their careers in Japan. Given our focus, it’s not surprising that LinkedIn is the social network that delivers us the most traffic. Typically, about 4% of our total visitors arrive from LinkedIn.

The other week, I received an email from them.

Apparently TokyoDev’s LinkedIn page had violated their professional community policies so severely that they’d removed our page without warning.

I knew we hadn’t posted any content that would warrant this, but I also wasn’t completely caught off guard. A couple weeks earlier, I’d heard from another founder who’d had the same thing happen to him, with his similar job board that was focused on the Korean market.

From this point, though, there wasn’t a clear path forward. As I couldn’t find any way to appeal the restriction, I sent a general support request. A day later, I hadn’t heard back from them, so I posted about it on my personal LinkedIn page. Thanks to the help of TokyoDev’s connections and community, I was able to get my issue passed on to the “executive escalations team,” where at least I got a reply, though no immediate assistance.

A week later, I got word that my page had been restored. Though I’d asked to know why it was banned in the first place, I wasn’t given any reason beyond it being a mistake. So I sent another follow up about that, and then made this job post on our restored page.

The next day, I got a reply from LinkedIn’s executive escalations team, to the effect that our page had been taken down due to “an automation error.” Again, I was looking for something more concrete so I could avoid having it happen again, and I sent yet another request for more details.

Then I went to make another post on our LinkedIn page, only to discover we had been banned again.

The next day, I finally got some actual details about why we had been taken down.

I understand that our automations mistakenly flagged your recent job postings on your page as being in violation of our discrimination policy, which includes protections against age, gender, nationality, race, sexual orientation, and other characteristics.

That answered why (kind of), but my page was still currently banned, and the case manager made no acknowledgement of that in their reply.

A day later, my page is back up again. I’m not sure if I dare post to it though!

I figure LinkedIn’s automation took issue with the fact that our job posting had the word “Japanese” in it. Japanese is both a nationality and a language, and so perhaps they’re looking through a list of nationalities and flagging any job post that contains them.

That I made a single post which caused our page to get taken down a second time leads me to believe that their automation is incredibly naive. It may also be that each time we make a new post, they’re taking a look at all our historical posts and flagging ones like the following.

If that’s the case, it might be the “No Japanese” that’s getting us in trouble. Their system apparently thinks we’re prohibiting Japanese people from applying.

The fact that the TokyoDev page was removed for “discrimination” is quite ironic. Our posts are about helping Japanese companies attract more diverse candidates–the opposite of discrimination, in fact.

Now I’m just left wondering if I should even try to post to our company page again, as I don’t want to have to jump through hoops a third time.

Become a Great Communicator in Japanese 27 Aug 2024 5:50 PM (8 months ago)

There are many articles, textbooks, and videos about learning Japanese, ranging from dry and academic to ones filled with pop culture references and slang. But most resources out there focus on the mechanics of Japanese and neglect the more amorphous communication skills.

Even worse, when you ask someone about a communication mishap or how to say something in Japanese, odds are that you’ll get a reply like “What’s the context?” or “It depends.” This is because Japan has a high-context culture: a culture where it is more common to communicate by implicit meaning than explicit, and where understanding the context of a conversation can be equally as important as understanding the actual words.

What is implicit communication?

It may be easier to explain implicit communication by contrast.

English-speaking cultures tend to be low-context, where it is more common to be explicit. If you’re new to a team, there may be some unwritten rules—for example, that nobody should email the boss after 4 p.m. on a Friday. In a low-context culture, a teammate would probably reach out to you and directly say, “Hey, we don’t do that here. Don’t email him after 4 p.m. on Fridays, he likes us to be able to finish the week on time.”

In a high-context culture, it is much more common to communicate through implication, especially when giving negative feedback. In the above situation, your coworker is more likely to communicate via a disapproving hiss or sigh, or perhaps a non-committal, “I see you sent an email, huh.”

Another example would be an unspoken dress code. If you wore a navy suit and white dress shirt to work in a high-context culture, perhaps nobody would comment on it at all because it fits in. However, if you wore a loud, purple suit with gold accessories, someone might say, “Nice suit.” That could be a compliment, but pointing out your suit could also be an implication that you’re violating a social norm by wearing a loud suit.

How do you know which it is? Context. It depends.

These are common behaviors in high-context cultures, but they can be frustrating and appear passive-aggressive to people from low-context cultures. However, for high-context communicators, there is often no intention of being rude; it’s simply how they’re used to communicating.

In fact, one common behavior in Japan has stymied me and many people I know: ignoring people when they do something rude or incorrect. This may sound unbelievable to people from low-context cultures. “Why wouldn’t you just tell me? It’s not obvious at all!” However, it can be difficult to understand how to articulate “the obvious.”

Many of those same people would have problems navigating a robot through a maze with literal instructions. “Why do I have to tell it to stop? It should obviously stop at the wall! And if I tell it to turn right and there’s a wall, why does it just walk into the wall?!”

It turns out that what’s obvious to you may not be obvious to others, and this is even more true when communicating across cultures and languages.

What is context?

Context is the setting in which communication occurs. Understanding context and appropriateness is critical to being a good communicator in Japanese. This concept is often wrapped up in the initialism “TPO,” meaning “time, place, and occasion.” For an example of how this can work in reality, consider the following exchange:

On the face of it, it seems simple, but consider how tweaking some of the following details completely changes the meaning of the conversation. Also, think about how different your perception would be if you assumed one thing, but the person you were talking with assumed another.

Relationships

Perhaps Suzuki is a manager and Smith is an intern, which creates a power dynamic where Smith is replying uncomfortably. Or Suzuki could be a doctor and Smith could be a patient recovering from an illness, which means that the exchange is informative and both sides are speaking positively.

Gender roles also affect the context of the conversation.

Culture

Are Suzuki and Smith in a culture where gaining weight is seen as a great thing? If this is a high-context culture, perhaps Suzuki is expressing himself too bluntly, or perhaps he’s implying something else entirely aside from the weight gain.

Society

Are there unspoken social rules around talking about someone’s weight? In some societies, it is a strict no-no to discuss other people’s weight. In others, it is ok, but only in certain circumstances. In still other societies, there is nothing wrong with commenting on people’s weights either positively or negatively.

Each society and culture has its own set of unspoken rules and norms that will affect what you can talk about, how you can talk about it, and how people will receive you talking about it.

Environment

Did this conversation take place in an office? Perhaps it would make more sense to you if I said it took place in a gym. However, you might be taken aback if I said that this was Smith’s wedding day! Or perhaps this is a conversation from a game of D&D—then the rules would be completely different.

Any of these contexts can affect our understanding of the conversation.

How can I communicate?

It is clear that there are gaps in communication that may not be bridged by knowing more words or grammar.

Communication is the ability to express yourself in such a way that the other parties in the conversation can understand the point you want to make. It sounds so obvious, but it’s not that simple.

In other words, knowledge is knowing the meaning of brobdingnagian, but communication is understanding when to use it.

Communication skills are somewhat independent of language knowledge: people who are good communicators in their native languages may still have smoother, more fluent Japanese conversations than people who have poor communication skills but a lot of Japanese knowledge. It is important to remember that communication goes two ways: you can be an active (speaking, writing) party or a passive (listening, reading) party.

Here are ideas to keep in mind to improve your communication skills, regardless of your Japanese level.

Empathy and Clarity

As an active communicator, when you write or speak, it is your responsibility to communicate with empathy and clarity. Empathy is connecting with your audience and caring about their understanding; clarity is expressing yourself in a way that is often simple and precise.

Empathy begins with understanding that it can be difficult to communicate across cultures and languages. There is almost always a gap to be bridged on both sides of the conversation. It’s all too easy to get frustrated when you think you’re communicating something clearly, but the other party isn’t understanding you. If that happens, take a step back and remind yourself that they are probably as frustrated as you are, and understanding non-native speakers can be difficult in its own way.

Clarity is also crucial to good communication. Some beginner and intermediate Japanese learners consider it important to use many Japanese compound words, or to utilize very specific words to express a 1:1 translation from their native language. While this behavior can aid clearer communication in your native language, it can backfire when speaking a language you aren’t entirely comfortable with.

Instead of attempting complex grammar or professional vocabulary that you may not be confident with, it’s ok to rely on basic vocabulary and grammar to get your point across. In fact, when possible, it may be faster to act something out or draw pictures or diagrams as aids—not all communication is verbal!

Remember that the primary aim of communicating is not to flex your Japanese ability, but to share information. The people you are speaking to are also experienced adults, so you can trust them to pick up what you’re putting down.

Active Listening

Good communicators listen to their audience and ask clarifying questions when necessary. This can be especially important in Japan, where there is not only a linguistic gap, but also environmental and cultural gaps.

As a non-native speaker, it can be incredibly daunting following conversations; in Japanese especially, it’s far too easy to zone out while nodding and occasionally saying, “Yeah, yeah, sure,” as words go in one ear and out the other.

Active listening is listening to the speakers to understand not only what they’re saying, but whether they understand what you want to communicate. If you’re unsure, asking clarifying questions is critical, especially if you come from a low-context communication culture. Japan is a high-context culture where much of communication relies on an unspoken, shared understanding that you may not yet grasp.

Self-Awareness

Being a self-aware communicator will pay dividends. As you reflect on why a miscommunication may have happened, the pieces you were missing in the past will gradually fall into place over time.

“KY” (空気読めない, kuuki yomenai), is a common phrase that describes people who don’t have a good grasp of context or appropriateness.

People will often give you leeway as a foreign speaker of Japanese—until they suddenly don’t. Maybe you’re stepping on dozens of toes in a conversation, or perhaps you’re speaking too directly or casually in front of a bigwig, but nobody feels able to let you know. Some days you’ll walk away from a discussion and find that other people are irritated with you for reasons you don’t understand at the time.

Attaining the level of self-awareness that Japanese people expect can be a learning experience, and nobody gets it right all the time, especially not for the first few years.I know I have embarrassing memories that keep me up at 2 a.m., thanks to my own overzealous self-awareness!

I remember when I first started teaching English and was excited about having access to barbers who could do flashy, fashionable haircuts and highlights. A number of teachers commented on my hair and I took it as praise for almost a year, until a seven-year-old kid bluntly told me, “You look like a punk, not a teacher.”

Lesson learned!

Flexibility

One of the most common pieces of feedback I got in my first few years was to be more flexible. This may seem at odds with my previous advice to be more clear and concrete! Unfortunately, while being clear and concrete can be great for helping your own communication and learning, it can also be distracting to some Japanese people. Being too concrete or repetitive can come across as stating the obvious or assuming the other person is clueless.

Examples of this in English are the “Umm, actually,” or “Do you mean . . . “ types of responses. Both parties know what’s going on, but one party insists on pushing their preferred word or using specific grammatical patterns, often to the annoyance of the other. Learning to only ask for clarification when you really need it is a big part of being an effective communicator.

Flexibility also comes in another form: knowing how to speak around specific words or phrases you don’t know or can’t remember on the spot. Perhaps you can’t remember the word 解約する (kaiyaku suru, cancel/break a contract). You could stall the conversation while you anxiously try to excavate it from your memory, or perhaps take out your phone and start searching through the dictionary—but I think most of us would admit that neither of these approaches keep a conversation going.

Flexible communicators might acknowledge that they forgot the word and describe it, perhaps as 契約を取り消す (keiyaku wo torikesu, cancel a contract), or in even simpler terms that come to mind, like 契約をやめる (keiyaku wo yameru, stop a contract) or 契約を無くする (keiyaku wo naku suru, make a contract not exist).

“But wait,” some people may say, “that’s not correct Japanese! And saying things those ways might have legal implications!”

That’s why flexibility is useful. Of course, in critical situations, you should take your time and consult native speakers and other resources. It is also equally important to know when to be flexible—to acknowledge that you don’t know the “correct” way to say something—and be able to discard your need to be “correct” in favor of being able to get your point across.

What else should I keep in mind?

One more facet of Japanese communication that may be different for foreigners to adjust to is that many Japanese people are reticent to say things that may rock the boat. This can include things like saying “no” or correcting people—the latter especially can be frustrating for people new to Japan!

If people in Japan aren’t comfortable with someone—whether due to unfamiliarity, social hierarchy, or anything else—it is quite common for them to let blatant mistakes pass by, even when reassured that corrections are welcome. At best, you may receive subtle cues in the form of seemingly non-committal comments or body language.

Some ways a Japanese speaker may show that they don’t agree without saying it directly are:

• I guess so… (まぁね, maa ne)
• That might be difficult… (ちょっと難しいです, chotto muzukashii desu)
• Sometime! (今度, kondo)
• Slightly tilting their head without saying anything
• A quiet hiss of breath

Handling this type of situation depends on the person and context; sometimes you can continue to reassure them that you welcome corrections because you’re unfamiliar with the language and culture and the other party will gradually warm to you and offer feedback. Sometimes nothing can change this behavior.

If you find that you are being ignored, or that your questions are being ignored, take a moment to reflect on your interactions up to this point and perhaps the answer will come to mind. You can also present the situation to an uninvolved third party and ask for their feedback, but be prepared to give context, context, and more context.

Conclusion

Like all skills, learning to communicate in Japanese takes practice. You’re guaranteed to make mistakes along the way, but that’s ok. By remaining mindful of implicit communication and context, you’ll pick up clues to help you understand what’s going on.

If you practice empathy and active listening while communicating clearly, the people you talk with are more likely to help you when you don’t quite understand what’s going on—and if you’re also flexible, you’re all less likely to get frustrated by communication mishaps.

This article is far from an exhaustive analysis of the ins and outs of communicating in Japanese, but I hope it has provided some actionable tips for you to keep in mind. If you want to read more about communication, I highly recommend The Culture Map (Erin Meyer) and If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?: My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating (Alan Alda).

The truth is that developers with communication skills are highly valued, whether you’re using C or Python, English or Japanese. You can go to a boot camp to learn to program, or an intensive language school to learn Japanese—however, in either case, you may find that there is a difference between what you learned in school, and what you need in reality. Hopefully these tips lead to genuine communication with your Japanese friends and coworkers.

How TokyoDev improves your job hunt 26 Aug 2024 7:52 PM (8 months ago)

Hi, I’m Paul, the founder of TokyoDev. Our mission is to help international software developers begin and grow their careers in Japan.

To achieve this, we:

• Manage an online and in-person community of developers in Japan.
• Research and write original articles on navigating life in Japan, from starting your own company to estimating your living costs to bringing your pets from overseas.
• Commission guest articles from developers with valuable experiences to contribute, such as getting a business manager visa and taking an exam that qualifies you for an engineering visa.
• Interview developers working at our client companies, to get the real scoop on their working conditions.
• And finally, cultivate a selective job board to help match Japanese companies with international applicants.

As developers in Japan ourselves, who’ve been through the same process, we care a lot about improving your job-hunting experience. Some of this is reflected in the design of the site itself, but much of what we do to optimize the user experience is behind the scenes.

So you can better understand our role in your job search, I will explain how we make money, why the positions we list are selective, the steps we take to improve our positions for you, and how we can help you become a better candidate.

How TokyoDev makes money

First, it is helpful to understand the relationships we have with the parties involved, and how we make money as a job board.

The companies posting to TokyoDev are our clients. We have a contract with our clients which specifies that we receive a fee should someone be successfully hired via our site.

Charging on a success basis has several benefits:

• Everyone’s interests are aligned. We only make money when companies and job seekers match.
• It’s low risk for the company. As they don’t pay anything until they succeed with us, they can try us out without too much worry.
• There’s more money for us. The postings we make are quite successful compared to other job boards—our clients have often compared us favourably to other sources. Thus, by operating on this success-based model, we’re able to earn more revenue per posting than we would if we charged a fee just for posting.

However, it also has some drawbacks:

• Companies leave up postings. If there was a cost associated with maintaining a posting, companies would only advertise positions they were aggressively recruiting for. Our model has no built-in disincentive for leaving up postings they’re no longer actively hiring for, so we have to take other measures to ensure all TokyoDev job posts are valid and active.
• We don’t always receive a fee when we should. While companies generally declare hires to us, there have been cases where they haven’t. Usually this is because of a poor communication process on their end, rather than them willfully trying to cheat us.

How TokyoDev curates the companies and positions on the site

At TokyoDev, one of our primary goals is helping international software developers get jobs in Japan. Especially when you’re looking to start working in Japan, if you don’t have Japanese abilities, an exceptional resume, or substantial work experience already, your options may be quite limited.

While we don’t want to post opportunities at companies that are horrible places to work, we also don’t want to put limits in place that would mean we don’t list “stepping stone” positions that can help people get into the country.

This is especially true because, while Japanese developer salaries may seem low to someone coming from the US, positions in Japan can be a step up for people from developing economies. There are also other, more intangible benefits to working in Japan, such as safety, healthcare, and quality of life.

What makes us special is that we are niche, so if we listed every available position on the site, TokyoDev would lose its value. With that in mind, here are our criteria:

• English is used within the company to some degree. Even if a company communicates primarily in Japanese, they should have some reason to be seeking out English speakers (our main audience). If we were to list companies that only communicated in Japanese, we’d be no different from other Japanese-language job boards.
• At most, “fluent” Japanese is required. Our main focus is positions that require no Japanese skills, but as some in our audience have Japanese abilities, we don’t want to exclude positions that might match them. However, as we want all jobs to be at least theoretically attainable by our audience, we don’t list any positions seeking native Japanese speakers.
• The position is related to software development. Again, our value derives from our focus, and we don’t want TokyoDev to be a general “jobs in Japan” site. However, some in our audience straddle the boundary between a development role and something else. Because of this, we’ll list any position that’s part of a “product team.” So in addition to development roles, things like engineering management, UX design, and product management fit, but things like sales, customer service, or HR do not.
• The company sponsors visas, or at least the renewal of residency status. While ideally the company accepts overseas applicants and will sponsor visas, that’s not going to be feasible for every business. However, developers already living in Japan often require the support of a company to renew their residency status, so we require companies to at least support the renewal of an existing residency status.

Having a client relationship with the companies gives us a strong connection to them, so we can provide them with feedback about their job postings or hiring processes. Generally speaking, the smaller the company, the greater the impact we can have. When we work with a CTO at a small startup, they’re empowered to unilaterally make decisions; with our larger companies, no one person can make a decision about anything, and it is often unclear who’s responsible for a given task—even to the people involved. Nevertheless, we can and will take action to protect TokyoDev candidates.

How TokyoDev helps with negative candidate experiences

While the overwhelming majority of people have good experiences with the companies on TokyoDev, sometimes people report poor experiences to me. What we do next depends on the severity of the report.

Poor hiring processes

Sometimes we’ll be contacted about a poor experience somebody had while applying to or interviewing for one of our posted jobs. In this case, we’ll ask for their permission to give feedback based on their experience, along with a description of what we plan to tell the company (e.g. is the feedback going to be something general that keeps the applicant anonymous, or will it mention their specific situation and identity). Because we already have a working relationship with the company, this can lead to actual change.

To give an example, I had one person tell me that, the day before their scheduled interview, they were informed it would involve programming in a language that they weren’t familiar with, and which hadn’t been listed as a requirement on the job description. This was obviously a mistake on the part of the company.

I followed up with the company about this, and they were able to identify some internal misunderstandings of the requirements of the position. Ultimately, they concluded that this language was a requirement, and so updated the job description. Additionally, the hiring manager personally apologized to the applicant via a phone call. This didn’t undo the poor experience the applicant had, but it did help prevent future problems for others.

No reply from a company

One of the most common negative experiences people have when applying for jobs is that the company will not send an explicit rejection notice. This is extremely frustrating for the candidate. While we encourage companies to reply to every applicant, we haven’t made it a hard requirement. If we did, some companies just wouldn’t post their positions on TokyoDev, and we don’t think it would be worth denying people a chance at those opportunities.

Instead, we tell people who apply via our site that they can get in touch with us if they don’t hear back from a company within two weeks. Any time we receive an inquiry about this, we reply to it.

To be honest, if we know a company is one that doesn’t send explicit rejection notices, we’ll just tell the candidate this. We still want to receive an email about it, though, because if we receive a sudden surge of emails about a given company, it’s a sign that something has gone wrong, and I’ll follow up with the company about it.

When the company hasn’t told me about a specific policy of not sending rejection emails, we’ll ask them to confirm that they’ve received the candidate’s application. While usually they just haven’t sent a rejection email, there have been times when we discovered they’d accidentally skipped over the candidate’s application, and they ended up reaching out to the applicant later.

Although there’s nothing concrete now, we plan to add a feature to TokyoDev that incentivizes companies to send explicit rejections.

Toxic workplaces

While exceptionally rare, there have been cases when people reported toxic workplace conditions at a job they found via TokyoDev. These could be things like applying deceptive practices, or management verbally abusing employees. Even though these companies could be someone’s stepping stone to Japan, we can’t in good conscience list them on the site.

When we receive such a report, we seek to confirm the facts from multiple sources. I’ll typically do this by reaching out to another developer who is working at the company or has done so in the past, and asking them about their experience and if they’d recommend it. If they tell me about bad practices similar to the ones already reported, I’ll close the positions.

When we tell the company their jobs will no longer be posted, we don’t mention any specific allegations of toxic behaviour, and try to frame the rejection as relating to something else. We do this to avoid repercussions for any individuals involved. We also explain this strategy to those individuals in advance and ask for their permission to move forward.

Judging by my conversations with management at other job boards, this is atypical. When I’ve asked how they handle things like toxic workplaces, they just kind of shrug their shoulders and say it’s not really their responsibility to do anything, as it’s up to the candidate to do their own due diligence on the company. In fairness, I think another factor is that tricky situations like this can potentially open up legal liabilities.

While it would be nice if we could take that laissez-faire attitude, it just doesn’t sit right with me, especially as many of our candidates are taking a huge personal risk by uprooting their lives and coming to Japan, where they’re in an easier position to be taken advantage of.

How TokyoDev proactively improves the experience

We personally review every job posting that’s published through TokyoDev. As a job board, the actual job posting is what we can help the most with, and so we want to optimize the experience for our candidates in this area.

Standardizing job postings

TokyoDev formats job postings in a standardized manner. We include a description of the position, followed by sections labelled “Responsibilities,” “Requirements,” and “Nice to haves.” Keeping the layouts consistent makes posts easier to compare, and avoids the ambiguity of more conversational headers like “It would be nice if you have . . .”

Also, while companies will frequently put general information about the company into their job description (such as their values, benefits, etc.), we don’t include these in our job descriptions. Rather, we keep this information to their company page on TokyoDev. This makes comparing multiple positions from the same company easier, as there shouldn’t be repeated information that you need to scan past.

Doing this is a mostly manual process, where we reformat the posting on the company’s behalf to divide it into the appropriate sections and remove unnecessary information. If it is a substantial edit, we ask the company to confirm.

Sometimes postings will have both English versions and Japanese versions of the text. In this case, we’ll also remove the Japanese version, so only the English version remains, which makes it easier to read than skipping between Japanese and English text.

Clarifying information

It’s rare to see a job posting that is naturally great. While it’s not feasible for us to perfect every job posting, we do want to ensure that posts come up to a minimum level of quality. This includes things like:

• Correcting typos.
• Suggesting the removal of duplicate requirements. For example, if a position lists “3+ years of Ruby on Rails experience” and “Experience with developing web applications,” it can just list the Ruby on Rails requirement, as Rails is used to develop web applications.
• Clarifying ambiguous requirements. Sometimes a company will include requirements that are hard to understand, and so I ask for clarification from the company as to what they actually mean.
• Requesting more details about what the position entails. It’s unfortunately common for a posting to focus exclusively on what they want from the candidate, and not the reverse.

These edits are done on a best-effort basis, while keeping in mind that speed is essential. The longer we spend working on a single posting, the more likely it is to be posted with our competitors or closed altogether before we’ve finished. We try to strike a balance, and also leave the door open to further candidate questions.

Encouraging the inclusion of salary information

If a position doesn’t include a salary range, we request that the company include one. We point out that this clearly sets expectations and creates a better experience for both parties, that salary transparency helps close the gender pay gap, and that the majority of positions listed on the site contain this information. Sometimes this does lead companies who haven’t shared salary information before to start including it.

Prohibiting potentially discriminatory questions

Since the Japanese hiring process can differ from that of other countries, occasionally a company posting with TokyoDev includes potentially discriminatory questions on their application form. For instance, one of the most commonly used Application Tracking Systems in Japan has gender and age as default questions. Asking about things like this creates a poor experience for candidates, as it makes them wonder if they’ll be discriminated against based on these characteristics that are beyond their control and not tied to their ability to perform the job.

If we see that a company is asking one of these questions, we tell them they need to remove it to post on TokyoDev, and explain the negative implications. As they usually haven’t considered the connotations, and aren’t actually using the data for anything, companies have removed them without pushback.

Answering questions about postings

A job posting doesn’t necessarily include all the information that’s relevant to you personally. To work around this, we have an “Ask a Question” button on all our job postings, which allows you to get directly in touch with me.

As we have a relationship with these companies, we might have additional context which isn’t included in the posting, and I’m also in a good position to get answers from the company.

If the company responds, then we add that information to the posting to improve it for everyone.

Regularly checking that the company is still hiring

As mentioned earlier, since we have a success-based fee, it doesn’t cost a company anything to leave a job post up indefinitely. Most companies will tell us when they close a posting, as they don’t want to waste anyone’s time. But occasionally, these things can slip through the cracks.

To work around this, we manually check in with a company every three months to confirm that the positions are still open. If they are, we put their positions to the top of the job board, and update the “last verified at” date on the posting itself.

How TokyoDev helps you understand what companies are actually like

It can be tricky to find information about what it is actually like working at a Japanese company, especially in English. To address this issue, we write developer stories, which are interviews we conduct with the developers working for our Japanese clients.

These articles give you a chance to understand what kinds of people work at the company, what sort of things they work on, and why they personally recommend their employer. These are done on a voluntary basis in cooperation with the company, and so also demonstrate that the company employs someone who is enough of a fan to act as a spokesperson for them.

How TokyoDev builds and supports the community

Being part of Japan’s international developer community is what led me to starting the site in the first place. Having a space where you can support and receive help from your peers is quite valuable, so we’ve set up our own online and in-person options, as well as supporting communities beyond our own.

The TokyoDev Discord

To help both veterans of Japan’s software development scene and newcomers alike, we created a Discord server. In the two years since we started it, it has grown to over 6,000 members.

Keeping this server a friendly place that’s welcoming to people of all different backgrounds was a new challenge for me. Luckily, I haven’t had to tackle it alone, since I appointed Scott Rothrock as our community moderator.

One of the most rewarding aspects of running this server has been seeing people’s journeys to Japan first-hand: from applying for jobs while overseas, to getting an offer, and finally making the move to join us here in Japan. Not just me, but the entire community, gets to support these experiences together.

In-person meetups

Beyond the Discord, we also host meetups in Tokyo. This started with a gathering of about a dozen people from the Discord, but events have grown tremendously. Our most recent event had about 50 people register for it, and tested the limits of our venue’s space.

We’ve held casual meetups and networking events with lightning talks. We even hosted a rooftop barbeque with a custom order of about 60 hot dog and hamburger buns, while Scott supplied the meat and manned the grill.

We’ve also partnered with companies. DeepX has hosted our more recent networking events, and WAY Equity Partners sponsored a beer garden get-together. We’re looking at more opportunities to hold events that benefit both the community and our client companies.

Not only have these events been a valuable way for our community members to make more real connections, they have also directly led to attendees getting jobs.

Sponsoring communities

Besides our own community, there are plenty of other wonderful developer communities in Japan that we want to support too.

We started by sponsoring those that empower women in technology in Japan. This was a small step we could make to help close the gender gap that exists in Japan. It was especially effective as these communities are usually underfunded: for several of them, we were their first sponsor ever.

We’ve also been sponsoring more general developer conferences in Japan, including JSConf.jp, RubyKaigi, and Tokyo Test Fest. Sponsoring RubyKaigi in particular was an incredible experience for me. Attending the conference in 2010 was the impetus for me to start blogging on TokyoDev in the first place, so it was nice to finally close the circle and support them directly.

How TokyoDev gives you more information about being a developer in Japan

Understanding the situation for international developers in Japan can be tricky, whether you’re already based here, or looking to move to Japan. The overwhelming majority of software developers in Japan are Japanese, but the typical experience for an international developer is different from that of a Japanese one. Furthermore, there’s relatively little English information available about the topic.

TokyoDev is the job board it is today because I wrote an article about my own experience of finding a job as a software developer in Japan. As it was the only English-language article at the time on the topic, many readers sent me further questions about life as a developer here, which in turn caused me to write more articles.

Initially I was the only one writing articles, but I soon realized that my own background limited my perspective. I brought on other authors to cover perspectives that I don’t have first-hand knowledge of, such as living in Japan with a disability, or working as a female software developer in Japan.

Since then, we’ve posted guest articles on a wide range of subjects, all of them drawing on the authors’ personal experiences: examples include making use of recruitment agencies, finding a job as a junior developer, and obtaining permanent residency. We’ve also started working with a professional editor who has helped our amateur authors shine. By not churning out reams of low-quality articles for SEO purposes, but focusing on writing high-quality articles with original research and content, I think TokyoDev has become one of the most trusted sources for information on working as a developer in Japan.

Beyond our articles, we also conduct an annual developer survey. The most recent edition had over 700 responses from international developers living in Japan, who shared detailed information about their salaries, working conditions, and technologies used. This survey gives solid, quantitative information about what international developers can expect when working in Japan.

Conclusion

Running TokyoDev is a lot of work, and is something I personally spend a good chunk of my day on. However, I think it’s well worth it. Not only can we improve the job search experience for TokyoDev candidates, but we’ve also had a positive impact on the hiring processes of companies more generally.

If you’d like to support this mission, please join our Discord. We’re continuing to build a community of helpful professionals, and would love to have you there. Besides that, using our job board when searching for a developer job in Japan would be truly appreciated, as every person who gets a job through TokyoDev makes a huge difference and helps us keep going.

How Cybozu Built an International Engineering Team 25 Aug 2024 11:30 PM (8 months ago)

While domestically quite successful, Cybozu struggled to attract international customers—until they started their own English-speaking, international unit from scratch.

Domestic vs. foreign success

Cybozu, founded in 1997, was one of Japan’s first B2B software companies. They’ve experienced incredible success in Japan, having 13.5 million paid user accounts across all their B2B services, which represents about 19% of Japan’s working population.

Internationally, though, their success has been more limited. Their low-code/no-code platform Kintone has seen some usage outside of Japan. On the other hand, when they tried to take their product Cybozu Office overseas by setting up a US subsidiary, the effort failed, in part due to the difference in business customs between Japan and the US.

Then, in 2022, Cybozu decided to tackle international expansion in a new way. They formed the New Business Division, an English-first, international unit within the company that would not only adapt existing products to the global market, but also develop new products from the ground up with an international audience in mind.

Why an international team?

The reasoning behind this strategy was twofold: it would benefit them from both a product and recruitment perspective.

From a product perspective, it was natural for a globally-focused team to consist of international talent. This would allow them to bring diverse perspectives from the inception of new products, rather than a mindset that was just focused on Japan. As Cybozu was targeting English-speaking markets, they focused on recruiting native or bilingual English speakers.

From a recruiting perspective, there’s a shortage of talented engineers in Japan. By operating in an English-first manner, they’d be able to tap into the global talent pool. From past experience, Cybozu had seen that, when they’d gotten applications from engineers with poor Japanese abilities, they just didn’t have the processes in place to support them. Starting a new team that could be built with English in mind from the beginning would allow them to support people regardless of their Japanese ability.

How they did it

Since the New Business Development team was started in the midst of COVID-19, Cybozu was already operating in a remote manner, and so the New Business Division became remote-first from day one.

Initially, they recruited engineers regardless of their location, and had agreements with people on a case-by-case basis, taking into account local labour and tax regulations. Now, however, they’ve switched to hiring people either in Japan or US time zones.

The first member they hired was an engineer living in the United States. He wanted to work in Japan, but at the time, since they didn’t have experience with relocation, Cybozu asked him to work for their US subsidiary. As they saw the desire of engineers to relocate to Japan, the New Business Development team set up a support system for them, and began to provide their employees with work visas.

Since then, they’ve scaled up the team to 30 international engineers, many of whom are now located in Japan. This has changed their office from a place where Japanese is the only language, to one where even members of other divisions have a chance to speak in English. Through this initial seed, Cybozu plans to become increasingly international.

The development processes used vary depending on the product. Some teams use Shape Up, while others use Scrum. No matter the process, though, decision-making is transparent, and everyone has the opportunity to give feedback on the development plan.

What’s next for the international team

The overarching goal of the New Business Development team is to create the next generation of workspace/groupware. In particular, they want to solve the problem of information silos in the workplace. Their aim is to create products that specifically encourage communication between departments, and ensure that every team has the information it needs to succeed.

With this goal in mind, the team is working on an ID and authentication management (IDaaS) product, as well as a collaboration product. These products are due to be released for internal use later in 2024 and, if they succeed, will then be promoted on the global market.

The future of Japanese development

These product launches are the first real test for Cybozu’s New Business Development team. If their workspace/groupware products are highly successful, this could lead to a significant shift in organizational policy—and not just at Cybozu.

While other companies like Mercari and SmartNews have already made the leap to international markets, Cybozu would be one of the first well-established tech companies to do so. If the New Business Development team proves beneficial to their bottom line, then other domestic-only corporations may follow suit. Custom-built international teams could soon be a commonplace feature in Japan, and an efficient, highly customizable tool with which domestic companies can expand into the global marketplace, while also retaining full control of their products.

Given the ongoing worker shortage in Japan, this could prove to be a win-win situation for both Japanese business owners, and the many developers who wish to relocate to Japan.

If this seems like the kind of team you’d like to be a part of, check out their open positions.

What is a “casual meeting” in Japan? 25 Aug 2024 5:15 PM (8 months ago)

Are you familiar with the Japanese-style “casual meeting” (カジュアル面談, kajuaru mendan)? It may be casual, but it’s not a meeting, or an interview, in the conventional sense. It is, however, a fantastic way to find out whether you’re suited for a particular company—and, equally importantly, whether that company is a good fit for you.

What is a casual meeting?

The Japanese casual meeting is an informal interview with a company before the formal application. The practice emerged due to difficulties in hiring in Japan. Previously, posting a job had been enough to attract candidates, but candidates have become more selective and are not always ready to apply immediately.

In response to this, companies have begun using casual meetings as a way to spark candidates’ interest before an application. This is particularly common in Japanese startups, but it is gradually being adopted by other, larger Japanese companies as well.

The casual meeting is widely considered a “win-win” scenario; companies can become acquainted with more candidates, thus widening their search pool, but candidates can also learn more about a company before they spend time and effort on a full, formal application.

What makes a Japanese casual meeting different?

First, it’s important to distinguish between the Japanese practice of casual meetings, and casual interviews more generally.

Usually, a casual interview happens after_ _the application. It’s typically a short screening interview that’s intended to make sure the candidate is qualified for the position. Often, as Eugene Yaroslavtsev advocates, the casual interview is a great chance to ensure everyone’s expectations are aligned on the job description, the salary, and how the candidate feels about the role.

In Japan, the casual meeting happens before_ _the application, with the aim of convincing you to apply. It does not usually replace the traditional screening interview you’ll undergo later, if you decide to follow through with an application.

The emphasis is also on “casual”: unlike most Japanese interviews, there’s no set format for this meeting. You most likely won’t need to prepare any paperwork (resume, etc.) in advance. And there isn’t a formal dress code—business casual is fine! The point of this laid-back meeting is simply to exchange information between the company and the candidate.

The flow of a casual meeting

The casual meeting can take several forms. For example, it may be a company presentation plus a short Q&A to a small group of potential applicants. Or, in other cases, it could be an informal meal with one or several representatives from the company.

In general, the usual process of a casual meeting looks something like this:

• The company presents itself. This is typically a light greeting followed by a more detailed introduction of the organization.
• You’re asked questions by the company. Primarily, companies at this stage want to know what your motivation for switching jobs might be, although they won’t ask this directly. You could also get questions on:
  • Your career aspirations
  • Future goals in general
  • Your past experiences at work
• You can then ask the company questions. You should have at least 2-3 questions prepped, and more would probably be welcome. The interviewer may not ask much about you, and being unable to ask questions of your own when prompted could lead to a less productive meeting, and leave a negative impression on the company’s side.

What questions to ask at a casual meeting

A casual meeting is a rare chance to honestly assess if a business suits you, _before _you fill out a long application. Therefore it’s smart to invest time in considering what, exactly, you want to know about the company, and what questions will help you uncover those facts.

For example, you may be someone who prioritizes team atmosphere and connection. If that’s the case, you can try asking questions centred on communication procedures and workplace culture, such as:

• How many people are on each team?
• Is there an opportunity to form new teams, or switch teams?
• Is the workplace in-person, hybrid, or remote-first? If hybrid, how many people go into the office and how often?
• How does the team usually communicate? In group meetings? One-on-ones? Asynchronously? What tools does the team use to communicate?
• Are there any employee clubs or activities?
• How often does the team meet after work, and what do they usually do?
• What is the turnover rate at your company?
• How often do coworkers clock out at the scheduled time (定時, teiji)?
• Is there an on-call shift for weekends or nights? If so, how is this scheduled?

If the development process and organizational structure are important to you, you could ask:

• Does the company have a set process for choosing languages/frameworks/etc., or is it left up to the team?
• What methodologies do you use? How strict is the company about following process ceremony?
• How is tasking prioritized and assigned? What tools are used to manage tasking?
• What is the development lifecycle for new products or features?
• How does the company dogfood its product?
• What steps do you take to reduce technical debt?
• What’s the culture like around documentation and ownership?
• How often do team members communicate with their managers?
• Does the company use a sprint structure? If so, how long is a sprint? If not, how long does the average task or feature take from starting development until it’s in production?
• What is the ratio of engineers to product managers? How have engineers given input on the development process in the past?
• What are some previous frustrations engineers have had with the development process, and how have you improved them?

Finally, if you want to know more about career progression, try asking:

• How does the company mentor and promote people internally?
• Do you have an example of someone who grew into a leadership role within the company?
• What industry conferences or events have engineers attended in the past?
• What metrics are engineers judged by in performance reviews, and how are reviews used to grow engineers?
• What opportunities are there to receive additional training?
• What types of employees tend to succeed here?
• How often do senior roles become available?

It’s also critical to clarify what the company expects from the applicant. If you understand the position’s requirements well, you can highlight your suitability for the job in subsequent interviews, increasing your chances of progressing through the selection process. Of course you should tailor your questions to the opening itself, but here are a few additional ones that would apply to any job:

• What is your onboarding process like?
• Why are you recruiting for this position?
• What responsibilities are part of this role?
• What challenges would someone in this role usually encounter?
• What does a typical day look like for someone in this role? A typical week?
• What do you expect your new hire to accomplish in a month? In three months? In a year?
• What’s the difference between someone who does “okay” in this job, and someone who really excels?

Of course, the exact questions should be modified according to your interviewer. If you’re speaking with another engineer then technical questions are appropriate, whereas if you’re talking with HR, you’re better off making general inquiries about the company.

Is there anything you should avoid asking in a casual meeting? Generally speaking, the answer is no. This is considered an informal meeting and not much is out of bounds. That said, companies are investing their time, so maintaining a basically respectful attitude would be best. Focusing solely on salary or benefits, without showing any interest in the company itself, could also create a poor impression.

Is there a downside to the casual meeting?

Developers commonly have two complaints regarding casual meetings.

The most frequent complaint is that they didn’t get the information they really wanted to know from the company. When speaking with engineers, the majority of them express the desire to learn more about engineering topics, organizational structure, and technical challenges. However, this is often difficult if the interviewer is not an engineer. If the interview is with HR, the company representative might focus instead on presenting slides about the company and giving a superficial explanation of its products.

To counteract this issue, try to prepare both technical and general questions. Ideally you will be able to ask more about the engineering work, but if the interviewer is unable to answer those, you will at least be able to ask about workplace policies and culture.

The second complaint is that some casual meetings feel more like formal interviews. Companies may still ask detailed questions about the applicants’ experience and technical skills, despite the fact that this is widely considered inappropriate.

Conversely, there will be some interviewers who take the “casual” part of casual meeting too literally. Some developers even mentioned that the interviewer lost interest halfway through and responded inappropriately! In this case, consider it a bullet dodged: now you know you don’t want to apply for that position after all.

If all goes well

If you leave the casual meeting feeling positive about the company (and hoping the company feels good about you too!), the next step is the formal application. Usually this will entail expressing your interest along with your resume, or applying through the designated website. After that, at most companies you’ll proceed through rounds of much more formal interviews.

If you’ve asked the right questions during the casual meeting, though, you can tailor your answers to both the general company culture and the specific role you’ve applied for. Hopefully these tips will help you get a leg up on the competition, by exploiting your casual meeting to the fullest.

If you’re interested in comparing notes on casual meetings, join the TokyoDev Discord for further discussion on that, and more about job-hunting in Japan.

Or, if you’re looking at new positions now, see our job board.

There’s No Place Like Home: Finding an Apartment in Japan 20 Aug 2024 3:40 PM (8 months ago)

What’s this about key money, gift money, guarantors, and guarantor companies? Why did the realtor give a moving-in quote of 600,000 yen for an apartment that costs 80,000 yen a month to rent? Why does my apartment not have lights, curtains, or even a stove? Am I getting ripped off?

Finding and renting an apartment in Japan can be incredibly daunting, as it involves negotiating not only different languages, but also cultures. Things you may take for granted when renting an apartment in your home country may be completely alien concepts in Japan. If you want to learn more about buying a house, that’s a separate topic.

After you read this article, you should be ready to tackle the search for your next home in Japan.

• Can foreigners rent in Japan?
• The Basics
  • Fees
    • Signing a lease
    • Renewing a lease
    • Moving out
  • Furnishings
  • Floor plans
• Searching for an apartment
  • Where do you want to live?
  • How close to a station do you want to be?
  • How large of an apartment do you want?
  • How new of an apartment do you want?
  • What other preferences do you have?
  • Searching for an apartment

Can foreigners rent in Japan?

Misinformation and horror stories abound on the internet about people who spent months looking for apartments, going through refusal after refusal, all because they’re not Japanese. So, can foreigners rent apartments in Japan?

The short answer is: yes, of course.

The long answer is: maybe, it depends.

Landlords are not forbidden by law to refuse applicants on the basis of their nationality. However, it is not a strong legal position to take, either—cases have been tried against landlords where they have lost and were forced to pay penalties.

However, the reality is that some landlords will still say that they do not want foreign applicants and rely on either the realtor’s ability to convey this politely, or the applicant’s lack of funds or initiative to sue them. Sometimes the reason can be racism, but it can also be poor experiences with foreigners in the past, or an unwillingness to trust foreigners to understand how rentals work and what is expected of them as good residents.

Some other common reasons for refusal can be:

• Financial solvency: This can be addressed by being willing to share information about your income and employment. While this shouldn’t be necessary to begin with, if there is a property that you really want, offering to share this information can assuage the landlord’s reluctance.
• Employment status: Landlords want stable renters and thus favor applicants with the most stable full-time employment (正社員, seishain). As a freelancer, even if you have proof of a high income, you can find yourself barred from applying to some units.
• Language/cultural barriers: Many landlords fear that they, or other residents, will not be able to communicate with foreigners—not even necessarily in the event of an emergency, but in the course of everyday life, such as the garbage schedule changing. If you can demonstrate that you know the culture (by living here a number of years) or that you know the language, this concern can be overcome.
• Respectability: Appearance still matters a lot in Japan. If you meet the landlord, making a good impression by being well-groomed and wearing business-casual clothing can make a difference. If you show up in an old t-shirt and sandals, the landlord may believe you aren’t reliable, or don’t understand Japanese culture well.
• Visa length: If your visa only has six more months left, even if you know you will be able to get it renewed, your realtor and landlord don’t have your personal experience and you will look like a risky applicant to some.

Your realtor may be able to discuss your application with the landlord. A good realtor, rather than simply asking “Are foreigners ok?” (a scary question for any landlord), can qualify you as a good resident before asking, “. . . and they’re not Japanese, but that’s not a problem, right?”

Personally, I have lived in nine rental properties over the last 17 years in Japan, and the only problems I’ve had with renting were due to finances—landlords and management companies were wary of my application because the rent was close to 30% of my income. Other people have definitely had their applications turned down on the basis of their citizenship, but in the end, they all found good apartments.

So yes, I firmly believe that foreigners can rent apartments in Japan. It’s far more difficult to rent an apartment as someone who owns two dogs than as someone who isn’t Japanese!

The Basics

Rental properties in Japan come in many different forms:

• Short-term rentals: Rentals where you can pay weekly (ウィークリーマンション, ui-kuri- manshon), monthly (マンスリーマンション, mansuri- manshon), or all up front to stay for a few months at a time. It’s common to use these when you first move to Japan.
• Share house (シェアハウス, sheahausu): One of the cheapest types of rentals. You get a room, often pre-furnished with a bed and a desk. The bathrooms, showers, kitchens, dining areas, and living areas are all communal.
• Apartments (アパート, apa-to): Your basic rental apartment. These are distinguished by a single building containing multiple units. Apartments may occasionally have keyed entrances.
• Condominium/Mansion (マンション, manshon): The distinction between an apartment and a condo isn’t clear, but condos are generally taller buildings, and thus built out of steel and concrete. Some people say that the distinguishing feature is that condos have keyed entrances, but not all condos have them.
• Maisonettes (メゾネット, mezonetto)/Townhouses: Maisonettes are rental properties that are only two or three floors tall; rather than renting a unit all on one floor, you rent a “slice” of the building that covers all of the floors. So maisonettes are, at a minimum, two stories tall.
• Detached homes (一戸建て, ikkodate): Standalone homes. Detached homes are less commonly found for rent, but can still be found even in urban areas.

Though I will use the word “apartment” throughout the article, the information is generally applicable to all types of monthly rentals.

Fees

One of the scariest things about renting a property in Japan is the fees, many of which can seem to come out of the blue. For folks who are from countries where it’s common to sign a contract and hand over two months’ rent, Japan’s processes can seem both onerous and breathtakingly expensive. Many people may look at the final signing bill and wonder if they’re being taken for a ride.

First, the most basic fee is the monthly payment. It is important to note that the monthly cost of housing in Japan can actually come in two parts: the rent (家賃, yachin or 賃料, chinryou) and the management fee (管理費, kanrihi) for the property. For example, while the rent may be 100,000 yen per month, there could be an additional mandatory management fee of 20,000 yen per month, bringing your monthly payment to 120,000 yen per month. The management fee is used to maintain the building and facilities and provide any related services or amenities included with the building.

Management fees vary by property: many older properties with no exterior amenities may have no or very cheap management fees, while it’s not uncommon for condominiums or tower mansions to have fees of tens of thousands of yen to cover maintenance of the lobby, elevator, garbage room, and other amenities.

Management fees are often calculated and expressed in terms of overall rent. To be clear, though, if your rent is 100,000 yen and your management fee is 20,000 yen, a deposit of one month’s rent is 100,000 yen, as the management fee is separate from the rent.

Signing a lease

When you sign a lease, you are expected to pay all the fees (初期費用, shoki hiyou) up front. A non-exhaustive list of common fees is:

• Deposit (敷金, shikikin): A deposit for the apartment. A common number is one month’s rent, but newer or higher-class buildings will often charge two. This can sometimes be negotiated. Many search engines have options to allow you to search for apartments with no deposit required. It is rare for people to receive their deposit back in full, but more common to receive it in part. The more damage you incur, whether it’s from the length of time you’ve lived in the property or due to small two- or four-legged occupants, the less likely it is that you will receive a substantial amount back. One strategy is to take videos or pictures of pre-existing damage before you move in. If the landlord or an agent attempts to claim that the damage was their responsibility, you can show evidence that it was pre-existing and save some of your deposit.
• Gift money (礼金, reikin): Gift money is essentially a payment to thank the landlord for allowing you to rent the property. Some people also call this “key money,” referring to it as the cost for having someone hand you the key. Some properties charge no gift money at all, but it is also still common to see properties that charge at least one month of gift money. This can sometimes be negotiated, and many search engines have options to allow you to search for apartments with no gift money required.
• Realtor fee (仲介手数料, chuukai tesuuryou): Generally about half a month to one month’s rent; this is limited by law to a maximum of one month’s rent. Real estate agencies will also sometimes have limited-time campaigns where they waive their fees. This fee can be the simplest to negotiate as the realtor has full control over it, unlike other fees, which are managed by the landlord. However, if this fee is already very low, expect the realtor to refuse.
• Disaster insurance (火災保険料, kasai hokenryou): This depends on the size and age of the rental as well as the number of people moving in, but the general range is 10,000–30,000 yen. This is a service fee and cannot be reduced or waived.
• Guarantor fee (保険会社利用料, hoken kaisha riyouryou): Japan once had a system where every property required the renter to have a guarantor: someone who would be legally and financially liable for anything that happened to the property. This system was abused and has since been replaced with guarantor companies, which conduct background/credit checks for would-be renters and act as insurers for the property. Guarantor companies are often chosen by the landlord, and properties owned by large corporations may have several guarantor companies to choose from. The guarantor fee is a service fee and cannot be reduced or waived. Guarantor fees are structured in several ways: either you pay a lump sum up front (ranging from 20,000 yen to one month’s rent, depending on the cost of the property), or you pay 2–4% of your rent every month.
• Cylinder change fee (鍵交換費用, kagi koukan hiyou): A fee for changing the cylinders. This can sometimes be waived if you’re comfortable using the same keys that were previously attached to the unit. Some landlords make this mandatory. This usually ranges from 10,000–20,000 yen, but in fancier buildings that have special keys (dimple keys or keys with IC chips), the fees may be as high as 60,000 yen.
• Cleaning fee (クリーニング代, kuri-ningu dai): A cleaning fee that covers the cleaning necessary when you move out; sometimes this includes complimentary dusting before you move in. Even if you offer to clean before you leave, this will not be refunded, as the landlord is obligated to do a thorough cleaning before the next occupant.
• Advance rent (前家賃, maeyachin): Apartments will usually ask for two months of rent paid up front when signing the contract. This can sometimes be gotten around by moving in during the first half of the month, but is often non-negotiable.

It is your right to know what fees you will be asked to pay in the process of securing a lease, so if your realtor refuses to list the fees for you, then find another realtor. However, fees vary from property to property, so the realtor may not have them immediately available without contacting the landlord to confirm.

Renewing a lease

Japanese apartments are commonly leased with two year contracts. If you wish to renew your contract, you usually need to pay a renewal fee (更新費用, koushin hiyou), often equal to one or two months’ rent. This is sometimes flexible, but only while negotiating the terms of your lease in the beginning—not at renewal!

Depending on the terms of your disaster and guarantor insurance, you may also need to renew those periodically.

If you have pets, you may pay an additional fee to the landlord at the time of contract renewal.

To prevent any wallet-draining surprises, it’s best to check with your realtor about the renewal fees and make a note of them for the future.

Moving out

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are also fees assessed when moving out (退去費用, taikyo hiyou). Although you paid a cleaning fee when moving in, if you left any damage during your time in the unit, the landlord can bill you for it. It is your right to receive an itemized list of the damage and the costs to repair it.

Some types of damage are classified as wear and tear. The landlord should not hold you responsible for this, but the decision about whether any particular damage is normal wear is a contentious topic. If you have left extraordinary damage, such as large burn marks or holes in doors that cannot be repaired with your deposit, you can be billed for it.

If you are leaving your apartment before your lease is complete, you may also be charged a penalty (違約金, iyakukin). For example, on a two-year lease, it is common to be charged 1–2 months’ rent for leaving in the first year.

Furnishings

Japanese apartments typically come unfurnished. Some exceptions are:

• Kitchen stoves: If an apartment has a prefabricated kitchen, the stove will be built into the counter. Some apartments that do not have prefabricated kitchens will still come with a stove, but it’s not guaranteed—so make sure you check!
• Light fixtures: It is very common for cheaper Japanese apartments to not provide any light fixtures at all. Corporate-managed apartments or condos will often have built-in sconces and may also provide normal ceiling lights.
• Air conditioners: Air conditioners are not guaranteed to be included with the apartment; even if there is an air conditioner, it may only be in one room, with the other rooms having no air conditioning at all. As Japanese summers can be deadly hot, make sure you check for these.

Some things that people may take for granted that are generally not included with Japanese apartments are washing machines, refrigerators, and basic tables and beds. There are apartments on the low and high ends that boast basic furnishings, but you generally pay for it in your rent.

One thing to clarify with the realtor and landlord is whether the furnishings are provided (設備, setsubi) or left behind by the previous occupant (残置物, zanchibutsu). The difference is that the landlord is responsible for the upkeep and replacement of provided furnishings, but not for things left behind by the previous occupant.

For example, if there is an air conditioner that was left behind by a previous occupant and it suddenly breaks, you will have to pay out of your own pocket to have it repaired or, in the worst case, removed so that you can buy your own to install. However, if a provided air conditioner breaks, the landlord is on the hook for repairing or replacing it for you.

Floor plans

Real estate listings in Japan often include floor plans that give you an idea of what the layout of the apartment is like, where air conditioners and water fixtures are located, and what windows face which directions.

These can be handy for planning where to put things or figuring out how big a space is, but they should never be taken as a guide to actual sizes and ratios for the rooms, closets, or other fixtures such as washing machine slots, kitchen counters, or windows.

Most floor plans included on listings are created by realtors with industry-standard toolkits or Excel spreadsheets and have a tenuous relationship with reality. The one exception is construction plans, which are rarer and stand out because they clearly have measurements marked out and labeled (often in millimeters!).

So you can look at floor plans for a rough guess of how the apartment is laid out, but please do not rely on them to understand how big of a bed or table you can buy!

Searching for an apartment

Now that you’re armed with the knowledge of how Japanese rent and fees work, you know that the move-in costs are usually multiples of the rent. The price of rent is affected by several factors: location, distance to a station, size, age, and other preferences, such as apartments that allow pets.

Where do you want to live?

Location affects most people’s perceptions of how expensive Japan is. Many people, when they first come to Japan, only know about areas like Shinjuku or Shibuya, which are popular and expensive. Many Japanese people with salaries close to the average do not think about living in specific expensive areas (whether for work or for personal reasons), but rather think in terms of time and effort spent in commuting to those areas.

A general rule of thumb when looking for housing in Tokyo is that housing inside the Yamanote loop line tends to be more expensive than housing outside it. This means that, all other things being equal, an apartment near Asakusabashi Station—a less popular area outside of the Yamanote, but still only one stop from Akihabara—is likely cheaper than an apartment near Yushima Station, which is inside the loop line and near Tokyo University.

How close to a station do you want to be?

Speaking of stations, another major factor in the price of housing is the distance between the property and the closest station. Japan’s rainy season is no fun to walk in, and neither is its sweltering summer. Many people would love to live within 5–10 minutes of the closest train station, but unfortunately, that demand drives up prices.

If you’re on a budget, you can reduce your rent by living even just 15+ minutes away from a station. Living 30+ minutes away from a station can result in drastic savings; while this may sound like a daunting walk, it can be as little as five minutes on a bicycle. If you have money to spend, living a five minute walk away from a station is a dream—I was able to do it once and it made a noticeable impact on my commuting times and my willingness to go on trips to meet friends.

How large of an apartment do you want?

Japan has two (and a half) ways of measuring an apartment: by rooms and by area.

Japan’s room layouts (間取り, madori) are often written like this: 2SLDK. This means:

• 2: The number of rooms other than the LDK room. Japan does not decide which rooms are bedrooms, but it’s generally useful to think of this number as the number of potential bedrooms.
• S: Storage space like a walk-in closet that is larger than a normal closet, but smaller than a room; there is no precise definition.
• L: Living room
• D: Dining room
• K: Kitchen
• LDK: One large area that has a living room, dining room, and kitchen in a common space, usually not separated by doors.

Other configurations of the main living space are possible, such as a DK, or just a K.

Additionally, there are special layouts for one-room (ワンルーム) apartments: 1R and 1K. The general distinction is that a 1R apartment will have the kitchen inside the single room, whereas a 1K apartment will have the kitchen in an area—often the hallway—separated from the single room by a door.

This system may sound very useful—and sometimes it is—but its weak point is that there is no standardization behind the numbering or deciding what kind of room is a LDK, a DK, or a K. For a property that has two rooms, a walk-in closet, and a kitchen, different realtors may describe it as a:

• 2K: Because there are two rooms and a kitchen.
• 3K: Because a realtor thinks the walk-in closet is large enough to place a single bed in.
• 2SK: Because a realtor thinks the walk-in closet is large enough to merit calling out.
• 1DK: Because a realtor thinks there’s one bedroom, and the other room is really a dining room because it’s next to the kitchen.

You can already see that these layout labels are a matter of opinion, which makes it frustrating to filter properties by these values!

Fortunately, there is another, more objective value used to measure apartment size: floor area (床面積, yuka menseki). Japan uses the metric system, so this is measured in square meters (平米, heibei). The floor area of an apartment is the interior measurement of the floor area, excluding any space taken by balconies, lofts, and under-floor storage.

This means that there is other floor area accounted for that is not what you might consider “living area” for yourself, such as the closets, wash room, toilet, bath, and genkan. If you find an apartment that is 50 ㎡ but has only one room and a kitchen, both of which are surprisingly small, the remainder of the space is probably accounted for by those miscellaneous areas.

But wait! That’s only two methods, so what’s the remaining half?

While Japan measures floor area in square meters, it measures rooms in tatami mats (帖, jou). Frustratingly, the measurements of a tatami mat can vary by locale. Additionally, tatami mat area doesn’t directly translate to dimensions; a six mat room could fit a double bed if the six mats were arranged in a specific way, or it could be too narrow for one. The room size in mats is an approximation that you can only understand as you see more rooms and mats and is, in my personal experience, more frustrating than helpful.

So what does this mean for the cost of rent? There is generally a direct relationship between size and price: the larger an apartment, the more it costs.

