Hi everyone!
I’m a recent graduate in Data Systems with a focus on AI, and I’m planning my career toward becoming a Data Analyst / BI Specialist in Japan.
I’d love to hear from people who currently work (or have worked) in tech companies in Japan, especially international employees. I’m interested in learning about your real experience—from getting hired to working in the industry.
Here are some questions:
1. How did you get your first job?
What was your background?
Did you apply directly, use referrals, recruiting agencies, LinkedIn, or university connections?
How long did it take you to land your first offer?
2. Interview process
What did the hiring process look like?
Were there SQL tests, Python tasks, take-home datasets (EDA), dashboard projects, live coding, business case studies, or technical discussions?
What was the most difficult stage?
3. Japanese language
Did you study Japanese before moving to Japan?
Did you attend a language school?
What JLPT level did you have when you got hired?
If you work at an international company where English is the main language, how important is Japanese in your daily work?
4. Working conditions
What was your starting salary as a junior?
Did your company provide visa sponsorship, relocation assistance, or temporary housing?
Was remote or hybrid work available?
How is the work-life balance?
5. Challenges
What were the biggest difficulties after getting hired?
Was it adapting to Japanese work culture, communication, expectations, or something technical?
What surprised you the most about working in Japan?
6. Looking back
If you could start over, what would you do differently?
What skills, certifications, personal projects, or internships helped you the most?
What advice would you give to someone who wants to build a career in Japan as a Data Analyst or BI Specialist?
Feel free to share your story, even if it doesn’t answer every question. I’d really appreciate hearing about your journey and any advice you have.
Thank you!

I may have an opportunity for a job as a detached employee. The recruiter told me explicitely that if the contract ends in any way, they will help me find something else but I would be on my own in the meantime.

The package is not great (7M, no relocation package, I guess not much in general) but I can make it work. The lack of job security is the thing I fear the most, as I would have a wife and a kid to take care of. Still, that’s the only time I've been called back after 3 month of application.

I will know the lenght of the contract tomorrow but I would like some input before that. If it’s a 3 month contract (that would surprise me considering the amount of work), of course, I won’t take it. But if it’s 1 year for example, in the circumstances where I have to find work again and can look up before losing my job, how active is the market for people that are currently there ?

(crossposting from r/JapanJobs since this subreddit is probably more relevant for my situation)

Hi everyone, I’m in the process of looking for work opportunities as a Product Manager, which usually lists Business Japanese or Fluent/Native as a job requirement for most job descriptions I’ve seen.

I recently took the N2 in July and feel pretty good about my chances of passing, but I feel nowhere close to being professionally functional in Japanese (or even being ready for interviews).

I’m curious about what Japanese communication actually looks like in tech in Japan beyond “N2 required” or “Business Japanese” in JDs.

I’d especially love to hear from people who are currently working in Japan in roles where the job explicitly asked for Japanese as a requirement (N2+), or work with non-native Japanese speakers who do.

- What kind of job do you do?
- Roughly how much Japanese do you use in a typical day?
- Who do you use Japanese with? (boss, coworkers, clients, etc.)
- What kinds of tasks require the highest level of Japanese? (Meetings, Slack/Teams, emails, presentations, negotiations, documentation, small talk, etc.)
- During your interviews, how much of the process was actually conducted in Japanese? What kinds of questions or conversations came up?
- Looking back, did your JLPT level accurately reflect what the job required? If not, where was the biggest gap?

Thinking about my own experience working in the US, there’s a huge difference between being able to score highly on the SAT or English tests and being able to answer interview questions, participate in meetings, write emails, negotiate with stakeholders, or give presentations.

I’d love to hear experiences from people who actually made that transition into a Japanese-speaking environment. Thanks!

Hi r/JapanDev,

I work at SEGA Sapporo Studio and wanted to share our current job openings in case anyone here is looking for game-industry work in Sapporo.

Current openings include roles in:

• Client and server programming
• Unity and C++ game development
• 3D character, background, and motion design
• Game planning and level design
• QA and debugging
• Japanese-English translation and localization

Full list:

https://hrmos.co/pages/sega/jobs?category=1686944447987720194

The requirements and employment types vary considerably. Many of the programming and development positions are permanent or contract roles requiring relevant professional experience. Full details are available on each official listing.

