Web Developer job in Japan

6 comments

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

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   **Web Developer job in Japan**

   Hi guys,

   I’m at a loss and I need some advice from people who know more about this topic, preferably other developers who made it to Japan but any advice is welcome. I’ve been learning to build web apps for some time (mainly focusing on MERN) and I’m wondering if I got any chances to get a visa sponsorship with no work experience in the field.

   For some context, I got a bachelor’s degree which is unrelated to CS (foreign languages) and here is my portfolio [https://ludacris2g.github.io/](https://ludacris2g.github.io/) which I created some good months ago and I’m not particularly proud of atm but it’s the only one I got. I’ll take the N4 JLPT in December and I’m planning to continue grinding till I reach at least N2.

   I’ve been trying to find a job as a developer in my country to get some experience that might help me find a job in Japan but even experienced people are struggling here atm so I didn’t get any chance so far.

   Rn I’m working as an HR specialist for a big multinational company mainly doing backend work related to employee data and contracts but I saw on some other post that the chances for a foreigner getting hired in HR are slim to none.

   Do you think it’s worth applying for jobs in Japan or is it unrealistic that anyone would even consider me? I’d be happy to work on any salary as long as it pays the rent and I get the visa sponsorship and the change to gain experience. Also I’m wondering whether focusing on building more projects or learning the language would help me get a job faster.

   I feel like I ain’t going nowhere so I’d rly appreciate any advice.

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2. It seems you have 2 goals: becoming a web developer and also getting a company to sponsor your visa. Your chances of doing both at the same time are low. If you could gain some professional experience then that would help you get a company to sponsor you, as I can’t imagine many companies are willing to sponsor somebody with zero professional experience.

   You admit you’re not proud of your github – fix that first. Get to a point in your web development skills where you have confidence in your work because you’ll need that confidence in order to convince companies in Japan to sponsor your visa. It’s a competitive industry (especially for juniors) so you need to stand out amongst your competition if you want to succeed.

3. I’m not really a react developer, so I’ll leave that to others for comment, but one recommendation I’ll provide for your code is not to install testing packages as non-devDependencies. You don’t run jest in production, so don’t install them there, either.

   As for finding work, you’re gonna have some trouble. As others will tell you, entry level development jobs are highly competitive in Japan, especially with the university tracks feeding into hiring programs.

   Find work back home for a few years or start contributing to open source and include that experience on your resume. Until then, just keep applying. It may also be worthwhile to look for recruiters who support overseas applicants. They may not get you the dream job, but at this point, experience is king. After 2-4 years of solid experience, you shouldn’t have many barriers to work where you’d like.

4. Unless you have super fluent japanese and are in the country, finding entry level work is going to be very difficult because you’ll be competing with the new grads in Japan who will have no language or cultural issues. If you had N2 or N1 (and can speak and type) and a year work experience & a solid portifio and wanted to yolo it over to a language school to find work, it may be possible, but in your case I wouldn’t do that.

   Also getting a job at one of those international companies & Japanese companies that use english will be difficult because majority of their positions are for people with experience & people that can sort of hit the ground running.

   So are you working HR right now? Personally I were you I would try to get like 2 years dev experience and get N2 and functional japanese (can speak & type). Then after go to a language schoool and try to find work or use recruiters. At the bare minimum I would try to become a dev first and at least get a year in that before thinking about going to Japan because you would have to balance learning the language and switch into a new career at the same time.

5. I agree with anyone who say you should start your careers in home country. I’m not trying to be mean but starting career as a developer is extremely hard even in your native language because you are most likely by far the worst member of the team, everyone is like that at first. It is very hard experience even without language barrier.

   Also Japan has too many local wannabe developers nowadays. Do you think, in your home country, any foreigner can find a job with your level of skill and experience? If it sounds hard, it is equally hard for you to find a job in Japan. Find a local job and get 2-3 years of experience.

6. What country are you from? I’ve heard that Japan sources developers from South east Asia / South Asia. Many of my former colleagues from those areas didn’t have high Japanese ability. It’s better if you have developed skills though like AWS, or comfort building mobile apps etc. usually they either work for an engineering dispatch or they are placed in companies.

   To be honest, your prospects of finding an entry level job from abroad is going to be an uphill battle because they would need to sponsor you and I’m not sure it’s common to source devs from abroad for entry level positions. There are already a massive surplus of entry level devs between people brought in from the regions I mentioned above, the bootcamps churning them out here, and college graduates in Japan.

   Japanese language would certainly help if you were already in the country. This is a gambit but you could come here and teach English. They’ll sponsor your visa and the pay will be low. From what I hear from former teachers they had a moderate amount of free time to skill up. You could use that time and opportunity to transition into web development? That being said it’s a real gambit and there’s no guarantee that it would even pay out. The risk is that if you get placed in the deep countryside, your opportunities to transition become quite rare. There’s also some requirements to teach English like fluency and 12 years of education primarily in English.

   Personally, I would try to get an online degree in comp sci if you can or continue hustling to learn Japanese till you are a solid N2+ that means being able to also pass a Japanese language screening interview. at my previous company the N2+ will get you a foot in the door but if Japanese is essential to your day to day, we will also ask you to have a conversation with a Japanese native speaker.