How new of an apartment do you want?

Another major factor in the price of rent is the age of the building. Almost everyone, given the choice, would prefer to live in a newer building. There are various benefits: better insulation, better windows, better infrastructure, nicer fixtures, and improved earthquake standards.

This isn’t to say that older buildings do not have any of these things, or that all new buildings do have these things, but generally speaking newer buildings will be built better than older buildings due to improved standards over time. This is especially noticeable when looking at insulation and windows (single-glazed windows are the norm in buildings over 20–30 years old).

This does not mean that it is unsafe or unwise to live in an older building, either: it depends on the specific building and area. I’ve often opted to live in units in buildings 30+ years old as they’re much cheaper than units in newer buildings. Older units can also look as nice as a newer unit if they’ve had renovations. Japanese apartments have enough standardized equipment that once you’ve seen a few dozen listings, you’ll be able to spot the cosmetic hallmarks of an “old” apartment vs a “new” one, regardless of the building age.

However, choosing an older apartment means accepting some tradeoffs. For example, in addition to lower-quality insulation and windows, older apartments may also have older air conditioning units. All of those factors in combination can translate to higher electric bills in winter and summer; maybe you save on rent, but end up paying more for electricity, resulting in a higher combined cost of living.

What other preferences do you have?

Some other common preferences that drive up rental fees are height, other occupants, and pets.

The higher the apartment, the more expensive it is. Many people want to have the freedom to look out their window and see a cityscape, rather than the tiled wall of the building next door. Height also brings other benefits, such as perceived safety from crime (no burglars or peepers on the 17th floor!) and the absence of most bugs.

Other occupants can also limit the number of properties available to you: some apartments will only allow a single occupant, or will not allow children. Some may also discriminate against same-gender, unrelated roommates. It is important to be aware of this and not assume that once you sign a lease, you can move in with any number of people—in the vast majority of cases, each occupant must be listed on your contract.

Pets also add to rental costs, both directly and indirectly. The direct cost is that the signing fees can skyrocket depending on the type and number of pets you have; pets often function as a multiplier for fees like deposits, meaning that you would pay a deposit for yourself, and another for each pet. The indirect cost is that apartments that allow pets generally charge more per month than equivalent apartments that do not allow pets.

It can be difficult to move to Japan with pets, but we have an article with more information about the process.

Searching for an apartment

So, armed with this information, you might want to look at the market and see what’s available. Japan has a fairly organized real estate market with listings being posted to and aggregated by several major providers. Various real estate agents and companies post their listings on these sites; potential renters can search, filter, and view details on properties before contacting an agent.

This means that you will see the same property multiple times, with the same or different pictures or information, depending on who submitted it. There is nothing inherently suspicious about this, as it’s an expected result of running an aggregator site.

Searching multiple aggregator sites is a good strategy—some realtors have a preferred site or may not update information on all sites at the same time. Realtors also have databases of units that are not yet publicly listed; if you find a realtor you like, you can ask them to help you look for additional units that meet your criteria.

Suumo is one of the most popular real estate sites and allows you to search for rentals, homes for sale, new/prebuilt homes, and land. athome is another popular site with similar industry-standard filters. If you have pets, pethomeweb is unique in that it allows you to filter properties by the type and number of pets you have. This can be critical, as apartments that allow pets may only allow a small dog, but not larger dogs or cats—or vice versa.

All of these sites are in Japanese and the agents will expect to communicate only in Japanese. For English sites, apts.jp is entirely in English and promises that their listings have been vetted for foreigner-friendly apartments.

When I personally search for apartments, I first search by commute time to an area I need to be near, then filter by the highest monthly fee I’m willing to pay. Depending on the number of results, I’ll add or tweak filters for apartment size or age—but these are all personal preferences! My recommendation is to start as loosely as possible; searching for 1K newer than 10 years may mean you miss out on the 2DK that’s 11 years old.

I hope you can use this information to find your new home in Japan!

Guesstimating Your Lifestyle in Japan 6 Aug 2024 1:56 PM (8 months ago)

One common question in our Discord community is, “How much money do I need to make to live comfortably in Japan?”

This question can be difficult to answer in a way that is both broadly useful and personally meaningful. Here, I will explain what goes into living expenses in Japan, so that you can better understand what your salary needs to be to maintain the lifestyle you want. With the resources provided here, you can build a rough estimate of your projected monthly expenses based on your spending habits.

How much does it cost to live in Japan?

Living expenses in Japan can be roughly broken down into several categories:

• Taxes
• Housing
• Bills
• Food
• Purchases
• Transportation
• Travel
• Medical expenses
• Other recurring expenses

Taxes and benefits

Japan has a progressive income tax system. Employers generally deduct taxes and benefits (such as pension and health insurance) from your paychecks automatically. While most people can expect to lose 20–30% of their salary to taxes, insurance, and pension, the specifics will depend on your location, salary, visa status, employment type, and other particulars.

In Japan, employers must enroll their full-time employees in the Employees’ Health Insurance (健康保険, kenkou hoken or 社会保険, shakai hoken) and Employees’ Pension Insurance (厚生年金保険, kousei nenkin hoken) systems. There are some exceptions, such as employees who work fewer than 20 hours per week, who will be enrolled in National Health Insurance (国民健康保険, kokumin kenkou hoken). Regardless of employment status, everyone must be enrolled in one of those two plans.

We suggest using a tax calculator to get a rough estimate of what your take-home would be.

Housing

Rent can account for up to 30% of most people’s salaries. In fact, many landlords and guarantor companies will draw the line at 30% and make it difficult to rent a unit that is significantly more. You should note that Tokyo has the highest rent in the nation—as of June 2024, the average rent in Tokyo was 79,437 yen, with the next highest being the neighboring Kanagawa and Saitama Prefectures.

Japan has an abundance of rental properties available, such as apartments, share houses, condominiums (マンション, manshon), maisonettes/townhouses, and detached houses. Most of those are self-explanatory, except perhaps for shared houses. Share houses are a type of cheap housing in Japan that do not typically require a guarantor. Most offer a single bedroom with space for a small bed and desk, while all other spaces—kitchen, dining room, living room, showers, bathrooms, etc.—are shared. The amenities and size vary depending on the share house. While share houses offer built-in social interaction with other housemates, it’s often a gamble whether those housemates enhance or worsen the experience.

If you want to dive into the specifics of rental housing in Japan and learn how to search for apartments in specific areas, please take a look at our article on finding an apartment in Japan. However, as long as you have stable employment and are looking at monthly rents less than 30% of your salary, you will be able to find a place to live.

Bills

This category covers utilities for your apartment, cell phone, and internet.

Utility costs can be difficult to judge as they depend on personal preferences and lifestyles, but for a person living alone in a small apartment, it would be reasonable to spend 10,000–30,000 yen per month on utilities. Some small rentals such as LeoPalaces or share houses offer rental contracts that are inclusive of electricity and/or water, but may have further restrictions on how much can be used.

Cell phone bills can range from as little as 1,000 yen per month to multiples of 10,000 yen per month, depending on your plan, add-ons, and whether you’re paying off your phone in installments.

Internet fees can similarly range from as little as 2,000 yen per month to 15,000 yen per month, depending on the type of internet you have and whether you’re also paying for bundled add-ons.

Food

Food expenses can be difficult to estimate. Some people eat frugally and enjoy a steady diet of home-cooked meals consisting of cheaper staples like grains, legumes, and eggs or cheap meat. Others prefer to eat out regularly. Some have special dietary preferences or requirements; meat especially can balloon a food budget.

A person who lives alone and cooks frugally for most meals could spend as little as 10,000–20,000 yen per month on the extreme low end, which might be a steady diet of cheap carbs (rice, pasta, and udon) and eggs with the occasional chicken breast. It’s entirely possible for food preferences to make that number go up to 60,000 yen or more per month as well, especially if you prefer a meat-heavy diet or ingredients that are imported or out of season. Government-collected data shows that the average single person household spent 42,049 yen per month on food in 2023.

Someone who prefers to eat out or buy pre-made meals from a grocery store could expect to spend a minimum of around 30,000 yen per month. Again, this number can change drastically depending on personal preferences. There’s a tremendous financial difference between a beef bowl set from a popular chain (around 500-700 yen) and a dinner at a sit-down restaurant (starting at around 1500-2000 yen). McDonald’s is an international chain that may give you an idea of how Japanese fast food costs compare to those in your own country.

If you want to look up general prices for food to build up your own monthly estimate, there are Japanese sites that present government-gathered data in more digestible formats to make it easy to find average food prices.

Purchases

This is a catch-all category for purchases, such as electronics, furniture, and clothes. It can also cover eating out, celebrations, parties, and activities with friends.

It’s possible to have a fun night out with friends including dinner, drinks, and karaoke for around 5,000 yen. Longer nights or fancier food will, of course, cost more.

For most personal purchases, Amazon Japan is a great source of prices; physical stores are rarely cheaper than Amazon for the dry goods and household items that make up the bulk of its business. However, Amazon is often more expensive for food and clothing.

The websites for Uniqlo, Muji, and GU are also good places to investigate clothing expenses. If you want to check how much it would cost to outfit your apartment with flat-pack furniture and middle-of-the-line goods, Nitori is another good place to start.

Transportation

It’s important to note that Japan is not a car-centric society, and there are many expenses involved in owning a vehicle: annual taxes, inspections every two years, and parking. Japan requires car owners to show proof that they have a place to park their cars, and in most cities, a parking space can cost as much per month as a small apartment in the same area. So owning a car is usually seen as a luxury in urban areas.

Many people get around solely by public transportation or bicycle. Bicycles can be had for as little as 10,000 yen for a standard mamachari-style single speed bicycle, or over 100,000 yen for a road cycle. Electric bicycles that do not require a license to ride (電動アシスト自転車, dendou ashisuto jitensha) start at around 110,000 yen. It’s common to see mothers riding electric bicycles with one toddler on the back and another on the front!

Commuting costs, on the other hand, are generally borne by the employer on a monthly basis. Some companies request that employees map out their commutes and submit their routes, plus the costs, to the employer. Each month, employees pay for their commuting passes and other fees out of pocket, and the employer reimburses that amount in their monthly paycheck.

Another, less common method is a flat commuting stipend included in the paycheck. While this method may not cover the entire commute for some employees, it could allow others to receive a bit more money in the end, if they commute cheaply.

Travel

Travel, both foreign and domestic, can be a large expense.

Many people, especially when they’re new to Japan, want to take advantage of being here to travel all over the country. A shinkansen ticket from Tokyo to Kyoto will cost around 16,000 yen; a plane ticket for the same trip will generally cost around 20,000 yen. There are also night buses (夜行バス, yakou basu) that travel popular routes. A night bus from Tokyo to Kyoto can cost as little as 7,000 yen.

One way to investigate travel costs is by plotting routes on Google Maps. Make sure that you pick a date and time that seems reasonable—searching for a route at 2 a.m. JST will result in strange, often expensive routes.

Foreign immigrants to Japan may also need to travel internationally more often than the average resident. Due to the cheap yen at the time of writing this article, international travel can represent a significant expense, both in plane tickets and also in converted prices while staying in the destination country. It’s entirely conceivable that a one- or two-week trip abroad could represent an entire post-tax paycheck.

Medical expenses

Medical costs in Japan can be relatively cheap compared to other industrialized nations. The prices in this section assume that you have Japanese health insurance, which covers 70% of the total fee. If you do not have insurance or choose to go to a clinic that is not covered under the Japanese health insurance system, then you will need to pay the full price.

In Japan, for a non-specific issue, you often start off with a routine visit to an internist (内科, naika). Clinics include a first-time registration fee, so the first visit would be around 1,500 yen, but subsequent visits are then slightly cheaper at around 1,000 yen. These fees are rough estimates for consultations and prescriptions; if you need other procedures done, such as blood draws or x-rays, they will cost another few thousand yen or so.

Allergy medications and painkillers, if taken daily, are cheaper by prescription than off the shelf, but can still cost a few thousand yen per month. Something like an asthma inhaler can cost around 10,000 yen per month, depending on type and dosage. Patients with diabetes can expect to spend anywhere from 3,000 yen per month for simple management, to 20,000 yen per month for insulin four times daily plus related medications.

If you rely on specific medication, it is important to do your research and make sure it’s available in Japan. Some medications are not available here, while others, such as stimulants like Adderall, are illegal to possess and cannot be prescribed. We cannot provide information on every medication available, so please research this on your own.

Hospitalization expenses vary from hospital to hospital, and also based on your treatment and preferences. A standard hospital stay costs around 20,000–30,000 yen per night in a shared room; meals cost around 500 yen each.

Fortunately, Japan allows medical expenses to be counted as income tax deductions once they exceed a certain amount each year. Many municipalities additionally offer stipends (手当, teate) or subsidies (補助金, hojokin) for life events like giving birth.

Other recurring expenses

Another type of pre-existing expense is unfortunately common for immigrants: college loans. Make sure to check the exchange rate and see how much your monthly minimum would cost to pay in yen at current rates.

I also suggest figuring out whether you would be able to afford it if the exchange rate worsens; the yen has been unstable in recent years and it’s better to build in a buffer. Loan repayments may be your second largest monthly expenditure after rent, making it a good baseline for salary expectations to ensure you can enjoy a sustainable lifestyle in Japan.

If you plan to move to Japan with your family, many of these expenses would of course be multiplied. There can also be additional expenses incurred in moving and settling in, especially if you have children. You can explore various options for schooling in Japan, all of which have their own costs.

Conclusion

Living in Japan may be cheaper than in many industrialized nations, but Japan also offers plenty of opportunities to splurge, so your budget will mostly boil down to personal lifestyle preferences. The difference in cultures and markets—especially at current exchange rates!—makes it difficult to judge Japanese salaries purely on a converted currency basis, so it is important to calculate your own projected monthly expenses, to understand if a given salary is practical for the kind of lifestyle you want.

If you have questions or want to rubber duck with like-minded folks, please consider joining our Discord community

Japanese Language Proficiency, Job Requirements, and You 31 Jul 2024 5:01 PM (9 months ago)

Many people wanting to work in Japan find themselves stymied by language requirements that can be vague and confusing, as there is no single, clear-cut system used in Japan to define foreigners’ language proficiencies.

There are a few systems commonly used to measure language proficiency: a colloquial system, the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Unfortunately, no potential employer is guaranteed to use one—or even any—of these systems. If they want someone who has “business-level” Japanese and you consider yourself only “conversational,” does that mean that you should skip applying?

We’ll examine some common systems that employers use to assess your Japanese language proficiency and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each. While you do not need to have specific certifications, it is important to understand what types of metrics employers may use when reviewing your application and resume.

• Language proficiency metrics
  • Colloquial assessment
  • JLPT assessment
  • CEFR assessment
  • Other standardized assessment methods
• Practical takeaways
• Why does Japanese ability matter to employers?

Language proficiency metrics

Colloquial assessment

TokyoDev is not a Japanese language authority, but we do our best to understand employers’ expectations of candidates and accurately portray those in our job postings. These are the colloquial assessments of language proficiencies that we use on our job listings:

• No Japanese Required
• Basic Japanese: You can ask and answer simple questions in Japanese.
• Conversational Japanese: You can have casual conversations in Japanese about topics like current events, work, and yourself. You can get the gist of most conversations on non-technical subjects.
• Business Japanese: You can use Japanese in the workplace. You may sometimes make minor mistakes or need occasional assistance on technical matters, but communication is smooth.
• Fluent Japanese: You can use the Japanese language fluently and accurately on all levels and as normally pertinent to professional needs.

These are all measurements of language proficiency that people often use in conversation. While this assessment is flexible, and thus great for covering cases where multiple potential employers have varying requirements, that flexibility can make it difficult to self-assess.

For example, how simple are “simple questions”? Some people might consider “Is that a cat?” to be a simple question, but others may consider that a bare step above “No Japanese Required.” One employer may believe, “May I take leave tomorrow morning to go to immigration?” is a simple question, while another may think that’s either “Conversational Japanese” or “Business Japanese.”

Even the phrase “Business Japanese” has different interpretations, with some people considering it a level under fluency, but others considering it to be parallel to or even above “Fluent Japanese.” Some people will argue that even many Japanese people need to study keigo—humble and honorific speech used in professional contexts.

The advantage of colloquial assessments is that they are the most inclusive and do not require anyone to take a special test or receive a certification. However, colloquial assessments are very subjective, which leads to lapses in shared understanding where one person may consider themselves to be “conversational,” but others may consider them to be “fluent.”

It’s clear that there is a place for a more objective, standardized assessment.

JLPT assessment

A more objective system from an actual language authority is the JLPT, the levels of which range from N5 (most basic) to N1 (most advanced).

• N5: The ability to understand some basic Japanese.
• N4: The ability to understand basic Japanese.
• N3: The ability to understand Japanese used in everyday situations to a certain degree.
• N2: The ability to understand Japanese used in everyday situations, and in a variety of circumstances to a certain degree.
• N1: The ability to understand Japanese used in a variety of circumstances.

If you look at the descriptions on the site, they add detailed expectations in terms of reading and listening and also provide examples, such as “able to read written materials with profound contents.”

Why doesn’t everyone just use this system? Unfortunately, there are two major issues with using JLPT levels: they’re not well-known in Japan, and their definitions of skills are incomplete.

The JLPT is a standardized test meant for Japanese learners, which means that native Japanese speakers are almost guaranteed to never encounter it in their daily lives. The name of the test itself in Japanese (日本語能力試験, nihongo nouryoku shiken) is self-explanatory: it means “Japanese Proficiency Test,” but Japanese people won’t understand the contents of it or know what a level like “N3” means unless they’ve already had prior experience working with or hiring foreigners.

The second issue is a bit more serious: while the JLPT covers reading and listening, those are only half of the four basic language skills and exclude writing and speaking. It is perfectly possible for someone to achieve N1—the highest assessed level of the JLPT, defined as “the ability to understand Japanese used in a variety of circumstances”—and not be able to communicate in Japanese.

This is because the JLPT is a multiple-choice test that purposefully only tests the passive skills of reading and listening. Someone could be a fantastic reader, but not be able to speak or write at the same level. In fact, this is a relatively common situation for people who overfocus on studying for the JLPT. They will have trained themselves to be great at reading and listening because those are critical to scoring highly and passing the JLPT, but their writing and speaking skills will have been left in the dust.

This means that any employer who asks for candidates with a certain JLPT level faces at least two fundamental problems:

• They may be ignoring candidates who have suitable Japanese abilities, but have not taken the JLPT.
• They may be filtering for candidates who have test-appropriate reading and listening abilities, but no actual Japanese communication ability.

Clearly the JLPT, while more objective than colloquial assessment, is still an imperfect measure of a candidate’s language skills.

CEFR assessment

The third and final system we’ll review here is the CEFR, which presents language proficiency in a set of six detailed levels, ranging from A1 (basic) to C2 (advanced). Their chart is so detailed—it covers the areas of range, accuracy, fluency, interaction, and coherence—that in the interests of space, I don’t want to reproduce it here.

This is clearly a deeply thought-out system for assessing language proficiency, so why can’t we use it in Japan? The major problem facing the CEFR in Japan is a lack of familiarity, as this is a European framework. If you visit the self-assessment section of the CEFR site, you’ll notice that there is no official translation of the self-assessment grid in Japanese—which makes sense, as Japan is not a part of Europe.

However, Japan has been working on adapting the CEFR to Japanese pedagogy. The Agency for Cultural Affairs released a report in 2021 (Japanese only) on using the reference framework for Japanese (note pages 25+, which list skills and proficiencies relevant to each level). This process will take time, but perhaps in the future the CEFR will see more regular use at all levels within Japan.

Other standardized assessment methods

There are various other methods of assessing Japanese language proficiency, such as the Business Japanese Test (BJT) or the Japanese Kanji Aptitude Test (日本漢字能力検定, nihon kanji nouryoku kentei, often shortened to kanken).

The BJT suffers from many of the same problems as the JLPT, but with an additional shortcoming: it’s even less well-known than the JLPT, both inside and outside of Japan.

Kanken is slightly better in that it is extremely well-known inside of Japan, but it isn’t actually a Japanese proficiency test; it’s a test of proficiency with the Japanese variants of sinographic characters and related usages within the Japanese language. So while a high Kanken level may correlate with knowledge of the Japanese language, the opposite is not necessarily true.

Practical takeaways

In the end, what does this mean for you as a job seeker?

It means that, unlike standardized tests, most companies don’t need you to know X kanji or Y vocabulary words; they need someone who can understand others and make themselves understood.

There are a few things you can do to let potential employers decide for themselves if your Japanese ability matches their needs:

• Explicitly mention your Japanese ability on your resumes. I personally use colloquial definitions—our definitions and the CEFR guide are great starting points for self-assessment.
• If the position requires Japanese ability, especially at a conversational, business, or fluent level, look at the requirements and imagine yourself doing those things in Japanese. Would you be able to do it now? How about if you had a little time to prepare and brush up on some grammar and vocabulary? If so, you should give it a shot!
• Prepare Japanese resumes to submit on request: knowing that they exist and being able to fill them out properly can go a long way toward reassuring companies about your competence with Japanese.
• If there is a Japanese language requirement for the position, ask upfront if there is a screening round in Japanese, and offer to go through one if language ability is important.
• Be a good communicator in English. Many people overlook this, but you can make a great impression as a clear, purposeful communicator when applying in English. I got a job offer out of the blue once, largely due to my non-technical communication abilities when explaining the complexities of hiring in Japan.

Many people worry that they will be unemployable without a specific type of certification, most often JLPT N2 or N1. Recruiters are known to state that having either N2 or N1 certification is mandatory. While recruiters or hiring staff may filter out resumes based on those keywords, I can personally say that, as a senior engineer who can communicate in Japanese, the lack of a JLPT certificate has never been a barrier to getting interviews in Japan. At most, companies have asked me to do a round or two in Japanese with a native interviewer, and the proof is in the pudding.

Why does Japanese ability matter to employers?

Sometimes people will ask why Japanese ability even matters if the position says it’s not necessary; perhaps the entire team, or even the entire company, already speaks English!

The more senior the position, the more likely it is that an employer may prefer candidates with excellent Japanese communication abilities, as it is probable they’ll be in situations where they represent the company. Customer-facing positions, or roles that interface between the company and an external team, have a higher chance of requiring advanced Japanese.

Another issue is that, while Japan has made concessions for foreigners and provides some resources in English and other languages, and even though machine translation apps have become more widespread, it is still much easier for people who can communicate in Japanese to live in Japan.

In that sense, Japanese ability can be a way for companies to decide between multiple candidates who are equal in all other respects. Who seems like they can function well in Japan? Who seems like they will need more help with the paperwork and processes involved in starting a new job or life here? The ability to communicate effectively in Japanese could signal a more reliable candidate who will remain in the country for longer.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to easily and objectively measure how good someone is at communicating in Japanese, so companies will fall back on standardized test results and levels in their postings. You shouldn’t let that discourage you.

If a company asks for “business” Japanese and you feel like you’re a fluent conversationalist, it may be that your communication skills are good enough for what the company wants—don’t disqualify yourself in advance!

The Fundamental Information Technology Engineer Examination: My Experience 25 Jul 2024 4:40 PM (9 months ago)

Several years ago, I went to Japan on holiday for the first time, and fell in love with the country. I started studying the Japanese language and began to wonder what it would take for me to move there and work as a software developer.

While still at university, I had an opportunity to join a company as a junior developer, so I left school early to start my career. Over the next seven years, across two different companies, I gained valuable experience and worked my way up to a senior developer position. In my role as a full-stack developer, I’ve designed databases, developed backend systems, and created web-facing frontends. I also led the development of an application gateway project that enabled the company to transition to a service-oriented architecture.

Unfortunately, although I have a strong background in IT, I was not eligible for an Engineer visa in Japan. To receive an Engineer visa, I initially believed I needed either a university degree, or 10 years of experience in the industry. I had no degree and only seven years of experience. I thought my only options were to go back to university or work in my home country for another three years. It seemed I had no choice but to postpone my dream for quite some time.

That’s when I discovered an IT exam that makes it possible to get an Engineer visa without needing 10 years of experience or a university degree. I studied for it and passed it—in Japanese—in four months.

I’d like to share my experience, what to know before taking the exam, and some resources I used to prepare for it.

What is the exam

The Fundamental Information Technology Engineer Examination (基本情報技術者試験, kihon jouhou gijutsusha shiken), or FE, was created to promote cross-border job opportunities in Asia. It tests basic knowledge of various software engineering-related topics and the business side of development as well. It’s available in several Asian countries, with some offering it in English. Japan only offers it in Japanese, though. Since I was already in Japan, I decided to take on the challenge of sitting the exam in Japanese.

Required level of Japanese

The exam requires an intermediate to advanced understanding of written Japanese, including a lot of specialized vocabulary. I recommend trying a few sample questions to get a feel for the vocabulary of the exam. In addition, the exam, which lasts over three hours, really puts one’s reading stamina to the test.

What is on the exam

The exam is taken on a computer, and is divided into two parts: A and B. Part A covers a wide range of topics, requiring logical thinking and basic knowledge of software development, hardware, project management, and business management. Part B consists of questions about code written in a pseudo-language that combines Japanese with elements inspired by other well-established programming languages, followed by several questions about cybersecurity.

The exam lasts 190 minutes in total, with an optional 10-minute break between parts A and B. All questions are multiple-choice, and some questions in part B may even have up to 10 options to choose from.

Coding questions

The pseudo-language used on the exam can be a bit difficult to read at times. However, it does get easier with practice. The coding questions can be split into three types:

1. Given a piece of code, determine the output for a specific input.
2. Fill in the blank in code to achieve a specified function description.
3. Read code and input to determine how often a certain line will execute.

Cybersecurity questions

After the coding questions, there are several cybersecurity questions. These resemble the longer reading sections on the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, with technical terms and excerpts from international standards (JIS Q 27001 [ISO/IEC 27001]). They often require reading multiple passages to identify the cause of security issues and their resolutions.

Exam scoring

Because the test is computerized, you receive your results immediately upon completion. To pass both parts A and B, you need a minimum of 600 out of 1000 points on each section. Failing either part results in failing the entire exam. You can retake the exam after 30 days if needed. Upon retaking the exam, please note that you must retake both parts regardless of whether you passed one part previously or not.

Pass rate

Between April 2023 and March 2024, a total of 121,611 people took the exam, with 57,278 passing, resulting in an average pass rate of 47%. The Information-Technology Promotion Agency periodically publishes these statistics.

Studying for the exam

I studied for about 2 to 4 hours each day. I started by reading textbooks and taking notes, then moved on to practicing with past exam questions. These mock exams helped me identify areas I didn’t fully understand. The textbook I used had 22 chapters, and I aimed to finish it in two months by completing three chapters per week. To help with technical vocabulary, I used an app called Anki to make flashcards. My goal was to consistently get 80% correct on the mock exams before signing up for the real exam. I’d like to share several resources that helped me pass.

Textbooks

【令和６年度】 いちばんやさしい 基本情報技術者　絶対合格の教科書＋出る順問題集

The book covers part A and has some examples for part B as well. I like the writing style. It is straight to the point and also contains tips about the exam itself. There is a section in the back that summarizes all the key points for each chapter that I reviewed in about 15 minutes per day.

Before purchasing this book, check the release date, as a newer version may be available that’s more suitable for the current exam.

情報処理教科書 出るとこだけ！基本情報技術者［科目B］第4版

This book focuses on part B. It covers coding questions from past exams and includes line-by-line explanations of the code, which is helpful for those who struggle with reading the syntax. However, I recommend trying a few coding questions from the textbook mentioned above first, as this book mainly offers drills for part B and doesn’t provide much beyond that.

YouTube

kihonzyouhou creates videos that explain the exam in detail. I particularly like the playlists, each of which covers a specific topic on the exam. The last video in each playlist summarizes all the previous ones, making it easy to review and see if you missed anything. Additionally, there are longer videos that go through a mock exam, explaining every question in both parts A and B. Watching these videos felt to me like a welcome change of pace from all that reading.

Past exam questions

The fe-siken website is fantastic for practicing past exam questions. It even has a mock exam feature that assembles exams from past questions and builds a report card to highlight subjects that need more study. After finishing the mock exam, you have the option to redo only the questions you got wrong. Nearly every answer comes with a detailed explanation to help understand why it is correct or incorrect. I highly recommend taking the time to understand each answer, as it helped me a lot.

Signing up for the exam

When you’re ready to take the exam, you can sign up and schedule the test on the CBT-S website. You’ll need a Japanese address where your certificate will be sent upon passing. Because the test is computer-based, you can take it at any test center in Japan where the FE is offered, at your convenience. The fee is 7500 yen, payable by credit card or in cash at convenience stores in Japan.

What to bring to the exam

A valid passport or identification recognized by the Japanese government (e.g., a residence card) is required. There is some math on the exam, but calculators are prohibited. Pen and paper will be provided by the test center for taking notes. I brought a water bottle and some food to eat during the break, and would recommend you do the same.

My experience taking the exam

Nervously I kept looking through the notes I’d taken over the past four months and reviewing parts of the textbook until I arrived at the test center. After receiving a short briefing at the reception, I put my bag in a locker, and was guided to a room full of computers and people taking various exams. I received a blank sheet of paper and a pen and pressed the start button.

From my practice with the mock exams, I’d learned that, to me, part A was a race against time. My strategy was to go through the exam and read each question, quickly answer the ones I felt comfortable with, and mark the rest so I could go back and answer them later. I managed to finish the exam with two minutes left on the clock. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see my score immediately after finishing part A, but I felt confident I’d passed.

During my 10-minute break, I ate some food and drank water to regain my energy. Despite feeling I’d done well, I was exhausted. Fortunately, Part B mostly consists of coding questions, which I enjoy. I got a new sheet of paper, took a deep breath to calm my nerves, and started part B.

As I went through the questions, I stayed on schedule, aiming to finish each question within four minutes to leave enough time for the cybersecurity questions. When I reached the last two cybersecurity questions, fatigue hit me, and it was hard to concentrate on the long passages. I took a few deep breaths and tried to regain my focus.

Satisfied with my answers, I clicked the finish button with only one minute left. My score appeared immediately on the screen: I’d gotten more than 600 points on each part, meaning I’d passed. It was such a relief!

Conclusion

Passing the FE enables developers without 10 years of work experience or a university degree to qualify for an Engineer visa. If your goal is to relocate and work as a software developer in Japan, and you can spend about a month in-country in order to collect the certificate, this could be a valuable opportunity.

Overall, my experience was tough yet rewarding, because I’ve learned a lot of technical jargon in Japanese, and I feel proud to have overcome this challenge.

Acknowledgements: Thanks to Paul McMahon for giving me the opportunity to share my story, and to Rebecca Callahan and Scott Rothrock for reviewing the article.

Permanent Residency in Japan 24 Jul 2024 5:36 PM (9 months ago)

Getting a Permanent Residence visa (永住権, eijuuken) is a big accomplishment for anyone living in Japan. It is one of the most desired visas that presents you as a stable member of society, and it affords you a host of privileges, such as not being restricted in what activities you can do in Japan, not needing to renew your visa, and making it easier to obtain credit cards and bank loans. For example, with permanent residency, I was able to qualify for a mortgage and buy my house with zero down payment.

• Benefits of permanent residency
• Eligibility for permanent residency
• Qualifying under the highly skilled professional points system
• Rules for children of permanent residents and special permanent residents
• Sufficient period of residence in Japan
• Requirements for permanent residency
• Summary of differences for each eligibility category
• Applying under the Highly Skilled Professional scheme
• Get assistance with your application
• Application process for permanent residency
• Tax implications of gaining permanent residency

Benefits of permanent residency

The major benefit is that you have permanent resident rights in Japan. You still have to renew your residence card every seven years, and if you leave Japan for longer than one year you need to get a re-entry permit. These are mostly formalities, though, and renewing your residence card and getting the re-entry permit will generally always be approved as long as you have actually been residing in Japan and haven’t gotten into serious legal or financial trouble.

In addition:

• You are no longer restricted to specific types of work, and there’s no requirement to work at all to stay in Japan.
• You can sponsor your family with a stronger visa than if you had a normal working visa.
  • Your spouse can come under a Spouse of a Permanent Resident visa that allows work and is a fast track to permanent residency.
  • Your children, if born in Japan, are eligible for permanent residency as well, or Child of a Permanent Resident visas. If born outside Japan, they are eligible for Long-Term Resident visas.
  • Strangely, permanent residents don’t have the ability to sponsor parents to stay in Japan. Only foreigners with Highly Skilled Professional (高度専門職, koudo senmon-shoku) visas can do so.
• You may find it easier to apply for credit cards and different types of loans, and also be eligible for better terms on a mortgage. For example, with permanent residency you can get housing loans without a down payment.
• There are a number of intangible benefits. In general, you are perceived to have higher social status and stability, which can help for example when applying for jobs.

Eligibility for permanent residency

There are a few pathways to permanent residency, as outlined on the official immigration page. These are the categories of residency status that are eligible.

• Category 1: You are the spouse of a Japanese citizen, Permanent Resident (永住者, eijuusha), or Special Permanent Resident (特別永住者, tokubetsu eijuusha), or the biological child of one of those.
• Category 2: You are a Long-Term Resident (定住者, teijuusha). Note this is a special category of visa. Living in Japan for a long time does not mean you hold this status.
• Category 3: You are on certain types of work visas such as Engineer (技術, gijutsu)/Specialist in Humanities (人文知識, jinbun chishiki)/International Services (国際業務, kokusai gyoumu), Skilled Person (技能, ginou), etc., or are the dependent of another foreigner living in Japan, i.e. on the Dependent (家族滞在, kazoku taizai) visa.
• Category 4: You are considered a “highly skilled foreigner.” This does not necessarily mean you have been in Japan under a Highly Skilled Professional (高度専門職, koudo senmon-shoku) visa, but that you have met the qualifications under the points system for the required period of time.

Qualifying under the highly skilled professional points system

This is a system that was introduced in 2012 to give incentives to “highly skilled professionals” to immigrate to Japan, by adding a new Highly Skilled Professional visa (高度専門職, koudo senmon-shoku) with various immigration benefits, such as longer periods of stay without renewing your visa, and the ability to bring your parents to live in Japan. It also significantly loosened the requirements for permanent residency for qualified foreigners.

To qualify as a “highly skilled professional,” an individual must be in certain occupations: academic research, specialized/technical activities, or business management. Furthermore, an individual needs to have enough points calculated under the rules to qualify.

Depending on the occupation category, points are calculated by criteria such as age, salary, education background, work history, Japanese language level, etc. A minimum of 70 points is needed to qualify, with 80 points and above getting even more preferential treatment. There is no difference for any extra points over 80, though if some qualifications are more questionable to prove, it is good to have some buffer. For example, it is fairly difficult to prove work history outside of Japan vs. in Japan. For more details, you can consult the official immigration website on highly skilled professionals. To calculate your points, you can consult this official immigration document or this handy unofficial calculator.

You can enter Japan on this visa, or convert your existing visa to a Highly Skilled Professional visa. As mentioned above, the visa gives various benefits, such as granting a longer period of stay without renewing your visa: three years for 70 points, and five years for 80 points and above. You also have the ability to bring your parents to live in Japan. The downside is that the visa is tied to your specific job; if you change jobs, you must reapply for the visa. This is in contrast to normal work visas which allow you to change jobs freely as long as you stay in the same field.

Another benefit of the highly skilled professional system is that it shortens the minimum period of stay to be eligible for permanent residency: three years for 70 points, and only one year for 80 points and above! It actually doesn’t matter whether you are already on a Highly Skilled Professional visa or not when applying for permanent residency, only that you can prove that you would have also qualified previously at the beginning of the minimum required period of stay. So if you are applying after a three year period of stay with 70 points, you must prove you had 70 points or above three years ago. If you are applying after a one year period of stay with 80 points or above, then you must prove you had 80 points or above one year ago.

I personally came to Japan with a Highly Skilled Professional visa with over 80 points, meaning I was eligible to apply for permanent residence after one year. However, I chose to wait to apply until I was in Japan for two years, due to various tax implications.

Rules for children of permanent residents and special permanent residents

What about the children of permanent residents?

• Your child will likely be granted permanent residency if:
  • You or your spouse hold one of the above visas
  • Your child is born in Japan
  • You continue to live in Japan after your child is born
  • You file a permanent residency application within 30 days of the birth
• If your child is born outside Japan, the Long-Term Resident visa will be granted.
• Adopted children may be eligible to acquire permanent residency this way, but the laws regarding this are complex. You should consult a lawyer to fully understand your adopted child’s rights in Japan. If you have children born out of wedlock but acknowledge them, they are eligible for permanent residency.

If all parents lose their permanent resident status after the child is born or acquires permanent residency, the child can still keep their permanent resident status.

If either parent obtains permanent residency, the child is eligible to change their visa to child of a permanent resident. However, in practice, it is preferred to have the whole family file an application for permanent residency together.

Sufficient period of residence in Japan

You must have resided in Japan for the required period of time before applying for permanent residency. The time required changes based on your residency status.

Category 1: Spouse or child of a Japanese national/permanent resident/special permanent resident

• If you are the spouse of a Japanese citizen or permanent resident, you must have resided in Japan for at least one year. However, you must have been married for at least three years.
• If you are the child of a Japanese citizen or permanent resident, it is also one year.
• If you have made a significant contribution to Japan, the required stay is five years.

Category 4: Highly skilled professional

• If you’ve reached between 70-80 points under the points system, you must have resided in Japan for at least three years.
• If you’ve reached over 80 points under the points system, you must have resided in Japan for at least one year.

Other categories

For all other categories, you must have had at least 10 years of continuous residence. During this time, you must have worked in Japan under a valid visa for at least five consecutive years.

Requirements for permanent residency

Along with having an eligible visa, there are a few requirements for permanent residency, which I’ve listed below.

For all cases, there are some common documents you need. If you are applying for a young child, the documents mostly refer to the parents’ documents, not the child’s.

Permanent residency application form

The application form is standard across all cases, and can be found on the official immigration website.

It requires one portrait photo, following the photo guidelines, attached to the application form. No photo is required if the applicant is under 16 years old.

A statement of the reasons you are applying for permanent residency

The application requires a written statement of the reasons you are applying for permanent residency, as well as why you would be a benefit to Japanese society. Those reasons can be things like wanting to reside in Japan indefinitely or buying a house, as well as your qualifications. The document must be in Japanese and can be prepared by yourself if your Japanese is good enough (or you have a friend who can help you proofread), or by a professional or agency helping you apply.

The agent that prepared my application helped me write a letter essentially stating that I had been interested in Japan for a long time, had a strong educational and work history leading to my current high-paying position at a reputable international company in Japan, and was seeking permanent residency to buy a house and continue to be a stable member of Japanese society.

This letter is not necessary for a spouse or child of a Japanese national/permanent resident/special permanent resident.

Documents proving your relationship

If you are eligible for permanent residency through familial relations, you must prove those relationships.

• If you are related to a Japanese national, you need to supply one copy of their family register (戸籍謄本, koseki touhon) with you included on it. A copy of your birth certificate is also required.
• If you are eligible via marriage to a Japanese national/permanent resident/special permanent resident, a copy of your marriage certificate is required.
• If appropriate, a paternity certificate (認知届の記載事項証明書, ninchi-todoke no kisai jikou shoumeisho) may be required to prove your parental relationship.

One resident certificate for the entire household

You are also required to provide a resident certificate listing your entire household (家族全員(世帯)の住民票, kazoku zen’in (setai) no juuminhyou). You can omit the My Number, but must include everything else.

Documents verifying your occupation

If you’re employed by a company, you’ll need a certificate of employment. If self-employed, you must provide a copy of your tax return or a certificate of corporate registration, and a copy of your business license, if any. If your work situation doesn’t fit into those categories, you should give a free form description of your occupation and supporting documents, as appropriate.

Being up to date on societal payments (tax, pension, health insurance)

It is extremely important that you are up to date on all your financial obligations to society. Lapses in payments, even for a few days, automatically disqualify your application, and you will have to wait until you are up to date for the required period before you can apply again. Ensure all documents accurately reflect your payment statuses.

Documents certifying that you are up to date on your residence tax payments

You can get these at your ward office or from a convenience store copier with your My Number card. The number of years for which you must show proof of payment varies based on your eligibility category.

• Category 1, Spouse or Child of a Japanese National/Permanent Resident/Special Permanent Resident: You need to show three years of proof.
• Categories 2 and 3, Long-Term Resident, Engineer, Skilled Person, or Dependent visas: You need five years of proof.
• Category 4: The number of years depends on your points calculation. If 70 points and above, you need three years of proof. If 80 points and above, only the most recent year is required.

Documents certifying that you are up to date on your national tax payments

Immigration provides lists of documents related to your national tax payments that you are required to submit. This requirement applies to all application categories. The number of years for which you need to provide proof of payment is the same as the number of years for your residence tax payments.

You can obtain this proof at your local national tax office (税務署, zeimusho). Don’t confuse this with your municipal tax office! Tell them you need the 未納の税額のないことの証明（その3) (minou no zeigaku no nai koto no shoumei (sono 3)) with the following:

• Withholding Income Tax and Special Tax for Reconstruction (源泉所得税及び復興特別所得税, gensen shotokuzei oyobi fukkou tokubetsu shotokuzei)
• Declared Income Tax and Special Tax for Reconstruction (申告所得税及び復興特別所得税, shinkoku shotokuzei oyobi fukkou tokubetsu shotokuzei)
• Consumption and Local Consumption Taxes (消費税及び地方消費税, shouhizei oyobi chihou shouhizei)
• Inheritance Tax (相続税, souzokuzei)
• Gift Tax (贈与税, zouyozei)

If you say it is for applying for permanent residency, they may understand, but showing them this list will also help.

This may take a while to process, though. To save time, you can actually request this via Japan’s online tax system e-Tax, to be picked up at the tax office or mailed to you.

Documents certifying you and your dependents are up to date on your public pension and public medical insurance premiums

You’ll also need to provide proof that you and your dependents are up to date on public pension and public medical insurance premiums. The required timeframe you need to prove varies by category.

Public pension premiums

• Category 1 (Spouse or Child of a Japanese National/Permanent Resident/Special Permanent Resident): Proof of the most recent three years of pension payments.
• Category 2 (Long-Term Resident): Proof of the most recent five years of pension payments.
• Category 3 (Engineer, Skilled Person, or Dependent): Proof of the most recent five years of pension payments.
• Category 4 (Highly Skilled Professional with 80 points or more): Proof of the most recent year of pension payments.
• Category 4 (Highly Skilled Professional with 70 points or more): Proof of the most recent three years of pension payments.

You can obtain a printout from Nenkin Net, the official National Pension website, showing your payment status.

Health insurance

To document your health insurance payments, you’ll need a copy of your health insurance card, whether it’s for private health insurance or National Health Insurance.

If you enrolled in National Health Insurance within the past year, you should provide the National Health Insurance Premium Payment Certificate (国民健康保険料納付証明書, kokumin kenkou hoken-ryou noufu shoumeisho). If you were enrolled in National Health Insurance during the required period, you’ll be asked to submit copies of Health Insurance Premium receipts for the last two years, or only for one year if you are a highly skilled professional with 80+ points. If you are unable to provide these, you must submit a written statement explaining the reason.

Additional requirements for business owners

If you are the owner of a workplace covered by social insurance at the time of application, you must submit either document A or B below, in addition to the above documents.

1. Copy of Health Insurance and Employee Pension Insurance Premium Receipts: Submit copies for all periods during the last two years, or only for one year if you are a highly skilled professional with 80+ points. If unable to submit this, provide document B.
2. Social Insurance Premium Payment Certificate or Social Insurance Premium Payment Confirmation: Issued by the Japan Pension Service to prove or confirm there are no outstanding payments.

Proof of financial stability

For permanent residency, it is important to demonstrate that you are able to support yourself. You can submit a copy of your Japanese bank passbook or a printout of a Japanese bank statement (if you don’t have a passbook).

Passport or certificate of residence status

You need to show your passport, or a certificate of residence status if you have no passport when applying.

Residence card

You need to show your original residence card when applying.

Personal guarantor

You are required to find a guarantor for your application. A personal guarantor vouches for your character, and can be any Japanese citizen or permanent resident. Personal guarantors are not the same as financial or legal guarantors, and this is not a legally-binding position.

The guarantor should provide a letter of personal guarantee (Japanese, English). For Category 1, the guarantor is usually your spouse or parent. For the other categories, the guarantor can be any Japanese citizen or permanent resident.

You must also supply a copy of identifying documents for the guarantor, such as a residence card or driver’s license. As of June 2022, guarantors are no longer required to submit their tax payment information.

Letter of understanding

All applicants need to submit a letter of understanding (Japanese, English). Essentially, it is an agreement to inform immigration of any changes, such as switching employers or altering your family situation. For other languages, see the documents under section 12.

Summary of differences for each eligibility category

Below is a summary of the differences between the categories, so you can see all the requirements at once:

Additionally, Category 1 applicants do not need a statement of reasons, as their family relationship is the reason.

Applying under the Highly Skilled Professional scheme

If you are applying under the highly skilled professional scheme, you need to prove that you had the necessary number of points at the beginning of the required stay period, and have maintained those qualifications since then. If you hold the Highly Skilled Professional visa currently, then the proof of points at the beginning of the period should be fairly easy to provide, and the proof of continuing to hold the required points is also straightforward unless something materially changed, such as your job situation. Be aware that you can lose points by aging out of an age band.

You should include your original Highly Skilled Professional visa approval notification, which should look similar to the following:

Then, to avoid having to resubmit all your original documents, you can request that the immigration bureau reuse the documents from your original application, with a letter similar to the following:

願　　出　　書

月　　日申請のYOUR NAMEの　　　　　　　　申請に係る提出資料につきましては，20XX年XX月XX日申請（申請番号東労一 XXXXXXXXX）において提出した資料のうち，（資料名）を今次申請の提出資料として転用していただくことを願い出ます。なお，当該資料の内容に変更・更新はなく，　　月　　日現在における最新の資料であることを申し添えます。

また，上記の資料について，追完依頼があった場合には，速やかに提出することを約束します。

You should be able the find the application number (申請番号, shinsei bangou) in your original application documents or, if you had an agency apply for you in the beginning, they likely are keeping the number in their records.

There is one downside of switching from a Highly Skilled Professional visa to permanent residency—you lose the ability to sponsor your parents to stay in Japan.

Get assistance with your application

While it’s feasible to apply for permanent residency yourself, it can be very helpful to consult a professional, given how complicated the documentation requirements are. You would be looking for an administrative scrivener (行政書士, gyousei shoshi) with experience in applying for permanent residency.

The level of service varies, from just checking your documents, to composing your letter of intent, to going to the immigration office for you. In general, though, you have to gather many of the documents yourself, as there isn’t a way for a third party to get them. If you are literate in Japanese, the fees go down—I’ve seen as low as 40,000 yen to check your documents assuming you speak Japanese, and around 200,000–250,000 yen for full service in English. Many larger companies also will hire a firm to prepare your application, so you should check if that’s an available benefit.

Unfortunately, my company was not willing to pay our law firm for my application, but I got lucky. My friend’s real estate agency had an administrative scrivener on staff who could prepare my application for free, with the tacit assumption that I would use their services when buying my house, which I ended up doing!

Application process for permanent residency

After applying, you then wait for a notice from the immigration office that your application is approved or that they need further documentation. I applied while the Japanese borders were closed during COVID in early 2022 and was lucky to get the approval postcard four and a half months later! I hear that as of summer 2024, it is taking a year to process applications. No notification is a good thing; if additional documents or clarifications are needed, immigration will contact you.

With the approval postcard in hand, you or your representative can go to the Immigration Bureau with 8,000 yen in revenue stamps and pick up your new residence card!

If you have unfortunately been rejected, you’ll also receive a notification with the reasons for rejection. You can try applying again after satisfying any additional requirements. Typically, they ask you to keep your tax/pension/health insurance payments up to date for the required period of time.

Tax implications of gaining permanent residency

There are some tax implications of gaining permanent residency.

Firstly, I’ve seen major confusion between having the Permanent Resident visa and being a permanent resident taxpayer. Obtaining the Permanent Resident visa does not make you a tax permanent resident; it is the period of stay that matters.

A permanent resident taxpayer is either a Japanese national with any period of stay, or a foreigner with a residence in Japan and an aggregate stay of more than five years out of the last 10 years. A non-permanent resident taxpayer is a foreigner who has stayed less than five years out of the last 10 years. Permanent resident taxpayers pay worldwide income tax, whereas non-permanent resident taxpayers only pay income tax on Japan-sourced income.

However, obtaining permanent residency can have other effects. One is exit tax. Exit tax is a capital gains tax on unrealized capital gains if you have over 100 million yen in assets worldwide and you leave Japan (i.e., unregister your residence). The timeframe for exit tax is similar to the one for being a non-permanent resident taxpayer; exit tax does not apply until you’ve remained in Japan for 5 out of the last 10 years. However, only time under a visa from table 2 like permanent resident counts. So getting permanent residency starts the counter for exit tax.

Capital gains tax for worldwide assets is another story, but is not related to being a permanent resident taxpayer. See this bulletin by Deloitte for more info.

Inheritance and gift taxes are also a concern. Only temporary foreigners are exempt from gift and inheritance tax for assets that don’t touch Japan, where the definition of a temporary foreigner is a foreigner with a visa from table 1 who has stayed in Japan in aggregate fewer than 10 out of the last 15 years. Since permanent residents fall under table 2, once you get your permanent residency you are immediately liable for any gifts or inheritance you receive after.

You should do your own research on how this may affect your financial situation. For professional advice, please consult a tax accountant or attorney.

Conclusion

Getting permanent residency is a somewhat complicated process, but is by no means unapproachable. Hopefully this guide helps in clarifying the requirements and procedures to obtain permanent residency. By becoming a permanent resident, you are given a number of privileges similar to those of Japanese citizens; these help compensate for the greater contributions you are expected to make in your more stable societal position. Best wishes to any reader contemplating the process!

If You Want To Hire Great Engineers, Let Engineers Do The Hiring 15 Jul 2024 9:48 PM (9 months ago)

Hiring great engineers is not just about evaluating technical skills. It’s about finding passionate individuals who align with your mission. It’s about building a team that can turn your vision into reality.

To make this happen, a solid interview process is your best tool. Becoming a skilled interviewer requires a diverse set of abilities. You break the ice. You listen. You judge. You tell jokes. You build rapport. You sell. Then you schedule the next interview—all within 30 minutes. You won’t master this overnight, but with time and practice, you can.

Remember: interviewing is a two-way street. You evaluate the candidate, while they evaluate you and your company. Approach with empathy. Be authentic. Show genuine interest in their story. You’ll make better hires. You’ll attract top talent.

How I took over engineering hiring

My journey from engineer to hiring manager wasn’t planned. It just happened.

I worked at a Japanese startup for six years. After our Series A, we needed senior engineers, fast. I stepped up to the challenge. That first year, I handled everything: phone screens, compensation packages, visa applications. I even became obsessed with flowchart diagrams to document our process.

The real breakthrough came unexpectedly. I did a “Developer Story” interview for TokyoDev about my startup experience. The result? That single article ended up accounting for 70-80% of our applicants who cited it as their primary reason for applying.

The secret wasn’t complicated. It was honesty. No corporate speak, just genuine passion. I shared our story truthfully, based on my values. This approach became my guiding principle, my “True North.” It wasn’t just a role to me. It was my duty to find the right people for our company.

Eventually, one of the engineers I recruited took over half the hiring workload. Later, they replaced me entirely. The process continued to work well. This proved it wasn’t about me. The method itself was effective.

How to hire good engineers

I’ve since moved on to start a new company, but I’m proud of the hiring process we built. Here’s what I learned.

Our approach was thorough. We reviewed 1,500 applicants. I personally looked at 40% of them. This wasn’t just skimming resumes. I read their messages carefully. I checked their GitHub code. I built a complete picture before deciding to move forward. By the time I left, we had hired about 15 engineers through this process.

What follows is both my personal story and a set of guidelines. If you’re serious about hiring good engineers, use this as one of your resources. It’s a starting point, not the final word.

The one value to serve them all

The single most important thing in hiring: the immense responsibility you bear. As an interviewer, you hold a candidate’s entire future in your hands. Your values should be rooted in this truth.

This is why engineers should do the hiring. Few recruiters have interviewed for an engineering job. They can’t understand how challenging it can be.

Bad value, good value

Every company is unique. Your values should be too. Once established, these values become your gold standard for hiring and firing. I won’t tell you what values to hold. But I’ll show you what makes a value good or bad.

Your values need trade-offs. If you agree with the reverse of a value, you don’t have a value. You haven’t made trade-offs.

Bad Value: “Leadership: the courage to shape a better future.” What’s the opposite? “Follow and obey: it’ll pay your rent next month. We just care about the next earnings call.” No startup would openly embrace that. The trade-off isn’t clear, making it a weak value.

Good Value: “Move fast and break things.” The opposite is, “Prioritize stability over speed.” Both can make sense depending on the company and circumstances. This value forces real decisions.

The bad value above is an inspirational poster. The good value is Facebook’s—they had it written on half the walls. This value is one of the things that made Facebook so successful.

This value shocked people. Outsiders didn’t understand “break things.” It didn’t mean break production. It meant breaking conventions that hindered “moving fast.” This approach helped Facebook win mobile. It made them leaders in open-source LLMs. They still “manage out” engineers who don’t embody this value.

It’s okay to adjust values. Do it deliberately. Even values are conventions. Break them if they don’t make sense. By default, things get worse at companies. They degrade to the mean. This slow decline can kill a company, especially an early-stage startup with limited time and resources. Toss out values that don’t work. Craft better ones. Do it before it’s too late.

Learn from your mistakes

When I started, I made mistakes, many of them. One stands out.

I failed to align salary expectations early. This wasted time. It created poor experiences for candidates. They’d go through interviews only to be surprised by the salary range at the end.

I fixed this by discussing seniority and salary ranges during the initial phone screen. Some candidates didn’t proceed, but it only took 20-30 minutes. Far better than discovering mismatches after grueling technical rounds.

This taught me to embrace mistakes, but not passively. I learned to prevent similar issues systematically. After months of refinement, we developed a solid process.

Your approach will be different. It should be. Team size, culture, and other factors all play a role. Find what works for your company. But let me share my guidelines for the most crucial step in the process.

The casual interview is (sometimes) all you need

The first real-time interaction matters most. Whether it’s by phone, a video call, or in person, this is your chance to impress and to understand the candidate deeply.

Give it 30–40 minutes—sometimes more, if the conversation flows. Always ask if they’re okay going over time. This is your shot at making a lasting impression, and at grasping their core motivations.

Forget standard interview scripts. Don’t ask, “What does the UNIX tail command do with the -f flag?” That’s what a recruiter asked during an initial phone screen in 2011. The mistake wasn’t the phone interview itself, but having a non-technical recruiter ask trivial syntax questions instead of assessing overall experience and cultural fit.

You’re not Google. Don’t copy their process blindly. Your size is an advantage. You can do things that don’t scale. Have unique conversations with each candidate. You’ll get better signals about their potential and fit.

Think of Asimov’s writing philosophy: “Ideally, in reading such writing, you are not even aware that you are reading.” Apply this to interviews. Make candidates forget they’re being interviewed. Be professional, but only just, and not an ounce more.

The power of asking why

Start by introducing yourself. Share your company’s mission. Outline the interview’s structure. Then transition to real conversation.

Begin with an open-ended question. “What are you most proud of building?” Then listen. Pay attention to everything: their tone, their thought process, their expressions, their body language.

Candidates get nervous. Reassure them. Share a time when you were in their shoes and things worked out.

When they mention something significant, ask “Why?” It’s a powerful tool. Anyone can list accomplishments. “Why?” encourages deeper sharing. It reveals who they are and why they chose this career.

I’ve been asking “Why?” for years. Let me share my favorite response.

A software archeologist: my favorite interview

I was interviewing a junior engineer. He had diverse technical experience. We discussed his motivation for engineering and his past jobs. As we dug deeper, he shared a unique perspective.

He called himself a “software archaeologist.” He was driven to understand the historical reasons behind systems. This knowledge, he said, was like ancient artifacts, forgotten over time. By uncovering why something was built a certain way, he felt like an explorer. He was revealing lost secrets. This understanding improved his ability to extend or modify systems.

This conversation stuck with me. It showed an engineer who was passionate about his work, and a deep thinker. Someone who understood his motivations and actions. That’s invaluable in software engineering, especially for junior candidates. It demonstrates high potential for growth.

This illustrates the power of “Why?” Active listening and genuine curiosity lead to true understanding. It’s not just a meeting of resumes. It’s a meeting of minds. Dig deeper into their answers. You’ll gain a comprehensive view of who they are and what drives them.

Develop your interviewing skills, now and forever

So, why not give these ideas a shot? The next time you’re preparing for an interview, set aside the resume and focus on having a real, human conversation. You won’t become good at that overnight, but you can with time and deliberate practice.

Your hiring process is a reflection of your company’s values. Make it thoughtful. Make it human. Make it count.

To learn more, start with Paul’s article about the overall flow. Next, check out Luke Wilson’s tactical advice. It’s full of actionable tips. I can vouch for Luke’s methods—I was using many of them before I even read his article.

Acknowledgements: Thanks to Paul McMahon, Scott Rothrock, and above all, Rebecca Callahan for reviewing this article.

Bringing Your Pets to Japan 10 Jul 2024 5:14 PM (9 months ago)

This is the post in forums that always makes me wince: “I’ve just been hired and am moving to Japan! Can I bring my dog with me?”

The reason it causes me pain is that I know the poster is already too late. If they wanted to relocate to Japan with their dog, they needed to start the process six to seven months before moving.

Japan is infamous for being a difficult place to travel with pets. As a rabies-free country, it must maintain that status with strict controls and tests for all imported animals. That said, the Animal Quarantine Service, which is responsible for the pet import regulations, offers detailed and clear explanations of all the necessary procedures. With patience, diligence, and a fair bit of cash, it’s quite possible to bring your dog or cat to Japan—and maybe even your rabbit, bird, or snake as well.

