I work for a mid-size Japanese company doing international sales. I don’t mind my job and the company is decent, but I sometimes think about what I’d like to do next.
I often hear, as I’m sure you have, that international companies can SOMETIMES be a good option as yes of course there are shitty ones just like Japanese companies, but they can be slightly more progressive in terms of work life balance and offer better salaries.
These jobs seem to be like a magical fairy tale and don’t actually exist, I never see them. I’m beginning to think they’re a conspiracy made up to keep us motivated 😂
On a serious note, I would LOVE to hear from someone who’s gone from working in a Japanese company to working for an international company and found some degree of happiness.
Thank you
28 comments
Worked in largest Japanese telco for a few years, then moved to European and then American owned telcos.. followed by American startups selling into those telcos and banks.
Would never work for a Japanese domestic again, ever. Line of reporting back to America or SEA hq outside of Japan afforded many liberties and avoiding the tatemae and associated office politics that come with domestics or reporting to a local boss who also has to deal with previous mentioned BS.
Are these jobs unicorns? FAANGs are probably unicorns, but before Covid and economy tanking, the amount of western tech and startups opening branches in Japan were plentiful. On the software side… Service Now, Oracle, GCP, Msft, SFDC.. all were mass hiring. These days not so much.
I’ve worked in both Japanese and overseas companies here. My current company is a Japanese one but run a bit more like an overseas one, work life balance isn’t so bad.
Oddly enough I had a Japanese coworker leave my current company and move to a foreign branch of an American company in a different industry across town, she said the work culture is much worse there with most of the American staff working very long hours and not taking holidays. Found that a bit surprising for a Japanese person to comment on that.
I’ve had both wonderful and awful experiences at international and domestic companies. IMO who your managers/coworkers are is a big factor in determining if the job sucks or not. For example, international companies’ work life balance means nothing if Mr Smith intends on working you to the bone and giving you meetings in multiple time zones.
I enjoy where I’m at now (international) about the same amount I enjoyed working at my favorite customer site (domestic), the only major difference is the salary is at least triple what I made before.
Honestly work life balance is pretty similar for me at a top domestic company and a major gaishikei. Both companies are extremely careful about following all labor laws (I even took a long paternity leave with the domestic company) and pay was good at both places. I only switched to the gaishikei because they headhunted me and offered a major upgrade in seniority.
Most shitty companies are small and medium sized businesses. Whereas most Japanese companies are SMEs, there are very very few gaishikei SMEs by definition, so gaishikei self-select into relatively “better” companies.
I’ve been here close to 20 years, never worked for a Japanese and most likely never will.
I have had only good experiences, always had generous paid annual leave, paid sick leave, never worked on weekends or did overtime that I did not choose to do for good reasons.
Only twice did I end up with a useless *waiting-for-retirement-at-60* Japanese manager and I’ve always just bypassed them entirely to work directly with my N+2 until I was either promoted out of under them or they got removed for being useless.
In my current position I don’t even work with anyone from the Japan office anymore. My manager is in London, my peers are in US/Singapore/India. I only go to the office when they have a free food event.
well I work in one of the biggest Japanese internation companies, and its not that bad.
work from home 3 days per week, in the office no one gives a shit when I arrive and leave, no asakais or similar bullshit, some general managers are not japanese therefore they dont care about japanese etiquette, most of the paperwork and communication is in english, salary is not terrible could better but for now no complains, the building is so big that seems like a small city with Family Mart, restaurants, kindergarden, ATMs, farmacy with family doctor from Wed to Fri, 20 days of paid holidays per year and you can take the days whenever you please (I remember a post of some random dude saying their company said to him it is illegal to take 10 paid holidays straight… lol)
but not everything is that good, salary raise are complex to get, promotions are a joke everything is fixed even though seems like there is a fair process, paperwork for everything, endless meetings everyday, everyone works in their “silo” and gives a flying fuck about others and its difficult to get things done…
The biggest point, in my opinion, to look out for if you find a foreign firm that looks attractive for employment is this: Is your management structure living abroad or in Japan?
