Advice on looking for work

40 comments

1. Please check out the medical resources on the [wiki!](https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/wiki/medical)

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2. Teaching English is not great, but without Japanese ability, there’s really not much else you can do, especially without an advanced degree. It’s the kind of job that will at least give you spare time to work on your Japanese until it’s up to snuff.

3. You could try recruiting in the pharma sector, then you are still using some of your technical knowledge

4. I know it’s a long shot, but perhaps teaching English at a medical school?

5. Just be aware if you decide to pick up software it could still take you a year or 2 to be hirable skills wise. Also right now as a general trend the hiring frenzy of tech has died down a little.

   Since you’re on a spouse visa it seems you’ll be here long term. So either way you should start grinding Japanese.

6. Why not learn Japanese? You’re in the perfect place to start.

7. If you’re planning on working in Japan for the foreseeable future, invest in intensive Japanese courses and try to get your reading to N2 level.

8. You can try looking for part-time laboratory technician openings if there’s any research institute around you. Where I’m working now, the laboratory assistants are recruited from locals. They do require some Japanese fluency but not that high. Good luck!

9. It’s a tough call. How do you feel about going full bore into Japanese studies? It takes time and I don’t know what sort of financial condition you are in but what I’ve found is that language pretty much trumps everything here.

   You could be outstanding in a skill and a very mediocre Japanese native or high level bilingual will beat you out every time (with the exception maybe in dev).

   I have a friend who came over on a spouse visa and spent 18 months full-on and it took him some time but he eventually got into a sub of Merck. Another friend was a senior marketing manager in pharma in the US, didn’t learn a lick and has been a p/t ESL teacher for 10 years.

   If you look, while you are full on studying, maybe network a bit, maybe you pick something niche up. If you don’t you are still learning.

   I don’t suggest ESL. I don’t really suggest recruiting either.

10. The best thing about teaching English is that it gives you a lot of time to learn Japanese, especially as an ALT. The sad thing is most people never do so.

11. Look into checking the English on translations related to chemistry and pharmacy. In particular, look at law firms doing chemical and pharmaceutical patents. It may be worth reaching out to recruiters to see how they perceive your saleable skills. There may also be specialized English classes for people in the pharmaceutical field, and perhaps you could teach or tutor.

12. Teach English -> learn Japanese -> get a better job.
    Good luck!

13. If you decided not to look for employment in your sector, I would say start picking up programming via bootcamp courses, build up a portfolio based on what you learned then start applying for entry level developer positions. The tech job market isn’t as great as it was say last year but there are vacancies to be filled and with your science background I don’t see why you can’t get a job in that field. I know of someone from semiconductor industry doing just doing and he was able to transition into a web engineer role.

14. Teach Englisj 🙂

15. There is always construction. Eventually , you could probably make a pretty decent living out of it if you can find the right company.

16. I have a job where I have Japanese people under me to translate so am lucky I don’t need Japanese – but I was an English teacher back in the day – Nothing wrong with teaching English – but positioning yourself to move away from it (language study) and industry experience (get a side hustle in the job you want) is the way to go!

17. I haven’t read through the link below, but upon reading your post my immediate thought was that you should be looking for advisory work in healthtech.

    https://www.medicalstartups.org/country/Japan/

18. Can you write well? There are always jobs editing/writing in English in the pharmaceutical sector here. Everything from proposals to working with research papers.

19. Dude, you need to go back to the UK and be a pharmacist! Your skills will be forever wasted in Japan. Why are you here?

20. You can attempt to contact universities and be an assistant or work on a project. Often they’ll be multi-lingual. There’s even a growing hydroponic sector developing. You can contact companies and potential work for them

21. Give yourself small steps.

    I started in a conversation school, then I found a job as a proofreader, then I became a translator, and now I’m a “kind of” guide for non-japanese.

    I found all my jobs in classifieds ads.

22. You live in Japan. Learn Japanese – it’s as simple as that. You’ll find work and life in general much better.

23. Ok before I reply to any more I just gotta say thank you.

    The response has been crazy, the suggestions truly appreciated.

    Thank you one and all, you have been most helpful.

24. I have an acquaintance who was an ER nurse. She moved over and found a niche as an eikaiwa teacher for doctors and other medical professionals, teaching English for medical related stuff. She said she was basically booked out because she found a student that was a doctor, that doctor quickly recommended her to their colleagues.

    You might be able to leverage your medical background to similar effect?

25. If you’re on a spouse visa, best bet is to work for a remote company. No need to restrict yourself to Japanese companies that don’t pay well anyway.

26. I was in a similar situation- trying to find work with mediocre Japanese proficiency. I have a PharmD/PhD and now work for an international company (industry). They allow me to work both between the US and Japan (still jumping back and forth)- perhaps you can find an international company that will let you do the same? I intend to work in Japan while my child is still growing up so he can go to school here, then move back to the states for their high school.

27. Tutoring English to PhD STEM students is pretty lucrative. You can definitely do that.

    You can also tutor STEM subjects to international high school students.