But the first question to answer isn’t whether you can import your pets. It’s whether you should.

• Should you bring your pets?
• So you’re bringing your pet to Japan
• Dogs and cats from non-designated regions
• Dogs and cats from designated regions
• Service dogs
• Animals that aren’t dogs or cats
• Hire a pet-shipper, or go it alone?

Should you bring your pets?

Japan is reasonably accommodating to most pets, if you have the finances to support them. Following are some of the pros and cons of bringing your pets to Japan.

Pro

• For many of us, pets are family, and it would be unthinkable to leave them behind. This is particularly true if you’re going to be in Japan long-term.

• Even if you are in a situation where you could comfortably leave your pet behind (for example, you have a family member who’d be happy to adopt them), be aware that it’s not all that cheap or easy to acquire new pets in Japan. Shelters and foster organizations do exist, but they’re not as common as, for example, city and county-run shelters in the US. Most puppies I’ve personally seen in pet stores cost around 200,000 yen before taxes and other fees, and kittens aren’t far behind. If you can’t see yourself living without a pet, it might be worthwhile financially as well as emotionally to invest in bringing yours to Japan.

  This does mostly apply to cats and dogs. Rabbits, larger parrots, and exotic reptiles can also be expensive, though they usually cost tens of thousands of yen, rather than hundreds of thousands. Hamsters and parakeets are widely available and cheap.

• With the notable exceptions of housing and possibly transportation, it’s relatively easy to keep a pet in Japan. Most apartments or houses won’t have dog-friendly yards, but that’s why you see Japanese pet owners walking their dogs every evening and playing with them in parks. Dog food and cat litter are available at most convenience stores for any late-night emergency runs, and any decent-sized city will have multiple well-stocked pet stores.
• Generally speaking, Japanese people enjoy animals. In fact, by my own American standards, they’re inclined to spoil them. Having a dog or cat in Japan can serve as one more way to get to know your neighbors or make friends.

Con

• Housing is by far the biggest con when it comes to having a pet in Japan. I’m shocked at how many dogs I see around my neighborhood on a daily basis, given how difficult it was for us to locate pet-friendly housing at a reasonable price. Here’s what you’ll be facing:
  • Your selection of apartments or houses will be limited, because the majority of Japanese rentals do not allow pets. Note that the definition of “no pets” can vary though. In some buildings, this means “no non-caged pets” and fish, hamsters, parakeets, etc. may be permitted. In other buildings, all pets are banned.
  • You will pay extra for your animal, via increased rent or security deposits.
  • Most rentals will not allow multiple animals; if they do, they will often specify the type of animals allowed (e.g. only two small dogs, or only two cats). Additionally, the fees go up per each additional animal.
  • If budget is not an issue, there are high-end apartment buildings and houses that permit pets.
  • However, most pet-friendly housing in Japan is so because it has to be to attract renters. If you’re looking for a lower-priced property that still accommodates animals, you’ll typically be offered housing that’s older and farther from the train station.
  • If you’re caught with unauthorized animals, penalties can range from steep fines, to demanding you rehome the animal within a short period of time, to eviction.
  • Even detached houses in Japan are on the small side, and often don’t come with fenced yards, which can be hard on dogs that are accustomed to playing outside freely.
• Vet bills can be steep in Japan. Even routine vaccinations and yearly exams easily add up to 20-30,000 yen per dog, per year. Dogs are required by the Rabies Prevention Law to get a new rabies vaccination every year; cats are not required to do so. To help reduce the cost of emergency treatment, pet insurance has become increasingly available, but may vary in quality. For example, Scott Rothrock at TokyoDev found that his pet insurance didn’t cover any of his dog’s health problems. Worse, even after he’d dropped the unhelpful insurance, he wasn’t able to get new insurance because of those same health problems.
• Kennels and boarding facilities are widely available in Japan, but the price can be steep, and companies may have some unexpected rules. My dogs were asked to stay at a boarding facility for two one-hour trial runs before they were accepted for a week’s stay. That particular business was one of the more accommodating ones in our city—others had even more stringent acceptance standards. Many kennels also won’t handle medications. So if you do plan to travel often, I suggest arranging for a friend to pet-sit, or establishing a relationship with a pet boarding facility well before you think you may need it.

Transportation

Transportation gets its own special section in the list, because whether it’s a pro or a con depends entirely on your animal’s size. If your pet is less than 10 kilograms and fits into a small carrier, you can take your pet on most trains and subways. Here are the requirements for bringing an animal onto Tokyo Metro: these are typical guidelines for pet owners, although some trains will also charge you for the pet. If your pet can ride for free on most public transport, that’s certainly a pro.

If your pet is more than 10 kilograms, however, or won’t fit into a small carrier, transportation becomes a downside. In my experience, ordinary taxis in Japan are accommodating to medium-sized dogs so long as they are in a carrier; large dogs are unlikely to fit at all.

If you have a large-breed dog, you may have no choice but to buy a car, or to use a specialized pet taxi service to transport your animal from the airport, to the vet, etc. Azabu Pet and Yako Dog House are a few examples of pet taxi services in the Kanto region.

So you’re bringing your pet to Japan

You’ve decided to bring your pets to Japan! Let the long, involved, and expensive journey begin.

For the record, I’ve shepherded our dogs and cats through the import/export processes of the US, South Korea, Vietnam, and Mexico. These were nowhere near as difficult, or as costly, as Japan. Nonetheless, Japan’s regulations are clear, the information is readily available, and the process is doable, so long as one is prepared to follow the rules with extreme care.

Japan divides its importation guidelines in several ways. There are the rules for dogs and cats, which are nearly identical, and then a set of different guidelines for other sorts of pets (birds, rabbits, etc.) When it comes to dogs and cats, there is further differentiation between designated and non-designated regions. Designated regions are rabies-free areas of the world: Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii, and Guam. Non-designated regions are every other country in the world.

If you are coming from a designated region, congratulations! The importation process will be less onerous for you, although there is still paperwork to be filed. You can skip to “

Dogs and cats from designated regions” below to see if you and your pet meet all the requirements.

Dogs and cats from non-designated regions

As for non-designated regions, I’m not going to attempt to list every step of the process: Japan’s Animal Quarantine Service already offers a clear and detailed description of import procedures in English, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. I strongly encourage readers to become very familiar with the site and read its guidelines several times, as well as remain alert for any updates.

What I’m going to do is suggest a timeline for those who are considering coming to Japan. Since the import process takes six months at a minimum, you will need to prepare well in advance.

1. When you think you might someday be interested in moving to Japan

If the thought of moving to Japan has ever even flashed across your mind, you should start preparing your dog or cat by 1) microchipping them and 2) keeping their rabies vaccinations up-to-date. If you’ve taken care of these issues, you can shave 30 days off the preparation process.

This is because Japan wants all dogs and cats who are imported to have microchips, and at least two rabies vaccinations post-microchip. That means the microchip must be implanted before the first rabies vaccination. If your pet has already been vaccinated against rabies, but has no microchip, you’ll need to microchip them and then get a rabies vaccination immediately afterwards. It’s fine to do both on the same day.

There needs to be at least 30 days between the two post-microchip vaccinations. If you microchip your dog or cat right now, vaccinate them after the microchip’s implantation, and keep that vaccine up-to-date, you can move directly to the next step of the import process whenever you’re ready. If you don’t, you’ll have to start at the beginning, and then wait those thirty days for the second vaccination before you can continue.

There are guidelines on which microchips and rabies vaccinations count as valid. For example, Japan does not accept live rabies vaccines. Double-check the guidelines and FAQ on the site to ensure yours comply.

There are technically exceptions to the two-vaccinations-post-microchip rule, but since the exceptions involve multiple expensive rabies titre tests, and would seem to apply to only a tiny percentage of cases, it’s better to follow the standard procedure.

2. When you are beginning to job-hunt in Japan

The time to take the next step is when you have decided to move to Japan, or are at least seriously considering it, but have not yet started job-hunting. That’s because the next step takes six months to complete.

If your dog or cat is already microchipped, has had at least one rabies vaccination post-microchip implantation, and has remained up-to-date on rabies vaccines, you’re off to a good start. You can then go back to the vet and pay for a rabies titre test. Note that if your animal has only had one post-microchip rabies vaccination, but at least 30 days have passed since that vaccination, you can get the second vaccination and the rabies titre test during the same vet visit.

This is quite important: the rabies titre test is only valid if processed at one of these designated laboratories. The list is quite restricted. For example, for the entire US, only two laboratories are acceptable, and one of them is for US military personnel only. Your veterinarian should be able to handle sending the rabies titre test in, but double-check their forms to ensure they meet Japan’s standards, or download the recommended certification form from the Animal Quarantine site.

Once you’ve sent out the sample for the titre test, it’s a waiting game. Even if the rabies titre test results are good, Japan still won’t permit importation until 180 days after the sample collection date, and counts the day of sample collection as Day 0. If you try to bring your dog or cat before 180 days have passed, they’ll have to wait out the remaining days in a Japanese quarantine facility.

The good news is, the rabies titre test results are considered valid for two years. If for some reason you haven’t moved to Japan two years after the date of sample collection, you can maintain your animal’s eligibility by keeping their rabies vaccinations up-to-date, and paying for a second rabies titre test. You won’t have to wait an additional 180 days after that second rabies titre test.

Make sure you hang onto the original rabies titre test results report. Japan may not accept a copy. You should also get original copies of rabies vaccination certificates if you can, signed by the vets whenever possible, preferably in blue ink.

In general, the Animal Quarantine Service has a lot of rules for filling out forms. Pencils are not allowed, for example, nor is white-out. I don’t mean to be repetitive, but I must again stress that this article is not intended to be completely comprehensive: you must read through the Animal Quarantine Site yourself to ensure that you’re meeting all of the most up-to-date requirements.

3. When you have been hired

You’ve found a job in Japan? Congratulations! Hopefully you’ve timed things so that your animals are still in the eligibility period after their rabies titre test—that is, 180 days after the sample was collected, but before two years have passed.

If you’re in that sweet spot, the next step is to book your travel to Japan more than 40 days in advance. (I’ll explain why below.)

An important note: I did not personally handle the following steps. When we realized how rare and expensive animal-friendly hotels are in Japan, and that we would need one or two months to locate permanent housing, my husband and I opted to move to Japan with our children first. We left our dogs in the care of my parents for two months, and hired a pet-shipping company to handle the final paperwork and ship our pets to Japan after we’d found our house. I’ll go into more detail about pet-shipping later in the article.

I have, however, flown with my dogs to South Korea, Vietnam, the United States, and Mexico. Here are some important considerations for booking your pet’s flight:

• Make sure your airline(s) carry animals at all. This is not as common as it once was. During the pandemic, when countries closed their borders with little notice and flights were altered constantly, many airlines refused to carry animals due to liability and safety concerns. Some have now lifted those restrictions, but others have not.
• Most airlines won’t carry certain flat-faced breeds, such as bulldogs or Persian cats, and some also refuse to carry pitbulls, Rottweilers, or other dogs with an aggressive reputation (however unjustly deserved). There’s usually a list of banned breeds available on the flight website.
• There may be rules on how many animals can fly with a single passenger. I’ve seen airlines allow one person to check up to three animals, but others will only allow one animal per (human) ticket.
• Keep in mind the time of year and daytime temperatures. Some airlines won’t allow animals to fly if the temperature is either too high or too low. Red-eye flights during the summertime can help get around high temperature restrictions, which are usually more of an issue than the low temperature ones.

• Consider whether your dog or cat should be a carry-on item, or checked. The cut-off limit for dogs or cats in the cabin is usually 8-10 kg with the carrier. Sometimes it’s just the size of the carrier that’s restricted; the exact size requirements can vary, but 45 cm by 30 cm and 25 cm would be typical. Soft-sided carriers usually get a bit more leeway than hard-sided ones, since they’re easier to squeeze under the seat in front of you, which is usually where pets are required to ride.

  It isn’t always about size, either. If you have a loud animal who will be disruptive in the cabin, or one that is incontinent, you should consider whether checking them might be the better option. Conversely, if you’ve got an animal that’s of borderline size but whom you know will be calmer in your presence, try getting a soft-sided carrier and seeing if they’ll be comfortable in it.

• Every airline has its own nitpicky rules, particularly when it comes to checked animals. What sort of water bottle is permitted in kennels? Does a bag of dog food need to be taped to the top of the kennel, in case of emergencies? Does the airline require the kennel to be closed with zip-ties as well as locked? Double- and triple-check the airline website to ensure you’re following their policies exactly. When in doubt, call the customer service number and ask.
• This one is Japan-specific: if you have a dog, they are only permitted to enter Japan through certain airports and seaports. Double-check the list to make sure you’re going to the right place. There is some flexibility for service animals, but you’ll need to contact the Animal Quarantine Service directly to ask for instructions.

The reason you need to sort out your travel over 40 days before you’re scheduled to be in Japan, is that you’re required to send advance notification of your pet’s arrival to the Animal Quarantine Service not less than 40 days before they land. You’ll need to list the flight number and other details of your travel on the form.

There are separate notification forms for dogs and cats. You can submit the form by fax, mail, email, or the new online notification system (Japanese only). If your plans change, you should inform the Animal Quarantine Service as quickly as possible; naturally, this requires another form, unless you previously used the online notification system, in which case you should report it to the system.

The site also recommends sending some other documents with the notification form, to save time—notably, the rabies titre test results. But this is just the beginning of the real paperwork.

4. Soon before you leave

From now on, you’re dealing with two sets of regulations: those of Japan, and those of the airline. There may or may not be overlap between these.

Japan requires a clinical inspection of the animal by a licensed veterinarian, 10 days or less before the pet’s departure to Japan. After the inspection, you either need:

• Your veterinarian to fill out a health certificate and then get it endorsed by the government agency that is the equivalent of the Animal Quarantine Service in Japan OR

• For the certificate to be filled out and endorsed by an official government veterinarian.

  There’s some flexibility on the form, and the site lists the information that’s required on the certificate for it to be valid. If you want to play it perfectly safe, just use the certificate available on the site.

As far as the airlines go, the most common requirement is a health certificate from a vet stating that the animal is healthy and able to travel, a maximum of 10 days before departure. This means, in theory, you can use a copy of the same document you’ll be submitting to the Japanese government.

However, every airline is different. Aeromexico, for example, only considers a veterinarian health certificate valid for five days. That would mean you’d have to either schedule your pet’s vet visit within five days of the flight and hope that you can get the government agency to endorse the health certificate and send it back in time, or that you’re doing two vet visits to get two separate health certificates: one government-endorsed certificate for Japan, and another just for the airline.

The health certificate isn’t the only form the Animal Quarantine Service will ask for upon arrival. As of now, the list of required documents includes:

• Approval of Import Inspection of Animals (you should receive this from the Animal Quarantine Service after you submit the notification)
• The health certificate issued by the government agency of the exporting country
• The results report of the rabies antibody test
• The application for inspection form for dogs or for cats
• Other documents that the Animal Quarantine Service requires

As suggested by “other documents,” if it’s related to your dog or cat’s vet visits, shot records, or transport, add it to the folder. Remember: obtain original, ink-signed copies whenever possible.

The above list applies if you’re bringing your animal yourself on an airplane. If somebody is importing them for you, or if you’re shipping them as cargo, you’ll need to fill out a power of attorney and other documents, which are available on the Animal Quarantine Service site.

You may also want to set up special transportation arrangements in advance for you and your pet after landing. Trains and taxis won’t accommodate large dogs, for example. See “Transportation” above for more details.

5. After you arrive

The good news is that, if you’ve correctly followed all the instructions, your animal buddy will spend a relatively short time in quarantine before you can take them home. The Animal Quarantine Service says the inspection should only last a few hours, but it can take longer, so be prepared to wait. You’ll receive import documents for your pet, which you should keep. If you haven’t met the requirements, though, your pet will either go into quarantine, or be sent back to their home country.

If you’ve done everything else correctly—microchip, vaccinations, rabies titre test, etc.—and the only issue is that the required 180 days after the rabies titre test have not yet passed, it’s possible for the animal to wait out the remainder of those 180 days in quarantine. There isn’t much information available about the cost of a quarantine stay, so please contact the Animal Quarantine Service directly if you need to take this option.

If you have a dog, you’re required to register the dog at your local city hall within 30 days of your move-in date. Bring your paperwork from the Animal Quarantine Service with you. You should receive two tags for your dog’s collar—one that’s their city license, and one that’s a rabies vaccination tag.

All dogs in Japan are required to be vaccinated once a year for rabies, unless otherwise advised by a vet, in which case the vet should give you an exemption certificate. Whenever you renew the vaccination, you’ll receive a certificate that you’ll need to renew the rabies tag as well. Cats, on the other hand, are not required to be licensed or to receive regular rabies vaccinations. However you should still keep them up to date, in case you ever want to fly suddenly with your cat.

Finally, whatever you do, hang onto those import documents! You’ll need them if you ever want to eventually export your pet from Japan.

Summary

In brief, the checklist for importing dogs and cats from non-designated regions is:

[T–210 days] When you’re thinking about someday moving to Japan

• Microchip your pet and get a post-microchip rabies vaccine
• Stay up-to-date on rabies vaccines
• Start keeping original, ink-signed copies of your pet’s vet records

[T–180 days] When you’re starting your job hunt

• If at least 30 days have passed since the first post-microchip vaccine, but your pet hasn’t yet received a second post-microchip rabies vaccine, then get the second rabies vaccination
• Get the rabies titre test
  • Can be done the same day as the second rabies vaccination
  • Must be submitted to a designated laboratory
  • Double-check certificates to make sure they meet Japan’s standards
• If the rabies titre test results are good, your pet must wait 180 days before entering Japan

[T–41 days] When you have been hired

• Make travel plans for you and your pet
• Alternatively, hire a pet-shipper to transport your pet to Japan separately
• Submit the import notification form to Animal Quarantine Service 40+ days before your pet’s arrival

[T–10 days] Soon before you leave

• Have a vet inspect your pet and issue a health certificate less than 10 days before departure
• Get the health certificate endorsed by your government
• Ensure you meet all the airline’s requirements for travel
• Fill out additional Animal Quarantine Service paperwork, such as the application for inspection
• Bring all the paperwork
• Set up transportation for your pet after landing, if required

[T–0 days] After you arrive

• Have your pet be inspected by the Animal Quarantine Service
• Submit all the paperwork
• Receive import documents for your pet
• If you have a dog, take those documents to your local city hall within 30 days, to receive the license and rabies vaccination tags
• Get your dog vaccinated once a year for rabies (or get an exemption certificate from a vet) and renew the rabies tag
• Enjoy life in Japan!

Dogs and cats from designated regions

If you (and your pet) are from Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii, or Guam, and you’ve glanced through the extensive timeline up above, you’re probably feeling rather smug right now. Congratulations, you dodged the rabies titre test bullet!

Dogs and cats from designated regions only need to worry about:

• Getting an authorized microchip
• Submitting the advance notification to Animal Quarantine Service 40+ days before travel
• Receiving the government-endorsed health certificate 10 days or less before the flight
• Filling in the application for inspection form (it’s actually a little unclear whether you have to do this or not, but better safe than sorry)
• And, of course, whatever additional requirements the airline(s) might have

But don’t get too comfortable yet! Japan has strict rules on what, precisely, counts as “an animal from a designated region.” It’s not enough to be living in a designated area. Your dog or cat must also:

• Have lived in that designated region since birth OR
• Have lived in that designated region for the last 180 days OR
• Have been exported from Japan directly to that designated region, and have not left it

If your pet hasn’t done one of these, then unfortunately, they do not count as coming from a designated region. Given the expense and difficulty of the non-designated region import procedures, though, you may just want to wait in the designated region until your animal has lived there for the required 180 days. You’ll save yourself a lot of hassle by doing so!

There’s one other important consideration for those living in designated areas: traveling through non-designated areas. If you’ll be traveling through non-designated regions on your way to Japan, including connecting flights, you’ll need to either seal the cage, or fill out more paperwork (surprise, surprise).

Here is the Animal Quarantine Service page for designated regions, for more details. The instruction manual is available in English and Japanese.

Service dogs

I wrote “service dogs” because, while other service animals certainly exist (and who can resist a service mini-horse?), I doubt Japan will accommodate them.

Japan is not particularly helpful when it comes to service dogs. They’re subject to the exact same import restrictions as non-service dogs, and must go through the processes outlined above. The only difference is that service dogs are also required to submit a special application to a Japanese certifying body, in order to receive a “Temporary Certificate for Foreign Assistance Dog Users,” which will allow you to use your dog as a service animal in Japan. Note that Japan only permits service animals that have been trained by certain accredited international organizations, so it’s important to double-check that your dog will qualify.

The good news is that most airlines are required to allow service dogs in the cabin, so you’ll likely have an easier time arranging transportation to Japan.

Animals that aren’t dogs or cats

The difficulties mount if you’re importing an animal that isn’t a dog or a cat. The stakes are also higher: if your animal doesn’t meet the import requirements, it must either be reshipped at the importer’s expense, or culled. The Animal Quarantine Service stresses that, to avoid this, it’s best to send all the animal’s documents for pre-approval by the agency, before you attempt transport. And, as always, it’s best to directly check the source for importation rules.

Because of infectious disease laws, it is illegal to import:

• Chinese ferret badgers
• Bats
• Raccoon-dogs
• Masked palm civets
• Prairie dogs
• Natal multimammate mice
• Some monkeys

Pet Birds

The first thing to check is whether importation is possible at all from your home country. The Animal Quarantine Service has suspended importation from regions with outbreaks of avian flu, and the list of countries just grows longer. At the time of writing, no birds are permitted from Australia, the Philippines, much of the US and Canada, and parts of Europe and South America. Therefore, it’s critical, before you even consider bringing a bird to Japan, to read the designated regions list.

The next step would be to contact the Animal Quarantine Service directly and consult with them on their requirements. The good news is that, unlike barnyard fowl, pet birds don’t need to be quarantined. You will definitely need to provide a veterinarian health certificate and advance notification of arrival to the Animal Quarantine Service, though.

All of this information is available on the site in English, Spanish, Thai, and Chinese.

Rodents

Japan has very strict import rules for rodents, a category that includes hamsters, squirrels, guinea pigs, and chinchillas (presumably in addition to mice and rats, although oddly enough that isn’t specified on the site). A rodent must have been kept since birth in a government-certified facility that complies with strict conditions; this automatically eliminates all rodents that were purchased in a pet store or that have lived in your home.

Essentially, this means you can’t bring a pet rodent with you to Japan, unless your “pet” also happens to be a lab rat.

Ferrets (and similar mammals)

According to the Animal Quarantine Service’s pamphlet, ferrets, and other terrestrial mammals that aren’t rodents or rabbits, must have the usual vet health certificate and application for arrival. However, they must also “have been kept for a certain period of time or quarantined since birth in a rabies-free region or facility (period of time varies depending on endemic/non-endemic country, and type of storage/quarantine facility).”

Digging a little deeper into the Q&A for notifications, it seems that the rules regarding ferrets and similar mammals are dependent on whether the animals come from designated or non-designated regions—which are similar, but not identical, to the designated/non-designated regions of dogs and cats.

Designated regions for these mammals include:

• Australia
• New Zealand
• Fiji
• Hawaii
• Guam
• Iceland
• Ireland
• UK (limited to Great Britain and North Ireland)
• Sweden
• Norway (except for Svalbard, Jan Mayan, and dependencies outside Europe)

If the animal has lived since birth or capture in a designated region, or has been kept in a designated region for the last six months, then the usual government-endorsed health certificate will suffice. If the animal is from a non-designated region, they must have either been kept for 12 months or since birth in a storage facility where rabies has not been reported for the past 12 months, or have been kept for the past 6 months or since birth in a quarantine facility.

The definition of “storage facility” is simply a facility where animals are kept, but the site gets more specific about what constitutes a quarantine facility: it’s a “facility where any required observations, examinations and processes are conducted for a quarantined population of animals without direct or indirect contact with other animals under the control over the government authority of the exporting country.”

This means that, if you’re not from one of the regions above, it will be expensive and difficult to meet these requirements. If you’re determined to do it anyway, the best thing you can do is contact the Animal Quarantine Service more than six months in advance, to determine what precisely will qualify as a quarantine facility for your animal.

Rabbits

The import procedure for rabbits is strikingly different from other animals. What’s similar is that the vet health certificate must be issued and endorsed by the home country’s government within 10 days of your departure, and an application for arrival must be submitted in advance to the Animal Quarantine Service—in this case, at least 10 days in advance of your arrival (as opposed to dogs and cats, for which the requirement is 40 days in advance).

The major difference is that rabbits, even if all their paperwork is in order, must undergo a three day/two night quarantine. The owner is responsible for providing care for the rabbit during the quarantine period.

There are also individualized import procedures for the following countries:

• The Czech Republic
• China
• Taiwan
• France
• Denmark
• Canada
• Australia
• New Zealand

Each country has its own linked pdf on the website with specific requirements.

Reptiles, Amphibians, Insects, and Fish

There’s very little information available on import procedures for pet reptiles, amphibians, insects, and fish. No quarantine inspection is required; whether advance notification is needed is less certain. I would suggest contacting the Animal Quarantine Service directly to see if advance notification is necessary, or if there is any possibility that a vet certificate might be needed.

Practically speaking, the problem will be convincing the airline to accept your ten-foot long python, rather than Japan.

Hire a pet-shipper, or go it alone?

As mentioned above, I didn’t complete the entire process of importing our dogs to Japan by myself. This was because we didn’t have housing arranged when we arrived in Japan. Since pet-friendly hotels are both rare and expensive in Tokyo, we opted to leave our dogs with my parents for two months and have a professional pet-shipper send them when we were ready.

At the time we hired the pet-shipping company, we had already:

• Microchipped our dogs
• Gotten the two required post-microchip rabies vaccinations
• Ordered and received the results for the rabies titre tests
• Completed the required 180-day waiting period

My parents were responsible for:

• Taking the dogs for their health checks prior to the flight
• Ensuring that the vets sent the health certificate to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (that is, the US equivalent of the Animal Quarantine Service) for endorsement
• Getting their kennels and documents ready for the flight

What remained for the pet-shipping company we used, Starwood Pet Travel, was to:

• Double-check our documents and counsel us (remember how finicky Japan is about forms!)
• Set up the flights
• Arrange the arrival notification 40 days before travel
• File other paperwork, such as the Power of Attorney and the application for inspection
• Pick up the dogs from my parents’ house
• Get the dogs on and off the planes
• Stop mid-travel for a welfare check (they sent us an email update on how they were doing)

Once the dogs had landed in Japan, I hired a truck, picked up the dogs at Haneda Airport after their quarantine inspections, and brought them back to our house.

The cost for this pet-shipping—including the airfare for the dogs—was around 5,500 USD. Since it typically costs around 300 USD to check a dog as baggage on an airplane, it would have been much cheaper for us to fly them ourselves. However, we calculated that the additional expense of a pet-friendly hotel, for the months it took us to find the house we wanted, would have outstripped the cost of shipping them. It also saved us considerable stress, since we had to change hotels several times and were in general adjusting to life in a new country.

What I’ve described is the economy pet-shipping package. You can get much more comprehensive care for, of course, a much more comprehensive price. Extended packages might include your pet-shipping company handling the final vet visits, providing travel kennels, picking up your dogs from your house, and delivering them directly to your door in Japan.

We were pleased with the communication and care we received from Starwood Pet Travel. Unfortunately, their services are only for cats and dogs. There are other pet-shipping companies such as PetRelocation that may ship exotic animals. Since I only have experience with Starwood Pet Travel, however, I can’t personally endorse any other pet-shipping companies.

Conclusion

Is it entirely sane, going to all this expense and trouble to bring pets to Japan? Possibly not. Will many of us do it anyway? Of course! Pets are family, and I know our lives in Japan wouldn’t be complete without our dogs.

That being said, if you’re not sure that you’ll be in Japan for long, if your pet has medical needs that would be difficult to address in a foreign language, or if you have an active dog that won’t be happy in Japan’s more constrained spaces, you may want to make other arrangements for their care.

In summary, I would say:

• Dogs, cats, and ferrets (or similar terrestrial mammals) from designated regions are fairly easy to bring.
• Dogs and cats from non-designated regions must go through a lengthy and expensive, but ultimately quite doable, import process.
• Ferrets from non-designated regions must also go through a lengthy process that is rather opaque, so you’ll need clarification from the Animal Quarantine Service.
• Your average pet rodent can’t come to Japan at all.
• Birds aren’t hard to import, but the number of countries with avian flu outbreaks is growing by the day. There are many locations from which it’s simply impossible to bring a pet bird right now.
• Rabbits require little paperwork, but you must deal with a three-day quarantine.
• If you can bring your pet snake on a plane, you can probably bring it to Japan. (But double-check with the Animal Quarantine Service first!)

Once you’re in Japan, you’ll find that it’s a pet-friendly country, and that letting your dog sniff noses with the neighbor’s Shiba Inu is a great way to make friends. Just be sure to stretch your hands and fingers thoroughly before you start on all that paperwork.

Job Hunting as a Junior Developer in Japan 17 Jun 2024 8:54 PM (10 months ago)

One word: satisfaction. This is how I could accurately describe my feelings when I achieved my dream of finding a software engineering job in Japan. But my dream had almost turned into a nightmare, as I had faced countless rejections for almost a year.

Throughout my experience, I made mistakes and learned things related to job hunting as a junior developer. I believe that sharing what I learned could help other developers in a similar situation who are looking for employment in Japan.

• My experience
• Tips to find a job as a junior software engineer in Japan
  • Move to Japan
  • Learn Japanese
  • Build your network
  • Sharpen your skills
  • Expand your professional experience
  • Reconsider your salary expectations
  • Persevere and be patient

My experience

First, I’d like to share my own story. As someone who didn’t come to Japan as a student, or come later in their career and get hired from overseas for senior positions, I’m a bit of an outlier. If you’re in a similar situation, it might help you understand the challenges you’ll face.

Coming to Japan

I came to Japan right after graduating from Concordia University in my home country of Canada to experience a new life far from home.

I had a bachelor’s degree in software engineering and had interned at two companies for about a year. I could understand a bit of Japanese, but could barely speak it. My professional network in Japan was nonexistent.

As a Canadian national, I was fortunate to have access to the Working Holiday Visa (WHV), a 1-year visa available for nationals of 29 different countries. The WHV was the perfect visa for me, since I wanted to experience life in Japan before making a bigger commitment.

When I first arrived, I was just enjoying my time in Japan while putting minimal effort towards finding a job. However, after a few months, I realized that achieving my goals might be harder than what I imagined and decided to dedicate more time to job applications, attending networking events, and engaging with the software engineering community in Japan.

A difficult job-hunt

My efforts didn’t pay off, despite how hard I tried. I was rejected over a thousand times. There was always something preventing me from finding a job: lack of language proficiency, not enough work experience, the ephemeral nature of my visa, or the absence of specific skill sets.

Despite receiving so many rejections, I had also had my fair share of interviews at multiple companies. In total, I had at least one interview with over 10 companies.

I had applied for mid-level positions at international or Japanese companies that operated internally in English. This put me at a disadvantage, as I was up against more experienced candidates.

With about half the companies I interviewed with, I reached the final interview stage. For one of them, I even got an offer, which ended up being arbitrarily rescinded and given to another candidate. No matter how hard I tried, I could not find a job in Japan. I thought of giving up, packing up my stuff to go back to Canada, and accepting defeat.

… but then I met somebody …

After all these struggles, I finally met somebody who offered me a job… in a restaurant! A drink, a Manchester United football game, and a short discussion with the right person—that is what I finally needed to achieve my goal.

I met a developer who had lived in the UK for a few years and is now working for a Japanese tech company. We started discussing football, then tech, and he ended up forwarding my resume to the CEO of his company. Two interviews and a coding test later, I was offered a System Engineer position at the company.

My onboarding as a junior software engineer

The first few days consisted of setting up my computer, filling out forms and building a basic web application project to assess my level. That project went successfully, and so I was tasked with a second one to develop and deploy a blog web application. Again, everything went smoothly, and so I got to skip the usual training given to newcomers. Three weeks after joining the company, I joined the main project and started doing actual work.

While I did not go through technical training, I was still required to attend a business etiquette course to learn how to properly collaborate with customers and other stakeholders. This covered topics such as speaking politely, exchanging business cards, seat assignment in a meeting room, and more.

However, after speaking with other newcomers, I realized that my case is uncommon. Other newcomers followed a 6-months training plan that covered both technical and non-technical skills.

Completing my probation period

When the developer forwarded my resume to the CEO of the company, he emphasized on my technical skills to convince him that I could compensate for the lack of Japanese language ability and that I would be able to perform my tasks independently. In other words, I was expected to show results quicker than other newcomers. The company was also expecting that my Japanese language proficiency would improve over time.

To assess my progress during the probation period, my superior was in charge of filling a performance review based on my accomplishments during the first three months. This performance review was used to assess my technical and non-technical skill sets and to confirm my full-time offer. Since they were satisfied with my performance, I was offered a full-time position after three months instead of six.

My work today

Since passing my probation period, I continue to work as a software engineer. I write code for the current web application product, produce documentation, improve code contribution process and development methodology, teach programming to new employees, and more. I consider myself lucky because I found a position that helps me grow as a software engineer.

Tips to find a job as a junior software engineer in Japan

From my own experience, here’s some tips to maximize your chances as a junior developer looking for jobs in Japan.

Move to Japan

The best way to find a job in Japan is to already be in Japan. If you are a candidate overseas, it will be hard to land a job as a junior candidate. Though there are occasionally junior positions that accept overseas candidates, these are very rare and extremely competitive. The local candidate pool for these positions is often big enough to avoid looking for overseas candidates, given that hiring from overseas often means extra paperwork, administrative fees, and the risk that candidates might go back to their home country.

If you don’t have at least three years of experience, you may have to move to Japan on your own, and then look for a job. This is what I did. I had a Working Holiday Visa that allowed me to work in almost any field with no limit on the number of hours per week. This allowed me to physically be in Japan to attend networking events and made companies more likely to hire me since I could start working immediately. Working Holiday Visas issued in Canada do not require the visa holder to leave the country to convert them into a working visa, so I was able to request a conversion to an Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services visa without issues.

Besides a Working Holiday Visa, other possible paths include the student visa to learn Japanese at a language school or the J-Find visa for eligible candidates.

Learn Japanese

From my experience, junior positions tend to require a higher proficiency in the Japanese language . Learning Japanese will facilitate interviews with many companies and ultimately help you secure a position in software engineering. Even if the position does not require Japanese language proficiency, this skill set will always be appreciated in your career and will help you in your day-to-day life.

Software engineering positions for English-speaking candidates exist in Japan, especially for senior developers, but they remain relatively rare at junior levels. From my own experience, most junior-level job openings will require Japanese Language Proficiency Test levels N3 or N2.

In my case, my company requires proficiency in the language to be able to speak with the development team. I never went to a Japanese language school or studied on my own. I mainly practice Japanese by talking to strangers at social events and gatherings, but I must admit that my current level is still not enough to perfectly communicate with coworkers.

Working in a Japanese-speaking environment has substantially improved my spoken and written language skills. I went from barely speaking Japanese to conversing and writing in Japanese daily.

It is also worth mentioning that my language proficiency in English, French, and Arabic was seen as a “plus” for my current company, since they intend to expand to other countries and to become more international; this can apply to other companies in similar situations, as well.

Build your network

As a junior developer, you must look for opportunities. Networking was what kept my dream from becoming a nightmare. Join a tech community, offer to give tech talks at meetups, write articles for tech-related blogs, contribute to open-source projects, attend events sponsored by Japanese tech companies, and meet their recruiters. When I was still looking for a job, I often had questions answered by members of the TokyoDev Discord server and would highly recommend it. By making yourself more visible, you are working on your brand image, and it can only be beneficial in finding a job.

Sharpen your skills

Many companies will assess the skill levels of their candidates with online assessments or coding interviews. I was asked during interviews to solve algorithms and software design problems and believe that the time spent practicing for these questions was useful. Spend some time solving coding problems, read books about software architecture, schedule mock interviews with your peers. Improving your skills should be a continuous quest as a software engineer.

Expand your professional experience

The more relevant professional experience you have on your resume, the more callbacks you will get from recruiters. If you are a university student, take advantage of the internship programs that are available. I did this, and while the year of internship experience wasn’t seen the same as full time employment would have been, it still gave me valuable practical skills that helped separate me from someone who didn’t have it. Even working in a non-tech related position in a Japanese company can also be seen as positive since it showcases a foreign candidate’s ability to adapt to Japanese work culture.

Reconsider your salary expectations

TokyoDev found that the median compensation for developers in their community with less than a year of experience was 4.5 million JPY. A survey of software developers across Japan conducted by the Japanese government found the average to be 3.7 million JPY. In other words, if you are a junior developer looking for a job in Japan, you will probably have to wait a bit more before you start seeing those big bucks roll in, especially if you work at a more standard Japanese company.

The proposed salary for my probation period was below my expectations, but I was able to negotiate a raise of 20% after the probation period since I had a positive performance review from my superior. The transition from probation to full-time employee (正社員, seishain) was also shortened from 6 months to 3 months since I was able to demonstrate that I could work independently and would not require a training session unlike every other new employee at my company. TokyoDev has tips on negotiating your salary in Japan.

Persevere and be patient

Landing a job in the tech industry has become more challenging, especially for junior developers. Give yourself enough time to succeed. Persevere. Be patient. Evaluate your success by the small progress you make. Understand that continuous effort leads to success.

Wrapping Up

My experience as a foreign junior software engineer looking for a tech job in Japan helped me understand the different challenges that might be encountered during the process. It helped me build important skills and knowledge that will be useful throughout my career.

Going through that journey allowed me to identify key elements to maximize your chances of realizing your goals. The experience was very enriching and I do not regret making the move despite the hard times I went through.

For those who genuinely want to achieve their dreams of living and working in Japan, I recommend preparing yourself well and giving it a shot. The experience can be very interesting from both a personal and professional perspective.

Paid Leave and Vacations in Japan 12 Jun 2024 6:55 PM (10 months ago)

Japan has a reputation for being a country of overworked people who never take holidays. While this has been true in the past, the government has been trying to incentivize people to take more vacations and enjoy better work-life balance. Some challenges remain from a cultural perspective, but what employees are legally entitled to exceeds what is guaranteed in North America, and is on par with much of Europe.

This article will help you understand what holidays you’re entitled to receive in Japan, along with what you can expect to be able to actually take.

• Legal working hours
• Annual paid leave
• Other types of statutory leave
• Special leave
• Holidays in Japan

Legal working hours

Legal working hours in Japan are regulated by the Labor Standards Law (労働基準法, roudou kijun-hou). Companies can require employees to work up to 40 hours a week and 8 hours a day. There is an exception for companies with fewer than 10 employees in the following industries, which can require up to 44 hours a week:

• Commerce (商業, shougyou)
• Film and theater industry (映画演劇業, eiga engekigyou)
• Healthcare (保険衛生業, hoken eiseigyou)
• Hospitality and entertainment industry (接客娯楽業, sekkyaku gorakugyou)

Regarding legal holidays, the Labor Standards Law stipulates that a company must give their employees at least one day off per week, or, alternatively, four holidays per four weeks.

Annual paid leave

The Labor Standards Law also stipulates the annual paid leave system (年次有給休暇, nenji yuukyuu kyuuka). This system grants annual paid leave of at least 10 working days after an employee has worked for the company for 6 months for at least 80% of all working days. The amount of paid leave an employee is legally entitled to depends on the number of years they have worked for the company, as indicated below.

Of those 10 to 20 days of paid leave, the timing of five of those days may be set by the company. That’s because it became the company’s obligation to ensure employees take at least five days of paid leave annually as part of the Workplace Reform Bill (働き方改革法案, hatarakikata kaikaku houan) enacted in 2019. Otherwise, it may result in a fine of 300,000 yen per employee in violation of the bill.

The paid leave outlined by the Labor Standards Law is only the legally-required minimum, so the actual number of days off may vary depending on the company. According to the survey by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in October 2023, the average amount of paid annual leave in 2022 was 17.6 days, which was the same as in 2021. Of those 17.6 days offered by companies, 10.9 days were actually taken by employees on average in 2022, up from 10.3 days in 2021. The take-up rate in 2022, 62.1%, marked the highest since 1984.

TokyoDev’s survey in 2023, on the other hand, indicates that international software engineers working in Japan receive more time off than the Japanese average. 40.6% of respondents received 20 days or more of paid leave.

If you don’t use up your annual paid leave, it expires after two years. Those days off aren’t required to be paid out, so if you don’t take them, it’s simply a lost benefit. However, up to 20 days of paid leave can be carried over to the following year.

For example, if you didn’t use 10 days of paid leave in 2023, and 20 days were newly granted in 2024, you could take up to 30 days of paid leave in 2024. But if you only take five days in 2024, those would be counted as five days of the 10 days carried over from 2023, so the remaining five unused days from 2023 would be lost forever. The 20 days newly granted in 2024, however, would be carried over to 2025.

Other types of statutory leave

Other than annual paid leave, there are other types of leave stipulated by the Labor Standards Law.

Child-related kinds of leave

This includes Childcare at Birth Leave (出生時育児休業, shusshouji ikuji kyuugyou), Childcare Leave (育児休業, ikuji kyuugyou), and Child-Nursing Leave (子の看護休暇, ko no kango kyuuka), which I’ve already covered in another article.

Family care leave

Family care leave (介護休業, kaigo kyuugyou) is defined as leave taken by an employee in order to care for a family member who requires assistance for more than two weeks due to injury, illness, or physical or mental disability. The period of the leave is limited to a total of 93 days per family member. While taking this time off, employees don’t usually get paid by the company, but are eligible to receive 67% of their salary as a benefit of employment insurance.

Menstrual leave

Menstrual leave (生理休暇, seiri kyuuka) is granted by Article 68 of the Labor Standards Law to ensure the employer does not force a female employee to work when she has extreme difficulty during menstruation. Employers are not obligated to pay for Menstrual Leave, so it’s up to company policy whether it’s paid time off or not.

Special leave

In addition to the legally-mandated types of leave described above, companies also sometimes offer various kinds of special leave (特別休暇, tokubetsu kyuuka). These policies are not dictated by the law, but determined by each company independently. Not every company offers these types of time off.

Celebration or condolence leave

This leave is provided when an employee has congratulatory or mourning events (慶弔休暇, keichou kyuuka). That could include marriage, childbirth, or a death in the family. Typical examples are:

• Your own marriage (3-5 days)
• The marriage of your child (1-2 days)
• Your spouse gives birth (1-3 days)
• Death of your spouse (7-10 days)
• Death of your child or parents (5-7 days)

But the number of days will vary from company to company.

Sick leave

Sick leave (病気休暇, byouki kyuuka) is given when an employee needs to take time off for medical treatment or to go to the hospital. If the absence lasts longer than three days, and the company doesn’t offer paid time off, the employer’s health insurance will pay a daily stipend equivalent to two-thirds of the employee’s average salary over the past 12 months.

Summer (Obon) vacation

Summer vacation (夏季休暇, kaki kyuuka) is generally given during Obon season, which is August 13-15. During this holiday, many people have family events or visit relatives’ graves.

Refreshment leave

Refreshment Leave (リフレッシュ休暇, rifuresshu kyuuka) is usually offered when an employee has worked for the company for a certain period of time. For example, a company might offer three days off after the employee has worked for them for three years.

Birthday leave

Birthday Leave (誕生日休暇, tanjoubi kyuuka) allows employees to take one day off in the month of their birthday.

Holidays in Japan

All the different kinds of leave mentioned above exclude public holidays, which are treated differently under Japanese law.

Definition of holiday versus paid leave

Holidays (休日, kyuujitsu) are the days on which you are not obligated to work. If you work on holidays, you should be paid extra, because you’re working on a day that you are eligible to take off. On the other hand, paid leave (休暇, kyuuka) is time during which people are obligated to work, but don’t do so for personal reasons.

If you take paid leave, but are required to work during it, the employer generally cancels your paid leave while giving you alternative days off (振替休日, furikae kyuujitsu), or pays you for the actual hours worked.

Difference between legal holidays and regular holidays

There are two types of holidays in Japan: legal holidays (法定休日, houteikyuujitsu) and regular holidays (所定休日, shoteikyuujitu). The holidays stipulated in Article 35 of the Labor Standards Law are regarded as legal holidays. These include Sundays, national holidays, and observed holidays.

Regular holidays are those that are decided by individual companies, even though there is no legal obligation to have them. Examples of regular holidays are Saturdays, the day after national holidays, and company-specific holidays such as the company’s founding anniversary.

As mentioned above, you should receive extra pay when you work on any holiday. If you work on regular holidays you should receive more than 25% extra, while on legal holidays it should be more than 35% extra.

Japanese national holidays

Japanese national holidays are called National Celebration Days (国民の祝日, kokumin no hukujitsu). They are determined by the Act on National Holidays (国民の祝日に関する法律, kokumin no hukujitu ni kansuru houritsu), and there are 16 national holidays in Japan.

• New Year’s Day (元日, ganjitsu)
• Coming of Age Day (成人の日, seijin no hi)
• National Foundation Day (建国記念の日, kenkoku kinen no hi)
• Emperor’s Birthday (天皇誕生日, tennou anjoubi)
• Vernal Equinox Day (春分の日, shunbun no hi)
• Showa Day (昭和の日, shouwa no hi)
• Constitution Memorial Day (憲法記念日, kenpou kinenbi)
• Greenery Day (みどりの日, midori no hi)
• Children’s Day (こどもの日, Kodomo no hi)
• Marine Day (海の日, umi no hi)
• Mountain Day (山の日, yama no hi)
• Respect for the Aged Day (敬老の日, keirou no hi)
• Autumnal Equinox Day (秋分の日, shuubun no hi)
• Sports Day (スポーツの日, supo-tsu no no hi)
• Culture Day (文化の日, bunka no hi)
• Labor Thanksgiving Day (勤労感謝の日, kinrou kansha no hi)

If a national holiday falls on a Sunday, the holiday will be observed on the next weekday after the holiday. In most cases, it is the following Monday, and we call them “Observed Holiday” in the holiday list below.

Japanese national holidays in 2025 and 2026

Conclusion

As you can see, Japan offers a variety of time off, both legally-mandated and culturally-dictated. But since a number of these are dependent on your company’s goodwill, it’s important to understand your organization’s leave policies before you sign on. In addition, you should now have a good grasp of what’s owed to you under Japanese law. Don’t be hesitant to push for the extra holiday pay or required time off that a company is obligated to give you.

Recruitment Agencies in Japan: How To Get Them To Work For You 6 Jun 2024 4:47 PM (10 months ago)

You may have considered using recruiters when looking for a job in Japan. This article aims to help you understand the structure of recruiting in Japan and assist you in your job search. I hope this will be beneficial, especially for those who want to work as engineers in Japan.

This article is based on my own experience as a recruiter. I have worked as an engineering recruiter for five years, three of which have been dedicated specifically to supporting the career transitions of international engineers. I have written this article in the hope that my experience will be of some help to you all.

• An Overview of the Recruiting Industry in Japan
• Actual Process
• Benefits of Using Recruiters
• Things to Be Aware of When Using Recruiters
• How to Find a Good Recruiter
• Recruiting Agencies Specializing in International Engineers
• How to Be a Good Candidate for Recruiters

An Overview of the Recruiting Industry in Japan

The recruiting industry has existed since the Edo period

The recruiting industry is quite prevalent in Japan and can actually be traced back through Japanese history.

In fact, recruiting through agents has been conducted since the Edo period. At that time, recruiting had a dual nature of both providing employment relief for the destitute, but also engaging in human trafficking. The industry gradually grew, and after the Meiji Restoration, when Western culture entered the country, Japan entered a tumultuous high-growth period. As the economy rapidly expanded, it became common for workers to stay with the same company for a long time.

During the 1970s, when lifetime employment was common, the recruiting industry remained stagnant. However, it gradually started to grow and, after legal reform in 1999, it grew rapidly.

The legal reform in 1999 significantly deregulated the recruiting industry, allowing private companies to conduct paid job placement services, which resulted in a proliferation of new recruitment companies. It is said that this market has grown to a 300 billion yen market in Japan.

It might be that the recruiting industry became prevalent as a reaction to the once-common practice of lifetime employment.

Business model

In simple terms, the role of a recruiter is to act as an intermediary between companies and candidates and match them.

In Japan, there are various terms, but personnel introduction companies (人材紹介, jinzai shoukai) and career change agents (転職エージェント, tenshoku e-jento) mean the same thing. Headhunters (ヘッドハンター) are another type of recruiter that often target senior positions and may use a prepayment system, which is a system where client companies pay a deposit to the recruiters in advance. The term “recruiter” can refer to both agents and in-house recruitment staff.

A typical personnel introduction company operates on a completely performance-based system rather than a prepayment system, where the recruiter is paid a percentage based on the matched candidate’s salary. Recently, due to the increasing demand for engineer recruitment, the percentage has risen from its past standard of 30%; it is now usual for the recruiting company to pay the personnel introduction company 35-40% of the recruited person’s salary.

This fee is not taken from the candidate’s salary, but is paid by the company to the recruiting firm. Therefore, candidates should never be paying any money to recruiters.

Most recruiting companies have a refund policy stating that if the matched candidate leaves the company within a certain period of time, they must refund the client. Common terms are: within one month, 80% of the fee, and if within three months, 50% of the fee. This means that recruiters will want candidates to work at the matched company for at least three months.

Who are the recruiters you will talk to?

There are two systems in recruiting agencies: single-sided (片面, katamen) and double-sided (両面, ryoumen).

The single-sided system means that one person deals with the candidates, and a different person deals with companies. In this case, the person supporting the candidates is generally called a “career advisor,” (CA/キャリアアドバイザー, kyaria adobaiza-) and the person supporting the companies is generally called a “recruiting advisor” (RA/リクルーティングアドバイザー, rikuru-tingu adobaiza-).

On the other hand, the double-sided system means that the same person handles both the candidates and companies, processing the entire process consistently for individual positions. This person is often called a “consultant” or “recruiter.”

The advantage of the single-sided model is that candidates always deal with the same person, making it easier to build trust. However, that advisor may not know much about the specific companies or jobs that they are introducing to the candidate.

The advantage of the double-sided model is that one person handles both the candidate and the company, which can reduce communication errors and allow them to provide more detailed information about the position or company. However, if the candidate is looking at multiple positions, they may need to talk to many different recruiters, one for each position.

Actual Process

After first contacting a recruiter, it is common to have an hour-long interview. Before Covid, face-to-face interviews were common, but online interviews have now become the norm in many companies.

During this interview, the recruiter will listen to the candidate’s preferences and introduce various positions. If the candidate is interested in a job, they can apply, and the recruiter will submit their resume on their behalf. If the candidate passes the initial resume review and document screening, the next step is an interview with the company. The recruiter may also provide interview preparation at this stage.

Based on my experience, interview preparation usually starts with the recruiter providing more detailed information about the company and the job opening. They also inform you of the questions likely to be asked during the interview. In some cases, they may even give you hints on how to answer these questions.

However, if you have a recruiter who doesn’t help with interview preparation, there may be times when you receive no information at all.

Once the candidate receives a job offer, they should convey their intention to accept the offer through the recruiter. At the offer stage, the recruiter may also negotiate the salary on the behalf of the candidate if necessary, and will continue to support the candidate until they join the company. TokyoDev has an article with more information about negotiating salaries in Japan.

Thus, recruiters can provide a lot of support for candidates.

Benefits of Using Recruiters

Now that we have looked at the system, let me also explain the specific benefits of using recruiters.

Introduction to companies that suit you

For international engineers living abroad (or even in Japan), finding a Japanese company can be difficult. Finding a company that fits you is especially challenging, but by telling the recruiter about your past experience and preferences, they can introduce you to companies that match your preferences.

If your recruiter is smart, they will not introduce positions where you’ll have no chance of being hired, as that will be a waste of everyone’s time. So the jobs introduced will mainly be those where your past experience can be utilized. How many companies the recruiter is able to introduce you to will depend on your experience and how many connections they have with companies.

Document checks and interview preparation

Some recruiters provide advice on your resume or help you prepare for interviews. When I worked at an agency helping international engineers get jobs in Japan, I often provided advice on Japanese resumes, which are several pages long and have a unique format. Generally speaking, Japanese companies particularly care about your team development experience and your achievements, such as how you contributed to projects.

Also, interviews can be uniquely Japanese. For example, Japanese companies often care about why you are interested in their company specifically, and not another company. While this trend of asking specific questions has weakened somewhat recently, I used to provide interview preparation about these types of cultural differences.

Salary negotiation

One of the things you might be most concerned about is your salary. In Japan, it is generally not common to negotiate your salary, but it becomes easier to do so through a recruiter. This is because recruiters know the expectations of both the company and the candidate and understand how to find a compromise between the two.

However, you cannot always negotiate. The best strategy is to have offers from multiple companies so that you can compare them. By comparing each offer, you can choose the better offer or use other companies’ offers to improve the conditions. Having multiple options ensures a favorable position during negotiations.

Also, as Japanese law makes it nearly impossible to lower the base salary, companies hesitate to offer a high base salary when hiring a new employee. One method around this is a signing bonus, which a competent recruiter might propose to the company.

Support in English and other languages

If the recruiter targets international engineers, they will almost certainly provide support in English. Some recruiters may even offer support in more languages. At the agency where I previously worked, members could speak Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Spanish, and Norwegian.

Consulting on long-term career paths

Experienced recruiters can provide advice not only on the next job, but also on medium- to long-term career paths. Building a career in Japan may differ from that in your country. It will be a good opportunity to learn various things about engineers’ careers in Japan.

Things to Be Aware of When Using Recruiters

So far, we have looked at the benefits, but of course, there are also some things to be careful of.

First, it is essential to choose a recruiter who caters to international engineers. Additionally, since each recruiter has different companies they can introduce you to, if you want to apply to many companies, you should be prepared to contact multiple recruiters.

Some recruiters may ask you to use only their services and not those of other recruiters. However, while this may benefit the recruiter, it is not particularly advantageous for you. I recommend not worrying too much about this and considering using multiple recruiters. However, one important thing to be careful about is that once you have applied to a company, you cannot apply to the same company again through a different recruiter, even if the position is different. Therefore, be aware that you may need to inform your recruiters which companies you have already applied to.

While recruiters provide support, the quality of that support often depends on the individual recruiter’s skills. Some recruiting companies have well-defined support policies that they implement company-wide, but often the quality of support can depend more on the individual rather than the company.

Additionally, it’s good to keep in mind that there may be times when recruiters stop contacting you. Common scenarios include recruiters saying they will contact you if a good position comes up but then not following up, or if you apply to a company through the recruiter, but receive no response. If you don’t hear from a recruiter for a while, it may mean that the recruiter doesn’t have many suitable companies to introduce to you.

When you don’t get a response after applying, it could be the recruiter’s neglect, or it might genuinely be that there is no feedback from the company—which does happen frequently. So, it’s a common occurrence, and you shouldn’t be disappointed or worried if there is no further contact.

Considering these factors, it is wise to engage multiple recruiters. Since compatibility is essential, it’s a good idea to talk to several to find some who match your preferences.

When talking to them, actively communicate your preferences and seek advice. Recruiters are human too. When they hear your preferences and are relied upon, they are more likely to work hard for you.

However, it is crucial to remember that you should lead your job search. Recruiters may support you in various ways, but ultimately, you are responsible for deciding on your next job. Work takes up most of your waking hours, so it’s a significant life decision. Ensure you make the decision yourself, and do not delegate it to someone else.

How to Find a Good Recruiter

First, make contact with a recruiter

If you haven’t properly set up your LinkedIn profile yet, it’s a good idea to set up one that clearly states that you want to work in Japan. Many recruiters use LinkedIn, so if you do that, you might receive messages from recruiters. You can also search for recruiters yourself on LinkedIn. Later, I’ll introduce some specific agencies that you can search for.

If someone around you has successfully transferred to Japan, it’s also a good idea to ask them for a referral. It might be more reassuring to be introduced to an excellent individual recruiter rather than just a company.

Determine your compatibility with the recruiter

Once you’ve made contact, they will likely arrange an initial interview. However, you don’t want to waste time, so here are some points to determine whether the recruiter is suitable for you:

Do they understand engineering?

Recruiters are often not engineers. Therefore, you need to understand that they may not be able to talk about engineering on equal terms with you. However, if they lack knowledge about engineering, it might be challenging to proceed smoothly, so be cautious.

How well do they understand the companies they introduce?

The more a recruiter understands about the company they introduce, the higher your chances of being hired. This is because understanding the company means they know what kind of person the company is looking for and can advise you on interview points. Large agencies have many job opportunities, but their recruiters may not always be well-versed in each one. This is a trade-off, so you might select recruiters differently based on the situation.

Do they listen to your preferences and make new suggestions?

Some recruiters introduce companies with hiring potential regardless of the engineer’s preferences to increase their possibility of earning a placement fee. A trustworthy recruiter is one who listens to your preferences and introduces companies that match those preferences as much as possible. Additionally, an excellent recruiter can present new options and insights you hadn’t considered.

Is the support thorough?

Some recruiters do not provide document checks or interview preparation, as explained earlier. On the other hand, some do offer extensive interview preparation. This can vary significantly between individual recruiters.

Recruiting Agencies Specializing in International Engineers

Here are some specific agencies that focus on helping international software engineers get jobs in Japan.

