Looking for some perspective. Do you actually regularly use Japanese, how much and how much is ***honestly*** necessary in your job? Particularly non-sales roles.
I’m dealing with something at work. In my prior company (now some years ago), I was head of a department and later a regional director. At best, I was conversational -like an N3 I suppose – and I rarely used Japanese for work purposes. We launched a localized product, we did bilingual press releases – very successful team. Flash forward and post-redundancy (also several years ago) I’m a product manager in another company. I am told I am not being considered for head of product because they want near native level or native even though most of our products are English-language. Even though I actually use Japanese now where necessary, and have a track record in a similar role. It seems like the bar is being set very high to keep the team all Japanese. Am I paranoid? A bit of a legacy dinosaur?
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You need to learn the language of the country you are living in. That is not a high bar.
My job at a Japan market focused gaishikei (managerial level and above) requires me to communicate with customers, management and coworkers in fluent Japanese although 10-20-% of the work we do is in English with overseas counterparties.
My North American colleague of similar age is having trouble moving past junior role in part because his Japanese isn’t fluent enough.
I barely use it as I manage projects outside of Japan. I can go a whole week without using any japanese at work. My director is Japanese but speaks fluent english. When I try to speak to him in Japanese, he speaks back to me in English so it got a little weird so I just use english with him.
I am severely hamstrung by my lack of Japanese in terms of ability to deal with staff with limited English capability, suppliers with the same, negotiate better deals with contract manufacturers who also have the same, etc.. The good news is I had freedom before COVID/the new don’t export tech that can be used to manufacture semiconductors <14nm to China policy fucked me in terms of getting additional headcount to hire people who had those skills and were very good at the jobs I needed them to do. Now I mostly deal with high level integration projects and interfacing with the rest of the global organization other people who are better/more capable at the other parts of my old job now take those roles on.
>Flash forward and post-redundancy (also several years ago) I’m a product manager in another company. I am told I am not being considered for head of product because they want near native level or native even though most of our products are English-language.
They’re literally telling you the job requirements and that you do not meet them. This is something you can actually address. They’re giving you an opportunity if you chose to take it.
>Even though I actually use Japanese now where necessary, and have a track record in a similar role. It seems like the bar is being set very high to keep the team all Japanese. Am I paranoid? A bit of a legacy dinosaur?
No, it seems you do not meet the requirements of the job you want.
Several stints as executive and managing director at some very, very big Japanese companies (you’ve all heard of them). Managing dozens and dozens of people.
The more people you manage – in particular, the more native Japanese staff you manage – the more you *need to be fluent in Japanese.* The bigger the department, the more likely it is that you’ll need people in roles that don’t require English, and it is inherently unfair for staff to be unable to speak with any manager they report to.
That you think you should be considered for the role despite not meeting the requirements – ie, speaking the language of the people reporting to you – disqualifies you for the position, as far as I’m concerned.
I’m the only non-Japanese person in my company and only a couple of the Japanese staff speak English. I’m not usually directly involved with Japanese customers but I have to be able to communicate effectively with the Japanese staff in my role as a manager, so Japanese is essential.
How could you possibly work in a management role without speaking Japanese? It doesn’t matter if the company is headquartered in Japan or a foreign country, you’re working in the Japan branch where many of their employees are Japanese; you need to communicate with them. Even if the role were to only require you to use Japanese 5% of the day that 5% is still extremely important and if you can’t do that you’re not qualified for the job.
And since you brought it up, don’t worry about the JLPT because that’s not what they’re looking for. They want you to be at a level which is higher than what the JLPT covers, and they want you to be able to communicate effectively which is not something that the JLPT even tests for. Quite frankly I don’t understand why you even mentioned the JLPT because it’s completely irrelevant to this topic.
They want you to be fluent in Japanese. That doesn’t mean perfect and that does not mean that you have to be as good as a native, but that means being able to communicate smoothly and articulately; and you currently do not fit that description therefore you do not qualify for the job.