28. Apply to the big drug companies, especially the American and European ones. The language barrier would pretty much preclude working for a Japanese company, but the big ones like Eli Lily might hire.

    J friend of mine said that licensed pharmacists are always needed in these companies, and are paid pretty well

29. Teaching is not too bad a gig as a side job. Do it while applying for better gigs? Could be as little as being a convo partner and not an actual tchrm

30. Are you looking for part time or full time OP? Part-time jobs tend to be more lenient on your Japanese skills (depending on which industry). Assuming you never had any experience working in Japan, Imo you should start from any industry first and build your resume from there. There is a lot of part-time operations positions that are lenient in Japanese skills!

31. You may want to look at teaching jobs in universities. Some places want classes taught in English, especially because MEXT has been dogging schools to provide GE (intro level biology, chemistry, etc.) classes taught in English. You can also try places like Temple Japan or Lakeland.

32. The automobile industry and/or recruiting would be something to look at. You can message me for more details if youre interested- i will do my best to help

33. Look into freelance technical editing, especially if you have published or have an advanced degree. Edanz might want you

34. Do you live in Tokyo? If you are interested in QA there is a ton of open positions. DM me

35. I would strongly advise you not to go the teaching way. When you’ll inevitably want out, you’ll have to compete with hundreds of others, who haven’t done anything but teach English in Japan. If you have the option, consider a 1 (or even 2) year crash course in a language school. It will greatly improve your Japanese, and make you a much more tempting hire than just another ALT escapee.

36. I have worked in life sciences industry before, outside of expats being sent from overseas the Japanese requirement is extremely high. Most of the staff level jobs requires customer facing roles to some extent, which means you are expected to communicate with doctors, professors etc., which means you are expected to have perfect Japanese, not only in vocabulary and grammar, but also pronunciation. N1 level is actually not nearly enough to land those positions. There are very few positions that requires significant English, at least in terms of talking. May be in business development and some internal analyst roles, but these positions typically only available to ex-MBB (McKinsey or BCG)

37. How long will you be in Japan? Maybe spend the year studying the language?

    If you aren’t looking for a career change ultimately, maybe do part-time teaching work and study Japanese as your main “work” until you get enough proficiency (N3-N2).

38. With that background pharma (as has been pointed out), Takeda is usually hiring, material science (Toray etc.), adhesives, possibly some parts of automotive, and even plant engineering firms.

    Don’t underestimate the lack of English speaking STEM candidates in Japan, so take blanket statements from individual recruiters with a grain of salt.

    The Japanese will come.

39. Just focus on learning Japanese, it will not only help you finding a job, but also help you in your daily life

    Just find a random half-time baito to get some money in while you are studying and passing the N2. It is much better on the long run even though it may be a bit difficult for you on a shorter terms

    90% of the struggles foreigners have in Japan is due to lack of language skill, so I would really recommend you working on that as a priority

40. You should check out and regularly visit this site:

    **JREC-IN Portal ( Japan REsearch Career Information Network)**

    * https://jrecin.jst.go.jp/seek/SeekTop?ln=1

    Here’s a search that I did which specified “Kanto” (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Gunma, Ibaraki but not Tochigi) with two “research areas” of Chemistry and Pharmacology:

    * https://jrecin.jst.go.jp/seek/SeekJorSearch?fn=0&dt=3&ln=1&page=1&sort=0&keyword_and=&keyword_or=&keyword_not=&bg1=00004&sm1=…..&bg2=&sm2=&bg3=00008&sm3=00007&bg4=&sm4=&bg5=&sm5=&bg6=&sm6=&bgCode1=00004&smCode1=…..&bgCode2=&smCode2=&bgCode3=00008&smCode3=00007&bgCode4=&smCode4=&bgCode5=&smCode5=&bgCode6=&smCode6=&prefecture_3=00008&prefecture_3=00010&prefecture_3=00011&prefecture_3=00012&prefecture_3=00013&prefecture_3=00014&jobform=&jobterm=&dispcount=50

    You can sometimes find positions where a Masters degree is sufficient (versus a PhD) and Japanese language isn’t the biggest issue.

    Maybe not the best example but these:

    **Material Discovery Researcher**

    * https://jrecin.jst.go.jp/seek/SeekJorDetail?fn=0&ln=1&id=D123030796&ln_jor=1

    * https://jrecin.jst.go.jp/seek/SeekJorDetail?fn=0&ln=1&id=D123011697&ln_jor=1

    As for your question on preferred computer languages, for the above example at least, they state:

    >* Experience in solving problems using computer-science knowledge
    >* Software development experience in Python, C, C++, or similar languages
    >* Ability to write programs with an understanding of computer architecture and an awareness of software execution efficiency and computational load
    >* **Experience in one or more of the following areas**
    >* Application development or operation
    >* Client / Backend,
    >* Web / Desktop
    >* Development of libraries

    **Researcher – Molecule Modeling @Air Liquide laboratories**

    * https://jrecin.jst.go.jp/seek/SeekJorDetail?fn=0&ln=1&id=D123030955&ln_jor=1