• JELLYFISH is a company that provides career change support for international engineers with the mission “Expand your Horizon.” It is the company where I previously worked, and I believe they offer very thorough support, including detailed hearings and interview preparation.
• Recruiter Room bills itself as “Japan’s first dedicated Artificial Intelligence recruitment company.” Most of their recruiters are international residents of Japan, including their founder.
• Wahl+Case is an agency focused on tech in Japan, both on the business side and product side of things.
• Talisman is an agency focused on internationally minded companies and startups in Japan.
• Tech Japan is an agency focused on connecting Indian technology professionals and Japanese enterprises.
• Paul Roberts has been working as a tech recruiter in Japan since 1999, and maintains a blog that includes profiles of the Japan tech community.
• Active Connector is a company that primarily introduces global talent to Japanese startup companies.
• Bizmates provides business-focused online English conversation lessons and offers a service called G Talent for international IT engineers looking to change jobs.
• Inbound Technology offers a foreign talent introduction service called World in Pro, connecting global talent with domestic companies. One of its features is having a multicultural staff in-house, capable of supporting more than nine languages.

How to Be a Good Candidate for Recruiters

Next, let’s look at recruiting from the recruiter’s perspective. What makes a good candidate?

Experience and skills

Companies pay recruiters a considerable amount of money (millions of yen) to hire you, so you need to have skills and experience that match this investment. Companies are especially concerned when hiring engineers who have never lived in Japan. Companies and recruiters tend to prefer working with experienced engineers.

Japanese Proficiency

If you can work in Japanese, a significantly higher number of companies will be willing to consider you. Recruiters will be happy to know that you have Japanese proficiency, as that will enable them to introduce many cases leading to employment.

Clear communication about your preferences, values, and strengths

While it may be challenging to articulate your preferences, values, and strengths, recruiters need to be able to understand these to introduce you to the job opportunities you desire. While skilled recruiters may ask the right questions to uncover your strengths, in the case of less skilled recruiters, being able to communicate your strengths yourself can significantly increase your chances of being hired.

Understand your market value

If your desired salary is higher than your market value, recruiters will not have companies to introduce you to. While a higher salary is better, it’s essential to balance your skills with the salary. If you have little work experience, understand that not all your preferences may be met. Especially remember that markets and industries in Japan may be vastly different from those you are used to.

Make efforts to build relationships

Recruiters have seen many engineers with similar careers to yours and are professionals in assisting with job transitions. It can also be beneficial for you to understand the criteria similar engineers use to select companies and positions, and the kinds of careers they aim to build.

Sometimes, it’s important to humbly accept the professional’s opinion, as opposed to arguing with them about why things are different. Furthermore, if you come across a good recruiter, they might not only help you with this job transition but could also assist with future transitions and opportunities as well.

Should You Use a Recruiter?

Having explained the recruiting industry, I’d like to conclude with my thoughts on whether you should use a recruiter.

If you match any of the following criteria, consider using a recruiter:

• Have about three years or more experience as a software engineer or have business-level Japanese proficiency.
• Find it challenging to search for companies on your own.
• Need help with document preparation and interview preparation.
• Want to know a realistic salary range for your experience and skills.

I sincerely hope this article helps you understand the recruiting business in Japan. Best wishes on your job transition to Japan!

From Mongolia to Japan as a Software Engineer 29 May 2024 9:57 PM (11 months ago)

I’d love to share my journey of almost six years of experience as a Mongolian software engineer in Tokyo. My path to securing a job in Japan was somewhat unconventional in that I applied for jobs in Japan through career fairs at my graduate school, the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB).

Job Hunting

I pursued a graduate degree for two years at IITB in Mumbai, India, specializing in Computer Science and Engineering (CSE). As a graduate student at IITB, the job hunting process was both straightforward and stressful. Like many universities, we had career fairs where companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Palantir, SAP, and many others, along with Japanese companies like NTT, Yahoo Japan, Konica Minolta, Softbank, and Mercari, actively sought out new graduates before graduation.

The application process involved several stages:

1. Submitting resumes to interested companies.
2. Passing an online coding test.
3. Technical interviews with team managers, which could include multiple rounds.
4. Final interview focused on behavioral and culture-fit assessments with the hiring manager.

The interviews were tightly scheduled and conducted in a competitive environment. However, students from the IITB Computer Science and Engineering department have a nearly 100% success rate in securing jobs, and almost all of them received and accepted offer letters within 1-2 days of completing the process.

I focused on applying to Japanese companies for several reasons: there are short, direct flights between Japan and Mongolia, both countries are similar in having four seasons, Japan has diverse food choices, and there is also a warm Mongolian community. Most importantly, Japan’s high-tech industry adopts advanced technologies, which offers great opportunities for me to apply my research effectively.

After completing rounds of interviews, I received an offer from Konica Minolta in Tokyo, Japan. I was thrilled about the opportunity to start my career in a multinational technology company. One concern was fitting in, especially knowing that English is not the primary language (although Japanese wasn’t mandatory for our company, it was more encouraged). So I began learning Japanese.

Japanese Language

I am deeply appreciative of the support my employer provided to help me get to a conversational level of Japanese after I completed my degree. They provided me with full-time, intensive study for 3 months in Ho Chi Minh city, where I attended classes from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. to study for and pass the JLPT N4 exam. Daily one-on-one conversations with my teachers prepared me for the cultural nuances awaiting me.

My company had initiated the visa process while I was studying Japanese, so after I completed my course, I needed to return to Mongolia to receive my visa and then fly straight to Japan.

Working in a Corporation

In Tokyo, the sight of professionals in suits and carrying briefcases during rush hour is a common one that you might have seen on TV. The corporate culture is characterized by well-structured divisions, large-scale projects, and busy schedules.

I was in the IoT department, where I worked on a variety of R&D projects. The great part was that my department is like a small startup within a big company. My colleagues were open-minded and proficient in English. However, fluency in Japanese was essential for broader, cross-departmental contributions, such as participating in the project’s early-on ideating processes. As most long-term projects involve many departments, I had a chance to work with sustainability, and manufacturing teams to develop a data-collecting system for the factory.

My role involved research into IoT technologies and coding across various projects. I was fortunate to contribute to an award-winning project aimed at driving the company’s digital transformation. This experience provided insights into how major corporations make global decisions to make technological progress. As our company has undergone a significant shift into digital transformation across its global branches, extending beyond Japan, I have come to recognize the pivotal role of R&D in a company’s success. The allocation of funding to develop high-impact innovative ideas is just as crucial as staying competitive in the rapidly evolving tech industry.

I gained experience through working on a variety of projects not only as an IoT engineer, but also as a backend, full stack, and frontend developer. While this breadth of experience looked amazing on my resume, I wanted to specialize in a particular platform or programming language. My interest in entrepreneurship led me to volunteer for startup projects to help a broader audience and understand their pain points.

At the beginning of the pandemic, our team adopted a remote working culture, where we were only required to go to the office once or twice a week, which helped familiarize me with remote work practices.

The working culture of the company was significantly different than what I experienced at KhanBank, one of Mongolia’s largest corporations. I noticed that my Mongolian colleagues tended to invest heavily in personal relationships. We celebrate birthdays, visit each other’s homes during Tsagaan Sar (Lunar New Year) and share hobbies outside of work. In contrast, my Japanese colleagues tended to maintain formal relationships, with less emphasis on personal interactions outside of the workplace.

I learned that if someone loves order, structured management, and the pursuit of long-term career goals, the corporate world would be a perfect place for them.

Working in a Startup

One day, I was contacted by the COO of a thriving startup company in Tokyo via LinkedIn to discuss my work experiences and plans, including potential job changes. After a couple of interviews with the team and C-level executives, I received an offer for a frontend engineer position. The projects I worked on before aligned with the skills that were needed at the new company, so it was a perfect match and personally a great place to specialize in Typescript and Vue.js.

The environment was very different compared to the corporate world. The first thing I remember was I didn’t need an employee ID to enter or exit the office, and team members seemed easygoing.

On my first day, I went to the office to receive my work laptop, greeted my colleagues, and had lunch with them. By the second day, I started working fully remotely, which continued until September 2023.

Our company developed an AI-driven solution to predict people’s recommended sizes for online purchases. Our small, dedicated team works tirelessly to assist hundreds of thousands of individuals in finding perfectly fitting clothes online. This experience provided me with insights into the importance of startup agility and the critical role of teamwork in achieving success. Even though the company was only established around 10 years ago, I learned that succeeding in the competitive Japanese startup ecosystem requires years of dedication, hard work, teamwork, and solid investment partnerships.

Working with people from more than 10 different countries daily was a life-changing experience that allowed me to learn, grow, and contribute to our shared goals. If someone thrives in diverse, open-minded, and fast-paced environments, then a startup is an ideal fit for them.

Communities for Software Engineers

As a foreigner in bustling Tokyo, I always aspire to network with like-minded people to learn, share my experiences, and help others to grow. Tokyo’s wide international network of engineering professionals is full of interesting, talented folks open to supporting each other and sharing various volunteer opportunities. For example, check out these tech meetups in Tokyo.

Additionally, Mongolian working professionals in Japan have established a community to support knowledge-sharing events and workshops. We have a Facebook group to share IT, and software engineering trends, upcoming events and discuss job-related topics. I had the incredible opportunity to speak at an event organized by Start Japan, where I shared my personal experience of building a remote team to tackle education reform and its challenges in Mongolia. It’s inspiring to connect with fellow Mongolian professionals and witness how they thrive in culturally diverse societies, each striving to do their best.

Companies like GerTech and Start Japan recruit volunteers, organize events, and conduct interviews with successful professionals. You can stay updated by following them on Linkedin or Facebook. Additionally, the Onigiris in Tokyo podcast offers insights into lifestyle, career growth, and experience living in Japan as a Mongolian.

As remote work became the norm, it was essential for me to have ways to connect with others and stay informed about the latest tech trends, and these communities provided many meaningful connections for further collaboration.

Final Thoughts

Japan is a great place to learn and experience the power of team collaboration and its impact on a national level. I’ve also been able to appreciate some of life’s simple pleasures here, like sipping matcha, admiring sakura, and embracing gatherings in the park.

Many companies here are welcoming talented professionals from abroad. Language is less of a barrier now, especially in tech positions, which opens doors to many opportunities.

Also, Japan is an amazing country for families to relocate to, as there are options for some visa types to get dependent visas for spouses and children. Settling in quiet suburbs around Tokyo allows one to both advance their career and also explore the country’s beauty.

How to buy a house in Japan 28 May 2024 10:27 PM (11 months ago)

Since moving to Japan on a J-Find visa, I’ve been curious about buying a home in Japan. This is a big topic with lots of details to consider, and so after having discussions with several experts, Emil Gorgees from RealEstate.jp, James Howell from Kanachu, Masaru Takeyama from Resort Innovation, as well as from one recent homebuyer, I’ve come up with the following guide.

• Understanding the Basics
  • Determining what kind of mortgage you can secure
  • Finding the Right Real Estate Agent
  • Choosing the right property
• Before the Purchase Process: Home Inspection
• Initiating the Purchase Process
  • Establishing Financial Commitment
  • Mortgage Pre-approval Process
  • Examining Legal Disclosures
  • Finalizing the Sale
• After the Purchase: What Next?
  • Property Tax
  • Insurance
  • Regular Maintenance
• Conclusion

Understanding the Basics

When you’re out there hunting for houses, you’ll need to decide between new and used properties. New homes come with the latest amenities and usually require less immediate maintenance, which is a big plus and probably more secure. On the other hand, older homes might need some work, but they often have more space and unique character.

So for me the first step is about looking inward: Why do I want to buy a home? How does it fit with my long-term plans in Japan? Is it about securing a future for my family or finding a place that feels like yours? Personally, I knew that even if I eventually go back and forth between Switzerland, Turkey, and Japan, I want to have a place in Japan that I can call home.

Determining what kind of mortgage you can secure

It’s crucial to first determine the kind of mortgage you can secure, as it will define your budget. When it comes to mortgages, your options and the ease of accessing them can vary significantly based on your residency status—whether you’re a permanent resident, here on a work visa, or otherwise.

Japanese banks, such as SMBC, offer various mortgage programs designed for foreigners. Look at your and possibly your spouse’s employment history, annual income, and other financial commitments. Generally, you can borrow up to 7–8 times your annual household income, but this can differ based on many other personal factors, such as your health, marriage status, age, job stability and the company you’re working for, and additional sources of income like bonuses or freelance work.

As part of the mortgage application process, banks will conduct a thorough personal assessment. Here are some key factors banks typically review:

• Employment and Work History. Banks will investigate your job stability and career longevity as indicators of reliable income.
• General Financial Situation. This includes an overview of your assets, liabilities, and other financial commitments.
• Salary. Generally, banks require that you earn at least ¥2-5 million annually, although this can vary depending on the bank and the specific mortgage product.
• Age. Your age can affect loan terms, with younger applicants potentially receiving longer amortization periods.
• Health. Your health and any disabilities can affect whether banks will be willing to consider your application, as health insurance is a requirement for many mortgages.
• Existing Mortgages. Any current mortgages you have will be considered as they impact your ability to service additional debt.

A good starting point is to thoroughly assess your financial standing and consult with a real estate agent who can guide you towards the right banking partner. These agents often have established relationships with loan officers at major banks and can advocate on your behalf, making the process smoother. Again, understanding the full scope of your financial capabilities and constraints not only helps in securing a mortgage but also in managing your expectations and aligning them with the realities of the Japanese real estate market.

Finding the Right Real Estate Agent

After establishing your budget, the next step is finding the right real estate agent for your needs. This partner is key to your success—not only do they help you find your ideal home, but they also guide you through the complex purchasing process in Japan.

Be prepared to deal with mounds of paperwork from multiple organizations involved in the process. It pays to be well organized, as losing track of one single physical document can be a huge setback. There are parts of the loan and purchase process that probably won’t make any sense. However, you just have to go through the process, step by step, the way it has been done for decades upon decades.

Perhaps the most important lesson I “learned” is to work with an excellent real estate partner. A skilled agent does more than negotiate deals; they understand your needs and can bridge any language gaps. At this stage, you will also need to formalize your partnership by signing a commission agency or broker agreement. It’s important to note that in Japan, the brokerage commission is typically set at 3%.

The ideal agent makes sure you are well-informed and comfortable throughout the entire journey, from scheduling property viewings to managing the final negotiations. They can offer insights into different neighborhoods and what they offer in terms of lifestyle, convenience, and investment potential. Additionally, your agent should be adept at interpreting contracts and dealing with the nuanced bureaucratic elements of property transactions in Japan, which can be formidable for those unfamiliar with the system.

Also, your real estate partner will have a solid network of contacts that can prove invaluable, including connections with banks for smoother mortgage applications, and relationships with surveyors and legal professionals to ensure that all aspects of your property purchase are handled with expertise. You should find someone who not only has the professional capabilities but also the personal touch to understand and prioritize your interests throughout the process.

Furthermore, consider whether a bilingual agent could facilitate smoother communications, making it easier to navigate the process and understand all the details. On the other hand, a Japanese-only agent might provide deeper local insights and a more thorough understanding of the market and cultural nuances. In some cases, hiring an interpreter might be a viable alternative, especially for creating clear communication while still benefiting from a local agent’s expertise.

Choosing the right property

Once you’ve teamed up with a real estate agent who understands your needs and preferences, you’re ready to choose the right property for you. Most property searches begin either by exploring listings on popular online platforms like SUUMO, at home, or through recommendations from your real estate agent who has access to industry databases like REINS (Real Estate Information Network System) that contain properties not listed publicly.

REINS, much like multiple listing services in other countries, provides comprehensive real estate information. However, listing properties on REINS involves certain costs, so not every property for sale might be included. This makes having a knowledgeable agent crucial, as they can access REINS for current listings and may also have information on properties not listed in the database. Every agent will have access to the same official database, so choosing the right partner in this stage really can make or break the deal. Alternatively you can find a piece of land, or a house, and contact the agent or property management company in charge of selling that property.

Selecting the right location requires careful consideration. You’ll need to think about accessibility to essential amenities like schools and public transportation. Additionally, the quality of local facilities—such as parks, grocery stores, and recreational areas or sports facilities—can greatly influence your quality of life.

Many prospective homeowners find that properties just outside major urban centers like Tokyo offer a balanced mix of affordability and community spirit. These areas often provide a more relaxed environment, with the added benefit of more spacious and more affordable properties compared to what you might find in the heart of the city.

In this step, your agent’s insights become invaluable once more. They can provide perspective on long-term value trends, community dynamics, and even specific property features that might not be obvious at first glance. Whether you’re looking for a modern apartment with eco-friendly features or a more traditional family home, your agent’s guidance will be key in finding a place that feels like home and fits your budget and lifestyle goals.

Before the Purchase Process: Home Inspection

Sakura Jimusho is a company that specializes in providing comprehensive real estate consulting services, including home inspections, property market research, due diligence services, and construction quality inspections. To our knowledge, they are the biggest home inspection company in Japan.

For inspections, they offer different packages based on the type of property. For example, their Apartment Basic Course is priced at ¥49,500 (tax included), while the Basic Course for Detached Houses is ¥66,000 (tax included). One of the best parts is that you can send them information about the layout and area of the property, and they’ll provide you with a detailed quote.

If you speak Japanese, a major draw for using Sakura Jimusho for inspections is that you can follow the inspector throughout the process and discuss the results in real time. This means that you can call out features that interest or concern you, or ask clarifying questions.

Initiating the Purchase Process

If you’re considering a new house or condo, begin with the Property Purchase Application (購入申込書, kounyuu moushikomisho), typically provided by the developer or the real estate firm. Due to high demand, particularly for new constructions, your application might enter a lottery if the number of applicants exceeds available units. Prepare for the possibility that your application may not succeed and expect to pay an application fee ranging from several tens of thousands to over ¥100,000.

For a pre-owned home, you start with a Declaration of Intent to Purchase (買付証明書, kaitsuke shoumeisho), signaling your serious interest and initiating negotiations. This often involves a deposit (separate from a down payment) that is forfeited if you suddenly decide to back out of the purchase.

Establishing Financial Commitment

In the negotiation phase, you’ll place a down payment (手付金, tetsukekin), which is usually about 10% of the home’s price. This down payment is later applied to the final payment when you close the deal.

Mortgage Pre-approval Process

After your intent to purchase is declared, it’s time to explore mortgage options. Discuss with your bank to undergo a financial review to determine your mortgage eligibility and establish the terms of your loan.

The Japanese mortgage process has two stages of approval: pre-approval and approval. The pre-approval process is a streamlined approval process before the official approval to reassure all parties that the funds will likely be available with the purchase, with the goal of saving everyone’s time in negotiations.

Once pre-approved, as long as all of the information you submitted is accurate and does not change negatively before the official approval application, the odds of failing the official approval are very small.

Examining Legal Disclosures

One of the most crucial documents in the buying process is the Explanation of Important Matters (重要事項説明書, juuyoujikou setsumeisho). Prepared by the seller’s agent, this document provides essential details that inform your purchase decision, covering:

• Any existing mortgages or encumbrances
• Property defects or damage
• Awareness of surroundings and neighbours
• Ongoing costs such as management fees

Finalizing the Sale

After reviewing all pertinent details and agreeing to the conditions, you will sign the Purchase Agreement (売買契約書, baibai keiyakusho), a contract that requires things like:

• A copy of your passport
• Stamp duty
• A registration certificate
• Your personal seal (印鑑, inkan)
• An inspection report detailing any issues with the property

After the Purchase: What Next?

The responsibilities that come with owning a home extend far beyond the initial purchase. In planning your finances, remember to account for ongoing expenses like property tax, insurance, and regular maintenance.

Property Tax

Property tax in Japan, known as 固定資産税 (kotei shisanzei), is assessed annually based on the property’s value. The tax rate is typically 1.4% of the assessed value, but this can vary slightly depending on the municipality. The assessed value is usually lower than the market value, but it’s still a significant ongoing expense. You can use tools and calculators available online to estimate the property tax for specific areas. One good website to get insights from is Rehouse from Mitsui.

Insurance

Home insurance (火災保険, kasai hoken) is another essential expense that is often required in the contracts for the mortgage itself. It covers potential damages from fire and natural disasters, such as earthquakes and typhoons. The cost of insurance can vary based on the coverage and the property’s location, size, age, construction, municipality, etc. Typically, you might pay between ¥20,000 to ¥40,000 annually for basic coverage, with additional premiums for more comprehensive plans.

Regular Maintenance

Regular maintenance includes everything from routine repairs to larger renovation projects. On average, the experts say homeowners should set aside about 1% of the property’s value annually for maintenance costs. For a property worth ¥30,000,000, this would mean budgeting around ¥300,000 per year, just in case.

Conclusion

To conclude, buying a home in Japan as a foreigner is indeed a significant commitment but also a deeply rewarding experience. I’d like to emphasize once again that understanding your financial standing and securing the right mortgage are foundational steps. Choosing a knowledgeable and experienced real estate agent can greatly ease the process, provide valuable insights, and bridge any language gaps.

Bringing Your Family to Japan 27 May 2024 8:41 PM (11 months ago)

My son often walks a few blocks to the convenience store to buy a snack. His friends bike to our house to play. And as my daughter’s coming home from school, the neighbors no longer say “Konnichiwa,” when she passes. They call out “Okaeri!” which means “Welcome home!”

I’ve witnessed considerable debate online about whether or not Japan should be considered a “child-friendly” country. Proponents love the safety of Japan, and the freedom and independence kids can still find here. Other parents get glared at for taking a stroller on the subway, or struggle with bullying in schools.

My own experience is that Japan is kid-friendly, but not necessarily kid-easy. In general, our family has been touched by the consideration and foresight we see regarding children. For example, we recently attended an “Easy Japanese” disaster prep class. The event wasn’t specifically intended for children, but when we arrived, the organizers had already set up a tent and toys for kids to play with in one corner of the room. My children got a bit noisy during the presentation, and several times I got up to shush them, but each time the organizers rushed over with reassurances: “Daijoubu, daijoubu, really it’s ok!” Since the staffers also stayed behind to play with my kids after the meeting was over, I have to assume they meant it, and weren’t just being polite.

The local approach to children here may be kind-hearted, but I wouldn’t call it easy-going. Japan also has high expectations for parents, a patchwork system of childcare that doesn’t always add up, and a social safety net that, while impressive to us Americans, pales next to the standard benefits of many European countries.

The process of bringing your family to Japan, though, is relatively easy. I’ve imported two children to Japan, and two dogs. Let me assure you, the dogs were far more difficult.

Can I legally bring my family to Japan?

Jobs on TokyoDev that offer relocation to Japan do so through two visas: either the Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services visa, or the Highly-Skilled Foreign Professional (HSP) visa. Both visas permit you to bring your family with you as dependents, but vary on the specifics.

If you have an Engineer visa or its equivalent, you are qualified to bring your legally married spouse and children with you on Dependent visas.

“Spouse and children” do not include:

• your children who are over 18
• parents or other relations
• your partner to whom you are not legally married
• your spouse’s children that you haven’t legally adopted
• your married, same-sex partner

Even if you are legally married to a same-sex partner, Japan does not currently recognize same-sex marriages. Your partner therefore can’t arrive on a Dependent visa. However, there have been cases where same-sex spouses, married legally in another country to the work visa holder (or Japanese partner), have been able to come to Japan on a Designated Activities visa. The process and requirements for this visa are a little different, and involve the same-sex spouse coming to Japan as a tourist rather than applying for a Certificate of Eligibility (CoE). For this visa, even more than for other visas, I’d recommend getting professional advice. It’s also important to note that, since Japan doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages, the same-sex spouse won’t be able to access the working partner’s health insurance and benefits.

However, there has been a positive development on this front: courts in both Tokyo and Sapporo recently decided that the ban on same-sex marriages is unconstitutional. There have already been a number of legal challenges to the ban since 2019, and the cases are moving through the courts, so immediate action by the government is unlikely; nonetheless, we can hope for a revision of this policy.

If you have a Highly-Skilled Foreign Professional (HSP) visa, you can bring more than just your spouse and children. You’re also qualified to bring a grandparent, solely for the purpose of taking care of a) a child under the age of seven or b) the pregnant visa-holder or their spouse. The grandparent’s Dependent visa is restricted to one year or six months, depending on the circumstances. HSP holders can also bring a house servant, with a visa of one year’s duration.

Can we all come to Japan at the same time?

Some online sources claim that only large or important companies can get the special authorization to issue both your and your dependents’ (CoE) simultaneously. That wasn’t our experience: although my visa was sponsored by a small startup, my family all received our CoEs at the same time.

The truth is that if you ask one question about Japanese visas, you’ll probably get three answers. You may even receive different answers from different Immigration officials, depending on who is at the counter that day. It’s best to consult a professional, and have them advocate for you, whenever possible.

If your company can’t (or won’t) process your dependents’ visas at the same time as yours, you can:

1. Apply for their Certificates of Eligibility yourself, in Japan. Here is the application and a list of required documents.
2. Receive the CoEs in Japan.
3. Mail them to your dependents, in your home country.

Your dependents then bring their CoEs to their local Japanese embassy, and receive their visas. This process should take 3–5 months overall.

Should we all come to Japan at the same time?

There are pros and cons to bringing your entire family to Japan at once.

Pros:

• You’re not separated in the event of an emergency. This is an especially important point in a post-Covid world, as many families were separated due to Japan’s restrictive entry policies during the pandemic.
• Your spouse can assist in the immigration process. There’s a great deal of paperwork involved in establishing a legal presence in Japan, and a lot of sitting around city hall. If you need to work long hours, your spouse can help set up bank accounts, communicate with officials, etc.
• Your family can offer their opinions. If you have a choice between schools or neighbourhoods, your spouse and children might want to see the options personally, and weigh in on the final decision.

Cons:

• Initial costs can be high. Depending on your situation, finding the right place may take months. If you need to house your spouse and kids as well as yourself in the interim, the hotel or share house costs will be that much higher.
• There will be a gap in your children’s schooling. Since it may take a while to find a house and settle down, your children necessarily won’t be attending school during that time. If you’re concerned about your children missing weeks or months of classwork while you relocate, then coming to Japan by yourself, and letting your children remain in their home country until everything is ready, will reduce that gap.
• You’ll all be learning together. This could be interpreted as a benefit, but it’s more likely to be a detriment. If you can figure out the basics of Japanese life in advance—everything from where to buy groceries, to how to send a bank transfer—your family’s later transition to Japan will be much smoother.

In many cases, it depends on what your housing situation is. If your company will provide housing, then there’s little reason to delay your family’s arrival. If you have to find your own housing, it might be wiser to wait. See the section on housing below for more details.

Can my spouse work?

If you have a spouse on a regular Dependent visa, they are not permitted to work without changing their visa or notifying Immigration. However, it’s easy to go to Immigration and request “Permission to engage in activities other than that permitted under the status of residence previously granted,” which will allow them to work for up to 28 hours a week.

My husband went to the Tachikawa Immigration Bureau for this. Contrary to everything we’d ever read on the subject, he immediately received the stamp on the back of his card that permitted him to work. There was no turnaround time for him at all.

If you have an HSP visa, though, it’s possible for your spouse to work full-time, with a special variation of the Dependent visa.

Should my spouse work?

Come to Japan, and you’ll soon encounter the same problem the locals do: how can two working parents accommodate the kids’ schedules?

There are a number of childcare options available in Japan, which Keiko details in her article Childcare Options in Japan. There’s also a reason why over 35% of mothers with a child two years or younger don’t work. School and daycare schedules aren’t always accommodating to work hours, and what after-school care is available is heavily region-dependent—as is the cost.

Even elementary school schedules can be inconveniently fluid and varied. For example, our two elementary-age children go to school at 8 a.m., but our third-grade son finishes at 3 p.m. every day, except on Wednesdays, which are half days. Our first-grade daughter finishes every day at around 1 p.m., but because the school offers after-school care until 5 p.m., she’s able to stay until her brother is done and then walk home with him. This Saturday is Sports Day, so families need to attend on Saturday morning. (Trust me, it’s fun, but definitely mandatory.) To compensate, the children have a day off school on Monday, but that’s not a national holiday, so parents will still be required to work.

The expectations for parents’ availability are high in general. Parent meetings, school assemblies, and PTA duties can add up to a busy schedule. Schools send home paperwork every day for parents to review, as well as emails and app messages about the lunch menu, new school policies, PTA initiatives that require parents to vote, and more.

There are certainly workarounds, and many different types of childcare are available, as Keiko explained in-depth. However, it’s worth sitting down with your spouse and weighing the costs and benefits of having one parent stay home.

I’ll add that the stay-at-home spouse doesn’t need to be the mother. My spouse is a househusband (主夫, shufu), and it works well for us. There’s still sometimes the default assumption that I, the mother, am the first person the school should contact, but for the most part everyone understands the situation.

What about housing?

Finding housing in Japan as a foreigner can be a difficult, time-consuming process. This is particularly true if you want to rent your own housing, without your company’s assistance.

Why rent your own place? There’s certainly a short-term benefit to relying upon company housing in the beginning. As mentioned above, the great drawback to your entire family arriving at once in Japan is that costs can mount during the house hunt. If you can have housing arranged for you, before arrival, that eases the stress and financial burden of locating it on your own.

That said, there’s the bigger picture to consider. The problem with company-provided housing is that you need to be with that company to use it; if your contract ends, or you resign, you’ll be forced to relocate, possibly away from your children’s schools and your spouse’s part-time job. If you intend to remain in Japan long-term, you might be better off renting your own housing from the beginning.

The best-known roadblocks to renting a house or apartment in Japan are:

• Prejudice against foreigners. Quite a few landlords will refuse to rent to non-Japanese tenants, particularly if you don’t speak the language. Since this isn’t something they’re likely to declare openly on a website, that makes real estate sites like Suumo a waste of time for foreigners.

  I’d personally recommend either working with an agent who specializes in finding housing for foreigners, or—if you already know exactly where you want to live—visiting a local real estate agency with a Japanese-speaking friend or coworker. Both the specialist and the local agent are more likely to have connections and know the “good” landlords.

• The chicken-and-egg problem. You need a bank account to rent housing, but you need an address to set up a bank account, and it has to be an address registered with city hall. You also need a phone number to register your address, but to get a phone plan, you need a bank account. This is an infamously frustrating dilemma for foreigners in Japan, sometimes called “the chicken-and-egg problem,” because it’s unclear which step should come first. Luckily, Michelle Tan has a solution.
• High upfront costs. Landlords in Japan require more than a deposit and first and last month’s rent. That first payment can also include key money (a nonrefundable “gift” to the landlord), the real estate agent’s fee, compulsory insurance, payment to a guarantor company, the key replacement fee, and possibly more. Conventional wisdom is that these initial fees can add up to 4-5x the monthly rent. However, when my family was house-hunting, we viewed houses where the upfront payment would have been approximately 8x the monthly rent.

Of these well-known problems, the upfront costs affect foreign families the most, simply because families with children require more space. The bigger the house or apartment, the bigger that first payment. For that reason, it’s advisable to save a substantial amount—between 1,000,000–2,000,000 yen—before arriving in Japan, to cover those initial costs. If money is tight, renting an older house or apartment, or one that is farther from a train station, is the best way to reduce both the rent and those upfront costs.

An unconventional solution would be to simply buy a house in Japan. It’s perfectly legal for foreigners, even those on a short-term visa, to purchase property in Japan. Depending on where you’re located, it’s possible to purchase a property for as low as three million yen. Most houses with that low of a price tag are located in rural areas and older, which means they are likely not compliant with modern earthquake codes or insulation standards. Costs rise steeply the closer you get to big cities. Still, if you can spare the cash and have other considerations (such as a large dog), it may be worth inquiring.

What schools should my kids attend?

Your children’s educational options in Japan will vary by region. As I point out in my article, Japanese vs International Schools: Which Will Work For Your Children?, the majority of international schools are located in big cities, particularly Tokyo. If having your child attend an international school is a high priority for you, you’ll want to stick close to urban centers when selecting your home. If you’re willing to have your children attend a public or private Japanese school, that gives you a wider range of options.

See the article linked above for more thoughts on what schools may be right for your family.

Does Japan offer financial support to families with children?

First, the private sector: as many as 76% of Japanese companies offer family allowances as a benefit of employment. Average rates are 10–15,000 yen a month for a spouse, and an additional 3–5,000 yen for each child.

As for state benefits, whether you consider them generous will depend on your experience in your home country. Because policies can vary so much between prefectures and cities, it’s difficult to paint a comprehensive picture of exactly what support families can expect. As one example, our family with two children in Tokyo prefecture receives:

• A child support allowance (jidou teate, 児童手当) of 10,000 yen per month, per child, until they are 15.
• Combined national and city health insurance for each child, which effectively makes all their medical care either free or very cheap—200 yen for a cavity filling, for example.
• At the elementary school level, after-school care until 5 p.m. for 500 yen a year. The 500 yen is solely to help cover insurance costs. (Note that this may not be available at all schools, or there may be waiting lists for the service.)

There are other benefits that we are not qualified to receive, such as reduced school fees, and others we haven’t taken advantage of yet, such as the babysitting discount coupons TokyoDev previously reported on.

If you’re from a nation with more comprehensive familial support, you may be unimpressed. Yet Japan appears poised to roll out a number of new benefits for families with children, ranging from increased allowances to completely free medical care for children.

Conclusion

Japan’s intensive approach to child-rearing means it’s stressful for anyone to raise a family here, let alone foreigners. But with the possible exception of finding housing, most of the obstacles you will face are shared with Japanese parents. Complaining about the schedule, the paperwork, and the PTA duties is a rite of passage between parents here, and a quick way to forge a bond. Their struggles are yours, and vice versa—so it’s also good that everyone we’ve encountered, from city hall clerks to our childrens’ teachers, are quick to lend a hand in any way they can.

Whether or not you should bring your family to Japan depends on your job, your reasons for coming, your spouse’s feelings, how adaptable your children are, etc. My experience is that, if you can find your own personal connection to the culture, it’s well worth stamping all those city hall forms.

I felt my family was going to be ok in Japan shortly after my daughter started kindergarten. She couldn’t speak Japanese yet, and started crying during a birthday celebration because she didn’t know how to sing the songs. While I was walking her home that day, she asked if we could return to the US.

“We could,” I said, “but do you know what? They don’t have curry rice there on the kid menus.”

“No curry rice? Really?! Ok, we’ll stay in Japan!”

So there you have it: bring your family to Japan, for the curry rice. It’s delicious.

RubyKaigi 2024 reflections 17 May 2024 3:43 PM (11 months ago)

For the first time in five years I attended RubyKaigi. From 2007 to 2018, I attended every RubyKaigi, volunteering as staff from 2011 onwards. This time though, I participated as a sponsor via TokyoDev.

Sponsoring the conference was an experiment, but I figured there wasn’t a way that it could fail. Even if nothing came out of it business-wise, we’d still be supporting the community. It’s still too early to tell if we’ll get a direct return on our investment, but the extra motivation, camaraderie, and ideas I picked up from the event have made me glad I tried it.

Before the conference officially started, TokyoDev sponsored a Women and Non-binary Dinner & DrinkUp in collaboration with Rails Girls Japan and WNB.rb. Promoting gender diversity in Japan’s tech industry is one of TokyoDev’s goals, and so I jumped at the opportunity to support this event. As I was outside the target audience for the event, I didn’t participate myself, but throughout RubyKaigi I had attendees comment how great it was to have an event where they were surrounded by other women.

During the conference, I attended all the keynotes, and a couple of talks per day. I spent much of my time at our sponsor booth though. This was a lot of fun for me though. If anything, interacting with other attendees at RubyKaigi has always been my favourite part, and so being at the booth gave me lots of chances to do that. Catching up with many people I hadn’t seen in five years was a great experience.

On the second day, we hosted another event: a gathering that got together international attendees and Japanese Rubyists. Looking for a way to bring the international and Japanese developer communities closer together was what inspired me to start blogging on TokyoDev in the first place, and so doing it in such a first-hand way was very rewarding. I definitely want to continue to do this at RubyKaigi in the future.

Next year’s RubyKaigi will be held in Matsuyama, as part of the continuing tradition choosing the location based on Matz-related puns. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone there again!

Japanese vs International Schools: Which Will Work for Your Children? 13 May 2024 6:15 PM (11 months ago)

The surprise is usually plain on their faces. “Oh! Your kids go to Japanese schools?”
“Yep,” I say. “Regular Japanese public schools.”
“So your husband is Japanese?”
“No, he’s an American too.”
“But do the kids speak Japanese?”
“They didn’t when we arrived. But the schools have been very supportive.”

This is also usually another surprise, whether I’m speaking to a Japanese person or a foreigner. Often the conversation ends there, or with a hopeful note of, “Well, if they’re young, it’s easy for them to learn…”

But sometimes a parent will really want to know: “Why Japanese schools, then? Why not an international school?”

It’s an unusual choice for an all-expat family to make. Neither my husband nor I spoke Japanese well when we arrived in August of 2022. Our children also, despite our best efforts with online Japanese lessons and textbooks, couldn’t say much more than “Kawaii!” (“Cute!”) and “Ringo ga suki desu” (“I like apples”). Despite these limitations, we decided to avail ourselves of the Japanese public school system, and it has been the right decision for our family.

But it might be easier to start with the reverse proposition: when should your family not bother with Japanese schools?

When international schools make sense

The Japanese public school system is working well for us, but there are cases where it would not be my suggestion for your family.

International schools in Japan come in a variety of flavors, from boarding schools with UK curricula, to bilingual or trilingual immersion schools for the children of returnees. All have different expectations, language requirements, goals, and price tags.

Let’s define an international school for this article as “a private school that uses a non-Japanese language (such as English or French) as an integral part of its curriculum, and is explicitly focused on creating a ‘global’ atmosphere for its students.”

Here are four scenarios in which I’d recommend international schools over Japanese ones.

1. You only plan to remain in Japan for a short while.

If you intend to return to your home country in five years or less, there’s not much point in completely disrupting your child’s education. While most international schools utilize British or American curricula, there are also schools that cater to Russian, Indian, French, and German students.

2. Your kids are about to enter, or are already in high school, and don’t speak, read, or write Japanese.

Asking your child to master enough Japanese in a year or two to pass a standard high school entrance exam might be more stressful than it’s worth. If your situation permits it, your children are probably better off continuing their secondary education in their native language, while studying Japanese on the side.

3. You’re not sure Japanese schools are a good fit for your child.

Bullying is a hot topic in most expat parents’ groups. The schools my children attend have taken a number of steps to mitigate any issues, including creating a pipeline for parents to report any concerns they have, and being quick to respond to children’s complaints.

Even aside from bullying, foreign students who look different and speak a different language will experience unique social pressures in such a homogenous country as Japan. Some sense of exclusion, of being different, is inevitable even in the most welcoming school environment.

You know your child best. If your child is extra-sensitive to their peers’ viewpoints, or hates to feel isolated or strange, an international school might be preferable for their long-term well-being.

In addition, while my family has experienced a great deal of flexibility and thoughtfulness from our chosen schools, the level of help you can expect varies widely. If your child has special needs, you will need to speak directly to the school districts in your area to determine what accommodations they can offer.

4. You can afford it.

There may be exceptions, but generally speaking, one thing international schools have in common is that they do not come cheap. A quick survey of international schools in Tokyo and Kyoto reveals yearly fees ranging from around 600,000 yen on the low end, up to 6,000,000 yen. 2,000,000 yen per year would be typical. It’s worth noting that these fees don’t cover everything, including required materials such as MacBooks or iPads.

There’s another, hidden cost to international schools: location. Most international schools are located in major metropolitan areas, particularly Tokyo, where the cost of living skyrockets compared to the rest of Japan. Limiting your job or house hunt to those areas served by an international school can limit your family’s opportunities as well as drain the bank account.

If you already plan on living in Tokyo, and cost is not a concern, a private or international school may suit your children’s needs. That being said, you may still wish to consider Japanese schools, especially if you plan to remain long-term or may relocate elsewhere in Japan.

Why we chose Japanese schools

Our situation, when we came to Japan in August of 2022, was almost the opposite of everything I’ve outlined above. We…

• have no plans to leave. Exiting Japan is still a possibility, but we’d prefer to remain here long-term. It made sense to work on integrating our children into Japanese culture, and schools are the fastest way to do that.
• have young children. When we arrived, our daughter was in kindergarten, and our son in second grade. They’re at a good age mentally to acquire Japanese and have time to master it before worrying about exams.
• know our children can handle it. This isn’t their first experience in a non-English school: they briefly attended a small school in Mexico, where all classes were taught in Spanish. Culturally, the comparatively strict Japanese public schools have been a shock for them, but they were already accustomed to hearing another language in the classroom.
• can’t afford to have two children in international schools. It wasn’t just about the tuition and fees, either, but the location restrictions. House-hunting for an expat couple with two small children, two dogs, and a shakuhachi player (my husband) meant that, despite the best efforts of several real estate agents, pickings were incredibly slim. It took us two months to find a house, and our search ranged all over Tokyo prefecture and into Saitama as well.

We actually scored quite a deal with our new home, and feel very lucky to have it. We might not have been so successful if we’d had to remain within a few kilometers of an international school.

Enrolling your child in a Japanese school

Japanese schools can be either public or private. A private Japanese school will have its own application requirements and guidelines, for which you’d need to contact the school directly. For public schools, the basic steps should be as below. Nonetheless, the actual enrollment process may vary from city to city, so you should be guided by your city hall and the schools themselves on exactly what you need to do.

Note that public elementary and junior high schools will accept foreign students even mid-year, but high school is not compulsory in Japan, and public high schools still require entrance exams. Some systems exist to ease the exam requirements for non-Japanese speaking students, such as the specialized quota system in Tokyo, but these programs are highly regional.

From kindergarten to junior high, enrollment should look something like this:

1. Arrive in Japan with your children. Much of what comes next will depend on when you arrive. The Japanese school year starts at the beginning of April, so your priorities might be different depending on whether you arrive in February, or in October.
2. Find housing. It won’t be possible to enroll until you have a fixed address that you have registered with city hall.
3. Talk to city hall. The staff there can tell you, based on the location of your house, which schools your children are supposed to attend. They can also inform you about what Japanese language-learning support the city offers, as well as other potential benefits and programs for your children.

4. Decide when your children will enroll. Your decision (and the advice of city hall) might be different depending on when you arrive. If you’ve come in October, which is mid-year for schools in Japan, the consensus might be to enroll your child at once. If you’ve arrived in February, you might be advised to wait until the next academic year begins in April.

   Although this should be discussed with the local education office, parents do have some leeway about when their children begin formal education in Japan. Homeschooling in Japan exists in a gray area. Theoretically, Japan’s compulsory education laws mandate that children between the ages of 6 and 15 must receive education from a recognized school. That being said, the law is interpreted very differently depending on the regional school board or even individual schools in question, and foreign families especially are almost always given a pass. A lengthy period of homeschooling might raise issues, but a short delay in enrollment, to finish online schooling or to study Japanese, is unlikely to cause problems.

5. Meet with the schools and make a final decision. Depending on the neighborhood, you may or may not have a choice in which schools your children attend.
6. Fill out the forms provided by city hall and your school. You’ll be expected to provide, at a minimum, detailed medical information and vaccine records for your child.
7. Get physicals (健康診断, kenkou shindan) for your children. Many schools will arrange for physicals at the school itself, usually in March, but in some cases you may need to visit a clinic separately.
8. Arrange for automatic withdrawals from your bank. Although some schools still accept cash, many have switched over to automatic withdrawals for lunch fees, etc. You may need to open a new account at a bank specified by the school. The school should give you instructions on this, as well as any paperwork you need to take to the bank.
9. Buy uniforms, gym clothes, the required leather backpacks (ランドセル, ranseru), and other supplies such as bags for shoes and washcloths. Double-check this list to ensure your supplies meet the requirements. Much of what you need can be found at local stores or Daiso, but what you can’t is usually available on Amazon, although it may be more expensive. Some of these may be purchased in bulk by the school and provided for free, and that will usually be indicated on the supply list. Other items such as uniforms might be loaned to your children by the school, particularly if your children are beginning the term late.
10. Download the app. It’s common for schools to use an app to send updates and announcements. The app can also be an easy way to give notice that your child won’t be attending due to illness, an appointment, etc.
11. Send your child to school. Don’t forget to ask them to “Ganbatte!” (“Try your best!”)

Top six tips for navigating the Japanese school system

From here, I’ll be speaking more directly about our personal experience, as one example of what foreign families can expect.

We were fortunate in that we almost accidentally landed in Hachioji, the #1 city in Japan for immigrants. However, we also had no friends or family here when we arrived. Although we’d been studying Japanese, we’d only been in-country a few months when the kids started school, and struggled with even basic communication. You can imagine how nervous I was when it came time to enroll my children. I won’t say it wasn’t a stressful experience, but if I could bumble my way through it with little to no external support, I’m sure anyone can.

If you decide that public Japanese schools are for your family, here are my top six tips to ensure your child’s success.

1. Use the resources at city hall freely

You’ll be visiting city hall anyway, to register as residents. When I did so, the young man helping me realized I had two children and immediately sent me up to a higher floor to sign up for benefits and discuss the school situation.

We’d arrived in the middle of the school year. I asked the education department if we could delay my son’s enrollment until April, so he could finish his current online school program. They had no problem with that.

I returned two months before the start of school (February) to talk again and finalize our school selection. School selection may not be an issue in your area—we are actually located between two elementary schools, so the district officials said we could choose.

Not all city halls are created equally, but ours is a valuable resource. They offer translators on-site or via tablet, to help with the language barrier, and are happy to answer questions. I once lost an important piece of my daughter’s enrollment paperwork, and eventually had to go ask city hall for a replacement. (I didn’t organize my mail well. Learn from my mistakes, please.) They cheerfully provided one in just a few minutes, and also helped me fill it out.

2. Meet with the schools in advance

After speaking with city hall, we knew we didn’t qualify for state-sponsored daycare (保育園, hoikuen). That meant we needed to find a kindergarten (幼稚園, youchien) for our daughter.

City hall gave us a list of local kindergartens and daycares, but I found it easier to use Google Maps and locate kindergartens that way. We discovered several in our area, and sent them emails (in English, and Google-translated Japanese) explaining our family’s situation and asking to meet.

The first kindergarten we visited was prepared to accept my daughter after a trial period, but they didn’t seem thrilled to have an English-speaking student. The second kindergarten, by contrast, welcomed our daughter with open arms. They’d already had several foreign students before, and were keen to continue adding diversity to their kindergarten.

The principal of that kindergarten also happened to know the principal of one of our neighborhood elementary schools, and she suggested it would be a great place to send our son. Once we’d met with the elementary school staff, and had seen for ourselves how kind and gentle they were with our boy, we agreed it was an excellent choice.

You’ll be visiting the school in advance anyway—part of the enrollment process involves bringing the children to the school for physical exams and meetings in March, before the new school year begins. However, it’s a good idea to arrange an earlier, private meeting with school staff, to discuss language-learning options and get a feel for the school’s culture.

3. Get out your phone (and a filing cabinet)

The single biggest difference between a Japanese elementary school and an American one is the mountains of paperwork. Every day, our children come home with a new landslide of school announcements, lunch menus, schedules, field trip reminders, and more—and Google Translate only goes so far.

Often our phones deliver nothing but word soup, particularly when it comes to lists of supplies. “Honey, it says we need to provide a ‘single boiled fish glue,’ do you have any idea what that could actually be?”

That being said, we’d be absolutely lost without those translation apps. Unless you arrive in Japan with a solid grasp of kanji, you’ll absolutely need a little phone help.

But that’s just for what’s in the paperwork. It doesn’t account for cultural expectations that aren’t written down—like that my daughter needed to wear a specific “ceremony dress” for her entrance ceremony.

4. Make parent friends—ASAP!

I read the paperwork regarding the entrance ceremony several times, and nowhere did it mention a required outfit. If two friends hadn’t let me know that my daughter was expected to wear a specific “kind of like a school uniform, but not really” dress for the occasion, I would have had no idea.

That’s why making friends with other parents is truly my top tip for parents moving to Japan. We’re very fortunate to be good friends with another expat who has lived in Japan for 20 years, is fluent in Japanese, and has put multiple children through the local school systems. Frankly we’d be lost without her, and I do my best to bake her “thank you” treats as often as I can.

Also wonderful have been those Japanese parents who speak English, and who kindly help translate on the spot. One mother at my daughter’s kindergarten basically adopted me; she saved a seat for me at everything from sports day to the class play, and whispered ongoing updates so I’d understand what was happening. Again, there aren’t enough cookies in the world for allies like these.

But what if you aren’t lucky enough to have fellow expats or English speakers at your school? I highly recommend the Facebook group Parents with Kids in Japanese Schools. Parents there can help answer tricky logistical questions, as well as offer general support.

5. Don’t be afraid of the PTA (probably)

The PTA in Japan has a fearsome reputation, and I was concerned we’d be drafted for a lot of duties we didn’t have the time, or Japanese, to perform. Instead, the head of our elementary school’s PTA found me on the first day, introduced herself, connected with me on LINE (a chat app popular in Japan), and asked me to contact her if I ever needed help or had any concerns.

As it happens, we’re not the only expat family attending this school, and our particular PTA is committed to making the school a welcoming place for foreign children. We’ve got kids from America, China, the Philippines, and the Congo, so we don’t even all have a second language in common, but the PTA has worked hard to find ways to accommodate us. Special events are held for foreign families to meet up and support one another, and the staff is being trained in “Easy Japanese” to help ease communication.

Other than those foreign family events, and some school-wide votes on PTA measures, we’re not asked to do much. We do try to volunteer for those tasks that don’t require fluent Japanese, such as setting up tents for sports day.

6. Line up extra Japanese resources

I’ve been encouraged by the amount of language-learning support I’ve seen in our city’s schools—it’s much more than I expected—but it’s also clear to me that Japanese acquisition must primarily remain the parents’ responsibility.

Our city offers specific accommodations for Japanese learners: an aide who comes once a week to help with homework and questions, and after-school Japanese classes held at a central location. In addition, our school provides a computer and translation machines in the classroom, and my son has received extra Japanese lessons from the principal himself.

That’s the extent of the official support, and unfortunately we can’t take advantage of all of it. The after-school Japanese classes are far from our house; while the city offered to pay transportation fees, we don’t have the time for a long commute. My friend’s daughter did attend those classes, and successfully learned Japanese in a few years. However, she was a bit older when she started, and she admitted the double homework load was stressful.

Instead, we opted for our son to receive private, twice-weekly Japanese lessons online. We already knew an excellent Japanese teacher, but there are scores available on sites like Preply, for a range of prices.

Other, cheaper alternatives to private lessons include:

• Language exchange with another parent – “You help my kids with Japanese, I’ll help yours with English”
• Hiring an older student to help with homework
• Japanese language learning apps and games
• Kid-oriented Japanese textbooks such as this one

The results so far

There’s a tendency to magical thinking in language acquisition. Many people I talk to assume that our children will easily and swiftly pick up Japanese just because they’re surrounded by it all day. Certainly the immersion helps, but it’s not enough by itself.

I also underestimated how much English our children would still be exposed to in school; there are enough foreign and returnee children in our area to ensure that my kids can always find an English-speaking friend. That’s wonderful for them socially, but not ideal for their language acquisition.

Both are learning Japanese, just not quite as quickly as we’d dreamed. On the whole, however, we’re satisfied with their education and assimilation so far. We also know that they’ll still need extra support for years to come. Our job as parents is to ensure, not only that they’re getting extra Japanese tutoring, but that we’re helping them learn the cultural expectations of their teachers and peers.

That also means doing our best to learn those expectations ourselves—and to keep up with the mountains of paperwork!

Conclusion

Sending your children to Japanese schools can be a daunting prospect, but there is more support available than you might expect. The education system is changing to be more accommodating to foreign families and Japanese learners. Just how supportive the school system is will depend on where you live, but with new government initiatives and the widespread availability of online resources, even a tiny rural school can make the situation work—especially if parents are willing to meet them halfway.

Why do so many Japanese homes have bars over the windows? 9 May 2024 4:00 PM (11 months ago)

If you wander around any residential neighbourhood in Japan, you’ll notice many home windows with bars over them. This seems incongruous with the country’s reputation for safety, and so I sought to answer the question as to why.

“Crime prevention” is the obvious answer. But drilling deeper, why are they popular here in Japan compared to other places like my hometown of Vancouver, which has a far higher rate of residential burglaries than Japan?

My research on the topic identified three factors that may have contributed to their prevalence: window location, the Japanese fire code, and traditional architecture.

Window location

In Japan, bars are most commonly placed over windows in the laundry/washing room, the room containing the actual bath, toilet rooms, and the kitchen. These rooms are often found at the back of the house, and the majority of home break ins occur through such windows. Meanwhile, those windows are mostly used for ventilation, so they’re often left ajar. Furthermore, for privacy reasons, these windows are often translucent. Because of this, bars over such windows aren’t obscuring a view for the homeowner, and provide some measure of security at a minor cosmetic cost.

Fire code

Japan’s fire code makes it relatively easy to have bars on windows. For a residential home, a single floor needs to only have one window that is effective for evacuation or fire fighting. This means a bedroom window could have bars over it, as long as another one on the same floor didn’t.

Furthermore, it is not illegal to have no such windows; in order to make up for the lack of them,he building only needs to meet stricter standards with regards to fire-fighting functions, such as indoor fire hydrants and sprinklers

Traditional architecture

Window bars have been a part of traditional Japanese architecture, taking two main forms: koushi-mado and renji-mado.

Koushi-mado (lattice windows) are windows with some kind of lattice. The traditional lattice is often a vertical one made of wooden slats, but modern versions can be horizontal or various kinds of grids.

Renji-mado are windows with vertical slats lined up in regular intervals, and also used to be known as musha-mado (warrior windows).

These styles of windows originated in temple architecture, which was introduced to Japan from China in the Asuka period (538 to 710 CE). There, they had some spiritual significance, and the “renji-mado” originally meant “windows to confine spirits.”

From temples, they became more widely used in other buildings, such as castles and general residences, as a way of preventing intruders and maintaining privacy while still offering good ventilation.

You can still see these traditional styles of windows used in temples, shrines, castles, and tea houses, and occasionally for decorative purposes in more modern buildings.

Is an end to these window security bars in sight?

The prevalence of window bars has been on the decline, with an average of 2 windows per house having them in 2006–2010, 1.5 windows per house in 2011–2015, and 1.2 windows per house from 2016–2020. One reason may be a trend of using tall and narrow windows which reduce the risk of burglaries without using bars and are also more effective in sealing homes for better insulation.

But another reason may be that burglaries themselves are decreasing in Japan. Residential burglaries in Japan peaked in 2003 with 190,473 cases. They’ve been falling ever since, and in 2022, there were only 15,692 cases. With the risk of being burgled being so low, people may feel they’re no longer necessary.

Childcare Options in Japan 7 May 2024 4:40 PM (11 months ago)

Though arranging childcare in Japan can be tricky, there are a wide variety of options available. Services will vary greatly depending on your location, the ages of your children, and the time of year. This article explores all of the most common childcare offerings, to get you started in the right direction.

Note that throughout this article, age requirements are based upon the Japanese school year, which begins on April 1st. A child enters elementary school at six years old, so if your child is six on April 1st, they’ll enter the first grade. If they were born on April 2nd or later, they’d need to wait until the following year to enter.

• Options for Children Under Six
  • Licensed daycares
  • Unlicensed daycares
  • Small-scale childcare centers
  • Kindergartens
  • Certified children’s gardens
  • International preschools
  • On-site childcare centers
  • Baby hotels
  • Childcare mamas
  • Childcare facilities for sick and convalescent children
• Options for Children Aged Six and Above
  • Public after-school childcare facilities
  • Private after-school childcare facilities
  • After-school programs
  • Children’s halls
  • Cram schools
  • Swimming and other lessons
• Options for All Ages
  • Babysitters
  • Family Support Centers
  • Importing a full time nanny

Options for Children Under Six

There are two main kinds of childcare facilities for children under six: daycares (保育園, hoikuen), which can accept children as young as newborns, and kindergartens (幼稚園, yochien), which accept children from three years of age.

Licensed daycares

Licensed daycares (認可保育園, ninka hoikuen) are facilities that are accredited by the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare. They’re available to children whose parents are unable to take care of them for specific reasons such as work, school, or hospitalization.

Before a child can enter one, they need to go through a screening process. Children of a single parent or two working parents are given higher priority. In some areas, there are more applications than spaces available, so even if you qualify, there’s a chance that your child won’t be enrolled.

Licensed daycares are typically open from around 7:30 until about 18:30, but there are many licensed daycares that will take care of children until 19:00 if you pay an extension fee. These daycares are typically closed on weekends and national holidays, but they don’t have other long vacation periods, such as summer and winter break.

A licensed daycare typically accepts babies that are at least a few months old, though the exact age varies depending on the facility.

For children between the ages of three and five, the daycare is free of charge. Otherwise, the fees are set at the municipal level and depend on the parents’ residential taxes. According to one article, parents living in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, pay between 43,000 and 57,000 yen a month, while in Nerima-ku, Tokyo they pay between 10,100 and 51,600 yen a month.

This only applies to the eldest child. For the second child, the fee is halved or free (depending on the municipality), and from the third child on, it is completely free.

Contact your local City Hall for information and to apply.

Unlicensed daycares

Unlicensed daycares (認可外保育園, ninkagai hoikuen) are not accredited by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Compared to licensed daycares, they are often smaller, have poorer equipment, and employ fewer staff. However, that’s not always the case, and some unlicensed daycares receive public subsidies from the government to provide better facilities.

Unlicensed daycares typically offer more flexible hours, including nighttime and weekend childcare, though these services can also be more expensive. Some are open up to 11 hours a day or even overnight. Like a licensed daycare, there are no long vacations such as summer or winter break.

These facilities typically accept children from a few months of age, and childcare fees are not based on the parents’ income. As these fees are unregulated, they vary substantially, but for a child under three years old, the average fee is 45,000 yen a month.

Contact the daycare directly to apply.

Small-scale childcare centers

Small-scale childcare centers (小規模保育, shokibo hoiku) operate on a smaller scale than a licensed daycare, with a capacity of between 6 and 19 children. Originally these childcare facilities were unlicensed daycares, but because of the long waitlist for children entering licensed daycares, smaller daycares began directly receiving licences from their municipalities in 2015.

