Im only asking this because I saw countless posts on reddit of people wanting to go from english teaching to IT, many of them seemed to be success stories. So how were they able to do it? Mind you I have no experience in the field by I have comptia a+, however useless it may be in japan.

I’m a senior backend engineer in my late 50s with nearly 20 years of experience, mainly in Java/Kotlin backend development, distributed systems, AWS, and enterprise systems.

Since the summer of 2024, I had been in the U.S. trying to find work, but the market became extremely difficult and opportunities more or less disappeared for me. Eventually, I decided to return to Japan in 2025, my wife’s home country.

I knew finding work here would not be easy:

• I’m in my late 50s
• My Japanese is limited to daily conversation
• Professionally, I work almost entirely in English

As expected, it took me around 4 months to find work. By pure luck, a recruiter eventually contacted me and I was able to get a contract role at a large Japanese company.

Unfortunately, that contract is expected to end around July, and since April I’ve been actively job searching again. So far, I’m mostly getting rejected or hearing nothing back at all.

At this point, I honestly feel uncertain about what my long-term path should be.

I still need stable work for family reasons, and I’m trying to figure out whether I should continue pursuing senior backend engineering / IC roles, or whether I should start thinking about a different direction entirely.

I still enjoy engineering itself. I like building systems, solving problems, collaborating with other engineers, and mentoring or sharing knowledge when I can. But I also realize the market changes quickly, especially for older engineers.

If anyone here has gone through something similar — especially experienced engineers, expats, or people who reinvented themselves later in their careers — I’d genuinely appreciate hearing your experiences or advice.

We are an IT company that takes on projects all over Japan. We are always short on engineers and so we like to keep a list of resumes we can contact once we get projects since we can't really predict when the projects will be coming.

Now sometimes we dont contact right away but we do reach out once we have need of someone. If you are interested, please DM and I can send more info.

For reference, our jobs are better suited for entry level guys or people who want to get their foot in the door working in Japan. Pay is around 300,000 - 400,000 yen depending on experience.

Also, we do not sponsor visas.

Hi All,

I'm curious on how realistically I might be able to get a job in the future at an older age, mainly with the goal of obtaining permanent residency.

I'm an IT consultant in my late 30's, primarily working in project management capacity the past 7+ years. I'm not a software engineer or much of a coder (it's been a long time since I coded in school lol). I currently have N2 and working on N1 at some point. I've travelled to Japan many times and completely understand that visiting and living there are different experiences. I've always wanted to try working and living there, but I'm in a high cost of living area so got used to working in my native country. I'm comfortable with my current job and looking to stay until early 50's to essentially complete building the retirement nest egg. My employer does have JP offices, but I haven't been able to transfer (there was a solid opportunity before, but unfortunately fell through).

I started looking into JP properties on a whim, thinking about maybe eventually buying a vacation home down the line since I foresee spending a good amount of time in JP in retirement. That got me thinking about maybe wrapping up my career in JP to get PR and flexibility for length of stays, but I'm not sure how realistically companies would sponsor and hire a 50 year old lol.

I don't think I'd really care about location or job type since it would be semi-short term, but I would be looking at needing ￥10M+ salary in order to hit 80pts on the PR calculator (if I'm not able to get N1 by then) to ideally meet PR requirements after 1 year and get approval for PR. I'm not sure how often people get rejected for PR if they meet the points threshold. I know Tech industry changes very quick, especially with AI now, so who knows what things will be like in 10+ years, but curious about any insights you have. Thanks!

our software codebase is currently being ingested into an AI system. it was announced that the company would be restructuring at some point this year, and the in-house software engineers (at least the senior members) would be taking on a more advisory role to the external contractor engineers, who would continue doing the actual implementations. 

as part of the restructure, not all in-house engineers are guaranteed a job. as a more junior member (seishain), I need advice on what to do to prepare for whatever scenario. legal, career, practical - whatever advice is welcome.

and if anyone else is in a similar boat i’d like to hear about your situation as well.

