Hi everyone! I’m 30 year old Indian living in Canada with 3 years of UX/UI website and mobile app Design work experience. I have worked both in India and Canada but my goal is to move to Japan and work there as a designer. Travelled to Japan in the past and its the only place which felt like home..
I’ve been on this subreddit, gaining lots of good information, thank you all for that. From that I’ve kinda made a plan and would like to know if you guys think it’s possible and made sense or not. Before I start I’d like to say I fully understand that the industry there would pay me half the wages and have increased work hours.
Okay…I’m planning to move in 2024. That gives me 2 years to get at least N3 level in Japanese, and I’ve started learning the language already. Additionally, by then, I would have gained 4-5 years of design experience.
I’ve recently started a freelance design business here in Canada on the side while working at my company. I have been working to grow it this year and thought of an idea about trying to work for Japanese brands/small business’ in Canada or make passion projects around them. Having them in my portfolio might help me get a good design job in Japan easier. I’m not sure if the employers there would be ‘impressed’ by seeing some Japanese brand work but maybe I could score some brownie points, meanwhile also learning about their style.
I’m also looking at jobs available on Google right now and feeling good about ticking off some of their requirements. My plan is to reach out designers on Linkedin who are currently working there and find more info about their design careers to help me boost my options.
Now, I know this is could be a whole lot of nothing, at least feels like it coz there are things that could go wrong. But I’m hoping to be able to land a design job in Japan, applying from canada and make the move happen. Maybe even continue the freelance business over there if possible.
I want to know what you guys think. I’d love to get any sort of feedback and see if there are any major flaws that I might be overlooking. I also do apologise for my english if it’s not perfect!
Thank you for reading ^^
2 comments
Hello, I’ve recently accepted a job as a UX designer in Japan so hopefully I can provide some perspective.
Having freelance experience is not as impressive to a lot of Japanese employers as it may be in Canada/US. Do you have some experience as an in-house designer? Having professional experience in a company is pretty important. (Although this could be said in the US as well because it shows you can work within a team environment, in a large company, etc.) Working with Japanese brands would definitely be a plus.
N3 Japanese might be just enough if you stick solely to UI/UX design and not be in a leadership role and if you work at a more global company. But if you are looking to end up in higher ranks, you will definitely need N1. Your Japanese skills may be the determining factor on whether they go with you or another candidate. If it’s going to be hard to clearly communicate, they’re going to go with the candidate that can speak the language.
But to be honest, the design culture in Japan is pretty lackluster. I’ve talked with some Japanese professors in various Japanese universities with design programs and there’s just not enough respect for the field in the workplace. And with my interviews, they were pretty honest about it being a struggle to get Japanese higher ups to understand the value of design and to trust designers because we’re the experts. So it may be an uphill battle and you might deal with some very frustrating decisions that will produce bad design. So just because you see a lot of jobs in Japan looking for designers, doesn’t mean they understand design. In fact, a lot of companies don’t really know what UX is.
I hope that helps. Good luck!
For [working visa](https://eng.visa-immi.com/list/humanities/) you need degree related to your work or 10 years experience.
Even if you find a company who want to hire you, you need to satisfy immigration work visa requirement(see above).