They accept newborns and older, and fees vary depending on the region, the parents’ income, and other factors.

Contact your local City Hall for more information.

Kindergartens

Kindergartens (幼稚園, youchien) are facilities with the primary goal of providing education to young children. This is in contrast to daycares, where the focus is on providing childcare.

There are both public and private kindergartens. Public kindergartens are run by the prefectural government or municipalities, whereas private ones are operated by corporations such as school corporations (学校法人) or religious corporations (宗教法人). Each kindergarten has its own policies. Some kindergartens focus on teaching English, some prepare children for elementary school entrance exams, and some encourage children to learn through play.

Usually, kindergartens operate from 9 am to around 2 pm. However, kindergartens are increasingly offering childcare outside these core hours as well. Unlike daycares, they are closed for long stretches of time throughout the year, such as for summer and winter break.

Kindergartens accept children from 3 to 5 years old, and the fees are the same regardless of the parents’ income. Kindergartens are also subsidized by the government, who will cover up to 25,700 yen per month of their usage fees. However, there are other costs that aren’t subsidized, such as the school bus, lunch, learning materials, uniforms, and other activities.

You can inquire at your City Hall about public kindergartens. For private kindergartens, contact the schools directly to apply.

Certified children’s gardens

Certified children’s gardens (認定こども園, nintei kodomo-en) combine the educational focus of kindergartens and the extended childcare of daycares.There are two types of certified children’s gardens:

1. Kindergartens that also function as accredited daycares by providing childcare services after-hours for working parents

2. Licensed daycares that also serve as kindergartens by accepting students who don’t qualify for free daycare (such as those whose families are high-income or include a stay-at-home parent), and prioritizing education for the children

Contact City Hall to apply.

International preschools

International preschools offer childcare and activities in languages other than Japanese. Most international preschools use English in the classroom, but a few schools use French, German, Russian, etc.

These international preschools are typically unlicensed. However, a subsidy of 37,000 yen per month may be available if both parents work more than 46 hours per month, the school is an incorporated education institution (学校法人, gakko hojin), and the school meets other requirements set out by the municipality.

Fees depend on the facility, but are typically between 1 million and 2.5 million yen per year.

Contact the international preschools directly for information on rates and application requirements.

On-site childcare centers

On-site childcare centers (事業所内保育所, jigyosho nai hoikusho) are set up within an office to care for the employees’ children and also local children who need daycare. Previously this was only common within the public sector, but recently private companies have begun offering childcare services too. According to an October 2021 governmental report there are 7,906 of them in Japan.

The application process depends on the size of the childcare center, as well as whether or not you are employed by the company. If you are an employee of the company, consult HR. If you’re not employed by the company, contact your City Hall.

Baby hotels

Baby hotels (ベビーホテル, bebi hoteru) are defined by the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare as a facility that fulfills any of the following conditions:

• They accept children after 20:00
• They care for children overnight
• More than half of the children are using the facility for temporary care

According to this government report, there were 1,032 baby hotels in Japan as of October 2021. The most common reason parents used baby hotels was the lack of vacancies in licensed daycares or other facilities.

Baby hotels typically accept children under a year old, but the starting age may vary.

Contact the baby hotel for information and to apply.

Childcare mamas

Childcare mamas (保育ママ, hoiku mama) are a public childcare service offered by individuals approved by a municipality in accordance with the Child Welfare Act. In order to be certified by the municipality, a childcare mama must meet certain requirements such as age and qualifications (nursery teacher, teacher, midwife, nurse, etc), as well as undergoing additional training. A childcare mama can take care of up to three infants or toddlers at their home or another location.

Childcare mamas are for children under 3 years old who need daytime care because their parents are working, etc. They’re available for up to 8 hours a day, and the schedule and fees vary by region.

Contact City Hall for information on local childcare mamas.

Childcare facilities for sick and convalescent children

Childcare facilities for sick and convalescent children (病児・病後児保育施設, byoji byogojihoiku shisetsu) are dedicated spaces set up in hospitals, daycare centers, and other institutions, where nurses will temporarily care for ill children. In order to use this service, you must register in advance with facility, and get a doctor’s note before arriving.

Fees vary depending on the region, but in most cases they range from 2,000 to 3,000 yen per day.

Register in advance directly at the facility.

Options for Children Aged Six and Above

Once your children enter elementary school, they’ll have a place to go for most of the day. However, if you’re working full time, you’ll likely need after-school care, and also childcare during extended school breaks. The following options are available for elementary school-aged children.

Public after-school childcare facilities

Public after-school childcare facilities (公立学童保育, koritsu gakudo hoiku) provide a safe space for children to spend time after school, on Saturdays, and during spring, summer, and winter vacations. Most of these programs are held in vacant classrooms, children’s halls, and community centers.

This childcare is operated by municipalities throughout Japan. Half of the operating costs are borne by the government, and the other half are covered by parents, so fees vary.

To qualify for after-school childcare, you must apply to the local government and pass a screening process. Most facilities require pick-up by 18:00, and additional fees are required after 18:00 and during school breaks.

In many cases you can apply through the school, but in some cities you may need to apply through City Hall instead.

Private after-school childcare facilities

Private after-school childcare (私立学童保育, shiritsu gakudo hoiku) exists to meet the demand that is unserved by public facilities. According to a 2022 survey by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, there were 15,180 children on the waitlists to use public after-school care. For these children, or in cases where parents can’t make the pickup time of 18:00, private care is an option.

If the facility is located far from the school, some operators will pick up children from the school by bus. Fees are set by each company individually. Most are more expensive than public after-school care, but can be helpful to parents, especially since some of them supervise children until late at night and also serve dinner.

Contact the facility directly to apply.

After-school programs

After-school programs (放課後子ども_教室, hokago kodomo kyoshitsu_) make use of vacant classrooms and other facilities at elementary schools to let children enjoy activities, including studying, sports, and cultural programs. Any child can participate free of charge, even if the parents do not work. However, these aren’t available everywhere, and they’re only open until 17:00 in summer and 16:30 in winter.

You can register through the school, or in some cases via City Hall.

Children’s halls

Children’s halls (児童館, jidokan) are facilities that any child under 18 years old can use for free. Professional staff (child welfare workers) are always present to assist.

Some children’s halls act as public after-school childcare centers, but if your child is not a registered user, the staff has no supervisory responsibility. The halls usually have some restrictions; for example, elementary school children cannot be at the facility unsupervised after 18:00.

Cram schools

Cram schools (学習塾, gashuku juku) provide supplementary classes, often to prepare for school entrance exams. Because they are held after regular school hours, they can also serve as a form of childcare. Many cram schools use apps that let parents know when their children enter and exit them. Some cram schools also provide a bus service.

Swimming and other lessons

Similar to cram schools, children can attend swimming, gymnastics, or other lessons after school. Some companies offer a bus service to pick up children directly from the school.

Options for All Ages

Babysitters

If you register in advance with a babysitter service provider (ベビーシッター派遣事業, bebishitta haken jigyo), you can request a babysitter as needed. The cost varies depending on the service provider, the ages of the children, and the hours, but the average hourly rate is around 1,500 yen. Although it’s more expensive than other childcare options, there are advantages to having a babysitter available when your child is sick or you have to work overtime.

If your company has been registered with the “Company-led support program for babysitter users” by the Children and Families Agency, they can offer you discount coupons for babysitting.

Contact the service provider to apply.

Family Support Centers

A Family Support Center (ファミリーサポートセンター, famiri sapoto senta) matches people wanting to receive childcare support from those who offer it. The people offering support are typically housewives, childcare workers, or other qualified individuals who have experience with children. They help with things like picking up children, looking after them before or after school, supervising them during school vacations, and so on.

Family Support Centers may be operated by municipalities themselves, or by private organizations on the city’s behalf. Fees vary depending on the region and what you’re asking for.

Apply directly at the local Family Support Center.

Importing a full time nanny

If you have a Highly Specialized Foreigner visa, and have children under the age of 13, you can hire a domestic servant as a full-time nanny. You may hire a foreigner in Japan, or bring in someone from abroad. However, it is stipulated that the nanny must be paid a monthly salary of at least 200,000 yen.

Conclusion

With the availability of full-time daycare for young children, many parents in Japan can continue working full time. However, in general, after-school care facilities for elementary school children close around 18:00, and many don’t offer extended hours. Elementary school children also leave home later in the morning than when they were in daycare.

This means elementary school children may still need supplemental childcare. However, when parents try to find a safe place for them to stay after school, there are fewer options, as well as long waitlists.

This difficult situation is called the “first-grade barrier” (小一の壁, shoichi no kabe), and has led many parents to consider quitting or going part-time. In the future, I hope Japan will offer more childcare options for children of all ages, and encourage parents to continue in their chosen careers.

The rise and fall of D&D in Japan 26 Mar 2024 4:22 PM (last year)

In 1985, Dungeons & Dragons (hereafter referred to as D&D) exploded onto the scene in Japan, achieving massive popularity. The Japanese version of the Basic Rule Set (known as the “red box”) sold an impressive 100,000 copies in its first year. The following year, the gaming magazine “Comptiq” published a series of articles titled D&D Magazine Live: Record of Lodoss War Replay, which presented a full D&D session in a narrative form. Inspired by these articles, the novelized series “Record of Lodoss War” went on to sell over 10 million copies.

Despite this auspicious beginning, D&D’s fortunes in Japan quickly declined. Today, it occupies a small niche within the Japanese tabletop role-playing game (commonly styled “TRPG” in Japan, “TTRPG” in the west) community. For example, the English version of “Player’s Handbook 5th Edition” released in 2014 has sold over 1.5 million copies, but the Japanese one has sold fewer than 10,000 copies.

This article chronicles the rise and fall of D&D in Japan and explores the lasting impact this iconic game has had on Japanese popular culture.

D&D arrives in Japan

In the first half of the 1980s, while D&D was virtually unknown in Japan, derivatives of it such as computer role-playing games and gamebooks started to make inroads into Japanese popular culture.

On the computer gaming front, PC games such as Wizardry and Ultima were imported in the early 1980s. Then, in 1984, domestically produced PC role-playing games such as Hydlide, Dragon Slayer, and The Black Onyx were released, along with arcade games like The Tower of Druaga.

1984 also saw the release of the first gamebook in Japan, a translation of the Fighting Fantasy book “The Warlock of Firetop Mountain”. The book was a great success, likely selling over 1,000,000 copies by 1987. This success sparked a gamebook boom.

The combination of the success of computer RPGs and gamebooks meant that around 1985, D&D-style adventures and fantasy worlds had become popular in Japan and that there was a greater desire for more sword and sorcery adventures. Additionally, through introductory articles and similar materials, players became aware that these games were backed by a great system called D&D.

This is when the Basic Rule Set arrived in Japan.

The arrival of the Basic Rule Set

In June 1985, Shinwa Co., Ltd. released a Japanese translation of “Dungeons & Dragons Set 1: Basic Rules”, edited by Frank Mentzer. The Basic Rule Set, being a boxed product, was distributed all over Japan in toy stores and hobby shops, which at the time also sold things like models and airsoft guns.

While D&D wasn’t the first TTRPG released in Japan (Traveller had been translated for the Japanese market the previous year), it was a commercial success. According to Hitoshi Yasuda, 100,000 copies of the Basic Rule Set were sold in the first year after its release, and according to Kosaku Kawamoto, 200,000 copies had been sold by 1991.

D&D’s boom era

In September 1986, “Comptiq’’ began serializing actual play sessions in D&D Magazine Live: Record of Lodoss War Replay; this format was called “TRPG Replay” and it played an essential role in the Japanese TTRPG scene for almost 30 years.

The best way to show people how to play and enjoy TTRPGs is to show them actual interesting gaming sessions. A recent example of this is how live streams such as “Critical Role” and “Dimension 20” have brought droves of new gamers to D&D. TTRPG replays were a great way of doing this in an era when video streaming was not feasible.

D&D Magazine Live: Record of Lodoss War Replay reached tens of thousands of readers every month and D&D’s popularity was exploding in Japan. By 1989, Sinwa Co. had released three boxed sets and more than 25 modules and accessories.

D&D rules and adventures were provided by Sinwa Co. through toy stores, while translated novels in the D&D world and introductions to the game were provided by Fujimi Shobo and Kadokawa Shoten through bookstores, creating an environment that fostered interest in both the world of D&D and also playing games in that world.

Other imported TTRPGs were also being translated into Japanese, and Japanese authors were also producing TTRPGs, but it was due to serialized actual play articles and the supply of related products in bookstores that this era was probably the height of D&D’s popularity in Japan.

Group SNE’s departure from D&D

Kadokawa Shoten planned to publish D&D Magazine Live: Record of Lodoss War Replay in “Comptiq” and sell it as a paperback. However, there was an issue. TSR, the publisher of D&D, allowed the publication of serialized actual play sessions, but prohibited those sessions from being compiled and sold as a paperback under the D&D brand without their approval.

In an interview, Hitoshi Yasuda, the representative of Group SNE, said, “We made Record of Lodoss War because we wanted to promote D&D, but TSR did not allow us to make Record of Lodoss War a part of D&D [to promote and develop it].” According to “‘Record of Lodoss War’ and Its Era”, the situation was further complicated because D&D in Japan was handled by two companies: the game itself was sold by Shinwa Co., Ltd., whereas peripheral materials such as replays and novels were handled by Kadokawa Shoten.

Group SNE wasn’t the only one in the Japanese market who faced issues with TSR. “A Book that Makes D&D Easy to Understand”, which aimed to teach the Japanese audience about D&D races, classes, weapons, armor, and equipment, as well as describing actual play in the form of TTRPG replays. While this book was eventually released in 1987, translations of it had to be sent to TSR for review, and it took two years of working with TSR for them to be satisfied with it.

Eventually “Record of Lodoss War” was published as a novel based on the sessions, without any use of the D&D brand, and was a massive success. When Group SNE made a sequel to D&D Magazine Live: Record of Lodoss War Replay, they switched from using the D&D system to using their own original Record of Lodoss War RPG system.

The original series did make it to paperback eventually; however, it was in the form of a novel under the name “Record of Lodoss War.” This and later sequels went on to become a huge hit, eventually reaching over 10 million copies in circulation. It would also be viewed as a pioneering work in the Japanese light novel genre, intended for readers in their late teens to 20s and characterized by the use of anime-like illustrations and an easy-to-read conversational style.

The Rise of Paperback and Domestic TRPGs

In 1987, Tunnels & Trolls by Flying Buffalo was translated by Group SNE and published by Shakai Shisousha, which sold 200,000 copies. Then in 1989, Sword World RPG, an original TTRPG designed by Group SNE, was published by Fujimi Shobo, and sold 500,000 copies, well surpassing the sales of D&D itself in Japan. The success of these TTRPGs can be attributed to them being distributed as more accessible paperback books that were sold in bookstores all around the country, as opposed to the D&D boxed sets that were only sold in niche hobby shops that were much rarer.

Publishers’ experiences with gamebooks gave them confidence to do large print runs of paperback rulebooks while keeping the unit price down, which led to a dramatic cost difference when compared to D&D. D&D’s Basic Rule Set was 4800 yen, but Tunnels & Trolls was 680 yen and Sword World RPG was only 640 yen.

Sword World RPG, which created an extensive domestic product line and was supported by local magazines, began to dominate the domestic scene as the flagship of Japanese TTRPGs.

Failed Transition to AD&D 2nd Edition

After completing the translation of the main D&D products, Shinwa Co., Ltd. translated and published the three core rulebooks and some peripherals for “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition” in 1991. Due to the small print run, the large amount of text to be translated, and a hardcover format, the prices were even higher than the previous edition: 6,800 yen for the Player’s Handbook, 5,800 yen for the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and 6,800 yen for the Monster Compendium.

As a result, the conversion of existing D&D users was minimal, and only a handful of enthusiasts made purchases. Thus, the transition to AD&D 2nd Edition failed, and Shinwa Co., Ltd.’s development of D&D in Japan came to an end.

Resurgence at MediaWorks

In 1994, MediaWorks brought Group SNE back to D&D with a translation of “Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia.” For the first and only time in D&D’s history in Japan, this translation involved extensive edits. Instead of being a large hardcover book, it was divided into paperbacks, the layout was changed, and the illustrations were replaced with original manga-like ones. The translation first published the rules for levels 1-9 in three books: “Players,” “Dungeon Masters,” and “Monsters,” along with translations of several campaigns.

Potentially this could have been a chance for D&D to reclaim the throne of TTRPGs in Japan, however Wizards of the Coast’s (WotC) acquisition of TSR in 1997 prevented the publication of future volumes of the Rules Cyclopedia, and interest in the product died off.

D&D 3rd Edition, Hobby Japan Era

In 2000, “Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition” was released by WotC and became a huge hit, and in 2002, Hobby Japan translated and published it.

Over the next 20 years, Hobby Japan translated and published hundreds of D&D products for the various editions, including 3rd Edition (over 100 products), 3.5 Edition (63 products), 4th Edition (42 products), and 5th Edition (16 products). Unlike the Rules Cyclopedia, these products were translated and published in the same format as the original products.

None of these products ever saw large-scale success. The person in charge of Hobby Japan said that the “Player’s Handbook” sold under 8000 copies for the 3rd Edition, over 6000 copies for the 3.5 Edition, just under 5000 copies for the 4th Edition, and just under 9000 copies for the 5th Edition.

Compared to the paperback TTRPGs published in Japan over the same period, these numbers are small. However, Hobby Japan continued to translate and sell these D&D products due to high-priced products (5000-6000 yen) that reliably sold about 3000 copies each time to a solid fanbase.

In June 2022, Hobby Japan’s involvement with D&D came to an end, after WotC decided to take direct control of localized versions of D&D.

WotC Era

On July 1, 2022, WotC’s official Japanese D&D website opened, and WotC announced the release of the D&D Starter Set, the Dungeons & Dragons Essentials Kit, and the Core Rules for Beginners. They also launched an unprecedented large-scale advertising campaign, including an original Japanese promotional video, official videos created for the Japanese market explaining how to play D&D, and videos of Japanese influencers playing the Starter Set. Some of these videos received hundreds of thousands of views.

In April 2023, they launched the “D&D Learn-to-Play Program” for beginners at stores affiliated with the Wizards Play Network (WPN). This program sent a game kit and novelty items to interested stores and ran demonstration games in the store for 15-30 minutes. This event was to take place in 43 locations across Japan. Since the launch though, the number of WPN-affiliated stores in Japan hosting D&D events have dwindled and can be counted on one hand.

2023 also saw the release of the Japanese release of the movie “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” and PC game Baldur’s Gate 3. Though both experienced a great deal of success in the Japanese market, no marketing tied them back to the core game itself, which seems like a wasted opportunity.

WotC seems to be trying to actively engage with the community in Japan by creating tags for fan content and player recruitment on social media and featuring them on their official account. From these tags, you can find actual play session streams by vtubers and streamers, character illustrations, original adventures, anime-style gameplay videos, and more. Some users even sell Japanese adventure scenarios and supplements on the DM’s Guild.

I hope that through working with the community, D&D in Japan will reach a new level.

D&D’s legacy on Japan pop culture

In Japan, while knowledge of D&D has once again been relegated to a small group of enthusiasts, the impact of the game on Japan’s pop culture has been enormous.

Many of Japan’s best known fantasy properties can directly trace their lineage to the game. Final Fantasy’s original bestiary was almost entirely lifted from D&D. Popular light novels like Overlord, Goblin Slayer, and The Faraway Paladin are inspired by ideas from D&D. This connection is so strong, that even though the author of the manga Delicious in Dungeon wasn’t aware of D&D when she started penning the series, it feels as though it could be directly inspired by someone’s home campaign.

This influence means that even if the average Japanese person isn’t familiar with the name “D&D,” they will be familiar with many of the tropes pioneered by the game.

A four-stage approach for hiring women on your engineering team 20 Mar 2024 4:53 PM (last year)

この記事は日本語でもお読みいただけます。

“We’d love to have woman engineers on our team, but we don’t get any applying to us” is a common sentiment I’ve heard from startup founders, both in Japan as well as my home country, the United States.

If you’re in a similar position, and looking to increase the gender diversity of your team, I have good news! Today I’m going to share strategies for not only attracting more women as candidates, but also helping you hire and retain them. These are strategies I’ve learned from 12+ years in software engineering roles, at companies from 3 to 20,000 people.

I’m also drawing on my experiences as a leader in organizations dedicated to helping women excel in tech careers, both as a Senior Director of Women Who Code Tokyo and the founder of Women in Software Engineering Japan, the organization that replaced it. In addition, I’m sharing my learnings from reading and mentoring.

Before we dive in, let’s remember: Perfectionism is the enemy of progress. Just like we would with Agile software development, let’s aim to be better than we were yesterday, learn from mistakes, and move forward.

While this article primarily focuses on the balance between men and women, there are other important forms of diversity you should consider too: LGBTQIA+ (remember, gender diversity includes non-binary identities), nationality, race, disability, and more.

The four stages

I’ve broken the process of hiring more women into the following stages:

1. Evaluate
2. Attract
3. Hire
4. Retain

Many companies start by looking to improve the Hire stage, but they haven’t put in the work to evaluate their current state of gender diversity or to make the company attractive to women. For this reason, they have limited or no success.

Let’s learn more about each stage.

Stage 1: Evaluate

This stage involves an honest assessment of where your company is at with regards to gender diversity, as well as gathering more knowledge so your leadership is ready to support women.

Understand why your company wants diversity

A good first question to ask is “why do we want diversity at our company?” (While there are certainly some companies that don’t understand or desire diversity, we assume that if you’ve read this far, you aren’t in that category 😃)

A caveat: let’s start by breaking the myth that women need rescuing, or that diversity initiatives are “charity” or “lowering the bar.”

Reasons why some companies want diversity:

• Your team will more closely match your customer base, helping ensure your product fits the market, according to the New York Times.
• Diverse teams have a proven track record of better innovation and ideas, according to an article by UC Berkeley.
• Companies that bring together Japanese and foreign talent can better innovate in a competitive, global market.
• Diversity leads to fairer treatment, so everyone can succeed regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, caste, or creed.

Identify barriers that might make women feel unwelcome

Once you understand your “why,” next, reflect on what barriers might make women feel unwelcome in your space. This one takes more introspection, so take your time and again, no perfectionism! Look for areas to improve in.

• Does the company have a rigid work schedule or lots of overtime? Family obligations fall disproportionately on women, according to TIME Magazine, so an inflexible schedule may prevent them from thriving in your organization. A 2018 article by Tomohiro Takami asserts that “‘overtime culture’ is a barrier to women playing active roles at a company.” Consider flexible schedules to allow for activities throughout the day, such as childcare dropoff/pickup, or allow working from home to care for sick family members. Also consider flexibility across longer durations for life events such as maternity and paternity leaves.
• What kind of language do people use in the office? Masculine language like “war rooms,” “dominate,” and “guys” may create an unwelcoming atmosphere. Sexual slang or “locker room talk” needs to be nipped in the bud. Interestingly, I’ve known a lot of men who also find such topics exhausting.
• How does the team socialize or build culture? If it’s only late nights with heavy drinking, women may feel uncomfortable. Parents may not be able to stay out late on a weeknight. While getting beers with the team can be fun on occasion, consider having different opportunities for people to build relationships, such as getting a team lunch. Make sure that all events have non-alcoholic choices.

Educate yourself about gender equity in the workplace

This article is just an introduction to the topic of gender equity in the workplace, and others have written more extensively about it. In particular, I recommend “The Good Guys,” which shows that men have a crucial role in promoting gender equity at work, and “What Works for Women at Work” by Joan C. Williams and Rachel Dempsey.

Be ready to challenge assumptions

One question I’ve faced when discussing measures to combat gender equity in the workplace is: “Are we lowering the bar?”

I find this question to be loaded, and only raise it here to respond to it clearly. The reason it’s loaded: it assumes that we live in a meritocracy with fair hiring systems; it assumes that women are less apt at science and mathematics; it assumes that hiring women is some misguided charity, and that DEI efforts are some band-aid, feel-good fix.

To this I’ll point to the excellent book “Brotopia: Breaking up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley,” in which Emily Chang breaks down the origins of the word “meritocracy,” and explains how Computer Science transitioned from a field of women typists and “human calculators” to a male-dominated industry.

But this may also shock you to hear me say: I don’t want your company to hire unqualified women. It does no favors to your company, and it also doesn’t help the woman who is chosen for a role she can’t succeed in. Nobody wins!

There are also myths that technically proficient women don’t exist, or that women have an easier time getting through interviews. Let’s be cautious about any assumptions that take a zero-sum approach to gender relations—women’s success does not mean men lose something; there is a future where everyone can succeed. We’ll also leverage scientific research as well as firsthand experience rather than generalizations.

Stage 2: Attract

The next stage is to adjust your company’s external strategy to ensure you are appealing to women candidates. Check if you are accidentally sending signals that may turn away women.

Create inclusive job postings

Job postings are often candidates’ first chance to learn about your company, and so it is essential that they make them feel welcome. Here are some tips on writing inclusive job postings.

Avoid assuming a gender in the description

Instead of writing “The candidate will design software systems in his day-to-day work…” you could use the gender-neutral “their,” or instead change the listing to use the second-person “you.”

Avoid buzzwords when describing employees

Cutesy nicknames like “rockstar,” “hacker,” and “ninja” not only turn away women, they also harken back to the early 2010s.

Keep requirements to those that are absolutely essential

Extremely long lists of requirements that may actually be optional can scare away women. It’s better to think about what’s required vs. nice to have in your listing. Women tend to self-select out of job postings when they don’t meet 100% of the requirements, whereas men apply if they meet at least 60%, according to a HBR article.

When referring to women, be careful about the term you use

Pay attention to the terms you use when referring to women, or your attempts to be welcome to them may backfire. Here are some nuances to be mindful of when referring to women:

• “Women”: Used to refer to adult women in the noun or adjective form.
• “Girls”: Refers to female children. While it may be used in an endearing manner in social or casual settings, such as “Girls’ Night,” avoid using this in professional settings as it is diminutive.
• “Female”: Avoid using this as a noun, as it sounds overly biological and can refer to animals. It could be used as an adjective, though I prefer “women.”
  “We want to hire more females.” => “We want to hire more women.”

Further resources for creating inclusive job posts

For examples of what inclusive hiring posts do look like, check out this blogpost by Gem Siocon. You can also use the free tool Gender Decoder to check your job post for inclusive language.

Ensure your employer branding promotes gender diversity

Review your company’s employer branding from the perspective of gender diversity. A woman is more likely to want to join an organization that’s already making strides to improve their diversity than one that is male-dominated and showing no efforts to improve.

Highlight any existing gender diversity

Even if your organization is male-dominated, chances are there are some women in your organization. Work with them to figure out ways you can highlight them. This can include encouraging them to speak at events (along with providing them the resources to do so) or featuring their profiles on your website. Note that not all women will be comfortable with doing this, so be careful about pressuring them to do this.

Avoid appearing in events that lack gender diversity

Unfortunately it is all too common for events in Japan to feature all-male panels, or for conferences to have a dozen speakers without a single woman. Should your company appear in one of these, you may lead women to think that your organization doesn’t value them.

If one of your male employees is invited to speak at such an event, raise this issue with the organizer. If there’s a woman in your organization who would be a good fit, consider suggesting her instead. Otherwise, you can ask the organizer to find a qualified woman on the desired topic through a resource like SpeakHer, something I built with Tutti Quintella and Yan Fan.

Is your company leadership hosting or speaking at events with all-male panels? Are most of the photos on your LinkedIn groups of men?

Participate in, sponsor, or partner with organizations that promote diversity

There are some great opportunities to get involved with women and girls in tech. Here are a couple organizations operating in Tokyo, many of which are welcoming to male allies:

• Women in Software Engineering Japan (WiSE JP) - The successor to Women Who Code Tokyo and a grassroots organization dedicated to empowering diverse women in tech across Japan.
• Code Polaris - A Japanese-language organization supporting women in tech.
• Waffle - A Japanese NPO supporting high school and college girls in technology.
• FEW Japan - Though not a technical organization, they are a great group supporting women leaders and entrepreneurs in Japan.
• Women in Agile Japan - An Japanese-language community aiming to create 100 women Agile leaders in Japan.
• Women in Technology Japan - A local community supporting women in tech fields, with many international members.

Stage 3: Hire

Congratulations! You’ve reached the stage where you’ve got women applying to your company! Now how to shape your hiring process to find candidates who are a good fit.

Review your hiring process for implicit bias

The first step is to review your hiring process for implicit bias: where we make unintended actions based on stereotypes or prejudice. There are many studies that show that better rubrics and systems help remove bias and improve decision-making.

To do this, ask: “Is our current hiring process designed to help us hire people who are a good fit for [role]?”

Processes often favor candidates based on factors that have nothing to do with their aptitude for the role. For instance, I have ground my teeth in hiring meetings listening a male colleague fawn over an interview candidate who “was such a great culture fit, I would love to get a beer with him.”

If you are in the business of consuming beer, please, go ahead and hire that guy. As for me, I’m in the business of creating great software, so I’d like the evaluation criteria to measure:

• Technical foundations
• Problem solving
• Communication
• Leadership (depending on level)
• Collaboration/Teamwork
• Ability to take feedback/Coachability
• Testing/Quality mindset

Avoid “culture fit” or affinity bias and instead look to “cultural additions.” Look for people who will nudge your culture in a healthy direction. Coach your team in collaboration and feedback so they can bridge differences in a constructive manner.

Offer equal pay for equal work

It may be surprising that pay equity is still an issue in 2024, but last year’s Nobel Prize in economics went to Claudia Golden who studied this very issue. Nikkei Asia also discusses the gender pay gap in a recent article, where they talk about how a “greedy” work culture that demands long hours makes it hard for women to remain in higher paying jobs. In the west, women have less success than men in negotiating their salary.

One challenge in Japan is the expectation that applicants provide their current compensation. Basing future salaries based on past values could perpetuate pay inequity. Nonetheless, there is hope: a Harvard Study from 2014 suggests that by giving women permission to negotiate in hiring discussion, the wage gap closes.

Hire women at various levels at your company

Remember, women aren’t only beginners. Having women in senior positions can demonstrate to potential hires that there is room for them to grow in the organization. It also establishes role models, and ensures that women’s voices are included in decision-making.

Stage 4: Retain

By this point your company is becoming more diverse. This step is about setting up your new hires for success, so they excel at your company, which will both help your product and make it easier to attract even more diverse talent.

Provide opportunities for mentorship

Mentoring is a really great way to grow your talent, produce better employees, and also keep people engaged. Larger companies may have enough opportunity to offer mentorship programs. While it can be helpful for women to have female role models at their company, having a male mentor can also be a great opportunity for both participants.

Even if you are a smaller company, consider external mentorship opportunities to develop your people. ADPList is an awesome site that connects mentees and mentors around the world, and it’s completely free.

Recognize growth through promotion

Provide opportunities for evaluation and growth, and be sure to recognize outstanding work accordingly. You can use the same techniques for mitigating bias in hiring to evaluate your promotion cycle. Consider the chapters on “Prove-it-again” bias from What Works For Women at Work, which discusses a phenomenon where men are evaluated on potential, while women are expected to demonstrate past experience. Understanding these patterns helps us identify and mitigate it.

One of the best ways to support women in their career is through sponsorship: when a leader champions someone through the promotion process. Studies show that sponsorship more than mere mentorship helps women thrive in their careers.

Support DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) internally

Internal support of DEI is another factor that keeps women happy at their company. Small companies with little budget can bootstrap DEI programs thanks to free allyship training from LeanIn.org. As companies grow, many form Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) as a way of supporting initiatives and creating a sense of belonging. These tend to succeed more when the leadership of such works is categorized as real work for the organization rather than just volunteering. This means supporting DEI as part of the organization’s “currency” and setting expectations around time commitments. For larger companies, full-time staff supporting DEI can supplement part-time members and compensate for the emotional labor behind this work.

Establish HR processes

Lack of HR / immature processes is a challenge in smaller organizations (or even those going through transition). Nonetheless, this is a risk area that is good to prepare for.

Ensure you have mediation tools for healthy conflict resolutions. Avoidance will just push off things to the future, usually coming back in a worse form. An excellent book on this subject is Crucial Conversations

Provide parent-friendly policies

While parent-friendly policies can be good for employees regardless of gender, women often disproportionately benefit from them, both because of the physical burdens that pregnancy and childbirth place on them, but also because of societal expectations that are often placed on mothers.

Establish lactation spaces

Lactating mothers need privacy, calm, and a sanitary space to pump breast milk, otherwise they may experience intense pain, and their baby may not get proper nutrition. The women’s restroom isn’t sufficient—nobody wants to prepare their meal in the toilet. Also make sure your staff understand that the lactation space is a restricted space—interruptions such as coworkers barging into the door looking for a conference room, or interns using the space to take naps can cause mothers undue stress and may prevent them from pumping.

Allow parents to work flexibly

Parents may need to work remotely to take care of sick kids or arrange dropoff/pickup from daycare or school

Train managers about maternity leave

Despite its legal protections, Japan still struggles with マタハラ (matahara, maternal harassment), where women face professional consequences for getting pregnant. Make sure your managers are trained to make applying for leave an easy process.

Promote paternity leave

Under the law, fathers are provided paternity leave. Encourage them to take advantage of it, because it normalizes men sharing duties that stereotypically fall to women.

Prohibit overtime

Expectations of overtime tend to favor men, who are more likely to have a wife to take care of household duties such as cleaning, cooking, and childcare. Even when both partners in heterosexual couples work, there is often an expectation that the woman takes on a larger share of the household duties (known as “The Second Shift”). Setting reasonable work hours helps level the playing field, and may have added benefits of preventing burnout among all employees.

Putting it all together

Now that we’ve learned the four steps, what’s next? Remember, DEI is a journey, not a destination. Celebrate your successes, and keep growing. Look for ways your organization can support intersectional diversity, such as LGBTQIA+, disability, neurodiversity, and nationality or culture.

Lastly, I’d like to thank you for reading this article. For caring, reflecting, and doing the work to make the Tokyo tech environment more inclusive. I hope to see you at a future event.

Author’s Note: The views in this article are my own, and do not reflect those of my current employer. None of the examples are taken from my current workplace.

Grad school in Japan: my experience doing a Master of Sciences in Computer Science 4 Mar 2024 9:22 PM (last year)

My journey in Japan began with an unconventional scholarship program called Vulcanus in Japan, which allowed me to take a Japanese language course and intern at a major Japanese company. I wrote all about it in my previous TokyoDev article.

This time, I wanted to describe the continuation of this journey, a master’s program in computer science at the University of Tokyo.

How I ended up in a graduate program

While still in the middle of my Vulcanus program in Japan, I was offered a scholarship from a Spanish bank that would cover the tuition fees for any international graduate school program and provide a monthly stipend. I originally aimed to get accepted into one of the highly-regarded American universities.

However, things didn’t turn out as I expected. The COVID-19 pandemic hit right around when the admissions process was closing, and international travel became extremely difficult. Not surprisingly, I couldn’t make my original plans work, so I shifted my attention back to Japan. One of the few universities still accepting applications was the University of Tokyo, so I took my chances and went all in for this last opportunity.

I was lucky to pass the entrance exam

The entrance examination for most programs at the University of Tokyo is known to be very challenging. This is especially true for the highly in-demand computer science graduate program.

The written exam for the computer science degree is usually divided into a computer science section and a math section. Past exam iterations are made public for you to review and prepare, but the breadth of content is so wide that realistically, at least half a year of full-time preparation would be needed to be comfortable with all the topics included. I locked myself into my room and studied for months, praying that this or that topic would be kept out of the exam.

Math was definitely a major weakness for me, and my chances of doing well on that one were almost zero. However, the planets aligned for me, and it was decided that due to the extraordinary circumstances (COVID), the math exam would be replaced with an additional oral examination covering computer science topics. Imagine my excitement!

While I did okay on the written exam, my strong performance on the oral exam was ultimately the decisive factor for my admission into the program. To this day, I consider myself extremely lucky for how things turned out.

Graduate programs in Japan are all about research

Most graduate programs in Japan are two-year long, highly research-focused programs. When applying, you not only select the degree program, but also a research laboratory. Most of your time will be dedicated to research activities in the lab, including weekly lab meetings and tasks that your professor asks you to do. You’ll be encouraged to write papers, participate in competitions and events, and share your knowledge and results with others.

This might vary among universities and programs, but in my case, the amount of required coursework credits was fairly low, and most classes were not very challenging. It is possible to finish all required coursework credits within one or two semesters and have your second year fully dedicated to your research and thesis.

Given this tendency for graduate schools in Japan to be so research-focused, whether or not you enjoy it will depend mostly on your inclination toward research. Graduate school might be overwhelming if you are looking for a quick way to earn credentials for job hunting.

Finally, learning all you can about your prospective professor before applying to the program is very important. Some are very relaxed and don’t ask much from their students, while others are extremely demanding and will expect you to work 10 hours per day while publishing something every other month. Make sure when picking a professor that you pick one who matches you not only in research topic but also in work style.

You won’t fit in as a foreigner, but that’s okay

You probably won’t be surprised to hear that fitting in with Japanese students is very hard, as they will mostly form closed groups among themselves. You might have more luck among your lab-mates, especially those comfortable with using English. I made several Japanese friends myself through this approach. On the plus side, you will most likely not be the only foreigner in your degree, especially if it’s an English-based program, so there will be many like-minded foreigners to befriend. Finally, you will also find it helpful to participate in extra-curricular activities such as sports, competitions, on-campus concerts, etc.

My graduate school made no particular distinction between English-speaking international students and Japanese students. Courses in both languages are mixed into the same curriculum, and everyone is free to choose between both. For that reason, it is easy for international students to choose their level of comfort with Japanese and take steps accordingly, such as collaborating with the Japanese students of your lab or joining a Japanese-language course. I personally didn’t find myself comfortable enough to follow a high-speed Japanese lecture, so I stayed on the English side. Looking back, I wish I had pushed myself a little more. The labs are also usually fairly multilingual. Most professors will talk to you in English if that’s what you prefer.

With that said, this can vary from program to program. If your program is tailored fully toward foreign students, you might not find the chance to interact with Japanese students. It’s best to contact currently enrolled students if you want to know more about those details before applying.

I had a blast, and so might you

My experience as a master’s student at the University of Tokyo was extremely unique due to COVID-19. Most courses—and even lab activities—shifted to a remote system. Given how charming the Hongo campus is, I felt quite sad not being able to make the most of it. With that said, I had one in-person course that I really enjoyed, and there are multiple facilities that students can make use of, such as the library and the gym.

My lab was large, with almost 15 active students participating in the weekly activities. My favorite was the paper reading sessions, where each week, one student presented a paper on a related topic. There was a significant number of foreign students, and most activities were carried out in English.

Thanks to the great lab environment, excellent supervisor support, and an eagerness to make something out of this program, I published two research papers at high-profile conferences (Debiasing Masks: A New Framework for Shortcut Mitigation in NLU and Embracing Ambiguity: Shifting the Training Target of NLI Models). The first of those conferences was unfortunately fully online (thanks again, COVID!), but I was able to participate in-person in Abu Dhabi for the second one. The lab will usually provide financial support for activities like these and cover the associated costs.

A degree from a Japanese institution can be valuable in Japan

A Japanese degree will greatly boost your job-hunting in Japan. It is a sign that you have spent two years in the country, been able to enroll in a local institution, and followed its rules and norms. Any Japanese company looking at your resume will feel more confident about you being able to blend into their workforce, too. If your university has some amount of prestige, then that will additionally reflect on you as a graduate.

Notably, Japanese companies usually don’t expect much from the actual outcomes of your degree. Your research topic or academic performance will have little impact if any at all. A staggering number of Japanese graduates work jobs that have nothing to do with the field they majored in. History major, applying for an investment analyst position? All good!

Internationally, a Japanese degree is usually not as well recognized as they are not very well known. I would consider them to be at a similar level of recognition to an average European university.

Is this the right choice for you?

If you have the time, are willing to dive deeper into the academic research world, and plan to continue working in Japan, a master’s degree with a Japanese institution would be a great option for you. You will most likely have a great time and the degree will offer a significant boost in your job hunting.

If any of the above is not true, however, there are several other options to consider. Professional training programs or technical schools (専門学校, senmon gakkou), boot camps, and several other similar paths exist that can boost your credentials in Japan. However, if you are not planning to pursue a job in Japan, a degree with better international recognition might be a better choice.

One final reason to consider a Japanese graduate school is that it can be a way into the country if you are applying from abroad. Universities will sponsor a student visa for all international students, so it’s an easy option to set foot in Japan and use your time as a student to figure out your next steps.

Personally, my choice of joining graduate school in Japan definitely paid off. Not only did I achieve several strong research outcomes, but I also had a great time doing so and finally landed a great job after graduation. I think back fondly on my time as a student in Japan due to the many friends and unforgettable memories I was able to make.

How I obtained a J-FIND visa in Japan 12 Feb 2024 8:08 PM (last year)

The J-Find Visa enables recent graduates to engage in activities such as job hunting, business startup, and other income-generating endeavors within Japan — opportunities that were previously inaccessible to do so. I was one of the first recipients of this visa, which provided me with the legal foundation to reside in Japan for the initial year, allowing me to make pivotal connections, lay the groundwork for starting a business, open a bank account, secure housing, and more.

This article highlights my personal experiences with the J-Find Visa and how the Tokyo One-Stop Business Establishment Center (TOSBEC) has played a crucial role in helping me overcome challenges associated with these endeavors.

Why I embarked on this journey

My childhood fascination with Japan reached new heights in 2019. That year, I had made several trips to Japan during the spring, summer, and winter, immersing myself in the culture and lifestyle. Particularly exciting for me, given my background as a graduate in Communications and Japanese Linguistics from the University of Zurich. That last winter trip was especially impactful, thanks to a homestay with a lovely 73 year young grandmother in Kanazawa, Ishikawa-Prefecture. However, in February 2020, my journey encountered an unexpected turn when COVID necessitated my return to my hometown of Zurich.

There I was, a graduate student, with part-time working experience as a Marketing Manager and Communications Consultant, albeit over many years. I did not have a lot of choices back then. In this period of uncertainty, I decided to get a Master’s Degree (post-grad) in Communications and Linguistics, a decision that not only advanced my academic credentials but also helped me refocus on my goal of returning to Japan.

When Japan’s borders reopened in October 2022, I took the opportunity and returned in February 2023 on a regular tourist visa, staying for five months. To work around the limitations of the tourist visa, which typically allows for a stay of up to 90 days, I temporarily left Japan to visit Seoul after the initial three months on my visa. I then re-entered Japan, which effectively reset my visa and allowed me an additional three months in the country. This approach served as an alternative to formally applying for a tourist visa extension within Japan.

Choosing the right visa

This time, my objective was clear, and I was ambitious: I wanted to start my own Communications business in Tokyo. The main obstacle in my path, however, was obtaining a suitable visa. I evaluated several options:

1. Language school enrollment

While this path could have provided me with a student visa, ultimately leading to a working visa, it was not a viable option for me. Having already graduated in Japanese studies as my minor, I was not ready to return to a classroom setting. My focus was on practical application and moving forward in my career.

2. Seeking employment

Given the financial barriers associated with the already well-known Business Manager Visa, my plan involved obtaining a regular working visa as a stepping stone to starting my own business. The job search process, however, proved to be a major hurdle. Despite numerous applications and interviews, I constantly faced the same issue: companies were reluctant to sponsor my visa without prior work authorization in Japan. Although my ability to network and forge connections as a Communications professional led me to various business owners, none were able to assist with my visa situation. This emotional rollercoaster was marked by enthusiastic initial responses that often dissipated, leaving follow-up plans unmaterialized.

3. Government’s Visa Initiative

And then, it happened. End of April 2023 marked a crucial moment in my journey, as the Japanese government announced the innovative J-FIND and J-SKIP visa programs. This groundbreaking development presented a ray of hope, cutting through the complexities of traditional visa routes. Made for self-sponsoring individuals, this visa opened up a new niche in Japan’s business landscape: Freelance Entrepreneurs. With the advent of the J-FIND and J-SKIP visa programs, my strategy took a significant turn. This initiative not only aligned perfectly with my goals but also simplified the process of establishing my business in Japan, or so I thought at first. I shifted my focus to this self-sponsored visa, recognizing it as a practical and direct route to realizing my entrepreneurial ambitions in Tokyo.

With the rollout of the J-FIND and J-SKIP visa programs, I was presented with a choice. The J-SKIP option, however, was impractical for me due to its requirement of an annual income exceeding 20 million yen. Being a couple of million yen short of this threshold, I realized that this path was not viable for my situation, steering me towards the J-FIND visa as the only suitable and feasible option.

What is the J-FIND visa?

To me, the path to securing the novel J-FIND visa was one that necessitated thorough research and a keen understanding of the required documentation. The Japanese government aims to draw in younger, highly skilled, and well-experienced foreign professionals through its new visa initiatives. This move is in response to Japan’s urgent need to counterbalance its swiftly aging population and persistently low birth rates, which have led to a critical shortage in the workforce. While Japan’s immigration approach has historically been somewhat closed off, often not aligning with the dynamics of the global market, these new measures indicate Japan’s awareness of the growing necessity to welcome international businesses and talents.

So, while the J-SKIP visa expands upon the existing Highly Skilled Professional (HSP) visa program, the J-FIND visa introduces a new category as a part of Japan’s economic revitalization strategy. Permitted activities under the J-FIND visa included job hunting, start-up preparation, and employment to supplement funds for these primary activities.

But one of the initial challenges I encountered was the novelty of the J-FIND visa program. Being a new and untested option, there were no law firms or agencies equipped with the experience to guide applicants through this specific process.

Visa Requirements

As I did my research, I found that to qualify for this visa, applicants were required to fulfill the following:

• Educational Background: A degree from a university ranked in the top 100 in at least two world university rankings, or completion of a graduate course at such an institution.
• Timeliness of Graduation: The visa application needed to be made within five years of graduating, as the target is recent graduates.
• Financial Preparedness: A minimum of 200,000 yen for initial living expenses in Japan, evidencing the applicant’s capability to support themselves initially.

Meeting these requirements was necessary for my application. Fortunately, my educational background aligned perfectly with the criteria, and I had graduated within the stipulated time frame. Additionally, I had secured enough funds to meet the financial requirement for initial living expenses in Japan. The only downfall of the visa seemed to be the limited duration: it is initially valid for a maximum of one year and can be renewed only once for an additional year. Contrary to what some might believe, this visa is not intended for ‘digital nomads.’ Instead, it serves as a business preparation visa, designed to facilitate the initial stages of establishing a business in Japan.

Applying for the J-FIND visa

Step 1: The Certificate of Eligibility

The next obstacle I faced was obtaining a Certificate of Eligibility (CoE), which typically requires a sponsor in Japan, such as an employer, school, or relative. Without any of these in place, the conventional route to a CoE was not an option for me. And I needed the CoE in order to apply for the visa in the first place.

This is where the J-FIND (and J-SKIP) visa offered a distinct advantage. Unlike other visas, it allowed me to be my own guarantor, a significant deviation from the standard requirement. The process of obtaining a CoE within Japan generally takes 1 to 3 months and requires a Japanese address for correspondence. Because the J-FIND visa was a new and unknown territory to all involved stakeholders at that time, I was not allowed to apply for the CoE overseas at the Japanese Embassy of Switzerland. To navigate this requirement, I later used the address of my best friend in Japan, a decision I transparently communicated to the immigration authorities, while I was in Tokyo.

Step 2: Preparing the Documents

This stage required thorough organization and attention to detail, as the completeness and accuracy of these documents are critical for a successful application. What I needed to prepare were following documents to apply for the CoE:

• CoE application form
• One photograph (that meets the standard requirements)
• Documents proving that I had graduated from a university ranked in the top 100 in at least two world university rankings
• My Curriculum Vitae
• A description of intended activities (here I had mentioned the J-FIND visa)
• A document showing my current balance of my savings account

Step 3: Applying for CoE at Shinagawa, Tokyo

I headed to the immigration office in Shinagawa, Tokyo, to submit my CoE application. Fortunately, I had digitized copies of my important documents stored on my laptop, which made it easier to print them out at a nearby 7-Eleven. This step was all about ensuring that every required piece of paper was in order, accurately filled out, and ready for submission.

Surprisingly, even the staff at the immigration office were not fully acquainted with the J-FIND visa, a testament to its novelty. I had to explain the new visa to the staff, using the official government website as a reference. I think this was one of the biggest challenges in the whole process, because it seemed to me as if everyone was lost: the staff didn’t know the visa, and the lack of familiarity with the J-FIND visa left me questioning whether my application would be processed correctly, or if I would receive any response at all.

Step 4: The Wait

Following the submission of my CoE application, a period of waiting ensued. One month passed without any news, and I made the decision to return to Zurich in June. This move was rather strategic, allowing me to prepare for what I hoped would be my relocation to Japan. In July, my best friend came to visit family in Zurich. When we met, I was faced with an unexpected but welcome surprise: he was holding a yellow-ish letter, the harbinger of good news. It was my Certificate of Eligibility, finally in my hands.

Step 5: Japanese Embassy in Bern, Switzerland

With the Certificate of Eligibility, I wasted no time in progressing to the next step. I immediately contacted the Japanese embassy the following Monday and secured an appointment for Friday the same week. The embassy did not accept online submissions for visa applications, so I prepared to present my documents in person. To my relief and excitement, I received notification after just one week: my J-FIND visa was approved and ready for collection. I promptly visited the embassy again, and there it was, my visa firmly attached to my passport. End of July, I found myself in Tokyo.

Challenges after re-entering Japan: banking and housing hurdles

Upon re-entering Japan with my new visa, I encountered two significant challenges that again tested my resilience and adaptability.

Challenge 1: Opening a personal bank account

Contrary to the usual straightforward process of opening a bank account in Japan, my situation was overly complicated by the unique nature of the J-FIND visa. The typical routes to a bank account in Japan include 1) being accompanied by an employer / lawyer on the first day of work, 2) having a school as a guarantor for students, or 3) residing in Japan for over six months. The J-FIND visa, while permitting work, job seeking, and business setup, paradoxically complicated the process of opening a bank account. Despite having an official statement attached to my passport confirming my eligibility to work and start a business, the barriers of trust persisted.

Solution

The solution eventually came from an unconventional approach. I declared myself self-employed on paper, which technically aligned with my freelancer and sole-proprietor status. To my surprise, this strategy worked, and I was able to open a personal bank account after five ridiculous months. Throughout the initial bank-less period, I relied on WISE International for financial transactions, ensuring I could pay rent and meet daily expenses.

Challenge 2: Renting a Place in Tokyo

My inability to open a Japanese bank account initially prevented me from renting an apartment in the conventional manner. Share houses were not a viable option for me, and the requirement for a Japanese bank account to rent a place posed a significant hurdle.

Solution:

Eventually, I found a solution through Weave Living, a foreigner-friendly real estate company specializing in move-in ready and fully furnished apartments with design-forward furniture and appliances. They offered a reasonable price and accepted credit card payments from foreign banks, providing me with a much-needed temporary housing solution in Tokyo.

Open Thoughts

Currently, I do have two key considerations that occupy my thoughts. Firstly, the renewal of my J-FIND visa in July 2024 presents an unknown challenge, as no one has yet gone through this process. I’m uncertain about how things will unfold, but I plan to keep my network updated through my LinkedIn and Medium blog.

Secondly, I’m considering transitioning my J-FIND visa to a Business Manager Visa. This shift is driven by having more work at my sole-proprietorship with aomelab.com, coupled with the development of a second business venture. Also, I would have to get another visa anyways after the end of the two year lifespan of the J-FIND visa.

One crucial, yet pioneering support I received in this decision-making process was from the Tokyo One-Stop Business Establishment Center (TOSBEC). I was introduced to TOSBEC last year by Anthony Griffin, a seasoned business consultant and friend who has been my mentor over the last five years. With his profound understanding of establishing a business in Japan, from sole proprietorship to his registered business entity SAGA CONSULTING, Anthony guided me to TOSBEC. Engaging with TOSBEC was a novel challenge for both parties, requiring us to maintain regular communication to update and learn from each other.

Closing Thoughts

Reflecting on obtaining the J-FIND visa, while I realize that it was an unforgettable experience, with my current knowledge I would advise others to consider simpler options like pursuing a student visa or securing employment first. I usually have a preference for the unconventional, yet this process involved numerous uncertainties, substantial time and financial investments, and immense effort.

Though in one sense flexible, the J-FIND visa also proved to be quite limiting due to its unfamiliar nature in the immigration landscape. Consequently, I am now committed to advising those seeking the J-FIND visa, aiming to reduce their struggles and provide support wherever possible.

Despite the hurdles, I wouldn’t necessarily change my approach, as the novelty of the visa meant that initially, no one quite knew how to navigate it. And it is thanks to visionary leaders like Paul McMahon and supportive businesses like TokyoDev that journeys like mine receive the necessary attention and support, fostering a community of growth, innovation and change.

You’re Too Old For That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech 23 Jan 2024 7:49 PM (last year)

You’ve got the skills and the drive for the job, but how old are you again? Age matters. We all know it. The trick is knowing what you’re up against, why these obstacles persist, who might be able to help, and how far you may be required to shift your perspective from where it currently lies.

To make sense of things, we called upon a willing set of lawyers, recruiters, education professionals, and one brave HR leader to get to the bottom of what is, for most, as rabbit hole of a topic here in Japan. We’ll cover the law, certain challenges specific to mid-career transitions, what recruiters and HR pros see out there in the wild, and if not working for someone else might be the best way to avoid age discrimination and bias altogether. First, cue the lawyers.

Double Trouble: Japan’s Major Labor Laws, and making sense of what doesn’t make sense

“There are no laws which specifically address age discrimination.”

We could almost stop here.

Because, this terse statement from one of Japan’s “Big Four” law firms, Anderson Mōri & Tomotsune, really does tell us everything we need to know. Being succinct, however, tends to prompt questions.

To address some of those questions, we’ll be referring to two specific laws: the Labor Standards Act (herinafter, the LSA), and The Act on Comprehensively Advancing Labor Measures, and Stabilizing the Employment of Workers, and Enriching Workers’ Vocational Lives (hereinafter, the ”Employment Measures Act”), specifically, Article 9.

Are Japan’s labor laws in conflict with one another?

If getting through the heft of any one single law weren’t enough of a challenge for intrepid legal sleuths, balancing the weight of two, understanding their interplay (and making sense of what is actually being said) is akin to a fool’s errand. Wishing to avoid such folly, we knocked on the door of Christopher Rathbone, adjunct professor at Temple University, Tokyo and foreign associate at City-Yuwa Partners for a bit of guidance.

In helping us cut through decades of legal revisions and shifting nomenclature, Rathbone first had us zero in on two things: general laws and special laws. Within Japan’s complicated hierarchical grab-bag of laws relating to labor, these distinctions help inform as to where to look when we sense a discrepancy. Here’s Rathbone:

The LSA could be considered to have the status of a general law in Japan, meaning its provisions are intended to address employment matters widely [emphasis added]. Because general laws are broadly constructed, special laws later enacted are designed to address more specific topics. When discrepancies arise between the two, the special law will take precedence.

With the 1947 LSA acting as the general law, our special law (enacted in 1966) for the purpose of this argument, then, is the Employment Measures Act. Now, let’s get to understanding what these two laws actually say.

What do Japanese labor laws actually say about age discrimination?

We learned at the outset the LSA doesn’t contain language related to age discrimination.

Article 9 of the Employment Measures Act (last updated as Act No. 102 of 2019), known by it’s rather lengthy “popular name:” Ensuring Equal Opportunities Regardless of Age in Recruitment and Hiring, however, does appear at face value to address this concern. But how accurate is that assessment? Article 9 says:

When it is found necessary, as prescribed by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, in order for workers to make effective use of their abilities, an employer must provide workers with equal opportunities in recruitment and hiring, regardless of their age, pursuant to the provisions of Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Rathbone: “Article 9 of the Employment Measures Act is designed to ‘promote rather than punish.’ That is to say, the Employment Measures Act is intended to improve the labor market, particularly in avoiding labor shortages, by directing companies to hire the elderly and thus encourage the elderly to participate in the workforce.”

Here, it’s important to note Rathbone’s use of the word elderly. It’s intentional and reflective of the law’s intent because…, if—with near universality—elderly is defined as 65 and older, this law is designed with that population in mind.

Promote rather than punish is additionally instructive. Again, Rathbone: “The Employment Measures Act pronounces the aims of the government, but only for the purposes of encouragement.” In layman’s terms, the non-coercive: “carrot, not a stick.”

Michihiro Nishi, partner at Clifford Chance, explains further: “It is illegal to request new hires be of a certain age unless certain exceptions are met, under the Equal Measures Act. However, currently there are no criminal penalties for a breach of such obligations by employers; it is possible, though, that administrative actions may be taken (such as the issuance of a corrective order).”

The impact of such corrective orders, however, which run the gamut from removing a firm’s ability to place want ads with Hello Work, to simply “naming and shaming” offending businesses, as one might gather, can have limited affect. The larger and more familiar the name, the more significant the impact, of course, but for some firms, the public mention of misdeeds can in unique cases serve as a temporary boon to business as was seen when some pachinko parlors chose to remain open during the coronavirus pandemic.

The vertiginous calliope ride of interpretive legal language

One of the most frequently cited miffs you’ll hear from recruiters operating within the Japan market is that they receive persistent requests from employers to source job candidates only within a certain age range.

We wanted to understand the legitimacy of such requests through the lens of Japanese law, so we went back a second time to Clifford Chance’s Nishi via email for further clarity. Our question and his response are provided below in full.

[TokyoDev] People believe when an employer requests a candidate be within a certain age range (whether in writing, or verbally) that such a request is illegal, or against Japanese labor law. Can, in fact, such instances be considered “illegal” or “against Japanese labor law” given allowable exemptions under the 2007 amendment to the Employment Measures Act, and the fundamental absence of any law which addresses age discrimination?

