14 Jobs in Japan for Foreigners

Petaris · 19 Apr 2013

Hi all,

I found this post of a website titled "14 jobs in Japan for Foreigners" and thought it might be a useful list for some of our new comers. It seems like a pretty decent list and it is something we seem to get questions about pretty often.

14 Jobs in Japan for Foreigners - Japan Talk

Note to Mods: Feel free to move this elsewhere if you feel it would be more appropriate.

Mike Cash · 19 Apr 2013

Sadly, some people are going to read that and think they can just fly over, step off the plane, and go to work at McDonald's.

Glenski · 19 Apr 2013

To add to what Mike wrote, I'll say this:

Sadly, few people are actually qualified for most of those 14 opportunities. Lots of newbies on this and other forums seem to have no degree or degrees and little/no work experience. Moreover, other than the English teaching job, most of the others also require a fairly high level of Japanese language skills (not just speaking, either), and practically all newbies that I've seen asking about work do not have them.

Do the jobs on that site exist? Yes.
Are they only in Japanese companies where Japanese is the only language? No.
Just keep in mind the necessity for using Japanese in Japan and the fact that you will have to compete against Japanese people for many of those jobs. Just being foreign is not always enough to have an edge. Sometimes it's a detriment.

#5 is made out to be far easier than it is. This is hard to land for most Japanese, let alone foreigners.
And, #9 is not entirely accurate.

Petaris · 20 Apr 2013

Mike Cash said:
Sadly, some people are going to read that and think they can just fly over, step off the plane, and go to work at McDonald's.

Sadly some people believe that without reading anything.

Petaris · 20 Apr 2013

Glenski said:
To add to what Mike wrote, I'll say this:

Sadly, few people are actually qualified for most of those 14 opportunities. Lots of newbies on this and other forums seem to have no degree or degrees and little/no work experience. Moreover, other than the English teaching job, most of the others also require a fairly high level of Japanese language skills (not just speaking, either), and practically all newbies that I've seen asking about work do not have them.

Do the jobs on that site exist? Yes.
Are they only in Japanese companies where Japanese is the only language? No.
Just keep in mind the necessity for using Japanese in Japan and the fact that you will have to compete against Japanese people for many of those jobs. Just being foreign is not always enough to have an edge. Sometimes it's a detriment.

#5 is made out to be far easier than it is. This is hard to land for most Japanese, let alone foreigners.
And, #9 is not entirely accurate.

True. I just thought that it might be a handy list. As you point out, most of these will require you to have Japanese, probably business level or better (JLPT N2 or more likely N1 for the curious), and of course whatever training is required for the position normally.

Also VERY IMPORTANT to note, YOU MUST GET THE PROPER VISA!!!

And some companies will only consider you if you already reside in Japan, and in some cases require you to already possess an appropriate VISA.

Mike Cash · 20 Apr 2013

Can you imagine how much needless blather we could save on this site if every time somebody made a post asking questions about their plan to move to Japan we first required them to show they meet the requirements for an appropriate visa?

Glenski · 20 Apr 2013

Petaris said:
True. I just thought that it might be a handy list. As you point out, most of these will require you to have Japanese, probably business level or better (JLPT N2 or more likely N1 for the curious), and of course whatever training is required for the position normally.

Also VERY IMPORTANT to note, YOU MUST GET THE PROPER VISA!!!

And some companies will only consider you if you already reside in Japan, and in some cases require you to already possess an appropriate VISA.

Considering how much of this info is not on that site, I don't see how you could call it a "handy" list. Pretty lacking, wouldn't you say? Having been on job forums for 15 years, I can safely say that lots of people, perhaps more in recent years, have no sense in doing the most basic of research into job requirements, and many people will assume or even demand that immigration should make allowances for their lack of qualifications. Such situations often lead to harsh discussion on forums. People just don't listen to reason.

tokkyo · 20 Apr 2013

It seems even English teachers need to speak Japanese these days for a decent job. In the past many teachers seemed to do OK without speaking any, because those teachers mainly worked at conversation schools. Last time I was in Japan though (2011) I noticed many of these schools hiring Filipino teachers, because their English is good enough that Japanese can't tell the difference (and objectively, their English is probably good enough for people going to conversation school), and more importantly they work for 1/2 the price of Western teachers and are already in Japan.

Petaris · 24 Apr 2013

Glenski said:
Considering how much of this info is not on that site, I don't see how you could call it a "handy" list. Pretty lacking, wouldn't you say? Having been on job forums for 15 years, I can safely say that lots of people, perhaps more in recent years, have no sense in doing the most basic of research into job requirements, and many people will assume or even demand that immigration should make allowances for their lack of qualifications. Such situations often lead to harsh discussion on forums. People just don't listen to reason.

I just felt it was a handy list of possible jobs. I didn't mean to imply that the page in question gave all the relevant information and requirements you would need to actually get the jobs listed. As both you and Mike have said before, you can get any job you want in Japan as long as you can find someone willing to hire you for it. How likely that is depends on many things though (skills in that field, VISA eligibility, language ability, location, etc.).

Glenski · 25 Apr 2013

It's visa, not VISA.

Petaris · 26 Apr 2013

Glenski said:
It's visa, not VISA.

Your right. Sorry, not sure why I was capitalizing it.

14 Jobs in Japan for Foreigners

Petaris

Sailing away...

Mike Cash

骨も命も皆此の土地に埋めよう

Glenski

Just me

Petaris

Sailing away...

Petaris

Sailing away...

Mike Cash

骨も命も皆此の土地に埋めよう

Glenski

Just me

tokkyo

先輩

Petaris

Sailing away...

Glenski

Just me

Petaris

Sailing away...

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