I was born and raised in Japan, but have been studying at a Canadian university for over seven years.
Just finished my thesis and came back to my hometown to seek a job related to materials engineering, but it seems like most of the job entries are closed now.
I also heard most Japanese companies don’t accept any job applications until next spring or so.
I’m feeling like I came back at the worst time for job hunting imaginable, and even considering going back to Canada and getting a job there.
Have any of you been in the same shoes? If so, how did you deal with a situation like this?
38 comments
These company you’re applying for are probably finished all the hiring until spring.
I guess since no one told you about the job hunting season for university students you’re also unaware of how much harder it is to get a job after graduating.
You should focus of foreign companies and more internationally minded Japanese firms.
The fresh graduate route is tough. Especially if you are aiming for a traditional japanese company.
any chance your situation being overseas graduates worsen your chance?
direct apply to small start up is your only option. Or just floating around until next spring.
Foreign firms in Japan normally prefer experienced than new grads, but there are very few exception.
Boston Career Forum or something like that may have what info you need
Startups are your best bet. Also, there’s this startup accelerator here called Plug and Play Japan with a program for materials tech startups, maybe you can go there while waiting for jobs to open up? It would be more business-y than engineering, but the people are great and they only hire people who speak Japanese and English. They usually post jobs on Linkedin. You could intern there or even join full-time if they like you. (You could also go to their list of startups and start directly applying to anything that piques your interest)
Good luck! https://japan.plugandplaytechcenter.com/new-materials/
Also went to a Canadian Uni/ working in Japan now. If you havent tried yet— my friends and I flew/drove to Boston career forum every year in November to find internships and jobs. Albeit not many engineering jobs but still worth a look. Most of us got an offer there.
Look on Craigslist and go to a recruiter like Robert Walters
OP here. Thank you so much for your suggestions. Honestly, these past few days in Japan hit me very hard and stressed me out. The fact that no one in my hometown can speak English didn’t help it at all. I even questioned my decision to study abroad in Canada. But seeing all of you give me comments and feedback made my day and made me realize I’m not isolated as much as I thought I was. I’m going to tackle all the options you guys introduced to me. Thanks again.
Where is your hometown or are you willing to relocate?
Happy to support if you are interest in working around Kobe and could pass on your CV internally in a foreign company, in a somewhat “niche” engineering space within severe service valves.
You might want to check out this [career forum in Tokyo](https://careerforum.net/en/event/tkw1/) that will be held in December.
Not sure how applicable this is outside of software engineering but if you haven’t already set up a LinkedIn profile try giving that a go?
There are a lot of recruiters on there that are really active who might be able to connect you with job postings you might not otherwise find on your own.
At least from my own personal experience recruiters on LinkedIn in Japan seem to be a lot more… active compared to their Canadian counterparts.
Also, good luck OP! Job hunting kinda sucks but it’ll be worth it in the end!
There’s a labor shortage. For the case of finding a job, the job market is great right now. Either the companies you’re applying to are finished hiring until the season when students apply (with the exception of experienced workers), or the specific industry/niche that you’re looking for jobs in is suffering.
Since you seem to be a new grad, it’s probably that you need to wait and apply together with the other new grads. I’m surprised you didn’t know this since you grew up here.
If you can speak French and Japanese well. The jobs like Air Traffic Control which require language appropriation over basic physics and mechanics are looking for you.
I’m also a grad student who’s currently job hunting. The hiring for 2025 April (or maybe also 2024 fall?) starts this winter, so I think you can wait a bit.
– “I was born and raised in Japan”
– “I also heard most Japanese companies don’t accept applications till next spring”
Hahaha being a National how didn’t you know this? Anyways if you are a new hire why not look for a 外国企業 and try to work in something related instead of exact – also a startup might be a good idea until spring next year
I am Canadian – I think there are more opportunities in Tokyo, but if you secure a job in Canada your work life balance / pay will be way better.