[Michiro Nishi] There are no general, overarching or comprehensive statutes that address age discrimination. However, there are some statutes that address age discrimination in some specific situation/circumstances. At the hiring stage, the Employment Measures Act generally prohibits to request new hires be of a certain age unless certain exceptions are met. It is true that these exceptions are relatively wide. The answer to your question is, therefore, it depends. In light of the structure of the statutes, it is generally illegal or against Japanese law, but it is not illegal if any one of the exceptions are met. It is not always illegal, but it is not always legal either.

The idea that labor law appears duty bound to confound the average layperson, is not of course, unique to Japan; the law everywhere is difficult to parse. Here in Japan, phrasing such as “freedom to hire,” “objectively reasonable grounds,” and “appropriate in general societal terms,” set the stage for an incredibly wide interpretive berth, and when paired with the “six justifiable reasons for age limits” under the revision to the 2007 Equal Measures Act (p 61), the law can appear to mute even the softest attempt at promoting equal opportunity. It’s enough to weaken the resolve of even the staunchest supporters of equal opportunity when it comes to age.

This complexity, however, is—for legal scholars like Timothy Endicott, former first dean of the Oxford Faculty of law—precisely as it should be. He writes in Vagueness in Law, that “vagueness is a feature of law, and not merely of legal language: the linguistic and non-linguistic resources of the law are commonly vague,” arguing “the pursuit of justice and the rule of law do not depend on the idea that the requirements of the law are determinate in all cases. The resolution of unresolved disputes is an important and independent duty of judges—a duty that is itself an essential component of the ideal of the rule of law.”

But, for those of us not interested in situating ourselves in a courtroom, or pouring over legal texts and ruminating over the philosophy of law, how can we make sense of this juxtaposition between the law appearing to be in support of the employee, while at the same time appearing to wholly be in support of the employer? How can we level things out? Here, City-Yuwa Partners’ Rathbone makes things rather simple for us, and references the concept of noblesse oblige; retold, and known to all fans of Spiderman as: “with great power comes great responsibility.”

When viewed positively (as is the connotation here), noblesse oblige speaks to the balancing act required when the possession of power and authority blends with the need to operate in the public sphere. Rathbone provides us with a glance as to how this plays out in the law. “The Japanese judiciary aims to protect the worker primarily [emphasis added]—not based on worker rights—but because the worker is the weaker party in the employment relationship and so needs protection; at the same time the judiciary maintains a deference towards the freedom of companies in making decisions.”

Indeed, says Nishi, “The basis of jurisprudence is the reconciliation of conflicting interests,” and “this is precisely the balance that must be struck between the free activity of business and the protection of workers.” He goes on to say that, “In order to have flexibility in the application of laws and regulations, it is inevitable to make the rules somewhat ambiguous by using broad concepts such as ‘reasonable grounds’ or ‘appropriate in general societal terms.’”

Which…, brings us back to square one and Anderson Mōri & Tomotsune’s: “There are no laws which specifically address age discrimination.”

A cramped opportunity to litigate

Bias and discrimination are notoriously difficult cases to litigate. Most tend to be less than explicit (an important factor when it comes to the law), and the challenges prosecutors face can be daunting—even with the most egregious of crimes. As such, age discrimination cases infrequently make their way to the courts—particularly as they relate to hiring.

“Pursuing discrimination in hiring has grounds in the Civil Code,” says City-Yuwa Partners’ Rathbone, “but even in the U.S., where age discrimination is expressly prohibited, establishing that discrimination has occurred is difficult.”

Ascertaining explicit bias aside, three additional reasons also create complexity: the judiciary’s focus on dismissal, the overall difficulty in litigating dismissal, and the lack of damages awarded. This trio of obstacles can prompt a more pragmatic course of action says Rathbone. “Arguing that letting someone go was not a valid dismissal (i.e., lacking objectively reasonable grounds and not appropriate in general societal terms) would carry more weight than specifically asserting age discrimination,” he suggests.

Nishi echoes this sentiment. “A certain number of the dismissal invalidation suits may in fact include age discrimination as one of the hidden issues,” adding: “as a legal formality, such lawsuits may be in the form of contesting the abuse of the right to dismiss, etc.”

Suits related to hiring continue to be less prominent in part because as Rathbone puts it, “dismissals are highly restricted in any case (without invoking age discrimination), and there are no clear legal grounds for asserting age discrimination in hiring. As well, Japan has no discovery system, so proving discrimination in hiring is difficult unless the employers specifically mentions to the candidate age as a reason for refusing to hire.”

On damages, Clifford Chance’s Nishi says simply that “in Japan, the amount of damages awarded by the courts tends to be much lower than in the U.S. or other developed countries,” and “therefore, with the exception of lawsuits for invalidation of dismissal, there may indeed be fewer court cases based on age discrimination,” as a result.

Is change afoot? What the law of the future looks like in Japan

What should we expect as we edge toward tomorrow? For now, it appears as though we’re in for (mostly) more of the same. Rathbone sums up two related changes coming April 1st, 2024, namely: “Employers will have to give notice if they intend to limit renewals of fixed-term contracts at the time of conclusion of a fixed-term contract or when renewing a fixed-term contract. As well, employers will have to give notice that a fixed-term contract can be converted to an indefinite term contract after 5 years of renewals (currently the law, but not part of the notice of working conditions).” We asked Clifford Chance’s Nishi the same question. This was his response:

The Japanese government has been studying the systems of other countries and has been debating for years whether to create a law that directly prohibits age discrimination, but no legislation has been enacted so far, and I think this is unlikely to change at least in the next several years. With an aging society as a backdrop, incorporating the elderly into the workforce is an important social issue, and discriminatory treatment on the basis of age without reasonable grounds is likely to be subject to more stringent scrutiny going forward.

So, that’s the law. Up next, the things you wish you knew (or, perhaps… didn’t) when it comes to all that talk about you that goes on behind your back. Because being seen as “old” is not so far off from wherever you are in age at this very moment.

What They Say When We’re Not in the Same Room

How do employers in Japan handle age bias?

Ageism in Japan? As with anything, it depends on who you ask. We couldn’t poll all recruiters in Japan, but we were able to grab three of the best: Glen Brewster at Exec-Search Partners, Jordan Jarjoura at Meshd, and David Sweet at FocusCore. We asked each to help us understand obstacles candidates might face now, as well as those that are sure to pile up as one’s life-clock continues to tick. Which, ageism aside, is actually a pretty darn good thing.

Dancing through culture

“Age has cultural complications in Japan,” says Jarjoura, reminding us quite adeptly of the obvious. Dōki (同期), he says is illustrative. Dōki, if you’re not familiar with the term, identifies two or more people who begin their time within a company in tandem. Let’s say, we have two dōki; one is 40, the other 25. Outside Japan, this would be nothing to sweat. In Japan, however, such age disparity might cause some consternation. Not everywhere, but in enough places to matter. “Here, we have an expectation to treat someone older not as a peer, but as their senpai,” says Jarjoura, and “though logical, thinking about age can put bias in the head.”

Sweet, whose firm FocusCore specializes in retained recruitment for foreign firms operating in Japan, sees the same thing. “Rarely do companies want a subordinate older than a manager,” he told us matter-of-factly. Some companies say they want someone ‘younger’ to help make the company a bit younger, so they can train someone up” he says, but “in reality, what’s implied is 1.) ‘we don’t want to pay much for this position, so let’s hire someone younger’ and 2.) ‘older people are stuck in their ways and more trouble.’”

This sort of bias is, of course, certainly not unique to Japan; it may, however, be more up-front-and-center. Brewster tells us, “a candidate may be fully qualified—meeting to the letter the job requirements—but because of their age, rejected out of hand as a matter of balance for the team. There is a lot of quick glance rejection,” he says.

Brewster’s take on this is intriguing—one might even say, warm. To him, “Japan wears its heart on its sleeve—they say what they want; younger recruiters don’t always like that.” It’s a position that, in land where the individual is widely believed to be overly reserved in opinion, may be worth pondering… might there be room for the appreciation of such candor? Personally, I find the idea ripe for honest debate. Bring it up next time at your favorite tachinomiya, why don’t you? It’ll no doubt make for an interesting and contentious evening out.

Provocation aside, no matter how valuable being candid may be, no one wants to have someone decide their fate without the ability to rise and defend oneself. And that’s perhaps the biggest issue. But, that’s life; it happens. And…, it will endure.

“Most companies in Japan are still vocal about a preference around age. We may not want to talk about it in the open, but most are asking for candidates to fit into a certain mold,” says FocusCore’s Sweet.

Everyone is absolutely sizing you up

Evaluations subtly based on age are quotidian, and we all do it.

Behind closed doors, we talk about the type of employees we want to propel the firm forward or the young partner we see as being able to inject a bit of fresh air into staid processes; we fill job descriptions with implicit bias-ladened requirements masked as job qualifications in asking for tech-savvy employees, recent college grads, candidates with a certain tech stack, perhaps, simply, for an applicant in possession of “up-to-date software knowledge.” All of this could be suggestive of bias depending on who is paying attention. Truly, as the aforementioned Timothy Endicott suggests, an unfair amount of responsibility does rest with the judiciary. As it does with HR.

And so, while the uniquely wide look talent hunters outside a firm provide is informative, we also wanted to know what HR pros see on their side of the fence. How do human resource professionals contend with these issues? How do they get ahead of obstacles, encourage diversity, head off bias before it appears in new companies, or clear it out in established ones?

Of the seventeen HR leaders we reached out to for this story, only five responded: two politely declined; three said yes. Of those three, only one was able to meet our deadline—Sam Shah, HR Manager at nanameue, Inc. Before we get started, it’s important to note that given the sensitivity of the subject, Shah and his HR peers queried were asked to speak broadly about what they hear from peers in their universe—not with any specificity about what currently happens (or has ever happened) within the walls of their own firm. Enter, Shah.

“There are times when managers are vocal about age—usually it is to match with the current team personality as well as communication,” says Shah. “It is no secret ageism is very common in Japan, and while most just think hiring younger means cheaper—and, you can pull more work out of them—there can be valid reasons; mainly team communication and understanding of the product.”

FocusCore’s Sweet was able to shed some light on this as well given his close proximity to hiring managers and top leadership. “I’ve seen foreign companies come into Japan and they want YOUTH! They are going to have a CEO in their 30s and an energetic C-suite in their 30s. What these companies find is that these candidates don’t exist.”

Sweet finds this drive for younger talent capable of doing everything imaginable shortsighted, and often short-lived. “Younger talent generally don’t have enough experience or ambition as their western counterparts to jump into a strategic level role,” he says, citing a Canadian firm adamant about hiring a 30-year-old CFO. They “waited for over eight months and ended up hiring someone in their 50s. The company soon pulled out of Japan.”

I asked Sweet and Shah if concern is ever expressed about the lack of space available for candidates over 50 to “grow into a role.” Shah feels such applicants “would have a hard time,” but that “it would very much depend on the industry.” Sweet, being on the agency side of things and afforded a bit more candor, says “Absolutely. In tech roles, it would be a fear for lack of relevant/updated technical skill,” he tells us.

Growing into a role can be a real concern with firms, and you may be surprised by just how long that window can be. I ran into this myself when I had designs on pursuing a PhD in history at the still youthful age of 34. A beloved professor, talked me out of it; ageism in higher education wouldn’t do me any favors, he insisted—universities generally want faculty to improve upon scholarship, recruit new students and other big name scholars, and that given my “advanced age,” unless I wanted to toil as an underpaid adjunct for the rest of my life (if I could even get that sort of gig in the humanities) success was unlikely. He thought my skills would be better applied elsewhere. I listened. It was good advice.

But, I’m still young.

If you consider yourself to be a “young” 40, or a young 50… even a young 60-year-old, I’m afraid the market doesn’t quite think of you that way. We’re in the same boat—at 54 now, it appears as though I’m far too ripe for anything beyond the discount bins at Daiei (they do have some nice carrots in there, though).

In this storytelling section, however, I’m not talking about folks like us. I’m referring to those readers who are “young approved” according to the world of work—those vibrant souls still in their twenties who want to work in Japan, or who’re already here and deciding what to do with their future lives. Because make no mistake, GenZ, etc., you too should be contemplating the realities of your future now, not later. Because being old, as you’ll see, arrives long before you think it does.

From 22 to 40 in a heartbeat: A cautionary tale

Not in tech yet, but considering the jump? Consider one possible scenario simply for illustrative purposes:

You arrive in Japan after college; let’s say you’re 22. Maybe you lived and breathed the Japanese language when young, and you’re already in the N2 camp. Nice work. You spend five years teaching your native language; not uncommon. After that five years of teaching, though, you want more. So, you think: Masters. You apply to a program, and enroll. You still need to eat, though, so you continue to teach part-time. You finish your graduate program in two years. Congratulations. You are now a robust 29 with seven years of teaching experience.

More minted than when you arrived, you continue to teach your native language, but now at a university. It’s rosy at first, but the money and students sleeping in class aren’t your favorite. There are other challenges. Your work is some distance from home, and your schedule is not the same as your significant other. Life in your non-Japanese language bubble has caused your Japanese language skills to suffer, but, at least you get by.

After three years teaching at university you’re now 30. You’ve had enough, and decide to transition to tech. Lots of opportunities there, you’ve heard, and lots of ways to learn. Your Japanese will still have to wait; now its time to beef up on programming languages. You wonder which niche to pick… what, dear sage, does the future foretell? Front end? Back end? Full stack? Who knows. You throw the dice. “I’ll have plenty of opportunities,” you tell yourself.

You graduate at the top of your class, but your experience is thin. Good coding camps place graduates quickly, and firms like Code Chrysalis offer lifetime career support—a huge plus. You land a job. With only a single year of coding experience, and now 32, you make do and buckle down.

Five years later, you’re still in this first developer job of yours. You love it; being an independent contributor is where you see yourself remaining for the duration. However, you’ve got an itch: you’d like to try working for another firm as you feel you’ve hit a bit of a learning ceiling with this current company. The compounding experience deficit, though, has you worried; compared to fresh Japanese grads, who at this point have more programming experience than you, you’re a full ten years behind. What to do? At this point you are now 37. Should you jump ship? Having read an article on TokyoDev way back when, you’re well aware that as you near 40 things are going to be tougher than ever… time to think of “Plan B?”

Before we hit the panic button—as many voices will attest—transitioning to another firm when you’re already in tech is not impossible. We also don’t want you thinking that switching from another field to tech is impossible, as clearly is not. Both options, however, have distinct challenges as you age.

As Jordan Jarjoura points out, “Age in Japan is used as a benchmark to allow for the assumption of one’s professional ability; graduation date and years of experience all play a part, and are still looked at as a factor in leveling.”

And, let me tell ya… these dates fly by like you would not believe. Research suggests most make their way to Japan in their 30’s. I won’t posit as to what careers these new emigrants wish to pursue, or why they’re here. However, if these numbers are in any way accurate, my scenario above paints a somewhat rosier picture than what might actually be the case for most new arrivals. Add a family to the mix, and things get even dicier.

“Failing to plan is planning to fail,” an old boss used to tell me. I always hated that statement. But where he was right is that we can never plan for what others have in mind for us. So we’ve got to do our damnedest plan for that, and beat them at their own game. The lesson here is: don’t waffle, don’t wait. If you’re considering a future career in tech, bite the bullet and go—as quickly as you can. Because as you can see, the deck is stacked against you from the get go.

Clearing Hurdles: The Mid-Career Transition

So, let’s talk about this. Sam Shah feels switching industries can be accomplished up “until someone is in their 40’s” but that “starting in your late 40s becomes a challenge.” It is possible to find jobs that are similar, he says, but that going for a career change “is a huge challenge.”

David Sweet agrees: “I think it is very tough to switch industries in Japan.” He tells of a cosmetics company client looking for a supply chain director role that was restricting their search only to candidates with experience in that industry. “Obviously, cosmetics has some critical importing criteria which makes this important, but eventually they opened their search to consider candidates from personal care, then finally, to all consumer goods companies, but that was as far as they would go. Even with positions like finance and HR, where you would think skills are transferable, many companies still favor those who come from industry.”

In the end, it comes down to the need to be open to “adjusting company culture.” says Jarjoura. “To some degree it’s a ‘sea change’ effort,” he says, but adoption appears on the rise—particularly “as Japanese companies become exposed more globally.”

Interestingly, nanameue, Inc.’s Shah sees opportunities for people with a strong network to transfer to “a new role as an advisor,” or perhaps “more on the blue collar side of things—something close enough, like in the way a system architect can flow into sales roles.”

Jarjoura, whose team at Meshd helps high growth, new growth, and unskilled teams with a gamut of HR related needs, agrees: “with a few years of relevant experience, a Japanese firm might consider such a person worthy of hiring at a junior level, though skill based hiring can be seen from the outside as being relatively flat.”

Is there an age related cutoff point when it comes to finding new, gainful employment in Japan?

We wondered if there might be a set point where it becomes increasingly more difficult to find work—a time where ones category experience combined with an advance in age begins to place them out of favor as a mid-level hire—a time, when it just might be a wiser choice to stay put?

“Is there a cutoff point? It depends on the path you choose, says Bukky Adejobi, career coach at Code Chrysalis in Tokyo. ”I would imagine the closer you are to 60, the more difficult it is to find employment when trying to break into an industry. For those already working as developers, I reckon there is some flexibility, but that flexibility begins to decline once one graduates from their twenties into their thirties.”

Adejobi cited placement results as one positive sign that being up there in age isn’t necessarily a career crusher, and tells us older developers who have completed their program were mostly in their mid- to late 40s, with one in their 50s, and that when we spoke in July of 2023, “among this group, less than 20% are still receiving support with their job-hunt,” with most of those grads being those who finished between the end of 2022 and May of 2023. Overall, “more than half of them have successfully found employment,” she says.

Perhaps aware of Japan’s own drive to redefine what is old, older, oldest, Sweet relays the story of a German client who told him they had absolutely no preference with regard to age for a recent opening. “They have someone in their 70s working; this stopped me in my tracks as it was as rare as a hen’s tooth.” That said, for those of you eyeballing more of a country manager role, Sweet sees the door quite open. “Most companies would welcome someone in their 50s,” he says. Of course, not everyone wants to be a manager, let alone run the entire operation. What about the pleased as punch individual contributor, how do they fare?

“I don’t want to be a manager.” A peek at individual contributors

What if, after a decade plus of experience, you have little to no desire to enter the world of management? Can you remain as an individual contributor? Would this be a problem? Sweet has the single answer you’re looking for: “Nope.” Then adds, “It’s generally accepted in Japan, much more than in Europe or the U.S.”

Shah, as well, says remaining an individual contributor as you age is far easier if you’re already within a company as opposed to coming in from the outside, so, “yes, and no. Of course, you have to show an understanding of the product,” he says, “but it definitely happens.” He even sees developers who shift into management and then back again—“sometimes they just love what they do.”

Adejobi concurs. “I don’t believe there are significant challenges in remaining an individual contributor,” adding: “experienced developers often seek opportunities in larger organizations to work on more substantial projects or join new companies as senior ICs. Age bias, when present, appears to affect individuals trying to enter the industry rather than experienced coders,” she says.

Is AI a threat to older candidates landing junior positions?

What about AI? If you’re considering a career switch and getting up there in age, is there any merit in the hullabaloo about AI threatening opportunities for junior roles? If AI is going to take away a swath of junior IT roles, wouldn’t someone already older with less potential room for a long career be at a true disadvantage in this situation? It depends on whom you ask.

Shah says, he doesn’t see much threat at the moment. ”With AI coming in, I think there is still time before any “takeover” talks. Sweet, however, sees the threat as more pressing. “Absolutely” he says, and references his son, who is 25 and working as a game designer for a listed, Japanese game maker with 1,000+ employees. “He knows his days are limited.”

Sweet’s son believes that “within 12-18 months, most of these positions will be gone in his company,” and Sweet thinks at “most companies, it will be first-in/first-out.”

Not All Doom and Gloom; Embracing the Older Candidate

If you’ve exited your thirties, or soon will, your work life is certainly far from over. And, believe it or not, things do appear to be looking up—even for Japan; some outlets have even gone as far as to suggest mid-career shifts are “booming.” (For the time being, I’ll stick with “looking up.”)

Glen Brewster, along with each of our interviewees, would likely welcome such news. He thinks Japan on the whole could benefit from adopting the Nissan model, where staff can rotate across divisions and regions, often providing them with opportunities in global functions (p 143) so they can experience the full “vision of the company,” as he put it. Designed with diversity in mind, such broad-scope programs at larger firms act as management pillars that, as Nissan’s corporate comms suggests, helps them build the strength of their team by reinforcing human resources “not only through the recruitment of new graduates but also by actively hiring outstanding mid-career talent and mid-level management candidates from outside the company (p 105).”

Jarjoura, who works with many firms of this size, sees some of this flexibility first-hand, and attributes much of the opening up of opportunities for mid-level hires to the changing digital landscape over the last two decades. “Digital technology changed everything,” he says. “LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter… foreign firms already familiar with these methods leveraged them heavily to find and recruit talent, and Japanese companies had to compete.” Brewster, too, sees competitive strains influencing internal change.

“Companies are needing to see immediate results and poaching tomorrow’s talent to get there,” he says. “New grads lack the proper experience and training to sell well,” so “Japanese firms have decided to fight fire with fire and go against this intrusion by hiring innovative SEs (Sales Engineers) who already know how to sell creatively. They’re using every tool in their toolbox to compete.”

Helping Japan balance its approach to a new tech workforce

Code Chrysalis’ Yan Fan is helping to bridge this gap between what companies think they need now, what they say as right around the corner, and how they identify cultural fit. Fan says Code Chrysalis devotes a large part of its business to providing enterprise training she says can be best described and “mindset change programs delivered as coding courses,” and realized early on that if they “wanted to make a real difference” in their community, they had to “engage with large Japanese corporations and help them in their efforts to nurture modern engineering and tech-enabled teams.”

To date, their largest single class at a major manufacturing company has enrolled 200 students. “We hope that by educating more people, getting them more confident around coding and software and encouraging more diverse thinking, more business opportunities will be found and more jobs will be created.”

To ensure everyone gets a fair shot, Adejobi tells us Code Chrysalis pays a strict attention to potential partners, and recalls a situation where they passed on a partnership with a recruitment/sourcing company “to connect graduates with job opportunities” because of the presence of what they saw as hiring bias, “particularly with the majority of companies in their directory being classified as ‘traditional Japanese companies.’”

“Our primary requirement is that companies must not have any age or gender-specific criteria,” added Adejobi, “unless they aim to diversify their team with more female hires.” Thanks to this approach, she says they “don’t encounter many firms with age-based bias.” And, no doubt they’re righting companies along the way with this exertion of well-applied pressure.

The Thorny Question of Ethics: It’s Not Just Japanese Firms

Lock-step recruiting, a preference for a pre-ordained career trajectory, and the perceived pursuit of cultural fit were all cited as reasoning for Japan’s difficulty in broadening its approach to HR. Things are indeed different here. So we wondered… if these practices are such an engrained aspect of Japanese business structure, how do foreign firms handle things? Is this propensity toward restrictive hiring practices mirrored in foreign firms operating in Japan as well? I asked David Sweet. “This is all foreign firms,” he said. Shah echoed the same sentiment: “Most definitely.”

Adejobi says at Code Chrysalis, they have “learned about age-based hiring and compensation bias through feedback from graduates regarding their interview process and interactions with certain companies,” and says “these biases were observed in SMEs based in Japan, both foreign-owned and Japanese-owned, as well as large Japanese corporations with a bent toward more traditional operations, affecting candidates in their early 20s as well as those in their mid to late 40s.”

My ethics or yours? Whose are best?

This dismissal of employment parity present outside Japan in apparent favor of cultural relativism (the “when in Rome” approach) is worth examining more closely. Could it be that cultural fit in Japan is a more powerful construct? Or, are companies—free from the legal constraints of their own nations—simply taking advantage of an opportunity to hire young because in Japan they can get away with it? As with all of this, there is no simple answer; ethics and the law, while table mates, do not always see eye to eye.

Cultural relativism, and its “inadequacies” have long been discussed by ethicists, as have its opposite, more absolutist approach, “ethical imperialism (the “our ethics are best” approach). How, then, can corporate HR departments, and individual hiring managers do the right thing?

Ethical scholars such as Thomas Donaldson have suggested guidelines that can provide a “starting point for all companies as they formulate and evaluate standards of ethical conduct at home and abroad, noting that “to be broadly relevant […],” they need to “include elements found in both Western and non-Western cultural and religious traditions.” […] and demonstrate a “respect for human dignity, respect for basic rights, and good citizenship.” Donaldson cites a relevant example related to gift giving in Japan:

Managers should deem a practice permissible only if they can answer no to both of the following questions: Is it possible to conduct business successfully in the host country without undertaking the practice? And is the practice a violation of a core human value? Japanese gift giving is a perfect example of a conflict of cultural tradition. Most experienced businesspeople, Japanese and non-Japanese alike, would agree that doing business in Japan would be virtually impossible without adopting the practice. Does gift giving violate a core human value? I cannot identify one that it violates. As a result, gift giving may be permissible for foreign companies in Japan even if it conflicts with ethical attitudes at home.

If the goal of any firm operating in Japan is to attract, retain, and yes, profit from the capabilities of its workforce, one’s position on such matters is worth contemplating at length. After all, employees, like consumers, tend to vote with their feet, and the door swings both ways; miscalculations both literally and figuratively can be severe.

By way of example, in an eminently intriguing 1995 paper from legal scholar, Kyoko Kamio Knapp entitled: In the World, but Not of It: Japanese Companies Exploiting the U.S. Civil Rights Law, Kamio Knapp details a dramatic rise in discrimination claims heaped upon Japanese firms operating in the U.S. at the time. The paper illustrates how devastating an ignorance (or avoidance) of the law can be to national reputations (not to mention corporate finances), and offers an illuminating look into both cultural relativism, and ethical imperialism at play—in near real time. It’s a paper certainly worthy of the curious reader’s attention.

With near-make-believe tales of explicit bias that collectively resulted in Congressional intervention in 1991, Knapp’s paper prompts interesting deliberation, and forces a reckoning with how we as individuals come to decide whose ethics are “best” when the business practices of foreign and domestic employers don’t align. If you’re looking for a little light reading, you can read the full 512-page Employment and Housing Subcommittee document, on which her assessment is based, along with other resources on the topics covered in this article.

A sidebar: The lure of contract workers

One thing that popped up in my discussion with Christopher Rathbone of City-Yuwa Partners was the increasing role contract employment plays around the world. For those foreign firms considering a more western-aligned approach to contract work (Uber, anyone?), I was curious if this sort of approach might rock the boat in unfamiliar and unwelcome ways here in Japan.

“If a foreign employer intends to hire workers for long term positions but seeks to try to have flexibility by employing the workers on fixed-term contracts, aside from the difficulty in actually dismissing the workers due to yatoi-dome doctrine, many well-qualified Japanese workers are put off by being on fixed-term contracts which they consider to be inherently inferior in status regardless of being offered overall better conditions by the foreign employer.”

As Rathbone suggests, there are obvious social and financial complications specific to Japan, and he seems to consider the approach as needlessly restricting the talent pool. Globally, calls to reduce predatory hiring do appear to be having an effect; however, as we’ve recently seen in the UK, its a bit too early to celebrate if you’re not a fan of the gig economy.

Perhaps mindful of these situations (and the bottom line), Nissan, for one (and, perhaps not coincidentally), has taken the opposite approach—bringing contractors in-house, and making them full time employees. Going against trend and increasing a firm’s commitment to talent is certainly one way to change the game. Speaking of sport, Rathbone has an illustrative story to share:

“A big mistake made by foreign employers is thinking that employing workers in Japan will only require some tweaks of their global employment policy as if the differences in employment regimes are like those between American and Canadian football. Considering that employing workers in Japan will be a different sport entirely would be best because of the restrictions on dismissal or refusal to renew contracts in particular.”

Maximizing Employability for the Long Haul

“It’s an open secret that it’s a candidates market,” says Exec-Search Partners’ Brewster, who thinks now is the perfect time for job hunting in Japan. But he stresses knowing how to make yourself appealing to hiring managers is critical.

“A clear and logical career progression is important,” and you’ll also want to be able to demonstrate that you’re still learning—and, not just tech skills. Employers will want to see “you’re becoming more skilled as time goes by,” he says, and they’ll be asking: “Do you have any certifications? How are your Japanese language skills? Have you graduated from one of Japan’s specialized schools, boot camps, or business schools?”

Essentially, he tells us, you need to be able to provide those with the ability to help you “a clear way to get you placed.” Knowing what it is you want, why you are the best choice for an employer, and going “all in with what you want to do” he asserts, is important.

How to arm yourself with the sort of confidence Brewster says you need to get ahead? Frequenting meetups (Tokyo certainly has its fair share), and commiserating with other tech professionals in places like our own Discord server are two simple steps you could take that might help immensely. In our Discord server, for example, if you’re looking to find out what other candidates are experiencing in interviews and in and out of workplaces throughout Japan, we’d argue there is no better place. Don’t let schmoozing put you off. It often isn’t what you think. Just make an appearance; people will find you and make you feel comfortable.

“Your professional network and connections are powerful tools; make use of them.” says Adejobi. “Don’t let the fear of how people perceive you hinder you from reaching out for help. The worst that can happen is someone could say no.”

Seeing Yourself in the Wider Market: Fractional Hiring and Entrepreneurship

Winding down (or, up!) with fractional employment

We touched on fractional employment in our March article about the expanding Employer of Record ｍarket in Japan, and were wondering if those we interviewed believe it to be on an upward swing in Japan.

Shah sees “growth” in the idea of fractional, and sees ”more and more older professionals moving to contract positions and such,” but David Sweet finds “it’s nothing like in the U.S.” and that he rarely sees it in the areas he works “except on some lower level accounting positions.” He posits, however, that it “depends on how transferable a person’s skills are and how flexible they are on their salary.” In general, he sees “people trying to make their last career move at 50, with people transferring to a different industry or position, much earlier at, maybe 40.” Shah seconds, this. “Once people are in late 50s finding a proper job starts to become harder,” he says.

Exec-Search Partners’ Brewster commented on the fact that “most companies have internal retirement policy at 60-65, that can frequently allow an employee to either fully retire or semi-retire, or remain on signed as a contractor.” Such arrangements can “sometimes allow for a full salary, overtime, and bonuses,” he says, “but once you turn 65, there is social pressure to retire.” With natural lifespans in Japan running well past retirement age though, Glen says people do wonder: “how am I going to live with that amount of time left over?”

“In traditional Japanese companies,” Sweet reminds us, “employees are generally promoted together. At a certain age, one person may be promoted over another and an early retirement will be offered. The employee then leaves the company, but will consult (sometimes in recruitment) for the company as a client. Many will try to start a company, find a company that will work with them, and also eventually hire them full time.”

Shah brought this up as well, suggesting companies open to fractional hires may consider it as one way to “avoid middle men,” while allowing the employer to “hedge risk in case the person is not a match” were they to hire them outright.

Always good for an anecdote, Sweet says he has a friend in the U.S. creeping up on 60 this year who has aspirations to act as CFO at a different company but realizes the deck is stacked against him. He could work on contract for a smaller company at a fraction of the salary, he says, but “he’ll probably just stay on contract with the company until the company can hire someone to replace him.”

Which brings us to… hanging out your own flag.

Sailing your own ship as an entrepreneur

Starting your own business can aid in rendering this entire age question a non-issue—particularly if you’re the one doing all the hiring.

A strong advocate for entrepreneurship, and a business owner herself, Adejobi is big on encouraging students with excellent ideas when they possess the determination and mindset to see things through. When students do come to us with good ideas, she says, “in most cases, they’d seen our program as a means to gain the necessary skills to realize their entrepreneurial goals.”

Of course, starting a business is never easy, and as Sweet attests, “many may have good skills, but not the skill or desire to sell, market, network, or how to run cash flow.” Remaining in the workforce can also feel like a burden after a certain age, with the necessities of life causing many past age 60 to keep punching the clock just to keep busy, maintain a clear mind, and pay the bills—frankly, the reasons we all pursue work to begin with.

One-person consulting companies are a frequent choice among the recently retired (or let-go), though, something Sweet says has been the case in Japan “for many years, and often the only way for older professionals to work after they are on the job market later in life.”

“I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone,” says Adejobi, “but if you have a brilliant idea, I might suggest considering exploring it as a potential business venture.”

Why not, right?

Bringing it all home

Let’s stay here, then, and end simply… with the optimism of Code Chrysalis’ Adejobi.

She reiterates that “age can play a role in the job search, especially if your focus is on Japanese traditional corporations,” but that if you “shift your focus towards startups and networking, are not fixed on industries or particular roles, and are not overly concerned about salary, i.e., expecting a salary above the market average for new entries, you can find a way to succeed. There are always companies willing to give the right person a chance, but it will certainly not happen overnight.”

Amen to companies giving everyone their fair shake.

Acknowledgements

A special degree of gratitude must go to Christopher Rathbone, for his knowledge and generosity of time in helping us get a grasp of the law for this article. Without his extensive help, all would have been for naught. We also hear he makes a pretty good singing Santa Claus. Additionally, the candor and enthusiasm of everyone interviewed for this story over Google Meet (as well as via email) was beyond my expectations. Each helped shed light on what is, for most, a very hidden and confusing topic regarding the world of work here in Japan. To all, I thank you. —Doc

For more research:

Japanese Law in a… nutshell?

Not exactly. But, this guide to Japan’s legal system, from Business Law in Japan, Vol. 1 might give you a good head start.

Interpreting the law in Japan

Understanding the law helps when you have good reference points written in relatively easy to understand language. In the United States, the National Archives Code of Federal Regulations write-up on Title 29 is particularly helpful to get a feel for how other countries deal with age issues in the workplace; of particular note for those of us in Japan is the discussion surrounding workplace seniority systems.

Additionally, one of my main guides for background research was Hitotsubashi University professor of law, Ryoko Sakuraba’s 2009 research on the Japanese labor law and its exemptions. While a bit dated, is exemplary in its detail and clarity.

“The carrot and not the stick” in practice: Approaches to the U.S. First Amendment

While a bit obtuse at first blush, “promote rather than punish” does have a place in the law, as we can see with this U.S. Supreme Court judgment. While contextually different in that it references the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, it is at least linguistically linked. The main idea? “… the First Amendment aims to promote rather than punish counter-speech…” (p 11).

Learning about age discrimination laws in your home country

Anderson Mōri & Tomotsune’s, Age Immigration website offers analysis of age discrimination on 40+ countries. See how your home country fares. In every single one of them, vague language and exemptions rule the roost.

On ethics and culture

Federico Ast’s, The Moral Dilemmas of Global Business is a particularly good read, as is an additional paper from Kyoko Kamio Knapp Knapp: https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/iiclr/pdf/vol6p545.pdf

The complete congressional hearings covered in Knapp’s paper

For those interested in understanding the anti-Japan sentiment circulating in the U.S. and how this all played out in these 1991 Congressional Hearings, this paper is a treasure trove:

Employment discrimination by Japanese-owned companies in the United States : hearings before the Employment and Housing Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, One Hundred Second Congress, first session, July 23, August 8, and September 24, 1991.

Implicit bias. How will you fare?

We all use deeply rooted and often mysterious guidelines that help us evaluate people and situations each and every day—essentially, bias. Take Harvard’s implicit bias test to see how you think of things. I’m not 100% sold on how the test works, but, then again, I’m not this kind of researcher. This test has been out there for a number of years now…

An argument against “at will” work through the lens of “unequal power”

Here’s a great paper from the Economic Policy Institute about an area of employment some (many?) find sacred. An opposing view: The legal ‘freedom of contract’ framework is flawed because it ignores the persistent absence of full employment

Implicit bias and DEIB reading

Lehigh University psychology professor Gordon B. Moskowitz’s books are an excellent place to look for informed knowledge about bias, stereotyping and goal setting.

More papers on work in Japan

• An early find that helped me see how age bias plays out in job advertisements. The paper is quite data heavy… great for math aficionados and fans of R, no doubt. Preference for Young Workers in Mid-Career Recruiting Using Online Ads for Sales Jobs: Evidence from Japan, by Mirka Zvedelikova
• An excellent paper about how Japan is tackling age and work, from Shinya Kajitani, Associate Professor, Faculty of Economics, Kyoto Sangyo University: Promoting Employment of Older Workers and Adjustment of their Working Conditions at Japanese Firms

Big Tech gets sued and loses

The case filings in Google’s 11M age discrimination case

Contrary opinion on age bias in tech

Four Common Tech Ageism Myths Debunked With Data

Converting a Japanese Sole Proprietorship to a Company 16 Jan 2024 8:50 PM (last year)

As I talk about in my article on creating a company in Japan, I initially ran TokyoDev as a sole proprietorship, but in late 2022 converted it to a company. This involved three steps:

1. Incorporate TokyoDev Inc, a Japanese Kabushiki Kaisha
2. Transfer the contracts with TokyoDev’s clients from myself to TokyoDev Inc
3. Transfer the intellectual property around the TokyoDev service from myself to TokyoDev Inc

The first step was pretty straightforward. As the TokyoDev service was doing pretty well financially at that point, it was an easy call to hire professionals to help, and I used a judicial scrivener to handle all the paperwork for the incorporation itself, and an accountant to handle tax related stuff.

I had to do some research to understand how to approach the other two steps though, and so I thought I’d share the results in case it’s of use to someone else.

Transferring Contracts From a Sole Proprietorship to a Company

Over the years, I have signed about 100 contracts between myself and different companies. These contracts had a success fee specified in them, meaning if someone got hired via TokyoDev, I’d be owed a fee.

This arrangement meant I couldn’t easily just terminate my existing contracts as an individual, and re-sign as a company. If I did, I’d have to distinguish between hires made when I was running the service as an individual and as a company, and invoice differently. Not only would that create complexity process wise, I also thought it might raise some issues tax-wise.

So I consulted a lawyer about it. The lawyer pointed out that under Article 539-2 of Japanese Civil Law contracts can be transferred with consent of all parties:

If one of the parties to a contract made an agreement with a third party to transfer that party’s contractual status to that third party, and the other party to the contract gives consent to the transfer, the contractual status is transferred to the third party.

To accomplish this, he drafted an Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). I then set about the arduous process of asking every active client to re-sign. They all did so, with only a few proposing minor changes, so I think the agreement was good enough.

For your reference, here’s the agreement. While it is fairly generic, there are some parts that are specific to my business, so you won’t be able to use it without some modification. But it should help you understand how you might do it.

Transferring Intellectual Property From a Sole Proprietorship to a Company

I wanted to have a formal record of transferring the IP from me as an individual to the company. This was a just in case sort of thing, where some time later down the line, TokyoDev might be audited or go through a due diligence process, and I might not be around to attest that I had transferred it.

Because this was essentially an agreement between myself though, I thought it wasn’t worth the cost in getting a lawyer to draft something bespoke, so I found an agreement that transfers the digital assets of an individual to a US LLC, and made some modifications to it myself.

For consideration, I consulted the lawyer who drafted the MOU. He explained not having any consideration might make it be considered a gift, while assets like a name, website, and other digital assets are hard to evaluate monetarily. As such, he suggested setting it to 1 JPY, which I also confirmed with my accountant that was fine from a tax perspective.

With my changes in place, I asked the lawyer to review it for any major issues. He reported he didn’t find any.

TokyoDev has a new logo! 16 Jan 2024 5:15 PM (last year)

Over the last four years, I’ve been helping TokyoDev with UX, design, and frontend development. One project I’ve been working on is improving our branding. Today, I’m delighted to introduce the results of it: TokyoDev’s new logo.

This new, fun and quirky, logo changes pretty much everything about our branding.

The logotype is 100% custom made and is not derived from an existing typeface. Bold and slanted, we intend it to represent the passion and dynamism that we have for what we do.

The logomark is derived from an original character designed by our very own Michelle Tan representing a celestial fox. We wanted to add a friendly face to our site that could embody the TokyoDev spirit: agile, swift, playful and adaptable.

In the coming years, our celestial fox will follow us around and we hope to bring its magical touch to our next projects.

In this article, I will try to tell you more about how we came up with this idea and our cooperative design process.

TokyoDev’s branding challenge

Paul started TokyoDev as his personal blog in 2010, and so when it started, he was the brand. I first got involved in the project four years ago, after I got a message from Paul saying that he’d made a job board page on his blog, but the design was quite rough, and so he was looking for my help improving it.

What was then “just” a blog needed to become a little bigger than that, and so I came up with a new design that would put the job board front and center.

When we first tackled that redesign, we thought of it as utilitarian. We wanted to make it fast, compact, and accessible. In other words, we wanted to vanish behind the “tool”, and TokyoDev as a brand was not an urgent preoccupation for us. A clear sign of that was that we never made a proper logo for it. Rather, we slapped two curly brackets around the site’s title and called it a day. It was mostly fine to us.

As the site grew though, our lack of branding presented us with several challenges.

First, TokyoDev was moving beyond just being a job board. We’d created our Discord community, we were hosting events online and offline, sponsoring diverse communities in Japan, and commissioning outside contributors to share their knowledge of working in Japan. Not having a cohesive brand made it harder for us to tie all these pieces together.

Second, since we launched the TokyoDev job board, a competitor with a very similar name to us emerged, which led to us being confused for them and vice versa. Not an ideal situation for either of our businesses, and so we wanted to better be able to distinguish ourselves.

Third, TokyoDev as a name didn’t fully represent what we were doing. As a site, we wanted to support international developers all across Japan, not just those in Tokyo. Changing names came up as an option but we ultimately decided to stay as TokyoDev.

Finally, we felt that our utilitarian, text-heavy approach was a mismatch with our team personality.

What we wanted the TokyoDev branding to convey

Branding could only help us better convey who we already were. But we wanted to be intentional about what aspects of ourselves we were going to emphasize. So we sat and tried to define who we are as a company, what we do, what our objectives are.

• We are developers working for developers
• We help developers who want to work in Japan
• We want to support the developer community in Japan
• We are approachable, honest and friendly

Renaming the site

Some of our branding challenges could have been solved by renaming the site to something else. While we considered this, we also quickly abandoned the idea.

While the name wasn’t ideal from some perspectives, it was good in others. Maybe it missed out on some nuance, but it was short, and quickly conveyed to developers that it was a place for them. We’d also already built up a large audience in the decade plus the site had been around, and there was also a great deal of sentimentality around it.

So we decided to leave the name as is, and instead see if we could tackle our branding challenges in another way.

Introducing a mascot

The next approach we tried was coming up with a mascot. Not only was imaging a character fun, but we thought it could bring a number of advantages.

• A character would allow us to make custom illustrations for the site depicting real life situations
• We could maybe give it a name and customize it for different occasions
• It would also help naturally show TokyoDev as a group of human beings working on helping others achieve their goals

That last one was particularly important to me because to be quite honest, I’m not very fond of how cold and dehumanized job marketplaces can be. Even in a sector as dynamic as ours, looking for a job isn’t always a good time.

We started brainstorming asynchronously on Slack about what kind of character we imagined working for TokyoDev. Possibilities were almost endless but we quickly decided that whatever character we chose should have a special link with Japan. For example, a TokyoDev Kappa Rubber Ducky was discussed early on! We were all interested in a legendary or mythical creature but with all sorts of quirky tweaks.

This is where Michelle Tan, a developer working with us, really had a chance to shine. Unlike Paul and myself, she is really good at drawing! She helped us not only with ideation, but also with coming up with characters themselves.

We ended up reaching a consensus on a celestial fox-type character. We thought that in addition to being cute, the qualities generally associated with foxes, such as intelligence, agility, and adaptability, were a good match with ourselves and our audience.

Michelle worked on creating this character from the ground up.

As you can see, early versions of our fox looked already pretty close to our final logo. We thought it was super cute and were eager to see it develop on stickers. Michelle immediately started working on collaborative stickers with some community events we attended.

From mascot to logo

While the character worked great as a mascot, I felt it had too many details to work well as a logo mark. So we tried simplifying and trimming details, but as we removed them, the design became more ambiguous, something that could have been a fox or a dog or a cat or even a pokemon.

We had hit a wall. It was clear to me we lacked the experience to turn an original character creation into a professional logo. I was really proud of how far we’d come on our own, but it was time to admit we could use some help. So we turned to a professional to take our idea across the finish line.

We’re delighted that our new mascot and logo reflect the essence of who we are and where we see ourselves heading. We’re looking forward to seeing where this little fox will lead us and hope you’ll enjoy and welcome it just as much as we do.

Winning a Coding Contest Got Me a Free Trip to Japan 10 Jan 2024 8:30 PM (last year)

I’m a 23 year old software engineer with four years of experience, and have been working in Poland for the last two years. Half a year ago I visited Japan where I really fell in love with the people, culture, and food; it felt like a different planet. After I returned to Poland, I thought it would be nice to try to relocate to Japan, just to try it out and learn the language.

I started to look into how I can find a job that offered relocation and didn’t require Japanese language ability, searching through LinkedIn, TokyoDev, and many similar sites. I applied to pretty much every company I thought would be a nice fit, but no one replied to me. That might be because I do not hold a bachelor’s degree, and recruiters often ignore resumes from abroad if they don’t have a bachelor or better degree because it’s not obvious if I would be able to obtain a work visa.

So I planned to enroll in a Polish university to get my bachelor’s degree. During that time, I would study Japanese, so I would be ready to relocate. I figured it would take me three or four years.

But then one of my friends sent me a link to the Polish-Japanese Tech Job Fair & Forum held in Krakow. It was a forum where Japanese companies like Fujitsu, Yokogawa, and JTP Co would present what they are doing, looking for freshly graduated engineers who would be interested in working for them, potentially even relocating to Japan (some companies had offices in Europe, so both options were available).

At the forum they were going to hold a coding contest, with the 1st place prize being free flight tickets to Japan. I thought it might be a very interesting opportunity so I jumped on the train and went to Krakow. The forum was interesting, and I was able to talk with every company representative. Some were looking just for engineers, while others were looking just for freshly graduated students because they couldn’t offer a high salary.

This forum happens once a year and is held in a few countries across Europe. This time it was held in Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria, with the same companies attending. In each country, they held this coding contest, so three people won a free ticket to Tokyo. Since the contest was held at the end of the event, many company representatives were interested in who was going to win it.,

The contest itself was organized by Challenge Rocket, a platform similar to leetcode, but focused on hiring engineers for companies. It was a medium difficulty algorithms and data structures problem with a 10 minute time limit. I won it by coming up with a solution that passed nine of the ten test cases faster than the other participants. The organizers called me on stage and congratulated me. After that, company representatives started to approach me and exchange contacts. The companies which I liked agreed that I’d schedule an on-site interview or meeting with them while I was in Tokyo, so I could see if there was any open position for me.

Fast forward to two months later when I arrived in Tokyo, I already had six appointments scheduled with different companies and METI. I really expected that every company would be interested in hiring me or at least discussing any work opportunities, but after attending the meetings, they were mostly interested in just presenting their company, telling what they do and wishing me a pleasant stay. I wasn’t talking with technical people, nor HR or recruitment, just managers. I only had 1 proper interview (behavioral and technical on separate days) out of all six appointments I had.

The company I interviewed with was not very international. I passed both rounds of interviews and we started to discuss the salary, when I will be able to start work, my visa situation, and things like that. But their base salary, even for middle/senior positions, was really low – around 3.5 million yen. This was really surprising to me, and I personally was not ready to take such a big pay cut to move to another country.

With it being my second visit in the last seven months, the burden of traveling between Europe and Japan also weighed on me. I started to think that even though I liked Japan, it wasn’t my dream country. That meant the downsides like it being very inconvenient to travel anywhere else, and all my friends are living in the EU timezone, made it not worth relocating Maybe for a year or two on a high paying contract I’d do it, but I think that’s only possible if you are a very qualified engineer or manage to get hired by an international company.

Every other appointment I had, managers just asked me questions like how do I like Japan, what I’m doing on my job, and taking pictures of me. I guess just to finalize the whole forum thing, and show that they met me and talked with me.

To wrap things up - Japan is a good country if you are willing to sacrifice your flexibility in frequently traveling internationally because it gets very pricey, long, and inconvenient. If that’s not a problem for you, I think Japan can offer a lot in exchange, especially if you are able to land a job in an international company. I plan to visit Japan occasionally, but my goal of finding a job and relocating there is no longer relevant.

For people who are living in Europe, I think forums like this are a really great opportunity to at least see what companies can offer, and they are really open to talk with anyone who attended since it’s the main reason why they are participating. From what I know, due to limited budget, next year they do not plan to hold the forum. But the year after I think they will hold it again. It’s usually held during the autumn season, so follow METI’s LinkedIn page, and some other companies which are organizing the whole thing so you won’t miss it.

If you do win the coding contest, chances are really high that you’ll get at least one company interested in you and helping you to relocate to Japan.

Overall, it was a great experience. Even though I didn’t end up relocating because of it, it did help me understand that perhaps the country wasn’t for me, and ended up saving a great amount of time compared to my original plan of completing a degree and studying Japanese for several years.

TokyoDev 2023 Recap 27 Dec 2023 4:12 PM (last year)

2023 was an interesting year. While the tech market crashed in the US, I’d decided to expand TokyoDev, growing it beyond myself, and reinvesting the success we’ve had so far to expand the business further than I could on my own. As I heard about wave after wave of layoffs, it had me wondering whether that was the right call.

Fortunately, it seems to have been. Though Japan’s market for hiring international engineers wasn’t as frothy as it had been the previous couple of years, new international developers could also get into the country, which seems to have balanced things out.

From a revenue perspective, 2023’s was slightly up compared to the previous year. But beyond that, we’ve had a ton of other successes that I’d like to highlight in this recap.

74 developers got a job via TokyoDev

In 2023, we tracked 74 developers that were successfully hired after applying for a position on TokyoDev. This was up slightly from last year’s 69 developers. When we’re used to talking about numbers in “internet scale”, this may not seem like a lot. But for many of these people, it was their first job in Japan, and I’m proud to have helped them set their life in a new direction.

41 articles were written by 14 authors

One of the biggest changes we made in 2023 was having outside contributors write articles for the site. In 2022, I was the sole author of the articles on the site, and wrote three of them. This year, we had 40 articles contributed by 14 different authors!

The most popular article by page views was my most recent one, Unbricking my MacBook took an email to Tim Cook. Not exactly relevant to the core mission of the site, but the wide appeal of it helped it go viral.

The top five articles by page views from other contributors were

1. Working as an Indonesian Software Engineer in Japan by Anzhari Purnomo
2. How I Obtained a Business Manager Visa in Japan by Bryn Dyment
3. Working as a Filipino Software Developer in Japan by Mary Grygjeanne Grace Icay
4. Paternity Leave in Japan by Keiko Kimoto
5. How to Write Resumes for Jobs in Japan by Scott Rothrock

713 developers answered our survey

Since 2019, TokyoDev has conducted an annual survey of international software developers living in Japan. The 2023 edition was the biggest yet, with 713 developers telling us about things like salary, working conditions, and the technology they used.

This survey also saw us move from a simple Google form and some custom charts, to a more dynamic and customizable solution we were able to offer by partnering with Devographics.

2,000+ people joined our Discord

In 2023, over 2,000 people joined TokyoDev’s Discord, bringing our total member count to 3,949. It’s been especially rewarding for me to see all the support the community has provided for each other. I’ve also enjoyed watching people join the server from abroad to ask questions about getting a job in Japan, to them actually landing one and making it to the country.

1,244 commits were made to our main branches

Technology wise, I’d been keeping TokyoDev as simple as possible. All code is technical debt after all. Historically, the site has been a completely static one, generated via Middleman.

However, in late 2022, I decided to finally add our first dynamic component: an application form for jobs that we’d use when companies didn’t have a good solution to track applications themselves. I delegated this task to contractors, and commissioned a custom Ruby on Rails app (my tech stack of choice). The main job board, articles, and everything else stayed in the same static site.

With 2023, I decided it was time to pull the trigger and migrate everything to the Ruby on Rails app, and we spent the first half of the year doing this. It laid the foundation for other dynamic components, like our recently added custom filtering of jobs, and should serve us well going forward.

In a similar vein, we swapped out our custom CSS for Tailwind. That allowed us to easily add a dark mode to the site, and should speed up future frontend development.

10 events were hosted by us

2023 saw us hold our first in person events, centered around the burgeoning Discord community. We hosted a total of five in person meetups, including a barbeque catered by our community moderator, Scott. We also experimented with online events, having two “office hour” style events where community members could ask questions, and three interview-style events where I spoke with another developer about their life in Japan.

5 new contractors joined us

I’m still the only full time employee of TokyoDev, but we added 5 new part-time contractors, bringing our total to 8 people with ongoing contracts with us.

8 organizations were sponsored by us

In late 2022, we looked at supporting communities that empower women in technology. In addition to sponsoring those 5 communities for 2023, we also sponsored Women Developers Summit 2023, JSConf JP, and CreativeTokyo. As the site originally got its start from me attending developer events in Japan and blogging about them, it was nice to be able to close the circle by sponsoring them.

In 2024, we’ll be looking to expand this, and so if you’re organizing a community or event that is broadly related to our mission of helping international software developers start or grow their career in Japan, please do get in touch. I’d really love to see how I could help, and the barrier for us to sponsor something is pretty low. For several of the organizations we sponsored this year, we were their first sponsor ever.

Closing thoughts

2023 was to be the year I expanded TokyoDev beyond myself. Looking back over all we’ve accomplished, I think I was successful at that goal. We’ve brought on new team members and contributors, partnered with and sponsored other organizations, and grown a community around the site. It feels like we’ve built a lot of momentum over the last year, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the next holds.

All About Working Visas for Hiring Foreigners Full-time in Japan 25 Dec 2023 7:06 PM (last year)

This article is a translation of a Japanese article by Takumi Nakamura, the CEO of Sociarise, a consultancy for hiring global talents.

When considering hiring foreign nationals, their status of residence matters heavily. In this article, we cover the “working visa” that foreign employees must obtain to be employed full-time in Japan.

There is no such thing as a “working visa”?

First, I’m going to tell you a shocking fact: what we call a working visa is not actually a visa. This may sound nonsensical, but in Japan there are two systems, visas and statuses of residence, and the common name “working visa” is often used to refer to a status of residence that entitles the resident to work in the country.

The differences between visa and status of residence are as follows.

Visa

Handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A visa is a recommendation letter from the head of the Japanese embassy or consulate-general, which states that the person has been judged and considered suitable to enter and stay in Japan, and asks immigration to undertake an inspection of the person.

Status of residence

Handled by the Ministry of Justice. Status of residence is a system that permits a person to stay in Japan for a certain period of time and to engage in a specific activity, status or position.

These two are often used interchangeably, but remembering the differences could help prevent unexpected mistakes. In this article, we’re using the common name “working visa”, since we titled this article using the term.

The most common five types of working visa

There are many different types of working visa, which allow foreigners to be employed full-time in Japan. It’s difficult to cover them all, so here I’ll explain five most common types of working visa.

• Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services visa (Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services status of residence, 技術・人文知識・国際業務)

• Highly Specialized Foreigner visa (Highly Skilled Professional status of residence, 高度専門職)
• N1 visa - Designated Activities (No. 46 status of residence, 特定活動46号告示)
• Special Skilled Worker visa - (Specified Skilled worker status of residence, 特定技能)
• Intra-company Transferee visa - (Intra-Company Transferee status of residence, 企業内転勤)

Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services visa (Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services status of residence)

Most foreign office workers in Japanese companies are said to have the Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services visa, commonly referred to in Japanese as the “Gi-Jin-Koku” (技・人・国) visa. We’ll explain this type of visa first.

The Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services visa is a status of residence for foreigners who want to work using their skills and knowledge that they acquired at universities, professional training colleges, etc. There is widespread misunderstanding of this visa, with approximately 15% to 20% of foreign students who apply for switching their visas have been rejected in recent years. It is regarded as a “hard-to-get” visa.

In reality though, it’s not that difficult to get accepted. In fact, the Immigration Office provides plenty of guidelines that tell the cases they reject or accept, so if you read them carefully, there’s a very good chance that the application will be accepted. I have seen more than 300 applications in the past, but only a few of them have been rejected. When it comes to university and graduate school graduates, I’ve never seen anyone rejected.

There are two main reasons when applications get rejected. One is when the applicant clearly does not meet the requirements for the Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Service visa. For example, the job they’d be engaged in only includes simple tasks that anyone could do (such as simply packing goods into boxes or placing parts on a production line), the salary is cheaper than Japanese employees doing the same jobs, or the company has the person do work that is completely unrelated to what they learned at school or their past work experience. In this case, no matter how hard they try, they’d never be able to get the application accepted, so it’d be better trying to get another type of working visa.

Another reason is that submitted documentation is insufficient. This is a pitfall when applying for a working visa, but there are things that should be submitted even if they are not clearly described on the Immigration Bureau’s website. Conversely, if you submit more documentation than you are required, it could also increase the possibility of rejection. What is sufficient and appropriate can only be gathered from past experience of application procedures, and it may also change due to social situations and other factors. Therefore, the right level of documentation is something that can only be accurately predicted by those who regularly undertake these procedures. Submitting inappropriate documentation is probably the reason for most of the companies that have been rejected.

Characteristics of the Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services visa

There are some exceptions, but basically, this visa is granted if the educational background or professional experience requirements are met. The education requirement is that the applicant must have graduated from a university (including junior college) or graduate school with a degree. Additionally, those who have graduated from a Japanese vocational school (専門学校) and hold a title of “Specialist” (専門士) meet the requirement.

Universities and graduate schools the applicant graduated from can be located overseas, but professional training colleges are in principle only ones in Japan. However, depending on the hours of study and the content of the course, the school could be treated as a junior college (短期大学) or a higher technical college (高等専門学校) instead of a vocational school, so you need to check individually if the applicant’s educational background is equivalent to what’s required. In my experience, an Associate Degree has a high chance of being accepted, while a Diploma or Certificate has a high chance of being rejected.