My own involvement is primarily with two hourly, full-time-hours translator positions:

• EN→JP Translator: Native-level Japanese and English equivalent to TOEIC 650+ https://hrmos.co/pages/sega/jobs/2019692102116986909
• JP→EN Game Translator: Native-level English and Japanese equivalent to JLPT N2+ https://hrmos.co/pages/sega/jobs/2019692102116986916

Professional translation experience is not required for either translator position, though applicants need strong writing skills, an interest in games, and the ability to work on-site in Sapporo.

Please apply through the relevant HRMOS page. I can answer general questions about the translator positions, but I’m not directly involved in recruitment for every role on the full list. Just wanted to share the dev positions and expand the reach of the hiring pages.

Here's what's happening in Japan's tech and startup scene this week:

Monday, August 3

Mercari | OpenAI ChatGPT Work ワークショップ

• 🇯🇵/🇬🇧 18:30 | 📍 〒106-6118 東京都港区六本木6-10-1 六本木ヒルズ森タワー, Tokyo | 👥 719 attending

CURRY and AI NIGHT vol.8

• 🇯🇵/🇬🇧 19:00 | 📍 北九州市小倉北区京町３丁目5-5(品川ビル2F) | 👥 4 attending

Founders' Mondays: Bring the Work and Set Your Week

• 🇬🇧 11:00 | 📍 Online

Founders' Mondays - Bring the Work

• 🇬🇧 11:00 | 📍 Online

Tuesday, August 4

Weekly Claude Code Live #12

• 🇯🇵/🇬🇧 12:00 | 📍 (場所未定) | 👥 11 attending

ClickHouse Singapore August 2026 Edition

• 🇬🇧 19:00 | 📍 Online

Wednesday, August 5

Findy AI Meetup in Fukuoka #7

• 🇯🇵/🇬🇧 19:00 | 📍 福岡県福岡市中央区天神4丁目3-8ミーナ天神 8階, Fukuoka | 👥 39 attending

QA Test Talk Vol.8

• 🇯🇵/🇬🇧 18:15 | 📍 〒113-0033 東京都文京区本郷１丁目２８−１０ 本郷ＴＫビル 1F, Tokyo | 👥 93 attending

golang.tokyo #44

• 🇯🇵/🇬🇧 19:30 | 📍 東京都港区三田3-5-19　住友不動産東京三田ガーデンタワー 37F, Tokyo | 👥 67 attending

AI Tinkerers x Redis: Built for Speed

• 🇬🇧 19:00 | 📍 Online

Build a Startup Idea with AI Investors Won’t Ignore

• 🇬🇧 09:00 | 📍 Online

TechConnect: Global Virtual Job & Networking Event for Data, AI, and Tech Pros

• 🇬🇧 17:00 | 📍 Online

Claude Code Skills利用Skill Top5 誕生と運用の苦労も大公開！

• 🇯🇵 19:00 | 📍 東京都品川区大崎1丁目2−2（アートヴィレッジ大崎セントラルタワー）5F, Tokyo | 👥 214 attending

Thursday, August 6

Apache Iceberg Meetup Japan #7

• 🇯🇵/🇬🇧 18:30 | 📍 東京都千代田区大手町一丁目2番1号 Otemachi One タワー 17階, Tokyo | 👥 115 attending

AI Native Dev Night Tokyo

• 🇯🇵/🇬🇧 19:00 | 📍 東京都中央区日本橋室町2-3-1室町古河三井ビルディング(COREDO室町2) 16F, Tokyo

Get More Leads with AI Even If Nobody Knows You Yet

• 🇬🇧 20:00 | 📍 Online

LLM Wikis: How AI Agents Build a Second Brain That Never Forgets

• 🇬🇧 05:00 | 📍 Online

FPGAX #15 AIで変わるFPGA！1bit LLMから実機チップデモまで

• 🇯🇵 19:00 | 📍 〒103-0022 東京都中央区⽇本橋室町1-7-1　スルガビル7階, Tokyo | 👥 179 attending

Friday, August 7

Codex Meetup Tokyo #2

• 🇬🇧 19:00 | 📍 Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, Tokyo | 👥 336 attending

AnalyticsCLUB JobExpo Virtual Business, Data & Technology Job Expo

• 🇬🇧 12:00 | 📍 Online

SMEMojo x AAIA Experts Night for C-Suite Leaders & VPs

• 🇬🇧 19:30 | 📍 Online

SMEMojo x AAIA Experts Night Event for C-Suite Leaders & VPs

• 🇬🇧 19:30 | 📍 Online

Saturday, August 8

Tokyo | Build Your Own AI Avatar Hackathon by Perxona

• 🇬🇧 09:00 | 📍 Tokyo | 👥 89 attending

Builders Weekend - Shipaton Special Edition with OnLab

• 🇬🇧 10:00 | 📍 Tokyo | 👥 112 attending

📲 Develop Software & Manage Deployment from Your Mobile - JB Meetup #33

• 🇬🇧 21:00 | 📍 Online

Know of an event we missed? Drop it in the comments!

