Why did I choose to live and work in Japan? I know many people out there dream of working in Japan, and honestly, it doesn’t always occur to me that I’m living that dream. So, I’m here to share my honest experience working in Japan and why I decided to pursue a career here in the first place, rather than in my home country, the United States.
So, if you’re thinking of working in Japan, whether it’s a long-term career or short-term contract, maybe my story of working in a variety of industries in Japan can help you decide if it’s right for you.
Why I Came to Japan, in the First Place
Ever since I was a child, I have had a deep interest in Japan because I was absolutely captivated by its pop culture, video games, and even products like cars. Originally, I came to Japan to pursue my Bachelor’s degree. But if we go all the way back, I actually lived in Japan for 4 months in high school through an exchange program. I lived with 4 different host families, and I was so intrigued by Japanese culture and daily life that I had to come back.
So, a couple of years later, I came back to earn a degree in Business Administration with a major in Economics. I took an interest in understanding people’s needs and wants, analyzing data, and communicating information to different audiences. This is also why I took a load of different marketing courses, as you could probably tell, my interests aligned a lot with marketing too.
Usually, after university in Japan, while job hunting isn’t ever easy, it’s very possible to land a job, in my experience. When I graduated in 2021, I somehow managed to find employment amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s actually quite common for companies to hire swathes of fresh graduates, known as 新卒採用 (shinsotsu saiyou), since Japanese companies have a system of hiring fresh graduates and training them for the specific work and corporate culture of the company.
So, you could argue that the transition from university graduation to work is a bit more seamless compared to other countries like the United States.
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Why Did I Job Hunt in Japan and Not the United States?
Going to a university in Japan makes the process of finding jobs more straightforward, so it wasn’t too out of my way to try. Plus, universities often provide lots of resources to network with companies and prepare you for job hunting. I also heard from friends back in my home country that finding work in the States for new graduates was very difficult, perhaps even more so than in Japan. Japanese companies, as a standard practice, hold an annual hiring season for new graduates and are arguably more open to hiring them overall.
So, as I got close to graduation, it was simply part of the process to start applying to different companies, attending job fairs, and scheduling interviews. In Japanese, this is known as 就職活動 (shuushoku katsudo), or job hunting activities. Job hunting in Japan had its challenges, especially at that time when I wasn’t very confident in my business Japanese, but surprisingly, I still found opportunities.
Since I didn’t really job hunt in the States, I can’t say there aren’t any opportunities for fresh graduates, but from what I could gather, you’d have to search for companies willing to hire people with no experience. Whereas in Japan, the process is a bit more streamlined, especially if you went to a university in Japan.
If you want to know more about how to find work in Japan, check out our blog: Working In Japan: How to Find a Job in the Japanese Economy
What I Did And Currently Do For Work in Japan
While I was job hunting in anticipation of my graduation, I noticed that my degree didn’t matter much for many roles unless they were very technical, such as in medical or computer science. Despite earning a Bachelor’s degree in Business, I started my career in Education before embarking on a variety of different industries. I have mostly worked in international environments rather than a very domestic Japanese working environment.
But let’s get into my actual experience working in a variety of different fields in Japan.
1. Working in Japan as an English Teacher
My first job in Japan was in English Teaching. It’s one of the most accessible roles for foreigners in Japan since it’s a job that requires little to no Japanese. At the time, I wasn’t sure my Japanese was good enough for many other roles, so I taught English part-time while I was in university. I genuinely felt it was rewarding to be a part of a child’s growth and development.
However, even within English teaching, there are a variety of roles you can get into that require different levels of experience. Below, I will just list a few common options:
- Tutoring: generally 1-on-1 lessons and usually requires previous teaching experience
- Public school assistant language teachers (ALTs): a very common English teaching position where you’re placed in an actual Japanese public school to assist teachers in English classes
- JET Program: a really popular program for placing English teachers into public schools across Japan. Most people join ALT roles, but JET also facilitates careers in other education-related fields in Japan.
- Private school classes: There are many types of private schools, but a common one is after-school classes, also known as 塾 (juku), where parents pay tuition.
I worked at a private English school primarily focused on after-school English instruction for elementary and kindergarten students. My role mostly consisted of creating games and fun activities to help kids elicit specific vocabulary or idiomatic sounds.
