Going to Japan for Grad School

2 comments

1. Having done grad school (for context: Ivy League/Todai/non-STEM) in both the US and Japan and worked in tech/venture in Japan after graduation:

   1. **Much less rigorous compared to US-based programs:** I personally found the English programs in Japan to be a cakewalk compared to the US: the the program took much less effort – maybe 1/3 as much – compared to its US counterpart. With a few exceptions, the pedagogy + coursework felt outdated and non-rigorous. It was extremely easy to achieve good grades. My sense was that my peers doing STEM degrees were more busy, but the general sentiment seemed to be similar. Also: I wouldn’t put too much credence in international rankings – it’s very difficult to compare across countries due to the different contexts and outcome sets.
   2. **Not significantly different in educational quality**: If you’re looking at career + subject-area learning outcomes, I wouldn’t say so. Having taken courses in Japanese, some professors are definitely more comfortable teaching in Japanese, but I wouldn’t say that the pedagogy or course design is necessarily better or more relevant to your post-graduate career.
   3. **Not that different in terms of outcomes:** I don’t think that outcomes are that different. This is a common refrain, but the general sentiment seems to be that Japanese companies mostly care about the name of your university, rather than what you studied. Just graduating is fine. Going through the Japanese course would presumably improve your Japanese ability, but I strongly recommend against doing *shukatsu* and working at a traditional Japanese company to begin with – there are *much* better options in a more international environment in tech for foreigners, especially for those with technical skills. With regards to the international portability of the degree – my personal experience has been that most Japanese universities are only individually recognizable to employers who are already connected to/familiar with Japan as a whole. You wouldn’t get the international recognition of anything close to a CMU/MIT/Stanford etc. from a Japanese university. What you will get is an acknowledgement that you studied abroad in Japan, which is vaguely interesting. If you’re interested in maximizing your career potential, I think the conventional advice is to get work experience in the US first before doing a stint in Japan, if you’re still interested in a few years. This is doubly true if you’re an international student: it’s extremely difficult to get hired on a H1B once you’re out of the country. I can’t overstate how much ahead the US tech ecosystem – in almost conceivable dimension – is compared to the Japanese one. If you want to learn best practices, it’s hard to find them in Japan. International talent density is just so much lower in Japan. On the flip side, if you’re personally entrepreneurial and excited by the prospect of figuring things out yourself, you might find Japan to be a good platform for exploration + opportunity to stand out. Just have to make sure that you put yourself out there, build strong personal relationships by being helpful, and are comfortable with constant stretch experiences.
   4. **Very valuable from a personal experience standpoint, but may make you disillusioned with Japan:** tl;dr – Loved being a student, but quickly fell out of love with Japan after graduating.I’ll be honest – I loved being a student in Japan. It was a great opportunity to explore the country, make friends with peers from around the world, and indulge my (then very deep) interest in the culture. It felt like there were countless adventures to go on, people were helpful and generous to international students, and plenty of friends to make.

   That being said, my experience changed dramatically after graduation once a) the novelty wore off and b) I was a working adult. This is despite wonderful and accommodating colleagues at a startup, a good salary, and reasonable work-life balance.

   Like many others, I found myself feeling very lonely despite the fact that I spoke Japanese pretty fluently (JLPT N1). This was compounded by the departure of maybe 90% of my grad school peers. I was pretty intent on trying to build a life in Japan, but I found fundamental differences in worldview and values difficult to bridge. I ultimately left because I felt stifled and rejected by what at the time felt like an insular society that was at best ambivalent about the foreigners in their midst. Some of it can be chalked up to me being sensitive about this sort of thing, but I found it extremely difficult to connect with local folks on a human-to-human basis.

   Having lived in 5 countries and traveled to more than 25, I’ve never found it so difficult to form genuine human connection than in Japan. My impression of Japanese society also changed dramatically once I actually understood how people actually treated each other – lots of unprofessional asshole behavior and backbiting that I hadn’t seen at any of the places I worked at in the US. That being said, there was a core of interesting international people doing things in Tokyo – along with some genuinely kind (generally older) Japanese people – that made things better. But it seems like most people have a expiration date for Japan, including myself.

   5. **Positive on tech, interesting counter-positioning, working in Japan as a contrarian thesis:** I’m positive on the outlook for people working in tech in Japan – I think we’re at an inflection point where there’s increasing amounts of capital and talent flowing into the space. It’s still a very nascent ecosystem compared to the leading ones internationally, but there are plenty of opportunity for people with technical skills. As a foreigner, I found it easier to differentiate myself from the competition compared to job hunting in the US.As mentioned above, it really depends on what you want to do – if you’re looking to develop along conventional lines, the US is much better for most people in tech if you can break in (much higher salaries, best practices to learn from, high talent density, better work conditions, internationally recognizable names to work at). If you’re entrepreneurial and interested and building interesting things in Japan, there’s also a space for you there if you’re willing to put up with the frustrating bits. I’ve personally been able to leverage parts of my Japan experience to the benefit of my career (e.g. continuing to do freelance work on the side for clients in Japan), but it usually takes quite a bit of explaining. Last thing – in my experience, work experience in the Japanese tech ecosystem just isn’t as well respected as experience in Silicon Valley, Singapore, London (for FinTech in particular), and other more internationally connected tech ecosystems.

   In any case – feel free to reach out if you have any more questions. Would be happy to chat.

2. I can give my experiences with Japanese grad school.

   I’m from the US and got a bachelor’s from the US in CS. I came to grad school in Japan and got a PhD. I studied machine learning which falls under information science like you mention.

   I’m now a tenured Associate Professor at a Japanese university. I teach computer science, but my research is machine learning. So, I can offer my experience in your field from the point of view of both student and behind the scenes as a faculty.

   BTW, when I started grad school in Japan, my Japanese was about 4 words. Now, I’m still probably N3 at best.

   Now, some of your questions.

   About tuition. The tuition for grad school at every national (public) university is the same, 535,800 yen per year. No matter if you are a citizen or international. It’s a set standard amount. Private school is more expensive, but still cheaper than the US. However be warned that stipends aren’t really a thing in Japan. You can get a stipend at an American grad school easily, especially as a PhD student. There are only really scholarships and grants, but they are very competitive and only enough money to get by.

   About English vs Japanese courses. At my school for computer science, there is no such thing as an English course and Japanese course. There are only domestic course enrollment and international course entrollment. The only difference is the entrance exam date and acceptance rate. Once they enter, there is no difference.

   Also, if you get the MEXT scholarship, you can get 6 months of intensive Japanese training.

   About quality. What you hear about English programs being worthless is for undergrad. English undergrad courses are terrible in Japan. But, grad school is different. Like I said, there is no line between the English speaking grad students. Especially for PhD. PhD has zero classes and no Japanese is needed at all. I’ve had many international PhD students come through my lab that left knowing zero Japanese. Of course other subjects are different. But, hard sciences like CS normally have professors with decent English.

   However, it’s different from American grad school. American grad school has more focus on classes while Japanese grad school has more focus on research. At a US school, you will take difficult classes and go deep into subjects and the research generally only comes at the end. In Japan, you start your research topic from maybe a month or two in as a Masters student and from before you even start as a PhD student (a research plan is required for the entrance exam, so you will develop your research idea with your supervisor before you officially join their lab). Basically, you are thrown out into the world of research quickly and are expected to self learn all the material you need. The benefit of this system is you can get publications more easily since you have more time. The downside is that you don’t have as broad of a knowledge base as you would in the US.