In my experience from what I have seen, although the company is from abroad, I have not seen much difference between a local company’s work life balance and culture when my reporting line’s majority of leadership is in Japan. I used to work for a *very* traditional, 100 year old manufacture here in Japan and realized early that the expectations on output and dedication they required from their employees was something I disagreed with fundamentally. Jumping ship to a foreign firm was a life-saver in terms of salary and work life balance, but everything has its tradeoffs. At my current employer, I have colleagues who report mostly domestically in Japan. From what they tell me, it sounds like we work for two different employers.
At the end of the day, no where is a magical fairy tale. It’s work.
Sure. I worked in American company which then merged with British one.
Working for American company was black and white: we’ve had absolutely insane hours and way too much politics among office employees (all of them Japanese though). On the other hand office goodies were good, and we had a nice holiday allowance.
After the merger everything improved. We moved to a nicer office, salaries grew, office politics ceased to exist and we were treated very well in general. So my experience for 外資系 is overall positive.
By the way I worked for Japanese companies too. Could not say it was very bad, but there’s only a primitive understanding of employee welfare in general and way too much is done without understanding why. Regarding the hours there’s not much difference. Japanese employees will sit in the office well after EOD no matter if it’s a foreign company or not.
Honestly there’s gaishi this gaishi that, gaishi is not necessary better environment than nikkei, everything depends on management, the business and the people really.
Story time.
First company. Small nikkei of about 25 people. Anyone over 30 were shitty. I left after 6months from the constant pawahara and racism due to lack of coherent brain cells.
Second company. Gaishi baby (Japan location turn 3 earlier this year). Nice people who work hard but too much restriction from global HQ, meaning constant lack of staff. Team lead “demanded” I start having 10 to 12hr days. I refused, contract ended at 10 months mark and she plus another lady made lies about me. Had almost no problems with everyone else, also I was excellent at what I did so when I left people start questioning her ability as a team leader. Meh.
Third company. Gaishi but been here long enough you can call them nikkei. Effiency is very much nikkei, average age is also very much nikkei. HQ tries to make it less nikkei though, I’d applaud them for the effort. Barely anyone in their 20s so アラフィフ superiors and senpai tries their best not to anger me. Also very meh.
Well I work for a Japanese company (incorporated and operates in Japan) however the owners aren’t Japanese. As such, work life balance is decent. For example, we work 8 hours including break as opposed to the usual 9, no need to speak in keigo at the office, tattoos are ok (even when talking with clients), boss is laid back etc.
Also, Of course there is lots of work to do and it’s super busy, however, overtime is always optional and there is absolutely no pressure from the boss to do any.
Ya the salary could be much better but tbh, I’ll take the relaxed work style over salary any day.
I work for an American multinational, only good things to say.
If you look for a gaishi with real work-life balance, go to European ones. I worked for an American and 3 European companies, it was always the European that has the best balance. Also, public vs private, I find private companies are more generous and relaxed.
Although the most PTO days I had was through a Japanese finance company. Whopping 34 days.
I’ve worked in Japanese, US, and European MNCs. Will probably avoid working for a Japanese firm in future. US firm was also pretty brutal culture wise. European MNC was absolutely the best culture-wise. The flexibility and work life balance is really great.
Wife works for an American company. Goes to the office about once a quarter. From what she tells me the office is like three closets and people only go for the hankos they keep in the safe. Everyone went WFH during covid and the US office decided to eliminate the office here. It only still exists because they need a physical address. It’s a billion dollar corporation with a few hundred employees in Japan.
I have worked at three Japanese companies and three gaishikei. The TLDR is gaishikei ones paid much better, but some Japanese companies are actually not so bad.