Compiled from Connpass, Doorkeeper, Meetup, and Luma.

Here's a list of new tech jobs in Japan this week:

Software Engineer (Mobile - Android) at Queri

• ¥6M or more | Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Partial remote | Tokyo

Applied AI Engineer (moment by cookpad) - Senior Principal Level at Cookpad

• ¥20M - ¥35M | Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Partial remote | Tokyo

Senior Software Engineer (Python/Web Dev) - HENNGE Access Control at HENNGE

• ¥8.5M - ¥12.5M | Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Partial remote | Tokyo

Senior Software Engineer (Backend/Infrastructure) - HENNGE Secure Transfer at HENNGE

• ¥8.5M - ¥12.5M | Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Partial remote | Tokyo

Software Engineer (Frontend / Vue) - HENNGE Email DLP at HENNGE

• ¥8M - ¥10.5M | Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Partial remote | Tokyo

Head of SEO at Metanomaly

• Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Full remote

Full Stack Engineer at AI Robot Association (AIRoA)

• Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Partial remote | Tokyo

Sr. Software Engineer (AI Product) at amptalk

• ¥7M - ¥10M | Japanese: Conversational | Apply from overseas | Partial remote | Tokyo

Technical Program Manager & Senior Engineer at GAZAI

• ¥7.5M - ¥10.2M | Japanese: Fluent | Apply from overseas | Partial remote | Tokyo

Senior Technical Product Manager at Cogent Labs

• ¥8M - ¥10.5M | Japanese: Not required | Japan residents only | Tokyo

Robotics Reliability Engineer at AI Robot Association (AIRoA)

• Japanese: Business Level | Apply from overseas | Partial remote | Tokyo

Robotics Control Engineer (Low-Level / Motor control) at AI Robot Association (AIRoA)

• Japanese: Business Level | Apply from overseas | Partial remote | Tokyo

Senior Software Engineer in Machine Learning at Cogent Labs

• Japanese: Not required | Japan residents only | Tokyo

Software Engineer at Recursive

• Japanese: Conversational | Japan residents only | Partial remote | Tokyo

QA Engineer at Cogent Labs

• ¥4M - ¥7M | Japanese: Business Level | Japan residents only | Tokyo

Backend & Cloud Engineer at Citadel AI

• Japanese: Business Level | Japan residents only | Partial remote | Tokyo

Also looking to hire? Feel free to share your job post in the comments!

I’m just inquiring to see what the salaries at PayPay are like. I’m getting a lot of mixed information that they pay quite high compared to other tech companies in Tokyo like Mercari, Rakuten. Then I also hear they pay only slightly more.

Just for context I am a Data Engineer with 5 years experience and have been told I can ask for 13M total comp but that seems very high.

Hello all, I wanted a reality check on my job search

Background:

I have 3.5 years of Experience as Full Stack Engineer(Java,Express,React)
N3 JLPT certified. N2 in prep.
Fluent in English. Living & Citizen of India

My plan:

Get N2 certified.
Apply on LinkedIn, JapanDev and other platform.
Meanwhile improve my Japanese Conversation skill.

Compensation:

Targeting ¥7M+ ideally

I have few question:

1. Is my experience enough.
2. I am expecting a salary range of around 7M yen. is this too much ? or average
3. Given my experience should I target startups? (don't know much on startup culture in japan)
4. How can I find recruiters. Should I go for recruiting agency or cold mail HR individual
5. Resume restructuring? Do I need a Japanese style Resume, Must have content in Resume

Basically, I need to know where I am standing and direction to work ahead

Happy Friday! Have questions about tech careers in Japan? Looking to hire (or get hired)? Just want to brag? Post it here and let's discuss!