Maybe it depends on your field but in general Japan has a labour shortage right now, so there are plenty of jobs and a lot of places are short staffed. They might not necessarily be amazing jobs with amazing pay but there are definitely a lot of places hiring in general
Go to Boston Career Forum, where companies in Japan (including international) are specifically looking to hire USA grads
Shukatsu starts before you graduate; you’re supposed to start applying, handwriting CVs, and attending seminars during your last year of uni. For Japanese who study abroad, there are special events and conventions for this that you need to attend. But the general expectation is that you start your senior year and graduate with offers.
This is just how it works here, and for many, it is the only career pipeline available. It’s definitely better these days, but that’s mainly for small-sized companies such as startups. For big companies with high earning potential, it’s still very traditional. While it might be possible to get a job outside of this pipeline, the odds will be stacked against you.
I think the reasoning for this career pipeline is that it forces candidates to be extra picky so that companies can guarantee only the most dedicated apply. Think about it, if you need to spend time on things like handwriting resumes, attending seminars, taking tests, etc., you’re only going to do it for companies you REALLY want to join, especially if you’re doing this while finishing up your last year of uni. A lot of companies will ONLY hire like this.
That is why the pressure is so high to get an offer before you graduate; companies will look down on people who don’t as it implies that either you tried and didn’t get any offers or you didn’t even do it and aren’t as dedicated. I’m surprised you’re unaware of this, given that you’re born and raised here and only started AFTER graduating, but perhaps you followed the more Western career advice and focused more on your studies and experience.
Given your specialized background, there might be companies willing to hire outside of this convention, but if you’re targeting well-known companies and they “don’t accept any job applications until next spring,” then that probably tells you that they use the shukatsu pipeline to hire.
Companies here have a strong culture of valuing expressions of dedication (things like doing overtime, joining a nomikai, indulging superiors in conversations, participation in events); it’s seen as a good indicator of how reliable you are, and that the company can depend on you in moments of need. Shukatsu is a big part of this and it’s also why change has been slow. To illustrate how bad this was in the past: During the ’90s economic crisis, companies decided to freeze hiring over downsizing (this meant moving employees around and training them into positions of need rather than hiring new grads) and a whole generation of Japanese missed out on shukatsu like you did; this [“Lost Generation”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_Ice_Age) could not get jobs once companies started hiring again since companies prefer current graduates.
Pros/Cons of shukatsu:
Pros: Reliably hire dedicated employees.
Cons: Disproportional pressure to get offers, restrictive career opportunities, non-inclusive and inflexible.
Source: I work for a company that helps graduates with shukatsu.
a lot of companies had a hiring freeze recently due to the tech market shakeup, but it seems to be slowly opening up again.
It’ll require you to go back to North America and it’ll be a bit of a rush to prepare and fly out, but you should give the Boston Career Forum a try. I have a lot of friends who got job offers there, both Japanese friends who studied in Canada and Canadian friends who studied Japanese.
Not hard you are just not following the rules.
Or I should say, as hard as it’s always been.
From Canada too, finding a job for me is borderlime impossible
Didn’t your university in Canada has career center? I doubt even in Canada you start your job searching process after your graduation. Most companies align their fresh graduates hiring to the school year, ie. offers were provided like last Dec/Jan already for this school year. So unless you paid no attention to that you should get to know. And even you are not educated in Japan I think you know Japan new grad hiring process starts from April of their final year studies..
And to the view of employers unless you have actual working experience you are considered as new graduates. So I doubt your seven years of experience counts.
日本の大学に通っている者です。海外大卒はボスキャリを使ってわりと楽に日本の企業に就職できる印象ですが、利用されてないですか？それ以外だと、いつ卒業されたのかわからないですが、新卒枠や第二新卒として就職活動することをおすすめします。大学で勉強した分野以外の職種にもチャレンジできるメリットもあるので。年齢が高いとどの会社からも弾かれることがあるのでお気をつけて。
considering 円安 situation, you’d better find jobs overseas. Working hard in Japan for peanuts isn’t worth it
If you are in material engineering and interested in chemistry, especially plastic field, PM me I have a job offer for you as long as you don’t mind working in Saitama prefecture.
