I’m a software engineer with 5 years of experience and I’m currently in japan on dependent visa and only been here for about 3 months. I’m currently focusing on studying japanese and going to a class to study along with online studying. Not yet registered with japanese language school. But I’ve been getting offers from several companies and I have stated my language and visa problems which they said there are few positions with English language and they would sponsor the visa. So what my problem is I know about 90% of japanese don’t work in english. So if I change to working visa and later I had to resign or lose job due to lack of knowledge in japanese, it would be hard to find another job in the same field with my lack of japanese language. ( eventhough the job require only english, I know it is very hard to adjust without native language because small details might be missed in translation).
So do you have any advice on this? I think it’s better to ask from people who have lived longer in japan and worked here. Should I continue studying and find a job after I achieve language requirements or should I do it now? Also software engineering is a job where technology change’s continuously so I have to take that into factor as well.
13 comments
This sub is full of people in software/IT who don’t speak one lick of Japanese, make bank, and have no trouble finding another job. Or at least that’s how they like to make it seem. So uh why not, you’re on a dependent visa anyway so if things with the job don’t work out I guess you can change back to dependent….?
My advice: take the job with the English-language environment but keep studying Japanese.
If Japanese is not a criterion for the job, what’s the problem? If there is a necessity to know some Japanese then you might learn more Japanese that way than a language school and it’s their problem for hiring you.
There are these purported “Expat Bubbles”, where one can, purportedly, go about one’s entire life here without having to significantly interact with the locals…
Personally I find that both odd and grotesque.
In any event, what happens if your bubble collapses…
You never know. Life’s like that. Always popping bubbles.
Under such circumstances, why would you willfully deprive yourself of the independence and freedom of motion, that comes from understanding the language / culture?
My advice:
Keep studying.
You should study Japanese for your daily life interactions, making friends etc. But I suggest finding an English speaking environment to work at. Conditions and pay will be much better.
Even with 0 Japanese whatsoever you probably could make a comparatively decent living as an SE, but ones career growth prospects may be hindered. You may be that engineer that works alone in the background and can get things done, but probably won’t get promoted to management or higher. An average salary for a position like that, I’d say 6.5M with a standard deviation of 1M for a typical Japanese company.
Picture it in reverse – you’re back home and your company hires a foreign engineer who doesn’t speak the local language. What would you advise them to do?
Not sure but wanted to say congratulations being in one of the smartest industries this generation. It shouldn’t be too hard from what I’ve heard and still make kaching
There’s tones of sw developer positions that don’t need Japanese
No, it’s obviously better to no the language of the country you live in
You may find a job where you don’t need to use Japanese, but you professional life will be very limited. You won’t be able to apply and change jobs to more than 95% of the job market. If you become unemployed for whatever reason, you will have a very hard time.
Not to mention that your private life will also suffer by not being fluent in Japanese.
First and foremost, you need to get the working visa.
For your question, it depends on how long you intend to stay in Japan. If you intend to stay in hopes to change to something more permanent then you should eventually learn the language.
If intending to stay for a few years, ignore the peanut gallery here.
Can you get away with it if you have specialist skills and mainly want to live in a bubble? Sure.
Is it a good idea long term? No.
Imagine you don’t speak any English and you move to the US or UK. Same situation. You might get a visa to do coding or teach Chinese, and you can live in Chinatown too.
If you want to open up your possibilities and break into the mainstream then it’s a different situation.