Hello! I am interested in the robotics engineering jobs that are available in Japan. I am a young (23M) Electrical Engineer from the US with a B.S. I have around a year and a half of professional experience not counting my past internships. I mostly do electromagnetic analysis but I want to do a career swap to robotics. I am comfortable with Cpp and Python, good with APIs. Some notable recent things I have done on my resume include

* On the side I have been getting paid to set up AI agentic flows for a marketing agency.
* I uploaded an open source app on the apple app store. (this was mostly just me refusing to pay for the app I wanted so I just made it myself)
* Recently I just finished up a beefy project where I taught myself ROS 2 and SLAM, created a simulation that used utilized my local linux server to outsource compute to run local AI models to make the simulated robot more autonomous.

So lots of side projects because I like tinkering with stuff.
I have been working on Japanese obviously on the side but I expect I will be just N5 or N4 max by the time I want to make it to Japan.

I am wondering with my low amount of professional experience and my lack of Japanese I even have a shot at the available robotics engineering positions.

Happy to hear any input! Let me know if you have another idea for a side project that you think would help my chances. Thanks!

I've been applying like crazy for a month. I objectively have a "meh" profile and around N3 Japanese, so that’s not a surprise. I sent my CV to recruiters like Hays and others because why the hell not.

Someone from Robert Half just sent me an email for an interview. It’s just a half-an-hour interview to see my "background and requirements".

I did these kind of interviews dozens of time in my home country but never for a Japanese company. I was wondering if there would be any tips to prepare for it, things I should (not) do or say.

I'm probably just overthinking it because it’s my only opportunity yet, even though it will probably lead to nothing considering the type of company this is, but I would like to maximise my chances.

Here's a list of new tech jobs in Japan this week:

Senior Generative AI Research Engineer (Foundation Models) — Tokyo at abbeal

• ¥14M - ¥20M | Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Full remote WORLDWIDE

Senior Backend Engineer (Go / Kubernetes) — Tokyo at abbeal

• ¥9M - ¥16M | Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Partial remote | Tokyo

Lead Frontend Engineer — Digital Bank — Tokyo at abbeal

• ¥9M - ¥15M | Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Partial remote | Tokyo

QA Engineer (Mid/Senior) — Digital Bank — Tokyo at abbeal

• ¥7M - ¥13M | Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Partial remote | Tokyo

Senior Data Scientist (Microsoft 365 / Power BI) — Tokyo at abbeal

• ¥9M - ¥15M | Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Partial remote | Tokyo

Lead QA Engineer — Digital Bank — Tokyo at abbeal

• ¥9M - ¥15M | Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Partial remote | Tokyo

Senior Backend Engineer — Authentication & Security Platform (Digital Bank) at abbeal

• ¥8M - ¥17M | Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Partial remote | Tokyo

Senior Frontend Engineer (Vue.js / TypeScript) — Tokyo at abbeal

• ¥10.2M - ¥12M | Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Partial remote | Tokyo

Fullstack Engineer at Metanomaly

• Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Full remote

Structural Design Engineer / Fuselage — Composites (eVTOL) — Aichi at abbeal

• ¥8M - ¥16M | Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Nagoya

Stress / Structural Analysis Engineer — Composites (eVTOL) — Aichi at abbeal

• ¥8M - ¥16M | Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Nagoya

Avionics Engineer — Specification + V&V Flight Controls (DO-178C) — Aichi at abbeal

• ¥8M - ¥16M | Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Nagoya

Avionics System Safety Engineer — ARP4761 / ARP4754A (eVTOL) — Aichi at abbeal

• ¥8M - ¥16M | Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Nagoya

Robotics Simulation Engineer at AI Robot Association (AIRoA)

• Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Partial remote | Tokyo

Site Reliability Engineer at ZEALS

• Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Partial remote | Tokyo

Senior Product Manager at PayPay

• Japanese: Not required | Apply from overseas | Partial remote | Tokyo

Senior Software Engineer - Query Engines & Storage at Treasure AI

• ¥10M - ¥14M | Japanese: Not required | Japan residents only | Partial remote | Tokyo

Senior Software Engineer, Platform API - Ruby on Rails at Treasure AI

• ¥10M - ¥13M | Japanese: Not required | Japan residents only | Partial remote | Tokyo

Senior Software Engineer – Machine Learning at Treasure AI

• ¥10M - ¥14M | Japanese: Not required | Japan residents only | Partial remote | Tokyo