It was quite different from the more language- and reading-focused work I did as a part-timer at a tutoring-style cram school. For some of my colleagues, the work we did felt more like day care rather than teaching. While I believe many of the students did pick up real English, it was a difficult job that required skills and experience working with young children. Like many teaching jobs at private English schools, it’s difficult to take paid time off, even if you inform management in advance, since it is difficult to find staff to replace you during your time off. Additionally, you would have to work at least one Saturday each month.
While I gained a lot of experience in my job as an English Teacher, I wanted to pursue a role more aligned with my degree. So, I decided to job hunt and find another role in a more business-oriented field.
2. Working in Japan as a Recruiter
I worked as a recruiter for my second job in Japan. The transition from teaching English was quite a leap, but it didn’t take me long to adapt. Recruitment is actually a huge industry in Japan, so it’s a pretty common career path for many foreigners. This is because many companies in Japan, both international and domestic, are having difficulty finding bilingual professionals who meet specific qualifications for their fields.
So, this is where recruiters come in. As a recruiter in Japan, you can expect to be involved in the following:
- Speaking in English (usually) to different working professionals in Japan to simultaneously evaluate their English skills and their alignment with the client’s job requirements.
- Conducting interviews with a variety of professionals, often senior or even executive-level
- Sending messages or posting on job hunting platforms such as LinkedIn or Daijob
- Cold calling candidates to check interest in your current open roles, as well as clients to see if they need recruitment services.
- Consulting clients about hiring decisions and consulting candidates for interview preparation and tailoring their resumes.
This role was particularly challenging for me since I find talking to people, especially those I haven’t spoken to before, very nerve-racking and socially exhausting.
However, this job provided an excellent opportunity to step out of my comfort zone, allowing me to develop communication skills I still use today. Eventually, I got to speak with a variety of fascinating individuals, learn about them, and see where I could help. I found this aspect of the role to be incredibly rewarding.
It also served as a great chance to practice Japanese with some of the candidates who didn’t speak English too well. Often, when you start a call in English, you already break the ice, so switching to Japanese doesn’t feel so jarring. Even in English, this role taught me more about Japanese business manners and how to communicate with a Japanese audience, which means toning down the pressure, using lighter, sometimes less direct phrases, and not expecting an answer right away.
3. Working in Japan as a Marketer
As I write this blog you’re reading, I’m working in marketing. Earlier, I mentioned I took an interest in this field in university. When I graduated in the midst of COVID-19, I sort of put my interests aside and took on roles that seemed more realistic at the time. But while I was a recruiter, I started talking to a variety of very interesting marketing professionals, which rekindled my interest and made me realize that this career path is very possible for me, too.
So, here I am working at Coto Japanese Academy, where I currently specialize in content marketing. There are many, many areas of marketing, but let me just lay out what my team and I generally do on a day-to-day basis:
- SEO Strategy: consists of writing blogs like this one, conducting keyword research, tracking website position and domain authority, and creating strategies to drive organic traffic online.
- Digital Marketing: generally includes promoting our services on Google, Meta, and other platforms or channels.
- Website and UI/UX Design: This ties into digital marketing and SEO, but maintaining the website to ensure it is user-friendly, easy to navigate, and optimized for search engines.
- Email Marketing: Sending out newsletters to our audiences both in Japan and around the world to promote new services, share useful information, and maintain a community with our audience.
- SNS Marketing: This includes creating a variety of engaging content and posting it on different social media channels such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
- Inbound Marketing Focus: We focus on appealing to audiences either outside of Japan or foreigners living in Japan who are interested in learning Japanese
This scratches the surface of all the different tasks involved in marketing. Marketing very much exercises both creativity and business analysis. This is because much of the role involves creating entertaining, visually appealing content that resonates with the audience, while also constantly analyzing data to make strategic decisions to increase engagement and address audience pain points.
But when doing marketing in Japan, we focus on a particular audience: foreigners interested in Japan, whether to live here or just visit. My team consists of a diverse group of people from around the world who provide a broader perspective to better communicate with and understand our target market. On top of that, we have to market to our audience mostly in English, rather than Japanese.
Working in marketing in Japan is a very rewarding and interesting career since I’m basically trying to resonate with like-minded people who are interested in Japan and maybe want to live here too.
