I moved to Tokyo to start a software engineering job about 4 years ago in December of 2015. Since I’ve been here I’ve gotten a lot of questions on how I was able to find that job especially since I spoke very little Japanese and most importantly because I didn’t have a computer science degree or any professional engineering experience.
I’ve decided to share the steps I followed to find my first engineering job in Japan and hopefully others will be able to learn from it.
Step 1. Don’t graduate with a job already in hand—go to Japan
After graduating from college I was really lost in terms of what I wanted to do with my life and I didn’t have a job. Most of the jobs typical business majors aspire to do, namely consulting and investment banking, wasn’t for me so I decided that I would do a two month language course in Japan and hopefully figure stuff out after that. I didn’t really have any intention of moving to Japan or finding a job in Japan; to be honest, I was just really interested in the language and the culture. So I went to Japan to do a two-month language program in Tokyo. While there, I realized that the only way I would ever learn Japanese to a level at which I would be satisfied would be if I lived and breathed Japanese every single day and the only way that was going to happen was to live in Japan. I made a decision that I was going to find a way to live in Japan. As an American this meant that I would need to get a visa that would allow me to stay for an extended period of time. This left me with a few options — I could enroll full time in an intensive language school, I could go to graduate school, or I could find a job. Since I had just spent the last 4 years in college, and wasn’t really looking to spend another couple years paying tuition, I decided my only option was to find a job here. I was a new college graduate with no full time professional experience, and I really didn’t speak any Japanese…I could probably pass N5 and that was about it…
I spent the next month in Tokyo doing research and talking to as many people as I could including recruiters and friends of friends of friends and attending college alumni events to see what kind of jobs would be available for someone with a business major, no professional experience, very limited language ability and had never worked or lived in Japan. After talking to a ton of people in Japan including college alumni, recruiters, several friends’ friends’ acquaintances, and many others, the overwhelming response that I got was that I should A) teach English, B) go back to the U.S., work at an established company and then transfer to Japan after a couple years or C) find a way to go to graduate school. However, being as impatient (and stubborn) as I am I would tell them that none of the aforementioned paths were a good option for me…which garnered a lot of “…that’s gonna be hard…but good luck…” accompanied by a healthy dose of skepticism.
Basically, the general message was that if I wanted to live in Japan it was not going to be under the terms that I wanted. But these rebuffs didn’t really stop me and only really made me resolve to try harder and get more creative.
Step 2. Get desperate and lucky
After a month of searching (which really isn’t that long, but remember I only had 2 months to find a job) literally everyone I talked to basically said that I either needed way more experience to find a business-related job, or be nearly fluent in Japanese. I didn’t want to give up, so I did what everyone does in this situation — I asked strangers on the internet for help.
At this time I was a fairly active user of Quora, a question-and-answer site that was becoming quite popular in the US. I had written both answers and some questions and had gotten helpful responses fairly frequently. So I decided to post a question on Quora directly asking what I was looking for.
I posted this question without much hope but it only took a few seconds to write so I had nothing to lose. And then one day I got a response:
Of course I dropped him a line and we set up a time to chat.
The next week I met with him and 2 other members working at his startup for lunch and discussed what kinds of roles could be available. The answer was: none. Again with my lack of language ability and experience there was no role I could realistically do at the company. However, he graciously offered to try to help me find a job and connect me with other people that might have some other leads.
As we walked out from lunch I asked him exactly why he said he was open to hire foreigners. He said that he was “trying to hire engineers and it was hard finding talent in Japan”.
Step 3. Seize the opportunity and get lucky again
I had no Computer Science degree and had basically learned to make very simple websites in college via a minor called Web Technologies and Applications where I learned a lot of HTML, CSS and a little bit of Javascript and PHP.
However, near the end of college and while I had been living in Japan I luckily had been learning more web development in my spare time by taking Learn Python the Hard Way and by creating a kanji learning application with the Django web framework.
So when I heard they were trying to hire engineers, I don’t know why but I jumped at it and said “I can do engineering!”. I was a little nervous after I said it because most of what I learned about web development had been what I had learned on my own over the last few months and there was no way I could ever call myself an engineer. But the CEO of the company was willing to give me a shot and set up a meeting with the CTO of his company.
A few days later I met with the CTO and showed him the very crude, incomplete kanji app I had been working on. But at that point it worked and apparently it was good enough that they decided to let me do a one month internship while my visa was still valid (due to labor laws in Japan, what I did was not really an internship but more of a way that I could show I could work as a software engineer).
I could write a lot more about how that internship went especially considering none of the engineers I worked with spoke any English and I barely knew how to code. But for now this is basically where the story ends. I completed the internship and got a full-time offer to work in Japan as a software engineer.
Wait are you saying I need to post questions on Quora to get a software job in Japan?
I know this story was really specific and honestly I would not suggest copying almost anything I did in order to find your first software engineering job in Japan. The fact of the matter is that I just got SUPER lucky. However, the one thing I would like to show with this story is that it is possible to find your dream job in Japan given enough determination, risk-taking and luck. Additionally, since I’ve been in Japan, the software industry, in terms of the acceptance of foreigners, has grown considerably so it’s easier than ever to enter Japan as a software engineer.
Quick Practical Advice for Actually Find a Job Here
I’ll give some real things you can do if you want to work in Japan as a software engineer, especially if you don’t have formal software engineering experience. Again, I could probably write a huge in-depth article about this but let me just write down some quick pieces of advice and add a bunch of links :)
Come to Japan
If you are fortunate to be in a place in your life where you can make a trip to Japan to search for a job this is definitely what you should do if you want to find a job here. This way you can talk to more people, make more connections and find opportunities you otherwise wouldn’t be able to find from your own country. I would suggest having some kind of portfolio that you can show people as well.
Get engaged in the community
Attend meetups such as:
Join the HackernewsTokyo slack channel to see what’s happening in the Tokyo tech scene.
Attend a coding bootcamp
This is a great option if you have very little programming experience and some spare time (and cash). These bootcamps typically last around 3 months and will prepare you to become a full-fledged software engineer in Japan even if you have very little programming experience. If you complete one of the following bootcamps you are almost guaranteed of being able to find a software engineering job in Japan:
Be persistent and don’t get discouraged
It can seem hard sometimes since most companies in Japan require high levels of Japanese to be an engineer but almost every person I know who has tried to find a software engineering job here has managed to find one eventually.