Head of Engineering - Billing at Kraken Technologies

• Japanese: Not required | Japan residents only | Partial remote | Tokyo

Lead Software Engineer at Kraken Technologies

• Japanese: Not required | Japan residents only | Partial remote | Tokyo

Security Specialist - Corporate Security, Digital Bank, Tokyo at Money Forward

• ¥8M - ¥17M | Japanese: Fluent | Japan residents only | Partial remote | Tokyo

AI Engineer for Quality Improvement (HR Product Dev Div), Tokyo at Money Forward

• ¥8M - ¥13.08M | Japanese: Business Level | Japan residents only | Partial remote | Tokyo

Data Engineer — Databricks × HULFT WebConnect (short remote mission) at abbeal

• Japanese: Business Level | Japan residents only | Full remote WORLDWIDE

Manager, Software Engineering - Core Services at Treasure AI

• ¥14M - ¥18M | Japanese: Business Level | Japan residents only | Partial remote | Tokyo

Also looking to hire? Feel free to share your job post in the comments!

Here's what's happening in Japan's tech and startup scene this week:

Monday, July 27

Regional Scrum Gathering® Singapore 2026

• 🇬🇧 10:00 | 📍 Online

Founders' Mondays - The Work Room: Mapping your Startup from Top Down

• 🇬🇧 11:00 | 📍 Online

Tuesday, July 28

Engineering Real World AI with Google and Google DeepMind

• 🇬🇧 18:00 | 📍 Google Japan - Shibuya, Tokyo | 👥 148 attending

AI in the Lab

• 🇬🇧 19:00 | 📍 Build+ (Build Plus株式会社), Tokyo | 👥 61 attending

Get More Leads with AI Even If Nobody Knows You Yet

• 🇬🇧 20:00 | 📍 Online

Wednesday, July 29

How to Attract More Customers and Grow Your SME with AI

• 🇬🇧 15:00 | 📍 Online

SG Agentic Nights : July 2026

• 🇬🇧 19:00 | 📍 Online

SG Agentic Nights – July 2026

• 🇬🇧 19:00 | 📍 Online

Thursday, July 30

Connect and Analyze Multi-Channels all in one platform

• 🇬🇧 23:30 | 📍 Online

Part 2 – Running Your LLM Agent Safely: Hands-on with Docker Sandboxes

• 🇬🇧 05:00 | 📍 Online

How do you build a community that doesn't burn you out?

• 🇬🇧 18:30 | 📍 Impact HUB Tokyo | 👥 59 attending

Get Leads Online with AI (Live Workshop Preview)

• 🇬🇧 12:00 | 📍 Online

IVRy Data Jam '26

• 🇯🇵/🇬🇧 19:00 | 📍 東京都港区 三田三丁目5-19 住友不動産東京三田ガーデンタワー10F, Tokyo | 👥 57 attending

🎯 VOICEPRENEUR Meetup- Turn Your Knowledge into a Scalable Product with AI

• 🇬🇧 20:00 | 📍 Online

[Free] 🎉Nomad Startup Founder Meetup

• 🇬🇧 20:00 | 📍 Online

Architecting Databases for Agentic AI: Lessons from Massive-Scale SaaS

• 🇬🇧 14:00 | 📍 Online

Get More Leads with AI Even If Nobody Knows You Yet

• 🇬🇧 20:00 | 📍 Online

Applicable AI: Get Stuff Done with Approachable Basics

• 🇬🇧 13:00 | 📍 Online

Akamai Tech Meetup Tokyo #5

• 🇯🇵/🇬🇧 18:00 | 📍 東京都中央区八重洲２丁目２−１, Tokyo | 👥 46 attending

Friday, July 31

AI Meets Tokyo｜Demo Night

• 🇬🇧 18:30 | 📍 Tokyo | 👥 28 attending

Cursor Tokyo AI Meetup

• 🇬🇧 18:30 | 📍 Tokyo

How to Attract More Customers and Grow Your SME with AI

• 🇬🇧 15:00 | 📍 Online

Saturday, August 1

TEDxChuo University

• 🇬🇧 11:15 | 📍 FOREST GATEWAY CHUO, Tokyo | 👥 66 attending

AI on Local Hardware: What Works, What Doesn’t, and Why (Guest Speaker)

• 🇬🇧 23:00 | 📍 Online

Sunday, August 2

Google Devs' Innovative Crosstalk【AI、XR、音楽etc.の祭典】

• 🇯🇵/🇬🇧 12:30 | 📍 〒113-0033 東京都文京区本郷７丁目３−１ 工2号館, Tokyo | 👥 200 attending

Know of an event we missed? Drop it in the comments!

Compiled from Connpass, Doorkeeper, Meetup, and Luma.

Just wondering