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What it’s Like to Work in Japan
So, I worked in three completely different fields, where the work and company cultures couldn’t have been more varied. But as in any country, your perception of your work can depend heavily on whether the company, type of work, industry, or work environment aligns with your preferences.
That said, I think my initial work experiences did not exactly align with my broader goals or preferences. My first two experiences were challenging, and I learned a lot, even though they weren’t the right options for me in the end. I believe, to some extent, that Japan is one of the few places that would allow me to experience such vastly different fields of work.
However, every company has to operate within certain policies and regulations in Japan, so there will be some things that’ll be consistent no matter where you work.
Pros and Cons of Working in Japan
So, to start, I will go over some general pros and cons of working in Japan, which may be more or less consistent across most industries. I’ll try to go over some general work regulations that apply to virtually every position in Japan, as well as aspects of daily life that affect work-life.
| Pros: | Cons: |
|---|---|
| Strong labor laws that protect workers from exploitative hiring practices | The law only requires companies to allow 10 days of paid time off (PTO) |
| Full-time employees rarely get fired | Contracts are common; rather than firing, companies can choose not to renew |
| Work culture is becoming more lax and accommodating to foreigners | Work culture can still be quite rigid and hard to navigate (i.e., how to express a disagreement with management) |
| Lots of public holidays | Very few long breaks |
| The cost of living is relatively cheap | Salary is relatively low compared to other countries, plus the yen is weaker relative to many other currencies |
| Public Transportation is cheap and very efficient, so no need to worry about gas prices or buying a car | In big cities, trains and buses can get very crowded during rush hour |
| Decent employment for fresh graduates | Most jobs require Japanese |
As I mentioned, this is just some general pros and cons of working in Japan, and your experience could contrast sharply with mine. So, now let’s go over what I believe are the pros and cons of working in each industry I actually worked in, for anyone interested in pursuing these careers in Japan.
1. Pros & Cons of Working in English Teaching in Japan:
As I mentioned, I only worked in private after-school English education, so I’m not sure what it would be like to work as an English teacher in a public school instead. According to my friends who have worked in public schools, I’ve heard there is less pressure, more free time, and many more days off since you follow school holidays.
So, this list of pros and cons will be based purely on my experience working in English teaching at a private cram school that caters to children aged 4 to 12.
| Pros: | Cons: |
|---|---|
| Teaching children is very rewarding | Salary tends to be lower than in other positions |
| Little overtime | Requires skills with children (training in many companies might not be sufficient) |
| Great for people who like moving around and not sitting at a desk all day | Can be difficult to request PTO since substitutes aren’t always available |
| Work is relatively less stressful | Can be physically tiring |
| Can lead to a substantial career in education | Occasional weekend shifts |
| Many roles only require fluency in English and a Bachelor’s degree | Paths for promotion can be unclear |
| Many companies hire based on contract, so employment is subject to renewal |
2. Pros & Cons of Working in Recruitment in Japan:
Overall, I took away key skills I will continue to use throughout my career, but it was a challenging job that might not be for everyone. At its core, recruiting is a sales role in which you must successfully place candidates at your clients’ companies. It’s a high-pressure job where socializing and networking have to be (or become) your comfort zone.
| Pros: | Cons: |
|---|---|
| Can be financially rewarding with plenty of chances to earn bonuses | Can be stressful with pressure from managing client and candidate expectations, plus meeting your own targets |
| Builds excellent soft skills in communication, negotiation, and networking | Can be draining if you’re not a social butterfly |
| Allows you to build connections with a plethora of professionals | Bonus policies can vary depending on the company, so you’ll need to ensure you understand your company’s specific system |
| Plenty of opportunities for promotion | Might not always provide chances to work in Japanese |
| Huge demand for English-speaking recruiters in Japan | It’s common to work overtime whenever you don’t meet targets |
3. Pros & Cons of Working in Marketing in Japan:
Marketing is another field with a wide range of roles, so I’ll mostly focus on my experience working in marketing in Japan. Beyond my current position, I also briefly worked at a Japanese start-up where I did similar work, though the environment was definitely different. So, I’ll try to cover what is most consistent between my experiences.
