Hi!
For context: I’m Japanese born with Japanese parents and a Japanese citizenship, but I’ve been living in the US since I was four and in a few weeks I’ll be starting my studies in engineering at a US university. I speak Japanese at home and found the practice problems for JLPT N2 to be relatively easy, so I think with a bit more practice, I’ll test for JLPT N1 (got \~80% on the one and only practice I’ve taken so far .-.)
I want to eventually move back to Japan after graduating, in at most 15 years (the earlier the better!) I visited again this summer after a while because of COVID and loved it more than I think I did before. Also, my parents are planning to move back after they retire, and I’d hate to be so separated from them as my parents are from their parents now. And basically everything from finances to elderly care would be easier if I were at least in the country.
So my overall question is, what steps throughout college and beyond can I take to maximize my chances of being hired at a nice company with reasonably good wage/benefits in engineering?
I do have a couple of options I’m considering, as well as several questions.
1. I can apply to study abroad at the University of Tokyo for a term, but there are a lot of requirements and application things that I have to go through (and the different school year system makes it a little awkward). Would this help me in any way?
2. In the US, many companies offer internships to college students in the summer, even after their first year. Is this prevalent in Japan as well? I think it would be nice to try working at a Japanese workplace environment before actually committing to it, if possible.
3. I’ve browsed this sub a bit and I see that many people recommend having a few years of US job experience before going to a Japanese job, and I think it’s a great idea. My question is: which would be better, job experience or a Masters/PhD? I’ve heard that having a postgraduate degree in Japan is actually more restrictive due to being overqualified for office jobs and only eligible for university teaching jobs, not sure if this is true though.
4. The main thing I’m concerned with is the workplace environment in Japan–my family moved partly because my parents hated the 先輩・後輩 relationships, 残業, etc. This was over 10 years ago, have things changed since? Is it better in companies that are based in the US but have branches in Japan as opposed to Japanese companies?
5. This is mainly for personal curiosity (since I can’t really change where I’m going for college now), but does going to a very highly ranked college in the US help job prospects in Japan? I’m going to an Ivy League and I’m hoping it’ll help.
Sorry for the long post. Thank you!
7 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
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**Best steps to take to eventually work in Japan**
Hi!
For context: I’m Japanese born with Japanese parents and a Japanese citizenship, but I’ve been living in the US since I was four and in a few weeks I’ll be starting my studies in engineering at a US university. I speak Japanese at home and found the practice problems for JLPT N2 to be relatively easy, so I think with a bit more practice, I’ll test for JLPT N1 (got ~80% on the one and only practice I’ve taken so far .-.)
I want to eventually move back to Japan after graduating, in at most 15 years (the earlier the better!) I visited again this summer after a while because of COVID and loved it more than I think I did before. Also, my parents are planning to move back after they retire, and I’d hate to be so separated from them as my parents are from their parents now. And basically everything from finances to elderly care would be easier if I were at least in the country.
So my overall question is, what steps throughout college and beyond can I take to maximize my chances of being hired at a nice company with reasonably good wage/benefits in engineering?
I do have a couple of options I’m considering, as well as several questions.
1. I can apply to study abroad at the University of Tokyo for a term, but there are a lot of requirements and application things that I have to go through (and the different school year system makes it a little awkward). Would this help me in any way?
2. In the US, many companies offer internships to college students in the summer, even after their first year. Is this prevalent in Japan as well? I think it would be nice to try working at a Japanese workplace environment before actually committing to it, if possible.
3. I’ve browsed this sub a bit and I see that many people recommend having a few years of US job experience before going to a Japanese job, and I think it’s a great idea. My question is: which would be better, job experience or a Masters/PhD? I’ve heard that having a postgraduate degree in Japan is actually more restrictive due to being overqualified for office jobs and only eligible for university teaching jobs, not sure if this is true though.
4. The main thing I’m concerned with is the workplace environment in Japan–my family moved partly because my parents hated the 先輩・後輩 relationships, 残業, etc. This was over 10 years ago, have things changed since? Is it better in companies that are based in the US but have branches in Japan as opposed to Japanese companies?
5. This is mainly for personal curiosity (since I can’t really change where I’m going for college now), but does going to a very highly ranked college in the US help job prospects in Japan? I’m going to an Ivy League and I’m hoping it’ll help.
Sorry for the long post. Thank you!
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The main thing to remember here is that you speak Japanese and have citizenship. Most of the conversations here are directed to people who have neither of those benefits.
The job hunt in Japan won’t be much different from a job hunt in the States in your case. It’s more up to you and your chosen career, and whether it’s easier to grow in that field in US or Japan. If you don’t mind sharing, what are you studying?
>My question is: which would be better, job experience or a Masters/PhD?
Experience, ***hands down***.
Postgrad degrees in Japan are seen as career progression, not additional qualifications like they are in the US.
