Career

The hard part of getting hired in Japan is rarely the interview. It is knowing which channel your kind of role is actually listed on, how much Japanese the job genuinely requires versus what the posting claims, and what a Japanese employment contract commits you to once you sign it.

Those are three different problems, and most people hit them in that order.

Each branch goes to the guide that covers that stage in depth.

1. 1

   Finding roles

   • I do not know where foreign-friendly roles are listed How engineers actually get hired in Japan Which channels carry which roles, and which ones waste your time. →
   • I am worried my Japanese is not good enough How much Japanese you really need The honest answer varies more by company type than by role. →
   • I work in AI or machine learning Japan’s push for AI talent →
   • I am open to living outside Tokyo The Fukuoka startup scene Lower cost of living, a real startup ecosystem, and a visa programme aimed at founders. →
   • I am already in Japan and between jobs Using HelloWork, the public employment office Also the route to unemployment benefits you have already paid into. →
2. 2

   You have an offer — before you sign

   • I need to understand what the contract commits me to Reading a Japanese employment contract Probation, fixed vs indefinite term, and the clauses that matter later. →
   • I want to know what the overtime expectations really are The 36 Agreement and overtime law Legal caps, premium pay rates, and what applies to you regardless of nationality. →
   • I need to check whether the salary is actually competitive Japan Salary Calculator Gross to net, so you can compare an offer against what you keep. →

What is different about hiring here

Job postings understate the Japanese requirement less often than they overstate it. A listing that says “business-level Japanese preferred” at a company with an English-speaking engineering team frequently means the team works in English and the HR process does not. The reverse — a posting advertising an English environment at a company where every internal document is Japanese — is the more expensive mistake. Ask what language code review and incident response happen in.

The offer stage is slower and more binding than you expect. Japanese employment contracts distinguish between fixed-term (有期) and indefinite (無期) employment, and the probation period has real consequences. This is the point to read carefully, not after you have given notice elsewhere.

Your visa follows your job offer, not the other way around. You generally cannot secure a work status first and then look. If you are still deciding which status applies to you, start at Which visa do I need? — the answer depends on the role you take.

Once you are in the door

Growth here is less driven by job-hopping than in many markets, but that is changing in tech specifically. The things that compound are Japanese ability past the conversational plateau, a documented record of scope rather than tenure, and — if you intend to stay — the residency clock running in the background.