I am getting ready to make a career change and I will probably also be moving out of the USA. . Something I’ve heard mentioned by the j-vloggers and on podcasts is that IT jobs are a great way for a foreigner to get hired. I am looking at the IT field, specifically cybersecurity. Are these jobs really open to foreigners? I know that I’ll have to actually learn Japanese first, but that’s going to happen anywhere I go, so I could spend a year at a language school. Is this realistic or is the IT job thing just BS imagined by influencers?
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**IT jobs in Japan**
I am getting ready to make a career change and I will probably also be moving out of the USA. . Something I’ve heard mentioned by the j-vloggers and on podcasts is that IT jobs are a great way for a foreigner to get hired. I am looking at the IT field, specifically cybersecurity. Are these jobs really open to foreigners? I know that I’ll have to actually learn Japanese first, but that’s going to happen anywhere I go, so I could spend a year at a language school. Is this realistic or is the IT job thing just BS imagined by influencers?
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It depends.
Software engineer – high demand. No english needed
IT – how good are you? What school did you attend? What is your work experience?
> I know that I’ll have to actually learn Japanese first, but that’s going to happen anywhere I go, so I could spend a year at a language school
Japanese is one of the hardest languages to learn globally for english speakers. One year of study and you will have the vocab and grammar of a three year old. Be prepared to put in 5 solid years of dedicated studying to become business fluent.
Open to foreigners that have experience doing that job……
The unrealistic part is learning Japanese in a year lmao
If by IT you mean software development then yes, it relatively easy to land a job in Japan. And depends on your level and skill, you can land one that doesn’t require Japanese at all. On the other hand, infrastructure jobs are much rarer. They are out there, but in most cases you need to be experienced.
Career change means you presumably have 0 years of experience in the field you’re switching to. This will be a doozy.
“I can just take a year in a language school”.
A year long gap in work history fits in where exactly? It will cut into the already low years of job experience you have, which Japan will question you about. I’d say you’re better off studying Japanese intensely at home while gaining work experience. I’ve considered language school myself, but only after getting N2 at home.
I’m gunning for IT in Japan myself in 3 years, though I’m already working in IT, my degree aligns with it and soon to have a Japan certified IT qualification as extra just in case. One cannot simply waltz into Japan on an engineer visa and find a good paying opportunity with 0 experience..or maybe they can idk (But you’ll do well spending some years getting cybersecurity experience)
I’ve been hearing that Cybersecurity roles are few and far between, the good paying ones being government level- military base type stuff needing special clearances and headaches of paperwork. There is seemingly no middle ground in that field where you can work with a normal company because they don’t exactly prioritize cybersecurity in Japan given how behind they are on things such as that. Just something I’ve heard, but you should look into that more. Good luck.
Cybersecurity is right out in your situation because you don’t have experience or language. On the other hand, I think the comments here are possibly a touch pessimistic. Lots of people at my language school come to Japan with very limited work experience, study for about a year, then land IT jobs.
My understanding is that even just 1 or 1.5 years of work experience will help a lot, though. Especially if you lack a degree in an IT-related field.
It also (probably) goes without saying that more technical positions require less Japanese, and less technical positions require more Japanese. If you’re really set on going into Cybersecurity then you’ll definitely want N2 and be well on your way to N1. On the other hand, most devs can get by with N3.
And a final note, if you’re going to be a dev (most realistic) and have no experience or education, you’ll probably want to be studying software dev for a couple hours a day on top of studying Japanese. It won’t be easy.
If client facing, you’ll have to speak Japanese. For SOC and pen testing, some levels. This from my experience with global company with branch office in Tokyo.
Maybe spend less time watching j-vloggers, they’re trying to get views by selling you a dream and nothing more
It can be done. Here’s the thing. You need a way into Japan. It would be fairly rare for you to get recruited to Japan from the US and extremely rare w/o Japanese skills. Best option is always a transfer from your US company into Japan.
So your way in could be study or ESL. The latter will do nothing for you Japanese skills.
So you put in a heavy effort to get to a business level in Japanese. Great, but now what did all that effort get you? A job that pays quite a bit less -maybe far less- than in the US. I just don’t really see the ROI.
But maybe this is your dream and you can’t simply put an ROI on that.
I just hired an IT person at my Company and he was about N4 level. So I would say he knows about 10% of what any conversation is at any point.
Few things to note as a guy who hires IT people. I know I can train someone in IT (depending on the level position). This role was an office support role. Resetting printers, helping with our internal software on users’ machines, etc. They seemed really ambitious, and I got nothing but positive vibes, they are a self-starter and similar to you wanted to learn a new role to provide for their future family. They got all the appropriate certificates they needed for this level role, had proof of signing up for language classes at their community college, as well as a bachelor’s degree (unrelated field, but a visa requirement). Even with all that they were still underqualified compared to many other candidates I had locally (also logistically a lot more work to source a visa), but the person stuck out to me and I offered them the role. They are going to have a challenging time on many different levels, it won’t be easy, and work progression will be nonexistent for years for them. I found out now they have a partner in Japan which is why they were so desperate to move here, but also means they are learning the language quickly and have tons of support in their personal life on everything.
While, yes, there are jobs. It is still a very competitive market as I had I would say maybe 200~ applications for this role in about a month. This is for a starter role with know company housing assistance and the salary was only 3.8-5.2 Million. Enough for a single person to live on, but the same role in the USA would probably pay about 50-55K or like 8.2 million, that’s a lot of vacations to Japan in salary difference. You would also be able to learn more from locals in the USA as there is zero language barrier and MANY more opportunities for growth and gain.
Japan isn’t going anywhere, and if you are serious about doing it, do it right the first time. There are no shortcuts in this space, just people who get fucked over and stuck.