My company applied for my Engineer/Specialist in Humanities COE before April 24, but I’ve been really anxious after hearing about the new language-related scrutiny.

My role doesn’t require Japanese, but almost everyone in the company, including the CEO, only speaks Japanese, and I’d be just their second foreign employee as the company is globalising. And I don’t hold valid JLPT as per new rule.

Has anyone been in a similar situation recently?
Did immigration question the language/work environment part?
Will I get my COE approved or not?

Hey everyone,

I just passed Round 1 for a QA Automation Engineer role at PayPay.

Round 2 is scheduled for next week, If anyone has interviewed here or works at PayPay as an QA Automation Engineer, what should I expect?

Is it pure LeetCode, or more focused on Low-Level Design and framework architecture? Any specific topics or recent questions you can share?

Thanks for your help

HI everyone,

I'm currently looking into the realities of job hunting in Japan for international professionals and English speakers. We all know the classic advice ("just get N2/N1"), but I want to know about the actual, specific bottlenecks you face during the process.

If you are currently job hunting or have successfully navigated the process recently, what has been the most frustrating part for you?

For example:

• The Application / Screening Stage: Getting constantly ghosted or rejected at the CV/ Resume/ES (Entry Sheet) stage without knowing why.

• Interviews: Dealing with rigid corporate interview styles, vague questions, or unrealistic expectati regarding language/cultural fit.

• Information Scarcity: The absolute nightmare of finding honest corporate reviews (since sites like OpenWork/vorkers are mostly in Japanese, and Glassdoor has limited data on Japanese firms).

• Recruiters: Mixed experiences with Japanese vs. international recruitment agencies.

Whether you're applying from overseas or already living here, l'd love to hear your raw experiences, rants, or any specific "I wish I knew this before" moments.

Thank you in advance for sharing your stories!

Hey everyone,

Looking for some advice from people who have experience with Japan job hunting.

My situation:

• Lived and worked in Japan before
• Have JLPT N2
• Currently overseas
• Have a re-entry permit expiring soon
• Background in digital marketing and CRM management
• Also running my own small agency remotely

My dilemma:

Option 1 — Fly back to Japan and job hunt from there

• Visa already active
• Can attend interviews in person
• But minimum 2-3 months expenses before landing a job
• Limited savings currently

Option 2 — Stay overseas and apply remotely

• Save money while applying
• But lose current work visa
• Would need company sponsorship for new visa
• Longer process

Questions:

• Is in-person job hunting significantly better than applying from overseas for Japan?
• How long realistically does job hunting take with N2 + work experience?
• Does having N2 make company sponsorship easier to get?
• Is it worth spending savings to job hunt from Japan directly?

Any advice from people with similar experience would be really helpful!

Hi everyone, I’m the HR person handling recruitment at a hospitality staffing company in Japan. We support hotels, restaurants, and food service businesses in Tokyo, Fukuoka, Osaka, and more. Foreign applicants and non‑Japanese speakers are welcome for many roles.

Visa Information

Visa sponsorship is available for:

• Hotel Front Desk
• All Permanent Roles

Contract Information (Dispatch Roles)

Dispatch (haken) positions are generally medium‑ to long‑term contracts. Our clients will review the possibility of converting a dispatch staff member into a permanent employee after they have worked for at least one year, depending on performance, attendance, and business needs.

Dispatch Roles (Chance to convert to permanent)

1. Kitchen Staff – Banquet (Azabudai, Tokyo)Pay: ¥1,700 | Hours: 9:00–21:00 (8h) | Req: 3+ yrs kitchen exp / Basic JP
2. Demi/Commis Chef – Hotel Restaurant (Chiyoda‑ku, Tokyo)Pay: ¥1,800 | Hours: 6:00–23:00 (6–8h) | Req: 3+ yrs kitchen exp
3. Room Service Attendant – Hotel (Chiyoda‑ku, Tokyo) Pay: ¥1,600 | Hours: 6:00–23:00 (6–8h) | Req: Hotel service exp
4. Hotel Front Desk (Night Shift) – Ginza, Tokyo Pay: ¥1,600–¥2,000 | Hours: 18:00–10:00 (1 work day → 2 days off) | Req: Hotel service exp / N2+
5. Hotel Front Desk (Night Shift) – Hakata, Fukuoka Pay: ¥1,600–¥2,000 | Hours: 18:00–10:00 (1 work day → 2 days off) | Req: Hotel service exp / N2+
6. Hotel Front Desk (Night Shift) – Tenjin, Fukuoka Pay: ¥1,600–¥2,000 | Hours: 18:00–10:00 (1 work day → 2 days off) | Req: Hotel service exp / N2+