Consider going to Tokyo Winter OP: https://careerforum.net/en/event/tkw1/
Apparently not cause I get Whatsapp job offers constantly /s
Not for the trades. Everywhere is hiring, all th etime. Even if you have no skills, they’ll train you.
Most recent grads already have their job lined up for April.
They finished “shushoku katsudo” job hunting season months ago.
I know people that already right now know what company they are hired at and what city they will go to yet they are still working their part time job and partying as much as they can.
Once they get into the Japanese company work life it’s game over.
What degree do you have? Bachelor’s? Masters? PhD?
Just bad timing. It’s like going to Canada in the summer hoping to see snow.
What’s your field?
One option could be going into nuclear research with JAEA or a research institution or laboratory.
Check out this site: JREC-IN Portal – it’s put out by the Japan Science and Technology Agency.
And, try to get a feel on how to effectively search for positions.
* https://jrecin.jst.go.jp/
For example, here is a search for positions in Kanto in areas close to materials engineering:
* https://jrecin.jst.go.jp/seek/SeekJorSearch?keyword_and=&keyword_not=&_bgCode=1&bgCode=00489&_smCode=1&smCode=64030&smCode=18010&_orgtype=1&_area=1&area=00003&_prefecture=1&prefecture=00008&prefecture=00009&prefecture=00010&prefecture=00011&prefecture=00012&prefecture=00013&prefecture=00014&_jobkind=1&_employmentform=on&_employmentform=on&_employmentform=on&_employmentform=on&_employmentform=on&_employmentform=on&_jobterm=on&_jobterm=on&_jobterm=on&_jobterm=on&wageValue=&_consideration=on&_consideration=on&_consideration=on&_entry=on&_entry=on&_entry=on&_duration=on&_duration=on&_duration=on&sort=0&fn=0
Hi. I’m in a similar boat because I grew up in the States, attended an international school in Japan for high school, then went to university in the States, am living in Japan now to finish up classes remotely, and am now trying to find work in Japan, so I can give you my potentially faulty advice. Ideally I would work in SWE or technical ML research to ensure AI will have a positive impact, but I’m currently trying to find a job in Japan that is at least somewhat decent. So far been trying to find remote SWE work in the US (and am also maybe open to relocating to the US), but I primarily wish to work in Japan.
I am not sure how similar materials engineering is to software engineering, but I think that SWE is likely to be a enjoyable job for people who are interested in engineering, so I encourage you to look into this. As a math major without much programming experience and only a couple shitty projects, after sending out around 120 applications to software companies based in the US during this season, I got five invitations for online assessments and two first-round interviews (hopefully these went well enough for me to advance to the next stage). My understanding is that software companies can be more flexible towards allowing for remote work, but many have gone back to in-person work. I don’t know how the software engineering scene is in Canada and if you have permission to work in Canada, but it might be worth looking into getting a software job in Canada that would allow you to work remotely from Japan. Of course, the work schedule with different time zones is important to keep in mind. I think this sort of arrangement would also be beneficial from the perspective of the weak JPY to CAD. I think that this could be a good option for someone who has skills to be a software engineer, who isn’t able to speak Japanese very well, has the qualifications to work in Canada and live in Japan, and wants to work in Japan.
I don’t know how your Japanese is, but there is a lot of benefit to working on your Japanese. It would be good to try to business level speaking ability, but even if you have imperfections here and there, I don’t think it’s a deal-breaker. I think it’s likely many companies, particularly foreign ones, would be willing to take a chance on you. Case in point: one of my friends didn’t understand the meaning of 都内 (inside the metropolis [of Tokyo]) during an interview, and he was still able to get a job at an American bank’s office in Japan.
I am curious: why you want to work in Japan over Canada? I read that Canadian work-life is pretty nice, so it seems like a great place to work.
My friend with non finance major started with Trader role with a small firm at ard USD2.5k per month, hopped ard 4 times in the past 5 years, now he’s in a hedge fund USD15k a month, chilled the whole afternoon with me during his workday. Lifes good for him;)
Their is plenty of materials engineer positions in Alberta in oil and gas making 70k-130k CDN