How is the architecture profession in Japan?

6 comments

1. This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.

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   **How is the architecture profession in Japan?**

   I’m just interested in wanting to know, how the life of those who work as an architect. I’m an architecture student and I’m looking at which countries I can have better job opportunities.

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2. You need a Japanese license for starters.

3. Tremendously uninspired judging by the modern Tokyo skyline. Do you speak business level Japanese?

4. I have worked in Tokyo for several years earlier in my career. I loved my time in Japan, and will highly recommend it as an experience for any architects, if circumstances permit, especially early in your career.

   Whether you’ll enjoy your experience or not will of course depend on the office you’ll be with, and will also be highly dependent on whether the office/architect(s) is aligned with your own philosophies. Japan has no shortage of exceptional architects from small independent studios to Pritzker prize winners so it likely won’t be difficult to find a good place to work, learn, and be inspired.

   There will be issues and challenges. Language is a big one, your options will be limited if you do not know the language fluently, but there are still plenty of great offices with international works that welcome international architects. For what it’s worth, I was able to grow my career tremendously without speaking a word of Japanese. Work life balance isn’t going to be great, if you compare it to Europe, or North America. 60 – 80 hour weeks wouldn’t be uncommon. There’ll be more relaxing times, and there’ll be days of even more intense workload. It wasn’t easy to get used to, some would argue you shouldn’t normalize this kind of life, but for me it was fulfilling. I saw it as an opportunity to learn/grow within a shorter amount of time. Lastly, salaries for architects in Japan isn’t amazing. Certainly sufficient to get by within Japan, but relatively low compared to most cities in the US, or other popular cities for architects like Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore etc.

5. Close connection is a small business architect owner for 50 years. They are mostly finished with their profession, and feel discouraged to continue in their life long passion, as many clients prefer things such as child care in the office they visit while they select from a preselected menu style of options on their purchase to a mega corp.
   Heavily relationship based due to their business size.
   Profit is OK…

   Also always prepare to be sued

6. got an architect close to where my office is… they are there when i go to work and they hold meetings when i go home… that should tell you something…