I have so many questions about your experiences as I myself am a foreign woman who aims to work in Japan for the long-term. What is your job? How is your worklife? Was it difficult to find a job? Are there a lot of foreign women who work in Japan past their 30s?
I don’t intend for these questions to seem unusual, but I would like to hear any comments pertaining to your experience in Japan. Thank you!
8 comments
I work as an office admin for an international company, but was a local hire. Work-life-balance is very good, barely any overtime, am guaranteed one 2-week-holiday a year and have also taken longer holidays in the past. Company allows for work from home (usually up to 3 days a week, currently as much as you want to) and flexible working hours without a core time.
It wasn’t difficult to find the job, but I already was a permanent resident before I got it so there was no visa sponsorship involved.
Foreign women don’t just disappear from Japan once they hit 30, especially if they are married to a local, so while in most places you are going to be a rarity (just because there are so few foreigners here) it’s not unheard of.
Personally I have zero trouble because of my gender. I had one boss who was inappropriate about me becoming/being pregnant, but he’s not Japanese, so yeah. I’ve heard from friends that this can be very different in other workplaces though, so unfortunately as with many things, it depends on luck.
A half dozen of my women friends and I are North Americans, Chinese, and European, and we are all over 40. Most of us work in education, but a few are in IT and translation.
Most of us are members of Japanese families or have Japanese SOs.
Two paths we saw women follow here – one started as a student in a Japanese language school, and another got her start here as an English teacher and worked her way back into her field.
My work life B.C. (Before Covid) was busy but reasonably balanced. I teach at a university high school, which means I have an academic schedule with a lot of professional development and me time on school holidays. I work an 8-9 hour day, and occasional weekends.
Depend.on the area. Architecture here,.no tokyo.
Was.very hard, the extra hour were terrible. As a woman, was only me in the office, so was kind of lonelyness.
My boss was very nice, not prob with woman’s but my coworkers, oh my god.
When I get married (year after) I coworker asked me if I will quit and become housewives. After that I continue there but was like you are woman you can not do not much.
My boss was very nice but the other people was like…meh. so I quit.
How I said , depend on the area.
Marketing manager here with a great work-life balance. I came to Japan on a student visa at first and found this job after a few months. All of my female coworkers are foreigners and we work well together.
I’ve never been treated unkindly by my male colleagues. The CEO (Japanese man) has even told me once that he respects me and I wish I had that recorded.
30ish European woman married to a local. Every time I job hunt, I get asked about my marriage, often even before my qualifications. I took my husband’s name and my Japanese sounds very natural (kanji suck though), so sometimes people are disappointed I‘m not half Japanese, despite me stating my native language on the application materials.
I also always get asked if I have children, which I find pretty appropriate, and if ai say no their attitude usually changes and I never hear back.
My only job offers after getting married have come from international companies, but even there I have experienced harassment by Japanese coworkers. I had a supervisor take issue with my heritage, and several Japanese men sexually harassed me and some of the other women in my department (language services). And don’t forget commuting to work on the train with all the angry salarymen…
I (30F) have lived here for 8 years so far and recently married to Japanese husband.
International school teacher with a good work life balance. School is run by Japanese admin but the school side is all foreigners. No sexism or harassment to me. One coworker of mine got a sexist comment when she got married (but you’ll probably just get pregnant soon anyway! kind of thing) but the guy was Canadian and he got reprimanded.
Tons of holidays and the kids are great! Love it!
I’m a woman in her 30s who moved to Japan this year. I have worked in IT for some years. In my case being fluent in Japanese would have landed me a better position, but since I am not fluent my options were more limited. Despite that I was able to find a position fairly easily. I have not faced any sexism and I’m treated like an equal. There are other women in the office too and most are treated fairly from what I could see. I don’t know their ages. As far as I can tell there isn’t many older people working there in general. Most of my coworkers are not Japanese though. I can’t say that everyone has the same experience. Sometimes work is tough and overtime is needed, but not always. I currently don’t have any kids, so I can’t comment on the experience of having children and working in Japan.
I (27F, single) work as a lab technician in a Japanese company. I came to Japan with student visa and before graduating I did shukatsu like other Japanese friends. Because I only searched for jobs in Sapporo, it was probably a little harder than finding a job in Tokyo.
I am the first foreigner that my company hired. And they have been very nice so far. The HR helped me in every way to get my work visa, they even came with me to immigration office for registration. The work-life situation is good, I always get off work right on time. Only stay to work late if I really have to. The salary was okay, probably because it’s Hokkaido’s company. But yeah, I have never been harassed, and my supervisor is pretty open-minded, so I can always share with him about my opinion without worrying about my position.