Software Engineer planning to move to Japan

4 comments

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

   —

   **Software Engineer planning to move to Japan**

   Hello folks,
   I’ve been reading some content here since a few years now, and to give you some context :
   I’m a 32 years old Software Engineer from France with 10 years of experience as Fullstack on multiple tech, but more specifically Angular/Typescript + C#/.Net/Azure for the last years.
   I’ve been travelling multiple times to Japan since 2015, and I’m thinking about moving to Japan since a few years.

   I’m basically planning the move since 3/4 years, therefore I earned a Master degree in 2020/2022 thinking it should help with the visa. I also waited to pass the 10 year exp. for the Visa, and I’ve started to learn some Japanese.

   My plan’s basically to try applying to some jobs at Western/English friendly company (cause my Japanese is still not good, and I’ve read a lot that they’re more interesting for foreigner Devs) : Either FAANGs (Can’t I dream ?), or well known companies. I’ll be also applying through TokyoDev, JapanDev, Linkedin, …

   Feel free to tell me if you agree with the plan.

   ​

   I have a few questions though :

   * I’ve read about both “Engineer Work Visa” and “Highly Skilled Professional Visa”. I may be eligible for HSPV (Age + Master degree + Exp. + at least 6/7 M salary) but this one is tied to one employer : Is it a real struggle/drawback, or is this manageable for changing jobs ? Any point of view or no-go opinion for the HSPV ?
   * If I want to prove my 10 years of experience for the Visa, can I just show my entire pay slips history + work contracts ? Do I need extra specific documents ?
   * Regarding the Tech Stack, I see that C#/.Net is not very famous in Japan. Is that very very low, or still somehow demanded ?
   I plan to refresh myself a bit around Java (seems used in Japan) which I used during my master and for myself (not in the office), but I’m anyway fine grasping another language than my main.

   Sorry for the “Dev to Japan” topic, I’ve also didn’t read much about the Microsoft stack experience here.
   Feel free to share any off-questions thought if you think it can helps, and thank you for your advice !

   *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/movingtojapan) if you have any questions or concerns.*

2. It’s degree *or* 10 years of relevant experience to be eligible for a work visa. If you have a masters degree (post bachelors) you should be fine, all you need is a bachelors degree (3-4 year diploma). Ultimately, all work visas require a company to sponsor your application.

3. > If I want to prove my 10 years of experience for the Visa, can I just show my entire pay slips history + work contracts ? Do I need extra specific documents ?

   I’ve done this many times for employees applying for visas. You’ll want letters from the HR department or your boss from each company you worked at, confirming start and end dates (at least month, better if the full date is listed) and major job duties. It’s better if it’s printed on company letterhead, but a lot of companies don’t have that anymore, so just do your best. Signed in ink.

   If it’s not in either English or Japanese, you’ll need to get it translated into Japanese. It doesn’t need to be any sort of certified translator. Just translate each one and staple it to the original.

   This is probably not applicable for you, but is more for others who find this thread in the future: I had someone whose experience came from the American military. He had a sort of “transcript” from the military that listed all his different positions, start and end dates for each one, different classes they made him take, etc. This was accepted by Immigration without question.

4. > Regarding the Tech Stack, I see that C#/.Net is not very famous in Japan. Is that very very low, or still somehow demanded ?

   I was mainly a .NET dev and C# is indeed much less used in Japan, compared to Java, or even Ruby. However in absolute number, there are enough openings at both Japanese companies and gaishikei. I don’t work with C# much nowadays, stopping before the the release of C# 9 and .NET 5. But I sometimes miss it, as I basically built my career with it.

   Also if you are planning to refresh your Java skill, maybe you can try out Kotlin as well. I really dislike Java, but Kotlin is great. I find as much joy writing Kotlin code as when I write C# code.

   And since you mentioned big techs, they care much less about your current tech stack than how good your leetcode skill is and how well you do in design rounds. In my case, I used C# almost exclusively, did all my white boarding with Python, and get hired to work with Java/Kotlin/Python lol.