In an odd way, like Elestriel said, many of the posts on this sub aren’t going to be too valuable for you because you’ve short-circuited the two main blockers for moving to and working in Japan. With what sounds like fluency/near-fluency (that possibly needs a bit of a tune-up) and a Japanese passport literally no one can stop you from moving to Japan if you feel like it.
But, I’ll take a stab at a couple of your questions:
1. From my perspective, for you, if it was going to be useful to study abroad in Japan, it would be as an opportunity to network and make contacts.
3. Unless your goals are specifically around working for a research lab, five years of experience is vastly more useful than a PhD in most cases. Maybe you could argue that a masters in engineering is worth it, but it would depend a lot on the field. Likewise, depending on your career goals, an MBA from a top-tier business school probably *is* worth sacrificing a couple years of job experience. But, that’s something that you’d likely do after gaining several years of experience.
4. I think you can safely say that Japan has, in general, become more aware of things like Black Companies and the perils of overwork. But, it would be pretty naive to claim that this isn’t still a huge problem. A better way to look at this might be to not worry about terrible companies existing in Japan, but to make good use of the various websites/tools that help you avoid them.
5. Maybe not every single Ivy League is well known in Japan, but the Ivy League includes several of the most famous schools in the world. I can’t see how that would hurt your job prospects.
Hi!
For a context I am currently working in Japan (I’m not Japanese) with N2 proficiency when I came to Japan (2 years ago).
I did study Engineering in an overseas university, but i did not have any exchange program with Japan university. In short I have no linkage with Japan until I came to Japan to work.
That being said, I think I can only answer question 4 and 5.
4. Work environment: from talking to my Japanese friends, most agree that the working conditions have improved dramatically since the famous Karoshi incident. Nowadays the law is quite strict and my company actually monitor the working hour through PC activities to ensure no “free” overtime, or under-reported overtime. Though I cannot say that this apply to most company, but most big “white” company will have this in place coz it is mandated by the law. In fact I feel that my working conditions are better managed vs Singapore where I started my career (Singapore working conditions are pretty good too tbh, although not European good).
You can expect overtime or about 20 hours or less /month for a good company. Banking and consulting is still hell though no matter where you are.
I worked both in a big Japanese company and a startup and I can say although there are obviously seniority relationship due to the culture, it’s not like I am not respected just because I am young.
5. Yes. School name MATTERS A LOT. The fact that you can study in an Ivy League school means that you have a good chance to land a good job in Japan. As you know Japan is lacking workers due to shrinking population so as long as you have good Japanese language command, and good background, I think you are set for success here.
Edit: forgot to mention that near native Japanese/English bilingual abilities are in high demand especially for high-end jobs. My advice is do your best in your university studies, polish your Japanese (you can easily aim for N1 in 4 years) and you should be good!
The only drawback is your salary is prob gonna be much lower vs working in US. But then again your living cost is cheaper here.
To answer your questions:
1. Have some real life experience living in Japan will make it appealing to some employers because they’ll feel like you know how things work in the country. You’re technically not a foreigner, so this may or may not be an issue depending how good your Japanese is and how Japanese you can conduct yourself.
2. I’m sure there are internships out there but the standard cookie-cutter pattern is to job hunt while you’re still in your third/fourth year and getting an offer from a large corporation before you start (新卒採用) I am not sure of the timing of this but things are much more rigid in schedule than they are here in the US. If you’re looking to get into a large firm right off the bat, this is the way to do it.
3. Job experience. Get your bachelor’s and then go for job experience. Unless you want to become an academic, don’t bother with graduate school.
4. This is really dependent on the company. The senpai/kohai system definitely still exists and overtime (look up the term “みなし残業”) is still prevalent. Unseen pressure to not take days off is still there and many workers are still reliant on the government sanctioned holidays to get some rest and relaxation (all the while being fleeced by travel agencies, hotels and airlines during those same periods because the demand is so high.) It doesn’t matter if the company has HQ in the US and has branches in Japan, if the majority of the workers are Japanese, chances are those annoying-but-nobody-will-say-anything-because-they’re-trying-to-read-the-room cultural norms will also be present.
5. Yes, having a well-known university will be impressive and some employers will like that.
If you’re looking for “a nice company with reasonably good wage/benefits in engineering,” you’re better off staying in the US. I don’t know what sort of engineering you will be doing, but finding a full time position in the US will come with much higher salaries and other benefits like 401k plans that you don’t see in Japan. You’ll also most likely have a better work/life balance and can take vacations off for longer periods of time than you ever could if you lived in Japan.
That being said, working as a full time employee in Japan means stability and you’re much less likely to be let go and you’ll never be fired unless you do something really bad. Japan offers stability but in exchange for most of your time and cheaper wages.
Don’t forget that when you’re looking for a job in Japan, many prospective employers at larger places aren’t looking for unique talent they can use, but are looking for people whom they can mold into their idea of a good employee.
Go to career forums in the US directed to US university students who are Japanese-English bilingual and want to work in Japan. The most famous one is probably Boston Career Forum. There’s gonna be a LOT of companies there so it’s nice even if you’re not job hunting yet.