HomeMoving to JapanAnyone have experience getting a bank job in Japan as an English speaker. I have over 5 years banking experience in Canada in bank office roles.
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**Anyone have experience getting a bank job in Japan as an English speaker. I have over 5 years banking experience in Canada in bank office roles.**
I currently work in corporate banking in Canada. Wondering if I can still transition to a bank career in Japan with limited Japanese?
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Not really.
By corporate banking, do you mean relationship management? Or some form of IT or analytics? I have worked with dozens of expats in corporate banking over the years, with varying degrees of language skills, but I’m struggling to remember any that had little to no Japanese skill and weren’t either higher level management roles (think APAC heads or major client managers) or in some form of systems, reporting, or even communications. Basically, never really in any sort of advisor or analyst role.
Have you reached out to a recruiter to get a feel of the current climate?
The language of business in Japan is Japanese. So unless you’re in a role where it makes financial sense to hire someone (or a team of someones) to speak Japanese for you, or in a role where you have very little to do domestically, it wouldn’t make sense to hire someone who is not at least at business level Japanese (for most finance positions I’ve seen they’ve required “native level” Japanese).
An exception may be Trade Finance, where English fluency is required. That being said, I would assume the people working there will still be conversing in Japanese in the office.
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This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
—
**Anyone have experience getting a bank job in Japan as an English speaker. I have over 5 years banking experience in Canada in bank office roles.**
I currently work in corporate banking in Canada. Wondering if I can still transition to a bank career in Japan with limited Japanese?
*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.*
Not really.
By corporate banking, do you mean relationship management? Or some form of IT or analytics? I have worked with dozens of expats in corporate banking over the years, with varying degrees of language skills, but I’m struggling to remember any that had little to no Japanese skill and weren’t either higher level management roles (think APAC heads or major client managers) or in some form of systems, reporting, or even communications. Basically, never really in any sort of advisor or analyst role.
Have you reached out to a recruiter to get a feel of the current climate?
The language of business in Japan is Japanese. So unless you’re in a role where it makes financial sense to hire someone (or a team of someones) to speak Japanese for you, or in a role where you have very little to do domestically, it wouldn’t make sense to hire someone who is not at least at business level Japanese (for most finance positions I’ve seen they’ve required “native level” Japanese).
An exception may be Trade Finance, where English fluency is required. That being said, I would assume the people working there will still be conversing in Japanese in the office.