| Pros: | Cons: |
|---|---|
| A wide range of skills to learn or specialize in, allowing for different career paths | Can be overwhelming to learn everything or know what to focus on in the beginning |
| Very creative and strategic, so the work is always interesting | Work can be less straightforward, so it can require thinking outside the box or treading new territory |
| Easy to try something new | Due to the audience being more global, demand can be very seasonal or heavily impacted by external factors like flight prices |
| General focus on a global audience, so it’s easier to resonate with like-minded people interested in Japan | Ethical dilemmas can come up when it comes to manipulating consumer behavior or promoting a product you don’t like (i.e., cigarettes) |
| Can be very financially rewarding | High-demand job, especially in Japan, so lots of competition |
| Most roles are pretty flexible, allowing remote and hybrid work arrangements |
Promotions and Salary in Japan
Throughout my experiences working in Japan, I found that promotion opportunities can either be very clear, with a visible path ahead, or less straightforward, requiring you to be assertive in discussing possible next steps. I briefly go through this in my pros and cons of each role, but generally, Japanese companies prefer internal promotions. Traditionally, in Japanese work culture, you would stay at one company for your whole career and eventually receive internal promotions. Most companies operate under a senpai system, where your seniors guide you through the ins and outs of your work. When I was working in marketing at a Japanese start-up, that was exactly what I experienced.
However, fewer and fewer workers are sticking with one company for their entire careers. As Japan grapples with employment gaps in key sectors, companies are increasingly hiring mid-career workers. This is where salary also comes into play. Generally, people who have moved companies in their careers have a higher salary than those who don’t, just a little insight from my recruitment days. This is one reason Japanese workers might not be getting the highest salaries they could.
Of course, you could get promoted, which usually includes an increase in salary (and responsibilities). Most companies in Japan try to maintain an organized promotion structure, but that is not always the case. For instance, many English-teaching companies might not have a clear path to promotion. But that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. I’ve seen colleagues get promoted to focus more on curriculum development over teaching.
My other roles do have clearer paths you could pursue, with specific titles such as Content Specialist or SNS Manager. In my experience, you have to make an effort to ask for promotions and show the good work you do to get it, which I feel isn’t unique to Japan.
Conclusion: Why I Ended Up Working in Japan
My story of working in Japan is unique but not completely uncommon. Coming to Japan for university is a well-treaded route for many foreigners to start living in Japan before they start working, especially since university is relatively cheaper and the cost of living is lower than in most U.S. cities. Plus, most Japanese universities provide lots of resources to assist with job hunting, so many foreigners feel that finding work in Japan is far from impossible and might even be easier than in their home countries. So, I just thought I should try working in a country I’ve always wanted to visit, and I must say, I don’t regret the decision one bit!
Study at Coto Institute and Start Working in Japan Too!
Whether you plan to work in a job requiring Japanese or just plan to live in Japan, learning Japanese is necessary for daily life. A lot of people actually start off as a Japanese language school student before they find a job here. It is something I personally recommend if you want to increase your chances of finding a job in Japan.
You might think: wouldn’t that be too late if I already have a degree? Not necessarily! Some Japanese language schools cater specifically to people who want to find a job. This is also why I recommend Coto Japanese Institute, a full-time language school based in Tokyo. They specialize in working with adults who want to find work, so they teach you business communication, keigo, and work etiquette, rather than focusing on things like entering a university.
You can contact the team by filling out the form below! Best of luck to your goal in Japan!
FAQ:
Why did I decide to work in Japan, instead of the United States?
I decided to work in Japan, largely because I graduated from a university in Japan. Japanese universities provide resources for job hunting, making the process much easier than doing it alone.
What's it like to work in English teaching in Japan?
I’ve only worked at a private company that offers an after-school program for younger children. So, based on that experience, it is a rewarding job where you can see how you’re helping children learn, but it does require skills with small kids, which takes a lot of time to develop.
What's it like to work in recruitment in Japan?
The recruitment sector is a rapidly growing industry in Japan, so there are usually jobs available, and it can be quite lucrative, with many bonus opportunities. But it’s not for everybody; it takes a lot of resilience and comfort to interview, build connections, and negotiate with multiple people a day.
What's it like to work in marketing in Japan?
Marketing in Japan can be tons of fun and really rewarding, especially in my experience, where I mostly focus on engaging and appealing to a global audience interested in Japan. It’s a job that requires creativity and analysis, which means there’s a lot to juggle and often no clear answers to the issues we grapple with daily.
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