– My first two Japanese employers were actually my dispatch agency’s clients. I had very little autonomy, and was one of those so-called code-monkey. They would give me a detail design, and all I do is to turn those into code without thinking. Sometime I found places where I can improve the process, but almost all my suggestions were ignored. One case that stood out to me was when I proposed we use revision control instead of just zipping each version into a zip file, and all I received was the usual “we will think about it”. The salary was low too, I made the same amount as a combini clerk, with no bonus at all. And requesting PTO was a major pain, one guy from my team was scolded when he requested a sick day, because apparently it was his fault for not taking care of his health better. Having said that, I did not have to work much overtime, and my overtime work was fully paid, so that was nice.
– My third employer was a big and well know conglomerate, and the working condition there was actually very nice. I had 26 PTO days right from the start, two days working from home every week, and flexible time with core time between 10am and 3pm. Keep in mind that this is all before Covid too, so it was quite rare. The work itself was also very interesting, and it was there where I first dappled into AI/machine learning, I didn’t know that at the time, but this created a huge advantage for me when switching job even to this day. The only downside is they have a very rigid salary structure, and my starting salary, while higher than my first two jobs, was still not all that high. Even when my work was evaluated as outstanding, the raise I received was not all that different from someone who barely put in the effort. It was after one such evaluation meeting that I realized I need to switch job again if I were to meaningfully increase my income.
– My 4th employer was a SME, the Japanese branch of a mid-size US company in a pretty niche industry. This was my first time working for a gaishikei, and the first shock is how much better the pay, I more than doubled my income over night. And aside from that, my working condition hardly changed much. Sure I had remote working and flexible time, but like I mentioned, I already had that in my previous job. I even get less PTO days now, down to 15 days per year. The work there was actually pretty chill, with almost now pressure, as we only developed in-house services. Honestly, if I were older and close to retirement, they would be my perfect employer.
– After that, I jumped between two big-tech companies for my 5th and current employers. I received big salary bumps each time, but the biggest change was that since I have more senior role, I have full control over my output now, and come with that full responsibility over my day to day work. Honestly this tripped me up at first, because up until that point, I used to somewhat wait for instruction, but now I need to pro-actively looking for new things to do, new ideas to implement. But I got used to it after sometime, and now I would hate to go back to the old way.
All in all, I’m very content with my job now. But if I were still single and didn’t need much money, then even my employer no.3 would be an okay one.
Was working in a typical Japanese company but the salary and career progression was so bad I decided to go back to Australia. Found a great MNC and built my career there. Got to a good standing and requested to move to Japan. They’ve never really moved someone to another country when there was no need so there was a lot of things to go through. However with the support from the higher ups in Australia, I was able to move to Japan with a reduced pay from Australia but a very comfortable pay for Japan.
The company is in a very nice place in Tokyo and their office is beautiful.
Beers on tap, free barista coffee and free massages. Very lax when it comes to uniform and WLB is great.
My wife wanted us to live in Utsunomiya to be close to her parents. Told my company I’m going full WFH and they allowed it. I report to my manager in Australia as well as the COO in Japan and do work for the region.
I still come in to the office once a month for a few days. Just to meet up with the team during monthly meetings and have a drink and relax. Utsunomiya doesn’t really have anything compared to Tokyo haha
Enjoying my current situation right now
I think a lot of the conversation around “international” companies vs “Japanese” companies is overly simplified to the point of meaningless. There are definitely broad trends you can draw between the two categories like:
– higher base pay / unstable bonus structure vs more allowances / stable bonus structure
– common performance-based promotion vs common enrollment-based promotion
– specialist approach to career development vs generalist approach
– frequent job hopping acceptable vs infrequent job hopping / lifetime employment (see above)
But there are countless places that don’t align with these trends, and the idea that these two designations can tell you anything about a specific company (or department) culture towards work-life balance or managerial style is silly.
I interviewed at a number of well-known American tech companies in Japan who said they’ve been in business here for so long that the culture is “closer to 日系” (again, to whatever extent that means anything) whereas the global Japanese company I work at now hews much closer to stereotypes about international companies.