As for the alternative work experience requirement, the applicant is required to have at least 10 years work experience in the job the person is going to be engaged in. The requirement is described as “work experience”, but it could also include the period that the applicant learned and acquired relevant knowledge and skills at a university or technical college.

For instance, if an applicant you are looking to hire as a programmer has studied information and communications for four years at university and two years at graduate school, then those six years are considered to be part of the required 10 years experience. So in this case, four years of actual work experience is sufficient. Note however, in this case, since the education requirement is already fulfilled with the university degree, there’s no need to apply with the work experience requirement in the first place.

Another example is “work that requires perspectives or sensitivity based on foreign cultures” such as translation, interpretation, language instruction, public relations, advertising or international trades, fashion or interior design, or product development. For these jobs, three years of work experience is sufficient to meet the work experience requirement. Furthermore, for positions related to translation, interpretation and language instruction, if the applicant is a university graduate or above, the educational background or work experience requirements are mostly disregarded. This explains why the number of permits for “interpreter/translator” jobs are overwhelmingly high.

The periods of residence under the Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services status can be valid for three months, one year, three years or five years, depending on the applicant’s situation. This visa is renewable.

Things to note about the Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services visa

Even if the applicant meets the educational requirements, the level of difficulty to get this visa depends on where the person graduated from. Specifically, if the person has graduated from a university or higher, or from a vocational school. Both have the same criteria such as a connection between what you have studied as a student, and what you are being hired for. But there is a big difference between university and vocational school graduates in terms of how this is judged. I won’t go into the details, but in general, university degree holders are considered to have knowledge in wider fields that could be applied in their work, while those with a title of Specialist are considered to have expertise in a limited area and are good only in that area. So, obviously people with a title of Specialist are expected to relate their educational background to their work more strictly than those with a university or higher degree.

For instance, a graduate in economics from a Japanese university is more likely to be permitted to work in fields like accounting, marketing, planning, sales, and trade administration. On the other hand, if a person who studied “accounting and bookkeeping” at a Japanese vocational school is basically only permitted to work for accounting positions.

Highly Specialized Foreigner visa (Highly Skilled Professional status of residence)

The Highly Specialized Foreigner visa is a working visa for “high-level talent”, such as people who can fulfill the positions that require a particularly high level of technical skills or expertise. Because such people are extremely valuable to the Japanese economy and society, they are accorded much advantageous treatment.

The first thing to understand about this Highly Specialized Foreigner visa is that it is based on a point system. An applicant will only receive this visa if they earned a certain number of points.

About the point system

This Highly Specialized Foreigner point system certifies the applicant as a highly specialized foreigner if their total points are above the reference points (currently above 70 points), basing the points on factors such as education, work experience, annual compensation, age, bonus, and others.

See the list below. If the points of the foreigner you are looking to hire has above 70 points, the points are sufficient.

What are “Type 1 Highly-Skilled Professional” and “Type 2 Highly-Skilled Professional”?

The status of residence for highly skilled personnel is divided into Type 1 and Type 2. They are not divided by field or industry, but those who have worked for more than three years after having received Type 1 Highly-Skilled Professional could then be eligible for Type 2 status. You can say the Type 2 Highly-Skilled Professional status is an extension of the Type 1 Highly-Skilled Professional status.

The Type 1 Highly-Skilled Professional is valid for five years. Once it’s transferred to Type 2, the holder is eligible for permanent residency. Also, they can be eligible for a permanent residency only after one year if they have more than 80 points. Note that this permanent residency is not granted automatically, so the holder needs to apply for it.

The Highly-Skilled Professional visa principally allows (i) advanced academic research activities, (ii) advanced specialized/technical activities and (iii) advanced business/management activities.

1. Advanced academic research activities are defined as “activities of research, research guidance or education based on a contract with public or private organizations in Japan”, such as university professors.
2. Advanced specialized/technical activities are defined as “activities that require knowledge or skills in the natural sciences or humanities based on a contract with public or private organizations in Japan”, which is similar to Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services.
3. Advanced business/management activities are defined as “activities of business management or administration in public or private institutions in Japan”, such as company owners and managers.

As mentioned above, this Highly Specialized Foreigner visa offers various kinds of preferential treatment. That includes allowing multiple residence activities, the employment of a spouse, accompanying parents or domestic servant under certain conditions, and prioritizing immigration and residence procedures. At the moment, the benefits are only for the individual foreigner, so it might be important to give incentives to companies in order to increase the number of foreign people acquiring this visa.

N1 visa (Designated Activities No. 46 status of residence)

The N1 visa is commonly called so because one of the requirements for this visa is the Japanese Language Proficiency Test N1, but originally it is “Notification No. 46” of the Designated Activities status of residence.

In short, “Designated Activities” means “all the other activities”. It is hard work to legislate all the residence statuses, as society is changing so fast that the legislation system often fails to keep up. In such cases, the Minister of Justice is given the authority to give permissions tentatively. This is the Notified Permit for Designated Activities.

No.46 is a new system that was put into effect in 2019, and introduced in response to the growing demand for inbound tourism. It allows full-time work in previously unauthorized occupations such as customer service in restaurants, retail sales and taxi drivers. While there was a high demand for these types of jobs, they were outside the scope of the “Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services”, “Highly Skilled Professional”, and “Technical Intern Training” (技能実習) systems, so there could have been an urgent need to establish a corresponding status of residence.

This is just personal speculation, but I think this could be a trial operation to create new residence status such as a “Japanese language visa” or a “Japanese knowledge visa” in the future. Since the declining birth rate and aging population are becoming serious issues in Japan, there will surely be a labor shortage in all industries. Due to this, it would be useful to have an all-purpose visa that could be used for any type of job. If Japan restricts visa issuance to people with a higher level of educational or professional background, it’d be difficult to secure enough people.

Additionally, the Technical Intern Training system has been criticized internationally. Being able to issue a visa simply when the applicant is proficient in Japanese would make it possible to secure a certain number of people as workforce who are likely to fit in well with Japanese society. The risk of them being forced into inhumane circumstances is also much lower since they are fluent Japanese speakers. It could be a good status of residence that could be used in parallel with the new status of residence “Specified skilled workers” (特定技能).

The N1 visa can be valid for six months, one year, three years or five years, depending on the applicant’s situation. This visa is renewable.

Characteristics of the N1 visa

N1 visa requires the following six requirements.

1. Must be employed full-time

Full-time employment as a regular employee or contractor is required. Part-time employment is not permitted.

2. Must have graduated from a Japanese university or graduate school with a degree

Even if it is a Japanese educational institution, a diploma from a Japanese language school, vocational school or junior college is not sufficient. Also, diplomas from overseas universities or graduate schools are not accepted.

3. Must have JLPT N1, or 480 or above on the Business Japanese Proficiency Test

However, those who have graduated from a university or graduate school in Japan or abroad with a major in Japanese language are exempted.

4. Must have equal to or higher compensation than Japanese nationals

The compensation and employment conditions must be the same or better than those of Japanese university or graduate school graduates.

5. The work must require smooth communication in Japanese

This includes works that require some sort of ‘interpretation/translation’, such as connecting foreign customers or employees to Japanese, or work that requires using Japanese language.

6. The work must require what they learned in university or graduate school

The job is expected to include work that requires what the applicants learned in university or graduate school. The relevance of the acquired knowledge and the work is not considered so strictly, so the applicant could be engaged in a wide range of works/industries. This is the difference from Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services that I explained earlier in this article.

Examples of jobs that can be engaged with Designated Activities. No.46

Example jobs that may be accepted include

• Providing customer service in restaurants that includes interpretation for foreign customers
• Acting as a guide or providing customer service in accommodation facilities that also includes interpretation for foreign guests
• Communicating and passing instructions from Japanese employees to foreign employees who have difficulty in fully understanding Japanese while building multilingual facility guides or websites, which also includes translation work
• A caregiver at a facility while also training foreign employees or technical interns
• A taxi driver who provides foreign tourists with tourist information and customer service while also interpreting information.

Works that only require simple tasks would not be accepted, but if it is also expected to require Japanese language skills, it may be permitted.

Currently, the N1 visa is not that easy to sponsor due to the strict academic requirements, but it can be used more easy with some adaptation Specifically, I suggest you employ someone who has graduated from a Japanese university or graduate school first, and then have them get an N1, or 480 or above on the Business Japanese Proficiency Test within one year of joining the company. Both exams could be passed if they have strong reading comprehension skills. There are a wide range of good study support services available, so the company could support them in the same way as having Japanese employees prepare for their TOEIC exams.

Specified Skilled Workers visa (Specified Skilled Workers status of residence)

Since this visa has a similar name to the Designated (Specified) Activities in Japanese mentioned earlier, this may lead to some confusion, but this is a different visa. This is a new working visa established in 2019 for the purpose of accepting foreigners who are ready to work immediately to solve the labor shortage problems in Japan. The Specified Skilled Worker (i) visa requires a considerable degree of knowledge and experience in a specific industry (see below).

After obtaining this Specified Skilled Worker (i) and having worked for more than five years, the person becomes eligible for Specified Skilled Worker (ii). However, as of July 2021, those who could switch from Specified Skilled Worker (i) to Specified Skilled Worker (ii) are limited to two occupations: those who are in “construction” or “shipbuilding/marine industry”.

At present, the following 14 fields are permitted for ‘Specified Skilled Workers’ visas.

1. Nursing care
2. Building cleaning
3. Materials industry
4. Electrical, electronics and information-related industry
5. Construction industry
6. Shipbuilding and marine industry
7. Automobile maintenance
8. Industrial machinery manufacturing
9. Aviation industry
10. Accommodation industry machinery manufacturing
11. Agriculture
12. Fishing industry
13. Food and drink manufacturing
14. Food service industry

Specified Skilled Workers (i) is valid for four months, six months, or one year. This visa is renewable, but the total period of stay is limited to five years. If you want to stay more, you need to change the status into Specified Skilled Workers (ⅱ).

Requirements for obtaining a Specified Skilled Worker visa

The requirements for the foreign applicants are to pass both the Japanese Language Proficiency Test and the Specified Proficiency Test (field-specific tests). The Japanese Language Proficiency Test is very easy, as it only requires N4 or above, or the JFT (Japan Foundation Test of Basic Japanese). On the other hand, the Specified Proficiency Test requires a certain amount of time to prepare for, because in the test, there are many technical terms and perspectives that are not familiar to people outside Japan. However, many sample questions are available, so if the applicant is good at exam preparation, they could be ready in about three months.

The requirements for employers are that they must employ the foreigner on a full-time basis (permanent or contract), and the compensation must be the same or higher than Japanese employees. Whereas in the case of Technical Intern Training (技能実習), the company could continue to employ the foreigner at the minimum wage the entire time, the employment conditions for Specified Skilled Worker are based on the Japanese employees at the company, so the employer can not expect to save labor costs much. In addition, employers are obliged to provide support when hiring foreigners with Specified Skilled Worker visa, which may actually end up in increasing costs and responsibilities.

For example, employers would need to pick up foreigners who are coming to work at the airport or port, and be ready to handle complaints or give support about work and daily life. The following page explains very well regarding this, so please read it if you are interested in the details.

Details of the obligations to accept and support specified skilled workers:

• Details of support and registered support organizations
• Immigration Management Agency’s Specified Skilled Worker’s Guidebook

Also, there’s something different with this visa from other visas. In order to employ a foreigner with the Specified Skilled Worker visa, the employer company must join the council (協議会) that is established for each industry. Only after joining that council can the company can be recognized as a ‘’specified skilled worker organization” (特定技能所属機関) under the Immigration Control Act (and thus be an organization that accepts foreigners with the Specified Skilled Worker visa).

Furthermore, in order to accept personnel from abroad on a Specified Skilled Worker visa, the employer company is required to organize pre-entry guidance, prepare accommodation, support learning Japanese language, and provide assistance with administrative procedures. This is quite difficult for companies without knowledge and experience, so there’s a system of “registration support organizations”, through which companies can outsource these support for foreigners.

Like the N1 visa, for many companies, the Specified Skilled Worker visa is not very user-friendly. This Is because since the reduction of labor costs is limited, and how companies need to bear more responsibilities, there may be less advantages to sponsoring this visa compared to the N1 visa. However, the operational requirements for this visa are expected to gradually be eased. There is much discussion on the topic, but since the visa was created in order to solve the labor shortage, it should become a system that allows companies to employ foreigners with less costs and burdens.

At the moment, there is strong domestic and international criticism towards the Technical Intern Training (技能実習) system, so this new system is intended to protect foreign workers more. But in reality, companies that are short labor are unlikely to be able to handle all these regulations and obligations, so the system will probably change to make it easier and more beneficial for companies to sponsor this status. Until then, it may be wise to wait and see.

Intra-company Transferee visa (Intra-company Transferee status of residence)

Finally, it is the Intra-company Transferee visa. This is exactly what the name suggests. For instance, when there is an overseas company called “ABC Industries” and ABC Industries has a branch in Japan called “ABC Industries Japan”, employees who work at ABC Industries’ overseas office could obtain this visa when being transferred to ‘ABC Industries Japan’. That means when employees are transferred from an overseas office to a branch or subsidiary in Japan they can obtain this visa. This also applies when an employee is transferred from an overseas branch or subsidiary to the head office in Japan.

Once accepted, this working visa allows the holder to engage in work related to the natural sciences, humanities, international affairs, etc. for a certain period of time. You might think “’Then why would the Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services visa not work?”. The difference is that the Intra-company Transferee visa doesn’t require any educational qualifications and is available to non-university graduates. It also requires work experience, but only one year is sufficient with this visa, whereas the basic requirement for Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services visa is more than 10 years, or three years for some specified occupations.

The Intra-company Transferee visa can be valid for three months, one year, three years or five years. As the transfer period should be determined in advance, the period of stay is basically in line with that transfer plan.

Requirements for Intra-company Transferee visa status

The definition of “intra-company” is acceptable if any of the following applies:

• Transfers between parent company and subsidiaries
• Transfers between head offices, branches and sales offices
• Transfers between parent company, subsidiaries and sub-subsidiaries
• Transfer between subsidiaries
• Transfer between sub-subsidiaries
• Transfers between affiliated companies

I hope this article was informative. The types of working visas are complicated and difficult to understand, but please make sure you understand and make use of this information when hiring foreign nationals.

How I Obtained a Business Manager Visa in Japan 21 Dec 2023 3:29 PM (last year)

Back in August of 2017, I was facing a tough situation. Newly divorced, I had lost my spousal visa and thus my permission to stay in Japan as well. I was in my late 40s and, although I had significant work experience, I had no university degree. I wanted to remain in Japan but I had no idea how to make that happen.

In the modern version of a cry for help, I typed “visa support” or something similar into Google and stumbled upon a local Japanese advisor, Toyoyuki Hayashi, who specialized in helping foreigners obtain work visas. We met up, and he convinced me that his one-man operation had significant experience and extensive knowledge of the ins and outs of the Japanese immigration system.

Based on our conversation, I was told that a “Business Manager Visa” would be the most appropriate choice. We decided to work together. My spousal visa expiring, I left Japan for Canada a short time thereafter, to bide my time abroad with my fingers crossed that things might work out.

Visa Requirements

Starting with the downsides, in my opinion the most significant one is the capital requirement: ¥5 million. However, it’s not quite as bad as it sounds. The only actual rule is that you need at least that amount of money in your business bank account on the day that they grant you your initial one-year visa. From that point forward, that money is simply working capital, and you’re free to withdraw it and even send it outside the country, so long as there is a business reason.

You also need to provide a business plan, which worried me as I was basically a hired-gun software developer rather than an actual entrepreneur or business owner. However, my advisor assured me that it was “no big deal” and helped me put together a three-page document that I was sure wouldn’t be sufficient for the Japanese immigration authorities.

One aspect of the business plan is to explain why your business needs to be in Japan at all. As a software developer, I didn’t really have a clear case, but I mentioned a personal website that I built years ago, Real Kana, that showed some degree of proof that I was connected to Japan in some way. With my advisor’s prompting, I also mentioned the upcoming Olympics and my desire to assist with English-language services. I felt we were grasping at straws.

I did have a fairly extensive work history and at least one quasi-name-brand employer on my CV (Groupon), but everything was at the “individual contributor” level and there was no hint of management experience or ability anywhere in my history.

Visa Application Process

My advisor facilitated the entire visa application process and there was minimal work for me to do. He submitted the application on my behalf in October, my confidence still low and my desire to continue my life in Japan still high.

Two months later, in January 2018, I received a tentative yes from the immigration authorities. Why “tentative”? The second part of the application process actually takes place in Japan, and the full visa approval only happens if and when I’m able to tick off the various in-Japan “todos”. I went to the Japanese consulate in Vancouver and obtained my interim visa, which gives me four months in Japan to set up my business there.

The “todos”, in summary, were:

• Find a place to live
• Incorporate my business
• Set up my business office
• Open a corporate bank account
• Register with various government offices (Employees’ Health Insurance System, etc.)

My advisor was a godsend during this process, as my Japanese language ability was (and still is) remarkably weak given how long I’ve been here. The two most challenging items from the above list were the business office and the bank account.

Setting up a Business Office

Officially, I need to have a separate business office that “looks and feels” as such: business signage, a proper desk and office accessories, etc. I did not want that as it made little-to-no sense for remote software development, my bread-and-butter activity. Rather than spend maybe ¥50,000 per month on a reasonable office with internet connectivity, etc., I really wanted to instead get a nicer place to live that had a dedicated (or dedicated-looking) office area.

I asked my advisor if this was a possibility. One thing I like very much about him is his flexibility and curiosity, this being no exception. In addition to the hemming and hawing, he also said, “well, let’s try and see”. This was Kyoto and I rented a Kyoto machiya, put a simple corporate sign up front (with permission in advance from my landlord), threw together an official-looking office area in the front room, and provided photos of all the above for the immigration office. It worked.

Opening a Corporate Bank Account

My advisor told me that this process would probably be the most challenging, as it’s notoriously hard to open a bank account with a short-term visa and mine was extremely short-term. (I was still here under my four-month visa.) It was hard to believe him, though, as I had already been tentatively approved for a proper visa subject only to taking care of a few formalities.

He didn’t even want to try with the national banks, and chose a small regional bank instead (Bank of Kyoto). They turned out to be perfectly happy to take my business and, after taking care of the remaining formalities, again with the extensive help of my advisor, my actual visa was approved.

Corporate Responsibility

I was now the managing director and sole shareholder of a proper Japanese corporation. It was a bit exciting and cool-sounding, but it came with responsibilities as well (something that I’ve learned is not my forte in life). Annual meetings, proper accounting, health insurance contributions, tax returns, all with reams of associated paperwork, and all in Japanese.

We’ve arrived at the single most important paragraph in this article. Looking back at all that has happened with respect to my visa, far and away the smartest thing I did was find an outstanding advisor: professional, hard-working, results-oriented, resourceful, honest, knowledgeable, and, to top it off, inexpensive. I joke with him that he is my savior and my guardian angel but it doesn’t feel like a joke to me: he helped me out significantly at a point in my life where my confidence was low, my ignorance high, and my options seemingly limited.

I had thought that my advisor would (with a bit of luck) get me my visa and then we’d part ways, but I am working with him all these years later. He is my konbini, my one-stop shopping, my lifeline for all things corporate and official in Japan.

My visa has been renewed four times now, with the most recent renewal being for three years (the first three were one-year renewals). I have moved my company from Kyoto to Tokyo and set up a similar “corporate office” in my home here. My bank is now SMBC after the Bank of Kyoto decided against issuing me a credit card, my sole negative experience with them and the one thing that cost them my business.

Day-to-Day Business

Since being issued my visa, 95% of my income has come from a series of full-time programming positions. The first was a design/UX studio in Arizona, then Unity’s Tokyo office (my sole in-Japan position so far), then two tiny startups (one in California, one in France), and now my current position with a California startup. Technically, my company was a vendor/contractor for all the above, but in effect it was equivalent to a normal employee-style relationship. And, notably, none of the above companies had a problem with the arrangement, which I actually found a bit surprising. (I always mentioned it early on so as not to waste anyone’s time if it’d be a hassle for them.)

The remainder of my income has been smaller contracts and various one-off things. One restriction of the business manager visa is that all business activities must be run through the company, so even a small paid project is “company business”.

Closing Thoughts

Why was I granted a business manager visa? Was it the mention of my personal website? A somewhat-recognizable company name on my CV? Or, as I suspect, the simple fact that I was a fairly experienced software developer with a reasonable work history to back it up? I’m pretty sure that was it, but of course I’ll never know.

What do I think of the Japanese immigration experience? From my perspective, I am enthusiastically supportive. The entire process felt efficient and fair (e.g., not penalizing my lack of a university degree, a hard requirement for most visa processes).

I have recently remarried, to a Japanese national, but have decided to maintain my business manager visa status rather than switch to a spousal visa. Not only is it fun and cool to be independent, it is also more comforting for me after the actual trauma of my prior experience. Before too long, I will qualify for permanent residence and am very much looking forward to finally being here on a more permanent footing.

Web Accessibility in Japan: What Developers Need to Know 20 Dec 2023 3:04 PM (last year)

Many people with disabilities use assistive technology, which allows them to access websites in ways different from most people. People who are blind, for example, use screen readers to convert website content into audio. Some use braille displays. There are also people who use magnifiers to read text. Those who cannot use a mouse navigate websites use keyboards or other special alternative input devices. Some navigate using voice recognition instead of a keyboard.

As web developers, there are things we can do to improve accessibility for our users. These are set out in documents like the WC3’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). One rule you’re probably already aware of is to provide alternative text for visual information like images for individuals who are blind. Another example is all interactive elements should be designed to be operable through keyboard input. But there are many more of these rules, with the WCAG 2.2 formalizing 87 of them.

The extent to which these rules need to be followed vary from country to country. For the last 3 years, I’ve been working as an accessibility consultant in Japan. However, most of my clients are in the US, which has some of the most strict regulations around accessibility. This means that despite being a native of Japan, I know relatively little about the state of accessibility in the country.

I do know someone who is an expert though: Makoto Ueki, who I co-organize A11yTokyo, an accessibility meetup, with (among others). Makoto runs the web accessibility consultancy Infoaxia, where his clients are primarily large Japanese corporations, some of whom have come to him because they’ve been sued in the US over their poor accessibility, though recently more are becoming proactive about it. He works with his clients directly to audit their websites for accessibility, and also provides them training on the topic. Additionally, he is involved in the development of W3C’s WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guideline) and the Japanese national standard, the JIS.

With this background, Makoto was the perfect person to help me understand accessibility in Japan, and so I interviewed him on the topic.

Does Japan have laws mandating web accessibility?

The Act on the Elimination of Disability Discrimination was enacted in 2016. Japan had never had a law equivalent to the ADA in the United States, the Equality Act 2010 in the United Kingdom, or the DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) in Australia. However, that law was not a mandate for accessibility, but merely an obligation to make an effort.

As of April 2024, the law has been amended. If there is a problem with accessibility and there is a request from a person with disabilities or an organization for people with disabilities, companies must provide “reasonable accommodations” “unless it poses an undue burden.” What constitutes an “undue burden” is something that will be defined over time.

There is also a problem that many people with disabilities either do not know about the law or, even if they do, they do not know how to act based on it and thus give up. According to a survey of 2,000 people, 40% did not know about the law.

You mentioned that more Japanese companies are committing to accessibility even though the law does not enforce it. Why do you think that is?

I think there are mainly three reasons:

• American influence
• Aging society
• Employees’ grassroots activities in corporates

Firstly, the influence of the US is significant, as there has been an increase in lawsuits over accessibility issues on the websites of Japanese corporations that have expanded into America. Due to such pressure, the Japanese side of those companies are also starting to improve accessibility. I hear that the laws are also getting stricter in EU member states, so maybe pressure from the EU will increase in the near future.

Moreover, the benefits of accessibility are not limited to people with disabilities. By improving accessibility, it is also possible to reach the older people whose abilities change as they age. As you know, Japan is rapidly becoming an aging society with fewer children. The current generation of elderly people does not use electronic devices much, but soon the “Famicom generation” will become elderly. They are a generation that has used computers for work. Consequently, there will be more elderly people who want to purchase goods and services through the internet. Companies are starting to commit to accessibility in anticipation of this. Kao Corporation is a good example. They aim to deliver product information to everyone and are working on it Kao group-wide.

Also, the concept of accessibility itself, though gradually, is becoming more known than in the past, and there are companies that are increasing their commitment from the grassroots level due to the thoughts of individual employees. In the last one to two years, I feel that the number of people who want to work on accessibility in a corporation has increased.

SEO used to be another factor. About 20 years ago, working on accessibility alone could lead to a significant improvement in SEO. Google’s SEO guidelines and accessibility guidelines overlap considerably, as both search engines and screen readers interpret HTML code in a similar mechanical fashion. However, search engine algorithms are no longer as simple as they were before, and so tackling accessibility is now merely a prerequisite before improving SEO.

Are there more front-end engineers with knowledge of accessibility now?

Yes and no. Recently, the number of front-end engineers who do not know any code at all has been increasing. Some markup with just <div> and CSS and JavaScript using no-code tools, not writing semantic HTML code, which is a big mistake in terms of accessibility. While I do not deny the possibility that, with the development of AI and no-code tools in the future, even those without knowledge will be able to create accessible sites, it’ll take some more time.

Web development has become popular, and indeed, it may feel like there is a saturation of web developers, but there is a real shortage of those who can build accessible sites. For example, engineers in the United States who understand HTML and have experience in creating accessible sites as a matter of course would be highly valued in Japan if they could speak Japanese or work well in a Japanese work environment.

As I mentioned earlier, although accessibility is becoming more prominent in Japan, it is still a small community, and outside this community, many people have never heard the word and do not understand it at all. There is a significant opportunity for engineers who have gained such experience abroad.

Are there any issues specific to Japanese regarding web accessibility?

Surprisingly few.

I have been participating in the W3C guidelines working group and had proposed rules to be added from a Japanese perspective. Around 2004, when WCAG 2.0 was being created, JIS working group proposed rules for edge cases that were not in WCAG but were in JIS, and the W3C working group had accepted to include all of them into WCAG.

Use of space

Japanese sites often use a space within a word. For example, some sites write “日時” (date and time) as “日　時” just to make it looks visually nice. If it’s written as “日時,” a screen reader can correctly pronounce it as “にちじ(ni-chi-ji),” but if it’s written as “日　時,” the screen reader will read it as “ひ　とき(hi toki).” We proposed a rule to forbid including a white space between characters in a word, thinking it was a problem unique to Japanese. But when I shared the issue , they said that there could be the same issue in English. For example, there are cases in English-speaking countries where each letter is spaced out like “W E L C O M E,” and a rule forbidding this was added to WCAG in Success Criterion 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence.

Furigana

Japanese kanji characters are very difficult for every Japanese person. There are many kanji with difficult readings, and that’s the same for screen readers. Also, some people with intellectual disabilities need furigana when reading text. English is a phonetic script, so I thought this would definitely be a Japanese-only issue, and W3C wouldn’t accept it. However, it was accepted as Success Criterion 3.1.6 Pronunciation. In English, too, there are difficult-to-pronounce words, and a rule was made to provide a mechanism to understand the pronunciation.

*Furigana (ふりがな) is a Japanese reading aid consisting of smaller kana (syllabic characters) printed either above or next to kanji (logographic characters) or other characters to indicate their pronunciation. It is one type of ruby text. Furigana is also known as yomigana (読み仮名) and rubi (ルビ) in Japanese.

Image and definition of Furigana by Wikipedia

Sensory Characteristics

Japanese websites often have phrases like “click the button on the lower right” or “click the square button.” We thought this might be a culture unique to Japan, but it turns out there’s the same problem in English-speaking countries. WCAG already had a success criterion to not use color only to convey information and make it understandable even when someone cannot recognize the difference in color. However, WCAG did not have a success criterion to prevent using only shape, position, or direction to convey information that JIS had. So the JIS working group proposed it and it was added as Success Criterion 1.3.3 Sensory Characteristics.

Double-byte characters

It was tough when UTF8 didn’t exist. 15-20 years ago, Shift-JS was the mainstream. Since English is single-byte, it was difficult to include double-byte characters when I was localizing an accessibility testing tool originally developed in the USl. But that’s not a problem anymore as we are using UTF-8 now.

Japanese document mixed with foreign words

In Japanese sentences, alphabet words can be mixed in such as “About Us”. It’s mostly in English, but it depends on the case. When inserting a foreign words, you need to enclose the characters in a <span> and add a lang attribute like <span lang="en">some text in english</span>.

Then, the screen reader can recognize the change in language, which allows it to pronounce correctly. This had been in WCAG without the suggestion from the Japan side in Success Criterion 3.1.2 Language of Parts. However, having a screen reader pronounce text in a native fashion can make it challenging for users who aren’t fluent English speakers to understand. So it is recommended to only use this feature when conveying the native pronunciation in English is essential to understand the text.

Do you have any thoughts about web accessibility in Japan?

I have conducted in-house training on web accessibility for many companies over the years and also given my talks at the seminars and conferences for web designers and developers. A common comment I get, which hasn’t changed over time is, “I thought accessibility was something more special and time-consuming. I was surprised to know that most of the things we need to do are the basics of the basics in web design and development.”

The first step is to understand what exactly needs to be done by understanding what the accessibility guidelines require. Too many people who avoid web accessibility work without knowing about what to do in the first place.

You might be surprised to know that there are many quick accessibility improvements you can make. Some can be fixed with small UI changes or even without any visual changes. Others are easy to fix once you understand how to use HTML elements and attributes. Accessibility is not an incredibly complicated and time-consuming grand project when you understand what to do.

Unbricking my MacBook took an email to Tim Cook 18 Dec 2023 4:55 PM (last year)

I previously wrote about how my lost MacBook was returned to me with an Activation Lock on it, and how Apple refused to unlock it for me. Well, I did manage to finally get it unlocked. All it took was an email to Tim Cook. I don’t know how repeatable this process is, but here’s what happened.

After publishing the article, it somehow reached the top of Hacker News. I’d hoped that would trigger someone from Apple to reach out to me, but no one did.

I also shared it with a much smaller audience: a Discord server that I run for English speaking software developers in Japan. Our moderator pointed out that he’d had success in the past by emailing tcook@apple.com, as he’d done so in the past and had his assistants escalate things to people who could resolve them for him.

Having exhausted other avenues, I gave it a shot:

Subject: Activation Lock support requests denied

My lost MacBook was returned to me with Activation Lock on. Despite providing my receipt from the Apple Store, my request to remove the lock has been denied. I wrote an article about my experience that got to the top of the popular social media site “Hacker News”. I’d love to have a happy ending to this frustrating story.

Four business days later I got a response from one of Tim’s executive assistants in Japan. From there, we exchanged emails and phone calls over the next two weeks, where the assistant was able to get to the bottom of things.

They explained to me that the MacBook was wiped in the middle of August (after I had lost it) and then reported lost by a newly created iCloud account with an email address starting with “p”. My requests to have it unlocked were being rejected as per their policy of not unlocking devices reported as lost, even if an original proof of purchase is provided. However, because of the documentation I was able to provide, they were convinced that it was my MacBook, and thus unlocked it.

Would this have worked had I not been able to reference the article’s performance on Hacker News? I’m not sure, but it seems likely that was at least a contributing factor. After all, I didn’t actually provide the assistant with any more proof than I had submitted with the activation unlock request. That being said, if you have an issue that can’t be resolved via normal channels, emailing Tim Cook is worth a shot.

What really happened to my MacBook

By this time, I’d already purchased a replacement machine, and so getting the MacBook unlocked was as much about the principle of things as anything else. However, I also wanted my curiosity sated as to what had actually happened.

Apple had provided me with “how” it got locked: the computer was wiped, locked to a new iCloud account, then reported as lost. They didn’t give me the “why” though. Though my original article mentioned it as a theoretical possibility, I saw no incentive for the person who returned my MacBook to do this. So I emailed the person about it reseting the laptop, and after a couple of emails back and forth, I found out more or less what happened.

While the person didn’t reset it themselves, they did take it to a shop, and asked them to unlock it. The shop didn’t unlock it, however, they did reset it. This wasn’t obvious to the person, but they reported that while my login profile information was visible before they gave it to the shop, it wasn’t afterwards, presumably as the Activation Lock was on.

Despite the shop not having unlocked it for the person, they reported that the shop asked to be paid. When pressed on why the shop asked to be paid despite the shop not unlocking it, the person stopped responding.

My theory is that the shop reset the MacBook and reported it as lost with a new Apple ID in order to extort the person.

Perhaps the person didn’t want to admit it, but they actually paid money to the shop, who initially gave it back to them “unlocked”. Later the shop could lock it again by reporting it as lost, as a way to ask for more money from the person again.

Or maybe the shop wanted to ensure they’d be the only one able to unlock it, and so returned the MacBook, telling the person that they found a way to unlock it, but only if the person paid a higher fee than they were willing to pay.

This would explain why the iCloud address started with “p”. The shop saw my name was “Paul McMahon” from the login screen, and so they created an email address that sounded like it could be mine to give them plausible deniability when the person saw the lock screen.

Apple doesn’t consider this to be a security vulnerability, but maybe it should

When first activating a MacBook, Apple makes it easy to skip setting up FindMy. But given the severe consequences for not doing so, I think they either need to revise the setup workflow to make this downside abundantly clear, or revisit their unlock policy altogether.

While I was an edge case, having my MacBook taken to an unscrupulous shop by someone who didn’t own it, similarly unscrupulous shops could do the same thing to others. After all, I even wondered about the possibility that I had set up an iCloud email in the past, and had somehow activated the computer with it.

I reported this to Apple Security Research, but it was dismissed with “We’re unable to identify a security issue in your report.” I suppose I could have asked my contact at Apple to flag it for further review, but at this point, I’m ready to let it go.

The Remarkable Decline in Home Burglary Rates in Japan 17 Dec 2023 5:37 PM (last year)

I stumbled across an amazing fact. From 2003 to 2022, the number of home burglaries in Japan decreased by a factor of 12! Home burglaries in Japan peaked in 2003, with 190,473 cases in Japan. But as of 2022, where the most recent data is available, they have dropped to a mere 15,692 cases.

This drop was astonishing to me, and so I sought out the reasons behind it. While there isn’t a simple answer, a report by the Ministry of Justice points to several factors such as a lower unemployment rate, an increase in crime prevention volunteers, and higher building security standards.

The connection with the unemployment rate is obvious. According to Japanese crime statistics, unemployed people are disproportionately likely to commit burglary, car/vehicle theft, and pickpocketing. Just as the home burglary rate was spiking in the early 2000s, so too was the unemployment rate.

But the unemployment rate alone doesn’t seem to fully explain the drop. For instance, while the financial crisis in 2009 caused the unemployment rate to spike back up, residential burglaries continued to plummet.

Crime prevention volunteer groups also increased dramatically over the last two decades, growing from approximately 180,000 members in 2003 to 2.34 million in 2007.

This was in response to the “Action plan for the realization of a crime-resistant society” created by the Japanese government, which sought not only to prevent crime on a national level, but also in each local community through encouraging more people to volunteer, increasing police patrols, and building stronger relationships with neighbors. These efforts have been explored in Crime prevention in Japan orchestration, representation and impact of a volunteering boom.

As crime was peaking, several organizations came together to establish the “Public-private joint conference on the development and dissemination of building components with high security performance” in 2002. This organization analyzed residential burglaries, discussed the security standard of building components to prevent break-ins, and tested the security performance of components. Based on their test report, they identified 15 types of building components that had an actual effect on security, such as making a break in take longer than five minutes.

This downward trend of home burglaries may finally be coming to an end. In 2022, for the first time in the last two decades, the overall number of reported crimes increased to 601,331 cases, reflecting a 5.9% increase from 2021. While residential burglaries had declined over the same year, there is not much room for them to decrease any further. Whether the burglary rate stabilizes at its current level or reverses, only time will tell.

Personal Blog to Profitable Business: the Story of TokyoDev 13 Dec 2023 3:39 PM (last year)

この記事は日本語でもお読みいただけます。

TokyoDev started out as my personal blog talking about developer life in Japan, but has evolved into a job board that is a thriving business that is my sole source of income. But even more than that, it is incredibly personally fulfilling. The site has literally altered the trajectories of hundreds of people’s lives by helping them get their first developer job in Japan. It has been very rewarding for me to see that impact first-hand.

When I first started the blog, I wasn’t intending to make a business out of it. My journey has been one of slow organic growth over the last 15 years. This is the story of how the site has evolved from its humble origins as my personal blog to a flourishing job board and community that serves tens of thousands of visitors per month.

Registering the domain

I registered tokyodev.com in 2008. At the time, I was working as a software developer at a company in Tokyo, and had decided it was time to start exploring new job opportunities. I had been using a Hotmail email address, but I felt having my own domain would make me look more like a professional. I didn’t think hard about it and chose tokyodev.com as it was short, descriptive of me, and available.

The “professional” email address never became relevant, as I ended up starting a consultancy with two of my former colleagues. For the next couple of years, the domain lay empty, with nothing more than a simple personal profile on it.

Starting a blog about tech events in Japan

In 2010, I attended RubyKaigi, Japan’s largest Ruby conference. As the creator of Ruby is Japanese, the community around the language is one of the most vibrant developer communities in Japan. Around this time, the success of Ruby on Rails had created a global interest in Ruby. RubyKaigi changed from a primarily Japanese event, into an international one, with many speakers attending from overseas.

I noticed many of the overseas speakers were hanging out with each other, or international residents like myself. While I appreciated the opportunity to get to know them, I also saw the divide between the global Ruby community and the Japanese one. I felt I was in a unique position to bridge the gap as a foreign developer living in Japan.

So after RubyKaigi, I launched Tokyo Rubyist Meetup, an event with the goal of bringing together Japanese Ruby developers and international Ruby developers. In addition to starting my own event, I wanted to make sure I was also an active participant in the existing Japanese community so I started attending a lot of developer events in Tokyo, probably an average of one or two a week.

As I attended some amazing events, I wanted the rest of the world to know what was happening in the Japanese community. So I started blogging about them on tokyodev.com.

A fateful email

In August 2011, I received an email that started

I recently discovered Ruby on Rails, fell in love with it, and found your blog and your company website while looking for Ruby-related work opportunities in Japan. I just wanted to get in touch with you to introduce myself, learn about your personal journey in Japan, and see if you have any pointers for me towards starting my career in Japan.

This was the first time I’d ever been contacted about the blog, so I was enthusiastic about being able to help someone who was just setting out on the same journey that I had taken. I started composing an email that got longer and longer. As I was writing my reply, I realized that the content of the email could be of use to others too, so I decided to post it as an article: How I landed a software developer job in Japan.

As far as I’m aware, it was the first English-language article on the topic, and so naturally it became the #1 result for queries like “software developer job in Japan”. This attracted more questions about finding a job as a developer here. To answer their questions, I wrote more articles in response, and things started to snowball from there.

Starting a mailing list

Occasionally, I’d come across software developer positions in Japan that didn’t require any Japanese skills. These often weren’t being advertised anywhere, and I’d just hear about them due to being active in the community. So in October 2012, I started a mailing list to circulate information about those positions.

Over the next two years, I would send a total of twelve emails about job postings to the mailing list. By November 2014, it had accumulated 345 subscribers. While this is a meager number in internet terms, I’d already heard that several people had gotten jobs through it, so clearly it was making a difference.

Commercializing the mailing list

When I’d started the mailing list, my motivation was to help people, and didn’t have any goal of building it into a business. But as I was hearing more success stories, I also learned that recruiters in Japan typically charge 30% of the new hire’s annual compensation. While the mailing list wasn’t exactly the same service, I was obviously leaving money on the table by not charging companies for it.

So I decided, why not pick up some of this “free money”? As long as I priced the mailing list in a way it wouldn’t deter companies from posting to it, I could still help developers as before. I decided the best way to do that was to follow the recruitment model, and charge a success based fee.

Because companies came via personal connections I’d made through things like networking events, though I made a simple contract, I relied on essentially the honor system. Candidates would apply directly to the company, and if they hired one of them, they’d let me know. And sure enough, it worked, with the first company posting to the list under the agreement making a successful hire.

As I made more postings, companies who I didn’t have a connection to started to approach me on their own. Even though I had no personal connection with anyone at these companies, I still relied on the honor system and asked them to declare to me who they hired. When I tell people about this, they’re often incredulous that it worked, but this is one of the great things about doing business in Japan — you can count on your clients honoring agreements they make.

That’s not to say that there’s never been a case where a company has hired someone and not told me about it. When I’ve confronted them about it, the company will typically chock it up to a tracking problem on their end, and pay the fee owed. But these incidents were so rare, it wasn’t worth my time to put more safeguards in place.

Transforming a mailing list into job board

By 2018, TokyoDev had gone from a mailing list with a few hundred subscribers to one with over five thousand subscribers. Additionally, I had gone from having so few jobs that I could only send an email every couple of months, to having so many jobs that I could send emails almost every week.

The site was still primarily my personal blog, and the job listings were only available through the mailing list. Over time, readers pointed out some disadvantages of this approach, such as not being able to see past listings, or not being able to easily share listings with their friends. This led to me adding a “job board” section to my blog, where I’d list the positions that I posted to the mailing list, and later I worked with a designer to relaunch the entire site around the job board.

Becoming a “real” business

In 2019, TokyoDev became my largest source of income, eclipsing what I was earning from my main job. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why this was the year things took off, but I can point to a number of factors.

First, at the end of 2018, I landed Indeed as a client, after one of their engineering managers participated in an event for CTOs I hosted. Indeed had been making waves in the local tech scene for hiring large numbers of international developers and paying them well above market salaries that were more in line with US salaries than Japanese ones. Having Indeed as a client meant there was a recognizable name when other prospective clients came looking.

Second, as it was now a job board as opposed to a mailing list for a semi-personal blog, I was operating and communicating as a business. This meant that other businesses, like Indeed, were more comfortable with me, and so it was easier for the various stakeholders to get on board.

Third, as I had been onboarding new clients with higher success fees, the average revenue per hire had significantly increased.

Fourth, one of the early startups that had used me was experiencing a lot of growth themselves, and so hired six or so developers that year via TokyoDev.

Finally, it was becoming increasingly common for Japanese startups to build up international engineering teams, and so the market as a whole had grown a lot since I had started the mailing list.

With the success I was having with TokyoDev, I decided to make it my primary focus, and moved on from my other job.

The impact of COVID-19

In early 2020, as COVID-19 gripped the world, Japan basically halted the issuance of new visas. Many of the people hired through TokyoDev were overseas and looking to relocate to Japan, but this was no longer possible with Japan’s stricter immigration policies. Because I had been charging a success fee that was predicated on hires being able to get into the country, growth slowed, and in 2020 I only generated slightly more revenue than the year before.

But then TokyoDev experienced explosive growth in 2021 and 2022. Part of this was that all the hires that had been paused during 2020 were now able to enter the country, so I was able to receive the success fees for the last year. Another was a systemic change to how companies approached hiring globally.

Before COVID-19, almost all Japanese companies operated exclusively in person. That flipped during the pandemic, with almost all of them moving to be remote first. Whereas previously their hiring process defaulted to in-person, during the pandemic, everything moved online. This made it easier to accommodate overseas hires in the new standard way of doing things. What’s more, because Japanese companies were becoming more comfortable with remote work, companies could start hires on remote contracts while waiting for visas to be approved, which sped up hiring and onboarding, leading companies to be more willing to take a chance on someone overseas.

Expanding the business beyond myself

Since TokyoDev had almost no costs, virtually all the revenue it generated was essentially going into my own pocket. I wondered what I could accomplish if I reinvested the money in the business instead. I also felt a twinge of guilt that I was enriching only myself on the developers using my site.

In 2022, I decided to grow the business from just myself, to one that got other people involved on an ongoing basis. I now have six people working for TokyoDev on retainer contracts (no one beside me is full time though).

One neat part of this is that TokyoDev itself has sponsored the working visa renewals for two of them, so I’ve had a first hand view of the process. It was quite easy for us to do, and I’ve been able to use my personal experience as a way of reassuring other companies that it isn’t something they need to worry about.

The TokyoDev blog has grown from having me as its sole contributor, to having eight other authors. This has allowed TokyoDev to highlight the experiences of developers beyond my own, and we now have articles from software developers on what it’s like working in Japan as a woman, as a Filipino, and as a person with a disability. These authors have come from the Discord community, and being exposed to a diversity of perspectives has been one of the great benefits of it.

I’ve also started to sponsor developer communities in Japan (particularly those that help women in technology). These sort of communities are what inspired me to start TokyoDev in the first place, and so it’s been nice to have things come full circle and for me to be able to contribute back to the community that has helped TokyoDev grow.

From a purely business perspective, it’s hard to tell if these expenditures are causing TokyoDev to grow or become more profitable. As we approach the end of 2023, TokyoDev is in a similar place revenue-wise to last year. But in the last year, the US tech market has crashed, and while Japanese tech companies didn’t get hit as hard, the job market has gotten more competitive. So without this investment, perhaps we would have been in a worse place.

However, from the perspective of our central mission, to help international developers start and grow their career in Japan, it has been without doubt a win.

Why did TokyoDev work?

TokyoDev was by no means an overnight success. I’d already been blogging for five years before I even tried to commercialize the project, and it took another five years before I saw any significant return. This might seem like an eternity if my goal was to turn it into a business from the beginning, but because I didn’t have financial ambitions with it, it never felt like things were progressing too slowly with it.

But looking back over my story, it might seem like everything just fell into place, and that it was pure luck I could turn it into a successful business. There is one central thread I noticed though: my opportunities came from events, communities, and personal connections.

I posted about the events I attended to share them with the world. This led to personal connections with people who were interested in what it was like to be a developer in Japan, or how they too could become developers in Japan.

Through the events and communities I was a part of, I heard about job postings that I never would have seen elsewhere, and were the source of my very first customers on the mailing list. People were willing to try posting jobs on my mailing list for a fee, and I was willing to trust them to tell me about their hires, all because we knew each other.

The next step into working with a major company like Indeed also came through an event. Making myself visible at events made that connection possible by putting me on the radar of someone at Indeed who had the power to take a chance with TokyoDev.

I hope this helps demonstrate the value of being an active part of communities where people help each other. TokyoDev’s central mission is also one of helping other people, and we have been growing a community that is helping more and more people all the time. Most recently, we have been focusing on growing a community on Discord that has been successful in connecting both people outside and inside of Japan.

I’m excited to see where TokyoDev can go next.

Working as an Indonesian Software Engineer in Japan 5 Dec 2023 7:57 PM (last year)

Even though I love Japan, I had never planned to work there. Like many Indonesian children, my first exposure to Japanese culture was through anime on Sunday morning TV broadcasts. At that time, I didn’t even know it was called anime, let alone that it came from Japan since it was dubbed.

But as I grew, the more I realized that there are so many Japanese influences around me. Automobiles, music players, rice cookers. It is all imported from Japan. I enrolled in a vocational high school, and my school even provided a mandatory Japanese language class.

I always thought that working in Japan would be very cool, but I didn’t make a concrete plan to work in Japan.

So, how do I end up working here?

Before Working in Japan

I was a CTO for a startup in Jakarta. We grew our team of engineers, but when COVID hit, it exposed that our business model wouldn’t work well, so the higher-ups decided to pivot and work on something else. I decided to take a break and work on freelance software engineering projects.

Six months in, one of my relatives was working for a Japanese company, and offered me a remote freelance job as a software engineer there. They focus on AR/VR/XR-related products like Apple Vision and HoloLens. They already had several key software engineers specialized in computer vision and needed someone who could work on their web-technology-related projects.

It seems like a good fit. I said yes to my relative, and we set up a meeting with the company’s owner. We discussed what kind of projects I would work on, the technology stacks, the deliverables, and our communication method. Everything clicked, and we started the freelance contract right away.

I worked on several projects, and before long, I had been working for a year with the company. I was comfortable with their internal processes and getting along well with the other engineers. I even started working on my Master’s degree during this time.

One afternoon, I took a break, ate my lunch, and watched YouTube videos. I got a Slack notification on my phone. I just finished a PR and figured they wanted to clarify some of the changes in my PR. I opened my phone, and I noticed it was from the CEO. It is not unusual that I received a message from the CEO, but not that happened so frequently either. Usually, it was when he asked for my input on a new project or for my opinion about potential partners in Indonesia.

I opened the message, and it went roughly like this:

“We have been working together for around a year this month, right? And I believe you have started working on your Master’s? Do you have any plans to work in Japan? “

It didn’t click right away where this conversation is going, so I just casually replied:

“Yeah, sure. But I don’t have any concrete plan right now. Ideally, I would like to keep working while also doing my Master’s degree, and I will think in more detail in the future… “

But then it hit me, and I quickly sent another message:

“But if there is an opportunity, I would be very excited to take it.”

After the Offer

We set up a call to discuss the offer and flesh out the details. It was very casual, but at the same time, practically a job interview. So, I changed my usual conversational tone to a more professional one. At the end of the meeting, I said this is an exciting offer, but I will need to consider it.

I tried to think about the offer more deeply, and three factors will affect my decision: the benefit of working abroad, the cost, and my family.

Working in an international company, and even more so, actually working abroad, would be a very positive move for my career. Ideally, it would allow me to explore many exciting career paths abroad. Even if it didn’t work out, and I needed to return to Indonesia, that additional experience would be attractive to recruiters in Indonesia.

As I said, my knowledge of Japan was only about popular culture. I didn’t know what it would be like to live in Japan. Considering the living costs in Indonesia, I had a comfortable income from my freelance projects. I found resources online about living costs in Japan, and realized my new salary from the full-time contract would be enough to cover them. I couldn’t save as much as when I was living in Indonesia, but living in a country with a larger economy than my home country would provide the potential to increase my future income.

Lastly, I already had a family in Indonesia. My son was 6, and just getting ready to be enrolled in elementary school. If we all moved to Japan, he would need to attend an elementary school there. This was both exciting and scary for me. If I went abroad, I would really like to take my family with me, and especially show my son how people live in different places and expose him to international culture. But I was also afraid he would not be able to adapt well to the Japanese school. I couldn’t afford to put my child in a Japanese International School, so our only option was the local Japanese school. My son was fluent in English and Indonesian, but he would need to learn Japanese at the local school.

I asked my wife about her opinion and explained the details. She replied, “It would be stupid if you reject this offer.”

I accepted the offer the next day. The first thing we did was prepare the papers and documents. He introduced me to a legal scrivener specializing in Japanese working visas, and we started the visa process.

I submitted all the necessary documents for the visa application process, and the scrivener confirmed that everything was in order. However, due to the COVID-19 related border closure, the scrivener cautioned me that the visa processing might take longer than usual due. As a result, the scrivener suggested that I reach out to the Japanese embassy in Indonesia for further details and clarification.

I called the local embassy, and they told me the visa registration process was on hold, and to watch the news for the latest updates. In the meantime, the legal scrivener kept working on the CoE while waiting for the information on the border opening.

The CoE was finished by November 2021, and I received the physical copy in December 2021. I waited another two months until the border was open, and the immigration process restarted at the end of February 2022.

First Few Months in Japan

By mid-2022, I had finally secured my apartment and flight ticket to Japan. It was an exciting and scary prospect, as it was the first time I was going to live abroad. Not to mention, I needed to be responsible for my family, too.

I was under a housing program from my employer, where they handled all the contracts related to the apartment. By the time I arrived, I already had a key, and everything was already set up, like the electricity and gas.

I spent more time in the office than before, and less on other activities like child-rearing and pursuing my degree. This was challenging, and I needed to be super disciplined to keep everything in check. This included staying healthy, since getting sick would take away precious time to do essential things. Also, I wanted to maintain a good appearance with the company, especially in the first few months. I considered myself a new employee under probation, even though I had been working with the company for over a year.

One significant factor that boosted my confidence was that I had a relative who also lived in Japan, so if push came to shove, I could ask for their help. Luckily, there turned out to be nothing significant that would cause inconvenience for them though.

After moving to Japan, the work hours and assignments did not change much, other than I now commute to the office regularly. I discussed this with the CEO, and we decided that I would go to the office two days a week in principle. I also only had a little overtime, which contrasts with a common stereotype in Indonesia: if you work for a Japanese company, you are expected to work crazy hours.

I used English with my immediate team in my daily work, while I used Japanese with the other employees. Most of the time, technical documentation came in Japanese, and I relied heavily on translator applications for complex explanations. Considering the language gap, I also clarified a lot with my fellow engineers to minimize misunderstandings. It helped that my coworkers were very supportive and respectful, which was a huge factor in my adapting in the first few months.

Working for a small team, I had a lot of freedom in making engineering decisions. While the language was usually already decided since I was continuing existing projects, the library and tools I use were mostly up to me to decide.

I had close to zero networks in Japan, so I started to get to know the local tech ecosystem by joining meetups around Tokyo. Considering my limited Japanese, at that point, I only joined those arranged primarily by expats. I also discovered a small group of students who shared the same alma mater working and living around Tokyo, which helped building a network.

Outside of work, I spent the first few months taking care of the documents at the local city office and elementary school, and getting used to the local dentist, post office, and doctors. Conversations with the regional offices were tough, and I relied heavily on the translator app. It helped that the people from the regional offices were very patient. I also found a local group organized by the city government and volunteers called Yokohama International Lounge, which helps foreigners living in Yokohama, where I live. They provided:

• A general consultation service.
• Almost free Japanese language lessons.
• Regular events that mostly involved mothers and kids.

I visited the local elementary school and felt very lucky that several faculty members were fluent in English, as my limited Japanese and translator app wouldn’t have been enough to bridge the communication otherwise. We are fortunate to live near such a school. Yokohama also provides a Japanese language learning program for children who just moved to Japan. All the support systems really relieved my stress and anxiety about navigating the beginning of my life in Japan.

Living my whole life in a tropical country, I was not prepared to live in Japan. When I first arrived, it was summer, and slightly hotter than Indonesia. Still, it was something that I am familiar with and can bear. Closer to fall, the temperature and humidity dropped, and caused many problems for me. I have never experienced dry skin before, but now using moisturizer and lip balm was a must, or I will have a terrible day.

Clothing was also something that I was not well prepared for. I visited the local Uniqlo to stock up on sweaters and heat tech for Fall and Winter. The first few weeks of fall were awful, especially when the temperature dropped under 15 degrees. But somehow, I could adapt well. It also helps to have an AC with a heater mode, which I just knew existed since I moved to Japan, and an electric blanket at the end of your day. By spring, I was already accustomed to the climate, and stocked with appropriate clothing.

What I Would Do Differently If I Had a Chance

Looking back, there are a few things that I could do better. My significant oversight was the language, especially related to my child. Having a support system from the local government and school was pure luck.

When I chose an apartment to live in, I only cared about how close the local school was to the apartment. I brushed off other factors, assuming I could rely on my company and relatives if things get complicated. There was also a child-rearing subsidy from the government, which I discovered after I moved in.

If I were to do it all over again, I would research what support is available from the municipal government before deciding on an apartment. In contrast, one of my friends from Indonesia who also moved to Japan a few months after I did was not so lucky. They also moved in as a family with children, but unfortunately their local government and city didn’t have much support for them.

From a professional perspective, I would spend more time discussing the contract with my employer. I was also offered a housing program where my company would make the contract under their name, and I would have the rent deducted from my salary. In general, I received a lot of benefits from the agreement and the program my employer offered me. But given another chance, I would research more into the implications of the contracts and make a more informed decision before signing the offer.

By now, most of my stress and anxiety about navigating life in Japan is gone. Work is progressing smoothly, while I continue to grow a local network from local meetups and my alma mater. My child started to study at the local elementary school with great support from the school and local government, and my wife went to local events and made some friends she could rely on. It is not perfect, but somehow, it all worked well, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

The 2023 TokyoDev Developer Survey results are live! 26 Nov 2023 4:05 PM (last year)

In October 2023, I conducted a survey of international developers living in Japan. The results are now live, please check them out!

This year’s survey had a total of 713 respondents, up 28% from last year’s survey. This is an amazing number to me, as while it’s hard to say how many English-speaking international software developers live in Japan, I’d wager it is in the low tens of thousands, meaning our survey got at least 5% of them to respond.

Median compensation was down

The median compensation of respondents was ¥8.5 million per year, down ¥1 million from last year’s survey.

One factor may be that respondents tended to be less experienced than the previous year, having a median of 5 years professional experience, compared to last year’s median of 7 years.

Another factor may be that there was a slight shift in the kind of companies respondents were working for. While in 2022, 26% of respondents worked for the Japanese subsidiary of an international company, that dropped to 22% in this year’s survey. While this may not seem a significant difference, we also found that respondents working for such a subsidiary had a 73% higher median income than those working for a Japanese headquartered company.

Higher unemployment and more job seekers

We conducted our 2022 survey just before the US tech market started to crash. While we haven’t seen the same degree of mass layoffs and hiring freezes in Japan, it has gotten a lot more competitive, particularly if you’re looking for positions that don’t require strong Japanese skills.

This increased competition was reflected in our results. 2.6% of respondents were unemployed, up from 0.5% in 2022, and 19% of respondents were actively looking for a job, up from 11% last year.

Remote work on the decline

With the COVID pandemic, tech companies in Japan took a radical shift towards remote work, with it going from basically unheard of to almost universal. However, we’re seeing a move back towards the office.

While 70% of respondents could work fully remotely in 2022, that dropped to 59% in this year’s results. Furthermore, 9% of respondents were required to exclusively work from an office, up from 4% last year.

Negotiating salary is more difficult with Japanese companies

Respondents who worked for a subsidiary of an international company were more likely to be successful at negotiation. 36.6% of respondents working for an international subsidiary reported that they successfully negotiated, whereas 27.7% of those working for a Japan headquartered company did. For both company types, about 50% of respondents reported they didn’t even attempt to negotiate.

Women more likely to start a developer career in Japan

Irrespective of gender, respondents had lived in Japan for a median of 5 years. While male respondents had a median of 8 years professional experience, female respondents had a median of 2 years. This implies that many of our male respondents started their developer career abroad, and then came to Japan after picking up some experience, whereas many female respondents came to Japan first, and then transitioned into software development.

