Hi there
I’ve been working for 10 years now in the digital marketing area (mainly at agencies) with focus on paid social.
working for 6 years now at a global agency network here in Europe.
with a big interest in Japan and it’s culture I was always contemplating whether I should move there or not..
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some background info about me: Old JPT level 2 certificate, married to a Japanese national, quite fluent in Japanese.
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the one thinghowever that somehow kept me from doing the move was the work enviroment in the industry and how it might be in Japan.
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I know there are the big players like Dentsu etc. But we all know about that one woman that jumped from the window…
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so anyone working in the advertising field in Japan with valuable insights?
2 comments
Well, you have (or can get) a spouse visa. So you don’t have to worry about that aspect.
Your biggest challenge is going to be language. Doing social media in Japan, targeted at Japanese people, is going to require more than N2. How fluent is “quite fluent”?
In terms of working environment… Marketing is a high-stress business all over. Most agencies here are more in line with global “High Stress” than something like Dentsu, however.
Almost all marketing and social media jobs here demand native-level Japanese in their job postings. Maybe you could find someone willing to interview you at a Western company — but even so, your written skills need to be near-native for such jobs. (Caveat: I know Indeed’s “content” team hires people who don’t speak a lick of Japanese, so that might be an option.)
You have a “golden ticket” visa, so maybe link up with some recruiters.