If anything, I think there’s a lot more to be said for having to do certain work tasks according to a dramatically different timezone/financial cycle that people don’t really talk about when they have this conversation.
I worked at a US Japan joint venture for over 5 years when I first started my career here. I then worked for the Japanese subsidiary of a large American software and IT services company. Both were run by Japanese management and cultural wise they are more Japanese than American. I had some really good coworkers but I didn’t really enjoy working there.
As a foreigner, there was very little upward mobility if you were hired locally. At my first company, there were a number of Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, French and Americans that were hired in Japan many have been working there for years. None of them made even to the Kacho position, even though some were definitely well qualified and spoke excellent Japanese. There was also 0 women(Japanese or foreign) managers out of 3k+ employees.
My 2nd company wasn’t any better. Most of the people work there were from elite Japanese schools. Again, in 2+ years I worked there, I’ve only known one or two locally hired foreigners made to the middle management. I dislike my 2nd company more. For some reason the culture of hostility against foreigners was stronger there.
In both companies, the foreigners that held higher positions were all expats sent from the U.S. side.
I was lucky. I left Japan and went to U.S. Got another degree and was hired by a US company. Corporate America has its own set of problems but I felt American companies are a lot more meritocratic. I got several promotions within years. I was sent back to Japan for a period of time representing US headquarters. Had I stayed in any of my old companies in Japan, I would probably still just be a senior engineer or something.
I enjoy working and living in Japan now a large part is because I’m not a local hire and I’m only here for a certain period of time. Even if I could, I would not work for a Japanese company or a Gaishikei. That’s just my experience.
I work for a gaishi MNC. I have experience with 3 Japanese companies and 2 gaishi.
The Japanese companies were not really that bad, but of course there are toxic teams and managers and those are hell on earth. The hours can be long but the work is also not typically all that difficult, expectations are relatively low probably because many Japanese managers have never seen high performing ICs.
The gaishi can also be hard work and long hours, and the culture is overall better, but there can still be some crappy people and teams. The biggest downside at a gaishi is that you’re pretty much by definition an overseas satellite office and opportunities for growth, leadership, promotion etc. will hit a ceiling orders of magnitude faster than if you were at the head office. On the other hand, not having a Japanese manager is a gigantic boon to growth. I’ve personally never experienced a competent Japanese manager, only a small handful who weren’t an active detriment.
The money however, dear lord. It is not even remotely close, at least in the tech space. OpenSalary shows that there is a small set of domestic companies that are putting up better offers these days (mostly the ones that work in English lmao), but back when I left my last Japanese company it was at least double depending on role and level. I had a colleague from one of my previous domestic companies who jumped from an IC to manager position when they switched to gaishi and got around 4x their pay.
International companies in Japan are usually focused on Japan and very inward facing and if here for a long time are very Japanized.
I work for a Japanese company that’s focused on the international market and it’s very outward focused, very international and my Japanese skills have diminished while here as one day I’m talking to Korea, next Australia, European countries, US or any other country all using English.
That’s all I have to add.
I’m not convinced they exist. I had a handful of friends who worked for American companies in Japan that paid very highly but the work/life balance was awful. The reason why they paid so highly is because you are expected to sell your soul to the company.
No thanks, I’ll stay at a Japanese company earning a decent standard wage and enjoying time with my family. Not being able to spend time with my kids isn’t worth $200k.
Worked with Japanese manufacturing company when I graduated for 8 months, then only gaishikei after.
I. Will. Never. Go. Back. To. Nikkei.
Of course there are no perfect company, but in general gaishi will have a more humane general working style.
In my experience what you have to be careful is that some gaishi would be similar to nikkei if it is majorly ran by Japanese entity and not so much ‘controlled’ by HQ. other that that, sky’s the limit.
Flexible time/wfh, reasonable overtime, paternity leave, etc. are the norm, at least in my experience.