A driver of women entering software development appears to be coding bootcamps. While 11.6% male of respondents had graduated from a coding bootcamp, 35.5% of female respondents did.

Plus so much more

Not only are there many more insights to be found in the full survey results, we’ve also added the ability for you to create your own custom charts, allowing you to explore the data further. So please dive in and take a look!

My experience with Vulcanus in Japan, a training programme for EU engineering students 20 Nov 2023 4:03 PM (last year)

My journey in Japan started in a slightly unconventional way. While there are several paths to enter the country, such as a working holiday visa, English teaching, or getting hired by one of the many wonderful companies, posting jobs on TokyoDev, I first came here via the Vulcanus in Japan programme. More than just an internship, it’s a complete package including an intensive language course, cultural lectures and accommodation support. It can be an excellent starting point for engineering students who aspire to live and work in Japan in the future. So how exactly does it work, and what was my experience?

Disclaimer: I joined the programme 4 years ago, and some of the contents described might have changed since then. Please consult the official Vulcanus in Japan website for up-to-date information.

The Vulcanus Programme

Vulcanus in Japan is co-organized by the EU Commission and the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Every year, around 20 to 30 students are selected from a large pool of applicants to perform a technical internship in one of several Japanese hosting companies.

Not only that, but the programme also includes an intensive language course and multiple cultural lectures. Support is provided in all matters relating to setting up your life in Japan.

The application process begins with a pre-selection based on your resume, motivation letter and recommendation letters. Then, host companies get to take a look at the students and pick those that they believe are a good fit for their open internship positions. Thus, when applying, you need to appeal to both the programme committee, as well as the Japanese companies themselves. I wrote a more in-depth guide on how to improve your application here.

Those selected then join an information session in Brussels, which provides participants the opportunity to get to know each other, while also getting briefed on the programme details.

The Language School

I arrived in Japan on September 1st, and after a few additional briefing sessions and administrative procedures (such as opening a bank account and obtaining a phone number), I settled in my little apartment in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, and was ready for 4 months of intensive language learning. I wrote more on my arrival experience here too.

The language school I attended was the Naganuma School in Shibuya. I found their teaching approach very effective due to their strict policy of only using Japanese during the lecture, even at the very beginner levels. Additionally, I greatly appreciated the complementary excursions and cultural activities such as calligraphy and tea ceremony.

Before I arrived, I took a short test to assess my Japanese ability, and was assigned to a class of the appropriate level. While most students arrive with close to zero knowledge of Japanese, I already had an intermediate level of Japanese on arrival, and had the chance to pick one of the advanced courses. I chose the business Japanese track, which turned out to be extremely useful, with topics such as handling telephone conversations, emails, and even work interviews in Japanese. It even covered behavioral lessons such as how to exchange business cards, or where to stand in the elevator (believe it or not, there’s rules for who stands where in many situations; shimoza being the spot for the lowest rank person, and kamiza for the highest).

Internship Location

My host company was NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone), a major telecommunications company with research centers throughout Japan. Due to my background in machine learning, I was selected as an intern in the speech recognition team at their research center in Yokosuka.

Most interns will be located in Tokyo, but a few, such as me, will be positioned in slightly more remote locations such as Yokosuka, Tsukuba or Atsugi. Occasionally, there will even be positions in the Kansai region, such as Kyoto.

In my opinion, those kinds of locations are much more rewarding than Tokyo, since you get a chance to experience a more unique and traditional face of Japan that is not present in Tokyo. Nature is closer, trains are not so crowded, and the people are warmer and less busy. It is also more challenging to survive without Japanese, which gives you the necessary motivation to continue learning once the language course ends and your internship begins.

Internship Experience

This is the part of the programme where students will have widely different experiences, both positive and negative. Some of the other participants I talked to complained that the company wasn’t a good match, did not care much about them, or had unexpected changes in their team or internship content. Most, however, had extremely fulfilling experiences, including myself. Additionally, many received full-time offers by their host companies upon completion of the internship, and at least a few students each year stay working full time. There were even instances of students releasing patents and research papers during the internship, marking an extremely successful end to their internships in Japan.

Personally, I improved my Japanese significantly while working at NTT, since all my colleagues were Japanese and I needed to communicate daily with them. I even had the opportunity to give presentations and receive feedback on my projects. While I didn’t stay at NTT (instead pursuing higher education in Tokyo), I am still in Japan 4 years later at the time of writing this post.

Final Thoughts

Vulcanus in Japan is not for everyone. Firstly, the programme has strict eligibility requirements. You have to be an engineering student from a selected number of countries, and have completed at least 3 years of university education. Additionally, the monthly stipend is not very high, requiring a certain amount of discipline and strategy to survive. Finally, you need a bit of luck to be matched with a company that aligns with your expectations.

With all that said, if you are an adventurous European engineering student looking for a path to Japan, the Vulcanus programme might just be the opportunity you are looking for!

Transferring from the Philippines to be a QA Engineer in Japan 19 Oct 2023 9:06 PM (last year)

Intra-company transfers are a less-common way to move to Japan for work, but Mary Grygjeanne Grace Icay (Gray in the TokyoDev Discord community) managed to do it. She originally worked for a subsidiary of a Japanese company in the Philippines and was able to seize a transfer opportunity to move to Japan and start a new chapter of her life.

Grace spoke about some of the upsides, such the basic Japanese skills provided by her company, but also about some of the downsides, such as having to pay taxes in both Japan and the Philippines at once. A major upside for her as an international transferee was that the company handled everything related to visas and relocation for her, thereby lowering one of the highest hurdles many people face in moving to Japan.

We also spoke about cultural differences and stereotypes, and how even “good” stereotypes can be inaccurate or misleading, such as stereotypes of Filipino adaptability or Japanese organization and cleanliness. Unfortunately, she had a few stories about how these stereotypes surfaced in interviews and work environments – in some cases, even influencing her decision to continue interviewing with particular companies!

However, like many people, Grace sought higher-paying, longer-term employment in Japan for job security. She eventually signed on at Yaraku as their first QA Engineer. We spent the final third of our conversation discussing Grace’s experiences at Yaraku, which provides a Translation Management System application. One revelation was that despite the primary language at work being English, Grace has found that her Japanese language knowledge and experience since she came to Japan has proven invaluable for her as a QA Engineer there.

Grace also discusses her approaches to QA and ticketing, and what she looks for in a healthy work environment that supports its QA Engineers – but you’ll have to watch to find out everything!

Not setting up Find My bricked my MacBook 12 Oct 2023 6:32 PM (last year)

At the beginning of the year, I bought a new M2 MacBook Air for ¥220,800 (about 1,500 USD) on Apple Japan’s online store. Thanks to me not bothering to set up Find My, it’s now a worthless brick. To add insult to injury, I had paid ¥77,619 (500 USD) to have said brick returned to me. Apple could theoretically unbrick it, but refuses to do so. Don’t make the same mistake I did, and make sure you turn on Find My.

Swapping MacBooks at airport security

This all happened because I went through airport security. As one is required to do, I removed my Midnight Blue MacBook Air from my backpack, put it on a tray, and after it went through airport security, I picked it up again.

Or so I thought. About 30 minutes before my flight was boarding, I pulled out my laptop to do some last minute work. But when I opened it up, a stranger’s profile greeted me. Evidently we had swapped laptops going through security. So I raced back, and returned the stranger’s laptop, and explained the situation.

While security managed to identify the stranger’s flight, it had already taken off. I filled out the airport’s lost item form, and boarded the plane crestfallen. I hoped I’d recover the laptop, but to prepare for the worst, ordered another new MacBook using the plane’s wifi. I could always return it if my original MacBook was returned.

An email from the United Arab Emirates

A bit over a week after I lost my MacBook, I received an email from someone in the United Arab Emirates saying they had my laptop and asking if I had theirs. I don’t know how they found me, but I told them I had returned theirs to airport security, and asked for mine back.

They agreed to send it back, but seemed a bit clueless as to how to return it. Part of this may have been because they didn’t have a fluent English ability. While it was a bit ambiguous to me who should be responsible for paying for the return from a moral perspective, it became clear the only way I’d get it back is if I ordered a courier to pick it for them.

There was a lot of back and forth between us. But after about a month after receiving the initial email from the stranger, a package arrived from the UAE. Getting it delivered was quite expensive. DHL ended up charging me ¥66,519, which was more than the initial estimate they gave me. I also needed to pay ¥11,100 of import duties on it - it didn’t seem to matter that the MacBook was mine.

A box filled with exotic scents and crushed dreams

I eagerly opened the box, which had a distinctly exotic scent - perfume or spices, I couldn’t quite place it. Sure enough, there was a bubble wrapped Midnight Blue MacBook Air. Opening it up, there was a Japanese keyboard. Everything good so far.

Booting it up, something was a bit strange though. Rather than being greet by my login screen, I saw “Activate Mac”, and was prompted to select a wifi network. I did this, and then was shown an “Activation Lock” screen.

This Mac is linked to an Apple ID. Enter the Apple ID and password that was previously used with this Mac. p·····@icloud.com

Weird. My Apple ID uses my tokyodev.com email address, not an iCloud one. There was an option to “Use Device Password”.

Enter the password that was previously used to unlock this Mac.

I entered my password.

The operation couldn’t be completed. The password for this Mac can no longer be used to remove Activation Lock. The password was entered incorrectly too many times.

Uh oh. What do I do now, I thought to myself. Some searching brought up Apple’s documentation about how to remove Activation Lock.

If you need help removing Activation Lock and have proof of purchase documentation, you can start an Activation Lock support request.

I bought the MacBook from Apple, and so I thought this should be straightforward enough. I went through their support request form, attaching the invoice their online store gave me. Then I waited.

Apple refuses to disable the Activation Lock for me

After two weeks of waiting, I got fed up, and contacted Apple’s normal support about it. Their support representative was able to confirm that I had submitted a request to disable the activation lock, but the team responsible for that had rejected my request the same day (but I didn’t receive any notification about it).

The support representative wanted to really make sure of everything, and included having them use remote access on my iPhone. They were surprised to see that the locked MacBook was showing up in my list of iCloud devices, but a different iCloud account was showing up on the unlock screen of the MacBook. Eventually, they concluded there might have been a problem with how I submitted the support request. It asked for the purchase date. I entered the 請求日 (invoice date) whereas they thought I should have entered the 注文日 (order date). These were both in the receipt, but whatever, I submitted another request.

Four days later I received an email about the first activation lock request.

We are unable to process your request at this time.

Ten days since I received that email, I still have not received any update on my second unlock request.

How did it get locked in the first place?

It remains a mystery as to how the Activation Lock got activated in the first place. I have a couple of theories though.

I set up Find My with an Apple ID that I don’t remember

That the iCloud address starts with a “p”, my first initial, is haunting me. Could it be that I somehow created an iCloud address when first setting up the MacBook? I certainly don’t remember doing this though.

Furthermore, Apple ID requires you to have a phone number associated with the account, and only allows one phone number per account. My own phone number is already connected to my tokyodev.com account, so I would have needed to set it up with a different one, which seems impossible.

The stranger wiped my MacBook, set it up for themselves, and turned on Find My

The stranger did take an awfully long time to return my MacBook. Maybe this was because they were using it for themselves until their own was returned. If I hadn’t set up Find My for the MacBook, they should have been able to wipe it themselves. When they set it up for themselves, they could have set up Find My, and now the Activation Lock would be enabled.

If they then reported the device as lost, Activation Lock should have been turned on. Furthermore, Apple explicitly states that they won’t remove the activation lock for devices in Lost Mode.

I suppose this is theoretically possible. I did ask them if they recognized the icloud address, but they didn’t. The only way this makes any sense is if they were being malicious, but I doubt that’s the case.

There’s a bug with Activation Lock

Apple’s T2 Security Chip allows a maximum of 90 unlock attempts. If those attempts are exhausted, access to the disk should be unrecoverable, but it should be possible to wipe the MacBook by starting it in recovery mode.

I tried doing this, but when doing so, I’m prompted to disable the Activation Lock. This is the expected behavior if Find My had been activated, but not if it wasn’t.

The stranger could have tried to brute force my password. Eventually they exhausted the unlock attempts. What if there’s a bug in this case, and somehow the system is prompting me to unlock it via a non-existent Apple ID. My username starts with a “p”, so I could theoretically see a programmer using a username@icloud.com address as a placeholder.

It seems unlikely that such a bug would slip through, but it is certainly possible. I’d love for someone at Apple to prove me wrong by explaining what actually happened.

The problem with being too secure

I get why Apple doesn’t want to tell me why they’re rejecting my requests to disable the activation lock, as it would help an attacker figure out how they might get a stolen MacBook unlocked.

I also understand that they must receive a lot of requests in relation to MacBooks that people bought “used”, and so they want to minimize their time spent actually reviewing the requests.

But come on! I bought the MacBook from Apple. I’m clearly the owner. They presumably can see that my Apple ID is associated with it. The only case I can think of where they legitimately shouldn’t unlock it is if I sold it to someone else and then stole it back from them.

With removing the Activation Lock, I could only wipe the MacBook anyways. There’s no one’s data at stake. Surely in a case like this, it’s better to let me wipe it.

Simultaneously being this strict and allowing MacBooks to be set up without turning on Find My creates a channel for abuse. An attacker could “prank” someone by wiping their MacBook, activating it with their own Apple ID, and then reporting it as lost. The victim then has no way to recover it.

Since Apple isn’t able to handle legitimate requests to disable the Activation Lock like mine, you should turn on Find My on your own MacBook, or risk it becoming a brick like mine.

Announcing the 2023 TokyoDev Developers Survey 4 Oct 2023 7:35 PM (last year)

The 2023 edition of the TokyoDev Developer Survey is now live! If you’re a software developer living in Japan, please help us by taking it.

Last year’s survey got over 500 responses, and showed the average salaries of international developers living in Japan were at record highs. But with the tech downturn in the US, has this changed? Has the end of COVID restrictions meant tech companies here have been ditching remote work and returning to the office?

With this year’s survey we hope to answer those questions and more by touching on topics like job satisfaction, technological choices, work environment.

The survey is anonymous, and we will only release aggregated data to avoid disclosing any personal information. The more responses we get, the more interesting insights we’ll be able to share, so please help out by answering the survey and sharing it with your peers!

How to Write Resumes for Jobs in Japan 20 Sep 2023 6:46 PM (last year)

Writing a resume for your native language and culture is a sizable challenge for many, especially for software developers. The stakes are high (a job you want!), but the advice is uncountable and often contradictory. While many people may first think that it would be natural to submit a resume in Japanese to companies in Japan, the truth is that Japanese companies will sometimes write job descriptions in English—and when they do, that is a sign that you should submit a resume in English. Jobs listed on TokyoDev expect English resumes.

I have looked over pools of resumes when interviewing and hiring applicants here in Japan, and I was also an applicant myself just two years ago. So I have recent experience from both perspectives, as well as feedback from the many people who were kind enough to review my own resume while I was looking for a new job—all of that combined has resulted in my own set of advice about English resumes.

The TokyoDev Discord community has a channel where community members submit their resumes for feedback and review. Many community members contribute their time and experience to help others improve their resumes.

This article covers pieces of advice that show up time and time again. From a high level, these are:

• Include your basic information
• Use a common font in a readable size
• Use common section headings and formats
• Use text, not graphics; be explicit
• Use the keywords provided in the job description
• Use a spelling/grammar check tool
• Summarize experiences and achievements, not tasks
• Be specific and add context
• Imagine what you bring to the role
• Add personal projects when relevant
• Focus on content, not length
• Avoid including details that are too personal
• Concretely describe your Japanese ability

I sort this advice into two categories: optimizing for applicant tracking systems, and optimizing for humans.

Optimizing for ATS

ATS, or Applicant Tracking Systems, are software suites that many companies use to streamline their hiring processes by extracting and normalizing information from resumes and applications. That normalized information is then stored to make it easier for recruiters to query, highlight, and visualize the way each applicant matches various positions.

Imagine that you are hiring for a single position and get 500 resumes on the first day. After reading through the first dozen resumes, you realize that most of them aren’t even suited for the position you advertised. The thought of reading over 400 more resumes that may or may not even be relevant to the position you want to fill can be an extremely daunting task.

ATS scan resumes and extract keywords related to your roles, skillset, accomplishments, and educational background. If you present a resume that ATS cannot parse—for example, one written in crayon with pictograms—no matter how relevant your experience is, your resume may not even make it to human eyes for consideration. These extracted keywords can then be used in your profile in ATS to help people quickly understand your profile without having to pore over your full resume. But if ATS cannot parse your resume and fill out your profile, those reviewers may see a blank profile and drop you from consideration, rather than taking a deeper look at your resume.

Therefore, resumes should be written not only for humans, but also for automated scanning.

Include your basic information

Your basic information includes things like your name, email address and perhaps your phone number (with country code). Make sure that these details are correct so that they can be captured—you don’t want to miss a phone call for an interview because you mistyped your phone number!

When applying to jobs in Japan, it is also helpful to consider the employer’s perspective and include your nationality, any Japanese residency status you may hold (and the term), any past time you have lived in Japan, as well as your Japanese language ability.

Use a common font in a readable size

ATS will sometimes parse your resume using optical character recognition (OCR), which means that they look at your resume as an image and attempt to guess what the text is. Using a common font (e.g.: Arial, Calibri, Georgia, Times New Roman, Verdana) with a readable size (10-12 pt) reduces the chance of OCR errors that could result in your resume being filtered out.

Using a readable font size ensures that your resume is accessible for human reviewers as well.

Use common section headings and formats

Avoid being unconventional. Using emoji or clever phrasing may stand out to human resume reviewers, but ATS will often not understand them, which may lead to it discarding or misfiling all information under that header. Label each section with commonly-used headers, such as “Work experience” or “Internships” instead of “💻🚀” or “My time before the grind”.

Use text, not graphics; be explicit

A popular resume format encourages people to list their skills with “skill bars” or icons. At first glance, it may seem visually pleasing, but it doesn’t provide any useful information due to the lack of context. If someone has ★★★☆☆ in Ruby, does that mean that they’re good, and ★★★★★ is the Platonic ideal of a Ruby developer? Or does it mean that they’re average or below average? A job description will usually ask for “at least X years of experience”, but neither ATS nor humans will understand how ★★★☆☆ relates to that.

Related to this, if you submit your resume as a PDF, do not rasterize your resume. Rasterization is essentially turning your PDF into an image, which makes your resume less parseable by ATS and less accessible for human reviewers.

Use the keywords provided in the job description

Job descriptions are like test cases: they provide the answers that they are expecting. If a job description seeks someone experienced with Django, but your resume mentions how you have contributed directly to Python and have worked with many RESTful frameworks, ATS may drop your resume due to not finding the word “Django”.

Use a spelling/grammar check tool

Both ATS and humans alike may drop a resume if it is riddled with misspellings, albeit for different reasons. Spelling and grammar check tools are ubiquitous and you should take advantage of them to prune all low hanging fruit. Perhaps you were tired when you wrote “prostgreasql”, and you and other human readers may figure out that you meant “PostgreSQL”, but ATS will not be able to parse your mistakes correctly.

Optimizing for human readers

After your resume has passed the basic ATS-powered screening, its next stop will likely be a human being. There may even be multiple people reading your resume and leaving notes as they go through the resume pool and try to narrow it down to the interview candidates. There is no general way to know whether the person reading your resume will be technical or not, or what they value in a resume.

Fortunately, the tips meant for helping your resume pass through ATS filters will also help humans read your resume. This is not to say that we can’t do even more to help your resume pass human screenings!

Context is important, so in the following examples, we will consider the following fictional job description:

If you have that experience, your initial attempt at summing up your most recent role might look like this:

Our fictional applicant hits many of the keywords highlighted in the original job description with this initial draft. It is typically unnecessary to call out tooling in your bullet points. However, since the job description specifically asks for someone with experience with specific tools, it can be smoother to work those tools into the bullet points than to create an entirely separate section for just one or two items.

Summarize experiences and achievements, not tasks

A resume is generally understood to be a list of jobs/roles that you have held and “what you did at that job” in the form of a bullet point list. The previous example satisfies many of the criteria for passing ATS filters—note the keywords!—but may not be as effective for a human reader.

Almost every applicant who meets that job description is likely to have the exact same keywords. Your experience and accomplishments will make you stand out in the eyes of a human reviewer. A reviewer will have a list of questions, and ideally your resume will answer every single question so that the reviewer finishes and thinks, “This person is exactly what we need! Let’s interview them!”

We can stand out from the crowd by adding more detail about our experience and what we achieved in a way that is more specific to the job description:

Be specific and add context

We can still improve those example bullet points by adding more detail and context. Many developers suffer from impostor syndrome, so what seems like “just a normal thing” could be impressive to other developers.

The caveat is that you need to know or be able to access the numbers you want to add. If your company tracks and generates statistics, you may find them useful for your resume as you work on it. It is also a good idea to keep a personal log of accomplishments to build your own dataset and remind yourself of what you have done after the days have blurred together.

It may be a simple query to find the number of times your product has been deployed or installed, but it may be tougher to understand how your changes have affected the product if you haven’t kept a personal log.

Additionally, when possible, you can name other specific tools or goals to give context; “fixed bugs” isn’t as meaningful as drilling down and calling out specific types of bugs, such as latency or crashes.

These details may be small, but they can give context to your accomplishments and make them resonate with the reviewer.

Imagine what you bring to the role

The job description is clear and lists several criteria, but perhaps there is more you can bring to the role beyond what is listed. It sounds like the company is going through a transition from an old product to a new product.

If you have experience with older software with an active user base that has reached the end of its lifetime, that is probably something worth going into detail about. Or perhaps you have helped write and scope tickets, or triaged feature requests—both of these are situations that are likely to come up in the situation outlined in the job description.

Given two candidates who seem equal in all technical aspects, the difference in the “out of scope” experience they have to offer will be one of the deciding factors. We can add a new bullet point for that:

This type of work is usually seen as product or project management work, but it is not uncommon for engineers to pick it up, especially in smaller teams. The job description called out that they are looking for someone to lead a small team, so it’s a good bet that the reviewer will appreciate this detail.

Add personal projects when relevant

Personal projects are another way of standing out from the applicant pool, but they should be relevant to the job at hand. Perhaps you have made a Notion clone or a to-do list manager, but unless there is something outstanding (e.g.: my to-do list app has 50,000 active users!), it probably isn’t worth adding to your resume.

However, if the personal project is relevant, you might want to see if it’s publicly available and is in a condition representative of how you normally write code. In this case, let’s add a few related personal projects, which brings our extremely simplified resume draft to this:

Focus on content, not length

A common worry for many people, especially for those in the early stages of their careers, is that their resume does not fit into one page. This is due to a general guideline that resumes should be one page.

Rather than focusing on the expected length of the resume, instead focus on filling your resume with meaningful content that applies to the job description. For example, after you’ve been in the workforce for a year or two, details about academic coursework in high school and university are less relevant and should be dropped.

If your resume is still longer than one page and contains only information relevant to the job description, then it is probably appropriate for the application; one exception would be a rare case where the system only accepts single-page documents or a specific number of words. In those cases, all you can do is sit down and start trimming older experience or compressing details.

Once you have passed five or so years of experience, you may even find that you struggle to fit your resume on even two pages, depending on the number and types of projects you have worked on. I have seen resumes from seniors that have been filled with three pages of extremely useful, pertinent information.

Let’s introduce an artificial limit to see how this advice affects the example resume. What if the application form only allows 1,000 characters? Our working draft is a bit longer than that, so we need to trim some content to fit.

The most obvious candidate for removal is the BookSwap project. It is from the fictional candidate’s university days, presumably more than at least five years ago as the candidate is applying for a senior position. The BookSwap project also duplicates more recent professional experience and is redundant. Although the candidate built BookSwap on their own and achieved a large user base, it is difficult to argue that it adds anything to the resume that doesn’t already exist in a professional form.

We could also tighten up the resume by removing ambiguity. For example, the statement “reduced crash frequency by 80%” brings to mind a lot of questions—what was the crash frequency? Why was it crashing so much? Or if it wasn’t crashing that much, does the percentage mean that the applicant caused it to crash one time less in a number of years?

If you choose not to remove this detail, you should be prepared to answer questions about it in an interview if the interviewer is curious. Another option would be to add more detail to the resume, but there isn’t enough space to do that due to the 1,000 character limit.

A final option is to remove that statistic entirely, but review the issue to be able to present it in the interview if you are asked about an example of a specific bug you fixed. Not every story has to be in your resume.

Avoid including details that are too personal

People often include details such as their photo, street address, race, age, gender, marital status, or religion. In some cultures, it may be common and accepted to include any of those details when applying for a job.

However, when applying for jobs in Japan, these types of details should not be included in an English resume. If a company requires any of that information, they will specify it in an application form. Providing that information up front in a resume potentially introduces bias.

Recruiters could act on that bias and discard the resume simply because the applicant is from a wealthy area or belongs to a specific religious group that they personally have distaste for. On the other side of the coin, because anyone acting on bias could open a legal can of worms, it is also possible that companies could discard your resume outright to prevent the possibility entirely.

Another angle to this problem is the issue of demonstrating a connection to Japan. When an applicant lives overseas, it’s almost inevitable that an interviewer will ask “Why do you want to move to Japan?” This helps them gauge the level of commitment and make a guess about whether the applicant will be able to settle in productively. Companies do not want to invest time and money in securing a visa for someone who may decide after a few months that they want to return to their own country.

Many resumes I have seen include a section about interests or hobbies, which often mention something about video games, anime, food, or Japanese culture. Things like this can go either way for recruiters; some would see “anime” or “food” as unprofessional, but others would try to explore how that led to you deciding to move to Japan.

One strategy is to completely remove this information from your resume. While that may result in a more professional-looking resume, it may also weaken your resume in the eyes of some recruiters as you have no visible connection to Japan, and thus no visible reason to relocate or live in Japan.

If you choose to leave that information in your resume, it would be a good idea to prepare to speak about how your interests drove your decision to relocate to Japan in case it comes up in an interview.

Concretely describe your Japanese ability

People often wonder how to express their Japanese language proficiency. Many naturally gravitate toward expressing it in terms of Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) levels, such as N1 (the highest) or N5 (the lowest), as that is one of the most common ways for foreign learners to grasp their capabilities.

The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) is another scale people often use in their resumes.

However, both standards face the same problem: many Japanese people do not know about or understand what those scales are, which could result in your resume being filtered out by a busy person who doesn’t have time to do research to understand what your grade means.

One of the simplest ways around this issue is to state your Japanese ability in simple, concrete terms. For example, you can say “Business level” or “Conversational” as shorthand. Interviewers often understand this problem and if you provide them with a basic idea of where you are, it is a prompt for them to engage you in Japanese, which can provide them with a more realistic view of your Japanese ability.

I have never taken the JLPT myself, which has at times invited questions about my actual Japanese ability vs my claimed Japanese ability. In the case of companies presenting their job descriptions in Japanese, one way I have sidestepped this issue in the past is by submitting my materials and application in Japanese. In that case, it is taken for granted that I can read, write, speak, and understand Japanese as the entire process is conducted in Japanese; any disfluency is immediately visible in the process itself.

Please note that this is not a strategy to use with companies posting their job descriptions in English; in these cases, if you submit a Japanese language resume, it may be discarded outright as the reviewer(s) may not even speak Japanese.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t bother listing your certifications; if you have certifications showing your Japanese ability, such as the Business Japanese Proficiency Test (BJT), you can and should absolutely list them on your resume, but should also provide simple context because many reviewers will not know what the scores or grades mean. If you find that you are running out of space, a compact abbreviation such as “Conversational Japanese (JLPT N3)” gets the job done.

Conclusion

While this article does not cover every possible scenario when writing a resume in English for submission to a company in Japan, it does cover many common issues I have seen in resumes presented in the TokyoDev Discord community. Having a peer review of your resume is an extremely important step; other people can help you understand what details or context you should add or remove. Join the Discord if you’d like to get your own reviewed.

Software Developer Internships in Japan, Attending Japanese University, & Job Hunting as a New Grad 18 Sep 2023 11:29 PM (last year)

How do I get a job in Japan with no experience? Why are there no entry level jobs or ways to break into the industry?

This is one of the most common questions in the TokyoDev Discord server, and for good reason. The job board often only has positions for applicants at the mid-career (often starting at 3+ years of experience) or senior levels, with a dearth of positions for folks who have newly graduated or are changing careers.

One reason for this is that Japanese society (specifically, the hiring flow from university to a full time job after graduation) is structured in such a way that students are expected to hunt for jobs in their third year, while companies are expecting to hire fresh graduates. Due to this, in Japan, “entry level” jobs are often replaced with jobs for “new graduates” (新卒, shinsotsu).

This distinction may seem superficial, but the difference is that jobs for new graduates have specific requirements that the applicant has graduated from an educational institution within the last 1-2 years, and can also have unofficial age limits.

Given this, many people realize that a way to get a job in Japan is to go through the funnel as a university student and follow the normal flow to a first job, then gain experience.

This has some immediately obvious drawbacks:

• You probably need to be fairly fluent in either English or Japanese
• You need to be of the right age to enter university
  • Non-traditional students exist in Japan, but are an exception
• You need the finances to be able to travel to, live in, and go to university in Japan

Lai Huynh Binh Minh (Hinm on our Discord server) is one of the people who has traveled this path and has a full time job lined up at Tokyo Techies for after he graduates.

Minh was kind enough to give me over an hour of his time for this interview, where we discussed his decision to study overseas, what his university experience was like, the process of finding his internship, how he thinks about his role as an intern, and how he fits into the international culture at his company.

One surprising thing to come out early in this interview was that Minh’s initial aim was to study psychology in the Netherlands – something that seems completely unrelated to working with software in Japan!

Unfortunately, we had some technical issues toward the end of the video (01:12–01:13) that distorted Minh’s audio for about a minute. After that segment, the audio returns to normal.

This interview should be interesting not only for people considering Japanese universities and internships, but for developers and managers at all levels. Minh talks about how his experiences have holistically contributed to where he is now, and how the open culture at Tokyo Techies is able to leverage that experience.

If you have further questions for Minh or Scott, please consider joining the TokyoDev Discord community, where they are both active.

8 Proven Strategies for Making Every Candidate Fall in Love with Your Company 4 Sep 2023 9:30 PM (last year)

Hi there! I am Luke Wilson, a veteran Tech Recruiter with over 15 years of experience in the Japan market. My recruitment career has taken me across both agency and in-house roles, with the most recent one being at Indeed (a proud client of TokyoDev).

Over the course of my career I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on an important yet often neglected aspect of recruitment: candidate experience. Offering a great candidate experience will not only help you close the most desirable candidates, but also lead to interviewees giving referrals to your positions. Conversely, a poor candidate experience will cause candidates to drop out, and might even cause them to share their poor experience online, which could deter future candidates from applying.

I’ve seen this play out time and time again. For instance, in one case, a front end developer was interviewing with several firms in Tokyo. To him, most interview processes felt like factory lines, with disinterested interviewers who had not read his resume, moving at a sluggish pace, and demanding significant time investments for assignments irrelevant to the actual day-to-day job. One company was different though. They offered a streamlined interviewing process where they continuously sold the role to the candidate. There was nothing burdensome about the process, it was friendly and transparent. So much so that the candidate introduced his family to the boss in the offer meeting. Naturally, the candidate went with this company over the other ones.

Over the years, I’ve collected many strategies that help improve candidate experience. This guide will explore them, giving practical examples you can implement today at no extra cost.

Turn Every Interaction Into a Thoughtful Touchpoints

The overall candidate experience is the sum of all the various pieces involved from initial contact to employment offer. Each step and touchpoint matters. Ensure that every interaction exudes consideration and respect. From responsive communication to accommodating special cases, treating candidates like valued individuals sets the tone for a positive experience.

Personalise Communication

Tailor your initial outreach to each candidate. Reference specific aspects of their CV or LinkedIn profile to show genuine interest and that you’ve done your homework.

Be Open and Transparent

Be open and transparent about the positives and the challenges for the role. Be upfront about the salary range. Share the LinkedIn profile of the interviewers ahead of time to remove any guessing game, and put candidates at ease.

Empower Candidates By Putting Them in the Driver’s Seat

Empowering candidates in the interview process entails giving them a sense of control, respect, and involvement. By providing candidates with opportunities to assess the people on the other side of the interviewing table, you create a positive experience that fosters enthusiasm and mutual understanding.

Share Interview Preparation Material

Share interview preparation material either via a brief prep-call with the TA, or a PDF specific to the type of role they are interviewing for. Ideas of what to include might be description of the interview format, topics to cover, what signals the interviewers are specifically assessing, hints on preparation (such as links to resources). Refrain from sharing reading material that is irrelevant to their particular process.

Give Candidates a Range of Interview Time Slots

Allow candidates to choose from a range of interview time slots. This acknowledges their busy schedules and demonstrates your willingness to accommodate their needs.

Create a Peak Memorable Experience

Strive for excellence in every interaction and create memorable moments that resonate, leaving a lasting positive impression. Unexpected gestures, and small touches can make a significant impact.

Send Company Swag

Sending company swag after the first interview regardless of outcome, will help candidates have a tangible memory long after the process is over.

Give a Virtual Office Tour

Offer candidates a virtual tour of your office space as part of one of your interviews. This will showcase the company culture and work environment. If your firm is completely remote, ask would-be team-mates to join one of the interviews just for a few minutes to say “hi” and have a bit of friendly conversation.

Set Clear Expectations to Avoid Dissonance

Uncertainty breeds frustration. From the outset, state clear expectations for the recruitment process, timeline, and feedback. By doing so, you mitigate the potential for dissonance and keep candidates engaged and informed throughout their journey.

Hold Yourself Accountable for the Expectations You Set

Hold yourself accountable for the expectations you set, and measure whether you are meeting them. For example, track the time it takes for candidates to move through the stages in your process, and the feedback turnaround time. Ensure these timelines match what you initially communicated with the candidate.

Handle Changes With Grace

Occasionally some candidates will need additional steps, or interviewers will suddenly need to cancel to put out a production fire. But are you being empathetic enough to the candidate in the way you make a change, and could you have a substitute interviewer ready to go so that the interview timeline doesn’t extend?

Create Positive Endings Regardless of Outcome

Even if a candidate doesn’t make it through the interview process, ensure the experience ends on a positive note. A courteous and respectful conclusion can leave a lasting impression. Candidates who feel valued, even in rejection, are more likely to speak positively about your brand, potentially leading to referrals and positive word-of-mouth.

Send Thoughtful Rejection Letters

Craft rejection emails that convey appreciation for the candidate’s time and effort, while also providing constructive feedback for improvement.

Provide Networking Opportunities

Invite unsuccessful candidates to join your talent community or attend company meetup events, fostering a sense of connection and continued engagement.

Solicit Candidate Feedback

Feedback is a valuable tool for growth. Actively seek input from candidates about their experience. What went well? What could be improved? Listening to their insights not only shows your commitment to improvement but also provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of your process.

WARNING: Only ask for interview process feedback if it is your policy to share candidate feedback. Considering the amount of time candidates spend preparing, as well as the stress of the interviews themselves, it will feel like a double standard if you ask for feedback but don’t give it.

Send Post-Interview Surveys

Send candidates a brief survey after interviews to gather feedback on their experience, your communication, and their overall satisfaction.

Conduct Feedback Workshops

Organise internal workshops or focus groups with past candidates that made it into the team to discuss their recruitment journey and brainstorm ideas for improvement.

Sell Candidates on the Role

Remember, you’re not just assessing candidates – they’re evaluating you too. Present the role as an exciting opportunity, highlighting the company’s culture, growth prospects, and unique offerings. When candidates see the value in what you’re offering, they’ll be more motivated to become a part of your team.

Share Day-in-the-Life Stories

Share stories from current employees about their typical workday, challenges, successes, and growth within the company.

Tailor Your Pitch to the Candidate

Each candidate is unique, so figure out what is important to every individual, and discuss why your role will satisfy their particular desires.

Put Yourself in the Candidate’s Shoes

At the heart of it all, the candidate is the focal point. It is important to put yourself in their shoes, listen actively, and ask yourself whether your process makes them feel valued. Prioritising their experience ensures a mutually beneficial engagement that sets the tone for a productive partnership.

Test Your Career Page

Testing out your own career page, to see what little steps are tedious and redundant. The fewer the clicks and manual data entry the better.

Look for Unconscious Bias

Reviewing whether or not unconscious bias is seeping into the process. Each step should be consistent and fair for the people spending their time to interview with you.

Conclusion

On to the elephant in the room…so why do we fail at candidate experience so often?! (including myself on occasion 🙁) And what are the trade-offs for the team executing the sorts of items mentioned in this guide?

It is not always easy to implement the above and there will be outright barriers preventing you.

You could be under-resourced and simply cannot spare the time as you grind through screening hundreds of CVs, while juggling dozens of potentials in the candidate pipeline. Maybe there isn’t yet a culture of recruitment within the hiring team, thus causing drag to timelines as well as the quality of experience. Perhaps communication needs to improve between the individuals directly and indirectly bottlenecking the various stages of the candidate journey. It is possible there’s an element of “it’s always been done this way” and a strategic review is needed by leaders not involved in the day to day execution (the grind can make you blind, so fresh eyes help).

Offering a stellar candidate experience obviously requires more time and resources. But I believe it is a worthwhile investment, as a good candidate experience will not only help you close more and better candidates, but also cultivate a positive employer brand.

Mental Health in the Japanese Tech Industry 30 Aug 2023 7:15 PM (last year)

Working in a fast-paced environment such as tech, combined with moving to a homogenous country as a foreigner (such as Japan where standing out is not considered to be an exceptionally good thing) understandably takes a toll on someone’s mental health. At the same time, language and cultural barriers can make it harder to get proper treatment here.

I personally have gone through the mental health support system here, and though navigating it was challenging, going through it has put me in a better situation.

I’ve written this article to give people a better idea of the challenges they may face, and the available resources. It covers the following sections:

• My Personal Journey with Mental Health in Japan
• Mental Health Challenges Faced by Foreign Workers in Tech
• The Japanese Mental Health Support System
• Improvements To Japan’s Mental Health Care System
• Mental Health Resources for English Speakers in Japan

My Personal Journey with Mental Health in Japan

The state of mental health in a lot of countries (particularly Asian countries) seems bleak.

Growing up in the Philippines, I had no idea about the actual implications of having mental health problems. I grew up hearing that those who claim to be depressed are only saying so because they’re bored or are attention-seeking.

What’s even worse is that in high school, when I shared with some older peers that I was somehow struggling with my emotions and might have anxiety and/or depression, they told me that I’m being brainwashed by the media and that I’m too young to experience any form of depression or anxiety because I’ve never experienced what “real life” is like. That it’s all because of people’s obsession with labeling everything, and that it’s just a fad that will probably disappear soon.

From someone who was struggling a lot with all these pent-up frustrations and mixed feelings, I was told that “Mental Health problems are only for those who can afford a therapist. For us who is just one hospitalization away from bankruptcy, we just have to suck it up”. So like every older person who I asked, I chose to suck it up and proceeded with life as everyone knew it.

But navigating life as an adolescent in a new country with a completely different culture became a trigger for me to confront my situation head-on.

I moved to Japan at the age of 22, not knowing anyone when I came here. For the first 4 months of moving here, I had no one I could really talk to and always felt like I was alone in whatever I was going through. Working in tech most especially made me feel like I couldn’t easily make friends outside of my work place.

As I grew older, I found it harder to focus on one thing for a long time and also had a hard time retaining information from new lessons (whether they be on Japanese or technology). I suspected something was going on, so I tried to ask my doctor if their clinic was able to diagnose if I had Adult ADHD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) or some other kind of condition, but he told me that it’s impossible for me to have seeing as it should have manifested in the form of being “disruptive” when I was younger.

Last year, on January 2022, I decided to start consulting a counselor regarding my problems. Then after a few sessions and understanding that maybe I need further help, I asked an HR personnel for help to look for clinics. I felt shame and fear that I may be judged, but they were very supportive and were able to help me get in touch with a psychosomatic doctor. Since then I’ve been taking medication to help with my symptoms.

It was a small change that I didn’t know I needed in my life. Even my long-time friends have noticed the big improvement in my mood and behavior. But maybe if I didn’t have such a supportive friend circle, I wouldn’t have tried to seek help.

Mental Health Challenges Faced by Foreign Workers in Tech

According to BIMA’s Tech Inclusivity & Diversity Report, 52% of tech workers have suffered from anxiety or depression.

In foreigners working in tech and then moving to a new country more specifically, their mental health may be in a more vulnerable state. Possible reasons are:

• Isolation
  • Separation from loved ones or trusted people
  • Not having a sense of community that you can reach out to, especially if you’re living here as a sexual or racial minority
  • Adjusting to a new environment/society
  • Language Barrier
  • Cultural Barrier
• Sedentary Lifestyle
  • Most tech jobs function like regular 9-to-6 office jobs, wherein there’s not a lot of opportunities to meet new people and you’re always facing your computer
• Constantly having to catch up with the rapid pace of technology
  • Burnout
  • Increase in Complexity of Work
  • Stress
  • Pressure (from bosses, peers, or even from yourself)

The pandemic that brought about new technologies and more cases of physical and social isolation have also heightened the issues that foreign software developers experienced in Japan. From lack of emotional and financial support to being afraid of being shunned by their employers, tackling with mental health problems while having to work everyday as if nothing is wrong is an entirely different beast in it of itself.

According to a survey by AppDynamics, “Eight in 10 technologists say their job became more complex during 2020, a consequence of quick innovation and a sprawling technology stack”.

The Japanese Mental Health Support System

Just like a lot of Asian countries, discussions on mental health in Japan is taboo. There was (and still is) a fascination for character tropes or subcultures like Menhera-chan within the manga and anime circles starting a while back, but that does not consequently mean that there is a wider and better reception of mental health topics.

It takes a while for changes in societal views to take root in a place, especially with the older generation having this perception of how things are and how they should be. But as it looks like, things are beginning to slowly change for the better and the stigma of going to a mental health care provider is starting to go away.

In Japan, mental health care is generally divided into three groups – Psychiatrists, who specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of various mental health conditions; Psychosomatic Medicine Doctors, who treat physical problems caused by psychological stress (e.g. insomnia); and Clinical Psychologists, who perform psychological tests and face-to-face counseling services, but not prescribe medication.

There are only a few facilities in Japan that offer healthcare in foreign languages, and clinics offering mental health advice in multiple languages are even scarcer. Although clinics like Yotsuya Yui Clinic in Shinjuku and PSI Clinic in Ginza are offering English support for their services, it’s difficult to find clinics in areas outside of Tokyo, where lots of foreign residents are also residing. Getting an interpreter who can help with translating necessary information is a great need for most clinics, but most of the time, it’s more likely that the foreign patient will be the one to carry the burden of the costs of paying for the interpreter.

Access to medical help is generally difficult for foreigners living in Japan due to the language barrier, but differences in culture could further become a barrier in proper diagnosis of the patient. “People describe their symptoms in different ways according to their culture. Although it has become common in the West for people to say they feel depressed… residents of Asian and African countries are more likely to describe their symptoms in terms of physical complaints like headaches, stomachaches, or a lump in the throat.” Taisho University professor Ukawa Ko explains.

To add to this, neurodivergence doesn’t look like it’s a well-known topic in the country.

According to Cleveland Clinic, the term “neurodivergent” describes “people whose brain differences affect how their brain works. That means they have different strengths and challenges from people whose brains don’t have those differences. The possible differences include medical disorders, learning disabilities and other conditions.”

I know some people living outside Japan who have been diagnosed with Adult ADHD and also found this study on the increase of diagnoses for ADHD in adults within Japan.

Looking into it further, I found out that Adult ADHD mostly goes undiagnosed in Japan and doctors only prescribe medication to those who have been previously diagnosed (as children or as adults, from another country). You have to bring proof of your diagnosis for the clinic to get a prescription as well.

Furthermore, despite being diagnosed previously with a type of mental health problem that requires medication with stimulants, it is quite difficult to obtain this type of medication in Japan, as all medications containing stimulants are prohibited in the country. This includes Adderall which is a standard medication used to treat ADHD symptoms in the USA. Adderall contains amphetamine, which is a strictly controlled substance in Japan.

Accredited clinics need to issue a license to prove that you’re allowed to take the medication containing stimulants, and even then, the pharmacy that you’re buying the medication from also needs to have the license to sell the medication.

Japan could still use a lot of improvements on developing a more multicultural healthcare system that could help address the needs of its growing foreign resident population.

Improvements To Japan’s Mental Health Care System

Aside from the Japanese government, some NGOs and private practitioners are also working towards being able to provide a more robust mental health care system not only for Japanese professionals, but for foreign nationals working and living in Japan as well.

But what can we, as individuals, do to help?

1. Normalize talking about it. Create an open space for discussion and help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health.
2. Mindfulness. Recognize the signs of a mental health crisis, and be able to identify when you or other people around you are suffering from mental health crisis so that you may seek for guidance from the appropriate people
3. Help spread resources and awareness. Japan has health care providers and support groups, but not all of them are easily accessible to everyone.
4. Support national or international initiatives in order to de-stigmatize mental health.

I’m not sure if it’s just a Filipino thing, but most people I know would never go to the doctor unless their symptoms are so bad that they can’t physically take it anymore. It shouldn’t be like that for anyone. Once you feel some symptoms, it’s better to have it checked by a qualified professional and get diagnosis.

As an employee, mental health care is also part of your compensation (it’s covered under most, if not all Japanese health insurance providers), so be sure to make use of these benefits and seek help if you need it.

Mental Health Resources for English Speakers in Japan

If you or someone you know needs mental health resources, please help refer them to the following resources so that they can get the help that they need.

• TELL JP
• Tokyo Counseling Services
• Japan Health Info
• International Mental Health Professionals Japan - Guide for Finding a Therapist
• Stonewall Japan
• Tokyo Mental Health

Final Words

Mental health care is not a one-size fits all solution–each person may require mental health support under a generalized umbrella of terminology, but it still depends on a case-by-case basis on how the person should be treated.

Everyone is struggling through their own battles, so always choose to be kind.

Tech Meetups in Tokyo 28 Aug 2023 12:01 AM (last year)

Now that you’re in Tokyo looking to start or further your IT career, you might want to look into attending tech meetups.

Tech meetups are events held online and offline, and attending them is a great way to form connections and establish yourself in the tech community. It could even lead to your next job!

• Common types of tech meetups
• Differences between Japanese and English tech meetups
• Where To Find Tech Meetups
• Attending Your First Tech Meetup
• Introducing Some Tokyo-based Tech Meetups
  • English Meetups
    • A11yTokyo
    • Code Chrysalis
    • Data Intelligence Tokyo
    • Dev Japan
    • Le Wagon Tokyo
    • HN Tokyo
    • Japan Test Community
    • Mobile Dev Japan
    • TokyoDev
    • Tokyo .NET Developers Meetup
    • Tokyo Rubyist Meetup
    • Tokyo Tech Leads Circle
    • Women in Science Japan
    • Women in Software Engineering Japan
  • Japanese Meetups
    • Findy Online Meetups
    • Asakusa.rb
    • Subculture Industry Developers Study Group
    • Skill-up community for women in their 20s

Common types of tech meetups

Below are some of the common formats for tech meetups in Japan. Sometimes an event will be a mix, i.e. starting out with lightning talks, and leaving time for networking at the end.

Networking

Networking can sound like a scary word, but a typical networking meetup is just having friendly, unorganised chats with other developers and tech-adjacent people, over some food and drink. There’s no set agenda or schedule — it’s just about turning up and connecting with others.

Lecture-style

Lecture-style meetups involve participants listening to a speaker (or speakers) share their expertise. This could be a presentation or interview with an expert, lightning talks from members of the community or a discussion delivered by a panel. It’s common for these events to be broadcast online.

Group study

Group study meetups, also known as mokumokukai (もくもく会) or benkyoukai (勉強会, study meeting), are intended for people to study their own topic-related materials together. By studying together around a theme, participants can easily consult with each other. Mokumokukai are held both online and offline, and usually have a schedule of introductions, study time, and then an optional review of what you worked on.

Workshop / hackathon

Workshops / hackathons involve hands-on participation and give attendees a common goal to work towards. These events are a good opportunity to gain experience or knowledge, and because everyone is working closely together it’s easy to communicate with other participants and form connections.

Differences between Japanese and English tech meetups

On the whole, Japanese and English tech meetups are pretty similar — developers and technology-adjacent people get together and enjoy an event. However there are differences, some which you might not be expecting.

Language Barrier

Typically people will use the language the event was advertised in. This means that even though we are in Japan, English meetups will attract mainly English speakers and people who want to practise English. If you want to make use of your Japanese skills, you should look at Japanese meetups.

Conversational Japanese will let you get by at networking events, but being able to talk about technology and code will help you better connect with other developers. A lot of Japanese tech vocabulary sounds similar to English! However, if you’re listening to talks or a panel, conversational Japanese might not be enough to follow a technical presentation delivered at native-speaker speed.

Afterparty Culture

In Japanese there is a word, nijikai (二次会), which means second party or after party. This is a casual hang out after the event where people socialise and it’s usually accompanied by alcohol. While people at English meetups seem to chat a lot during the event itself, at non-networking Japanese meetups everyone seems to be very focused on the meetup, and save the socialisation for afterwards.

If you want to get more involved with the Japanese tech community, try to plan ahead so that you also have time to attend these after-events. And if alcohol isn’t your preference, don’t force yourself to drink — soft drinks and tea are available, and are now considered an acceptable choice.

Use of Social Media

Twitter (X) still remains the SNS of choice for Japanese meetups, despite having lost a lot of its popularity among English speakers. (Within English speaking tech circles LinkedIn seems to be gaining popularity instead.)

Often Japanese event details will include a specific hashtag, allowing attendees and presenters to easily interact with each other on Twitter. It’s not uncommon to see attendees live tweeting these events — without any images. That doesn’t mean you can’t take photos, just check beforehand if it’s ok, as some events/venues don’t allow posting to social media.

Where To Find Tech Meetups

One option is just to type into Google ‘Tech Meetups in Tokyo’ or ‘エンジニアのイベント’ (events for engineers). Joining online developer communities, such as the TokyoDev discord or HNTokyo slack, can also help keep you up to date on what’s happening.

However, if you want to check out more specific resources, the following websites are all used by various groups to schedule and advertise their events. You can find groups that interest you, follow them, and then receive updates when they have a new event.

Meetup

Meetup is where you can find a lot of English speaking tech meetups, just set your location and search for what you’re into. The site is used globally to organise meetups, and has not just tech related events but basically whatever people are into.

Doorkeeper

Doorkeeper contains a mix of English and Japanese tech meetups, and also other non-tech-related events. It was built for Japan, and the interface comes in English and Japanese — just specify the prefecture and you’re good to go.

connpass

connpass features IT meetups held in Japan, and despite the interface containing English, the meetups are mainly in Japanese. If you connect your SNS account, you can share with your friends which events you are planning to attend and vice versa.

TECH PLAY

TECH PLAY aggregates information about Japanese IT events from Connpass and Doorkeeper, as well as allowing groups to publish events directly. The interface is all in Japanese, but meetups are tagged with relevant technologies and themes, making them easy to search for.

peatix

peatix has a variety of events in both Japanese and English. The interface is a mix of the two languages, but you can easily search for tech meetups by specifying the location and choosing テクノロジー／サイエンス (Technology / Science) from the dropdown.

Attending Your First Tech Meetup

Meetups can be daunting, but they’re a lot of fun and there are many benefits. You can learn more about current technologies, what people are working on, and what companies are operating in the space. Sometimes there will even be food and drinks, or sponsored swag.

Lecture-style or group study events are great if you’re nervous about meeting strangers. Since there’s something to focus on, the bar for participation is lower, but you still get to meet and interact with other developers.

If networking is your goal, be willing to start conversations and engage with others. Ideally someone will come and chat with you, but there’s no guarantee of that, so you have to be ready to be the one to approach people. It might help you to go with a friend, then at least instead of wallflowering you can talk to each other.

It’s important to remember that everyone there also wants to make connections, they’re not going to shut you down for saying hi.

So why not try attending some tech meetups in Tokyo!

Introducing Some Tokyo-based Tech Meetups

Below are some regular tech meetups in Tokyo, each with a short description and the type of developer who might enjoy attending them.

English Meetups

A11yTokyo

A11yTokyo is a meetup that seeks to advance accessibility and inclusive design. They bring together Tokyo’s accessibility community to share ideas, best practices, and experiences.

Code Chrysalis

Code Chrysalis is a coding school that hosts a variety of online and offline events, generally aimed at people working or wanting to work in technology. There’s always Code Chrysalis students or graduates around at these events, so I think they’re a good chance for someone who wants to learn more about what Code Chrysalis has to offer.

Data Intelligence Tokyo

Data Intelligence Tokyo is a monthly meetup that gathers both business and tech folks. They cover topics like shaping data strategies and organizations, data management and governance, data platforms, data products, and AI governance.

Dev Japan

Dev Japan is a group for developers, designers, engineers and related backgrounds in Tokyo. They meet up to hack on different projects while exchanging ideas.

Le Wagon Tokyo

Le Wagon Tokyo is a coding school that hosts a variety of online and offline events, and also collaborates with other community groups, allowing them use of the space to hold events. Le Wagon events are generally more geared towards people early on in their tech careers, or people hoping to get into the technology industry. They’re also a good opportunity for people interested in Le Wagon to ask the staff questions.

HN Tokyo

HN Tokyo is a meetup is held at Shibuya, and a great place to meet other technology-related people. It’s a pure networking event (with some time set aside for announcements), so it’s best suited for people who have the energy to enjoy meeting and chatting with friends-to-be.

I introduced myself in the slack community with some art I drew and people were like ‘oh hey! I know you! You can draw! This is Michelle, she drew something cool!’ which was a really nice icebreaker. I met some really awesome people here, including TokyoDev’s founder, Paul. Everyone has different backgrounds and experiences, and it’s nice to be able to chat and learn from such a variety of people.

Japan Test Community

Japan Test Community brings together professionals interested in software quality, including agile testing, test automation, mobile testing, and load testing. Their events feature presentations around a theme.

Mobile Dev Japan

Mobile Dev Japan is a community for English speaking mobile developers living in Japan. They are not focused on any specific framework, but mobile engineering in general.

TokyoDev

TokyoDev hosts semi-regular casual meetups for international developers living in Japan to meet and chat. The events are announced in the TokyoDev discord and anyone in the community is welcome to come.

For me, the fun part is seeing in-person people you usually only chat to online. It’s also a great opportunity to get a developer’s viewpoint on how things work at different companies, and discuss with developers how things should be built. The events have had a good gender mix so far, and we often go for nijikai after the event.

Tokyo .NET Developers Meetup

Tokyo .Net Developers Meetup is held monthly, in Microsoft’s Shinagawa office - which is the fanciest office I’ve ever seen. I spent 7 years working in .NET land, so I have a soft spot for it. The talks were quite technical, so if you’re really keen on .NET and C#, this is a good meetup for you.

Tokyo Rubyist Meetup

Tokyo Rubyist Meetup hosts an in-person event once about every three months. It’s a great event for people interested in Ruby or Ruby on Rails, regardless of experience level. Despite it being an English speaking meetup, Japanese developers join as well.

I only just started my Ruby journey a short while ago, but the talks have been accessible and the other attendees are super friendly and helpful. There’s a small fee to attend, which gives you access to networking, talks, and a delicious mostly-vegan dinner.

Tokyo Tech Leads Circle

Tokyo Tech Leads Circle has presentations that cover topics tech leads and software engineering managers are interested, though it is open to anyone with an interest in them.

Women in Science Japan

Women in Science Japan events are a great space for women, gender minority persons, and allies studying or working in STEM in Japan. They regularly host online events like book clubs, and offline events like picnics or casual dinners.

Even though as a developer, I’m not a scientist, I’ve always felt super welcome at their events. I’ve been really enjoying the online book club, which provides a safe space for women to discuss and advise each other on common issues in STEM.

Women in Software Engineering Japan

WiSE Japan (Women in Software Engineering Japan) is a community that empowers women in Japan in Software Engineering careers.

Japanese Meetups

Findy Online Meetups

Findy hosts a lot of online lecture-style meetups on topics developers might be interested in. These are short, and many are held during Lunch, making them really easy to participate in.

The meetups are a good opportunity to hear from developers working in the industry, learn about the tech scene in Japan and practise your Japanese listening skills. While there isn’t much opportunity to network, the attendees and presenters are usually quite active on twitter during the event.

Asakusa.rb

Asakusa.rb is a Ruby study group that runs every Tuesday, currently mainly online but sometimes offline. Many standout people in the Japanese Ruby community attend this event, so if you go you’ll at least be surrounded by experts.

I’ve been told repeatedly it’s an event anyone interested in Ruby can attend, and it’s ok that I’m just working on and studying really small things. This event is really suited for people who want to learn more about Ruby, push themselves, or are keen to contribute to open source software. Asakusa.rb also hosts annual events such as Hanami and New Year’s gathering, which are a great chance to chat casually with other developers, and also an opportunity to enjoy a variety of Japanese sake.

Subculture Industry Developers Study Group

サブカル業界Developers 勉強会 (Subculture Industry Developers Study Group) is a meetup for developers working or interested in the subculture industry. Through attending this I realised that manga viewer apps are technology companies in Japan. I also realised that my Japanese is not good enough to keep up with native-speaker speed. If this area is your interest, it’s a great opportunity to learn more about the technology and companies behind the subculture industry in Japan.

Skill-up community for women in their 20s

20代女性のためのスキルアップコミュニティ-mokumoku- (Skill-up community for women in their 20s -mokumoku-) is exactly as the title says, this is a small, casual online and offline study group ideal for Japanese-speaking women in their 20s. I went to the offline meetup, and even though it was just the two of us I really appreciated the chance to chat with another woman working in the tech industry.