I work for a European company and the management style as well as office culture is pretty much the same as “back home”. Flex time (come and go as you like), overtime paid from the very first hour, flat hierarchy, home office whenever I want, 2-3 weeks of consecutive holiday are no problem, option to work remotely for 4 weeks when I go back home,…
When I moved to Japan, I thought that I might only stay for 2-3 years because that’s how long I could endure a Japanese workstyle. Now, I am in the lucky position of living in Tokyo while working like I would back in Europe. I could not be more satisfied.
If you work for an international company, just make sure you don’t have traditional Japanese managers. Even an international company won’t put the effort into getting rid of them especially if those Japanese only way for them to do business in Japan.
Worked for semi Japanese owned company, I couldn’t last for a year after that I decided to never for a Japanese company
Have worked at a full Japanese startup.
Now I work at an American investment bank.
Pay and work life balance at gaishikei is wayyyy better. Die before I go back to a Japanese company – although a Japanese company will improve Japanese language skills a lot especially in the business sense related to your sector.
In short, better pay, better work life balance, easier to clock out, better vacation and time off.
I’ve worked for both Japanese and foreign companies here.
After I left my Japanese company (it wasn’t a black one, actually good company but the pay was bad) I joined a huge foreign company. But Japanese office had 15 people in Tokyo in Osaka in total and all employees were Japanese. I run away from there after a few months due to enormous working hours and because my boss harassed me badly (I literally told her one day I won’t come to work because I stopped sleeping and eating).
That company was super bad. If you have to report to Japanese management, not so different from Japanese companies. They just like to brag about being a foreign company and say all kind of bullshit about Japanese companies even tho many Japanese companies are way better.
Now I work for another foreign company and I’m happy. My boss isn’t Japanese but resides in Japan. We have many foreigners, Japanese employees speak English. What is important is that there is mutual respect between Japanese and non Japanese employees. Nobody brags about being foreign etc. We just do our work 🙂
Work life balance is good for Japan. Maybe not as good as in some European countries but I feel that we have better conditions than most companies in Japan.
I work for a multinational gaishikei. Big within it’s industry but in the 10,000 to 20,000 employee number so not that big for a multinational. Japan office is on the small side, and I work remotely.
Pluses:
* I work on global teams with people from all over the world.
* Little to no Japanese bureaucratic crap to deal with.
* The Japan office works much the same as the overseas offices. Everything done online. Almost no paper documents to deal with for anything.
* Pay is good, before the JPY took a giant crap my salary was on par with what I would be paid in the US for my role. By Japanese standards I am still extremely well paid for my role but it feels diminished because not all my expenses in are in JPY…
* PTO holidays are good. I get 6 weeks currently, plus all Japanese national holidays.
* Management structure is good.
* 100% remote work, very flexible work hours overall. No one gives any f#cks if I disappear for several hours to hit the gym or go out with my wife, as long as my work is getting done. Sometimes I take off an entire day without booking PTO and am just around in the evenings for my project team meetings.
* Work is often super quiet during American holiday periods. If they match up with EU holiday periods (ie around xmas), nothing is getting done at all. It’s like getting PTO without having to take PTO.
Minuses:
* Project meetings can be late evening for global teams. US morning, EU early afternoon, India early evening, Japan late evening… Time zones do not work in our favor.
* Japanese “unofficial” holiday periods such as obon, extended new years, extended golden week… Not a thing.
* I sometimes end up being used like a translator/interpreter which is not my job description. I can do it “well enough”, but I don’t enjoy it and find it tiring.
* People have little understanding of national holidays outside the US/EU areas. I can & do take my holidays, but occasionally I’ll get messages from people wondering where I am etc.
* Globally my company is very well known within its industry but within Japan, total nobody.
* People outside Japan often have little understanding of how things work in Japan. I can end up being a buffer to stop sh#t from going too far sideways.
Probably a few more pluses and minuses that I haven’t thought of. Overall I much prefer working for gaishikei than Japanese companies, and I’m unlikely to return to working for a Japanese company by choice.