Permanent Roles

1. Hotel Front Desk – Senior (Hakata, Fukuoka) Annual: From¥3,500,000 to ¥5,000,000 | Hours: Shift (7:00–16:00 / 13:00–22:00) | Req: Hotel service exp / N2+
2. Hotel Front Desk – Senior (Namba, Osaka )Annual: From¥3,500,000 to ¥5,000,000 | Hours: Shift (7:00–16:00 / 13:00–22:00) | Req: Hotel service exp / N2+
3. Hotel Manager (Asakusa, Tokyo) Annual: From ¥5,700,000 to ¥6,400,000 | Hours: Shift (7:00–16:00 / 13:00–22:00) | Req: Hotel service exp / N2+
4. CRM System IT – Senior Officer (Akasaka, Tokyo) Annual: From ¥4,000,000 to ¥5,500,000 | Hours: 09:00–18:00 | Req: PMS/OTA exp / N2+
5. Senior Digital Marketing Officer (Akasaka, Tokyo) Annual: From ¥4,000,000 to ¥5,500,000 | Hours: 09:00–18:00 | Req: Hotel brand digital marketing exp / N2+
6. Senior Accounting Officer (Akasaka, Tokyo) Annual: From ¥4,500,000 to ¥5,500,000 | Hours: 09:00–18:00 | Req: Accounting system exp / Hotel accounting exp / N2+

Apply

Send your resume to tam@wish55.jp

Hello everyone!
I am a 16-year-old female and moved to Tokyo last month. I am currently looking for a part-time job to help cover my expenses.
I am half-Japanese and hold Japanese citizenship. I can speak and write in Japanese, but I am still studying to improve my skills and prepare for the JLPT.
I would really appreciate it if anyone could recommend the best job search apps or websites for someone in my situation. Thank you so much for your help

Wanted to get some realistic data points from people in Tokyo finance tech.

I’m currently in the final stage of interviews for a Citi Japan AVP technology role (frontend/UI lead side), and the latest discussion was mostly around compensation structure, relocation, housing allowance, etc.

Profile:
- 8+ YOE
- React / Angular / TypeScript
- UI architecture + frontend ownership
- International relocation candidate

Trying to understand what is realistically expected in Tokyo for this level:

- Typical AVP tech base salary range?
- Bonus % range in global banks?
- Is ¥15M–20M total comp realistic?
- How much of compensation is usually housing allowance vs base?

Would especially appreciate insights from people at Citi / JPM / MS / other finance firms in Tokyo.

Thanks!
(Used chat gpt for writing the post after explaining it what I wanted to ask)

I'm trying to escape my 'black' company and haven't had much luck applying to jobs through LinkedIn, individual company portals, and that kind of thing. Massive amount of effort just to apply, creating usernames and passwords everywhere, filling in the online forms with the same information over and over, drop-down menus that never include your situation; requests for copies of all kinds of personal information; companies never want to reveal their salary range. There are always dozens of applicants for every position so you're doing all this with extremely low odds of getting anything out of it.

My wife has always found work through a temporary agency and keeps recommending that I find a job that way, so I finally signed up. It's been a breath of fresh air, at least so far!

Signup didn't take that long; there were checkboxes where you could indicate what skills you have; no intrusive requests for proof of anything aside from your visa situation. Within 24 hours of signing up, I got a call from an agent who had a job she wanted to place me in immediately. I wasn't quite ready to commit so soon, but it was a pleasant surprise.

Most welcome was how salaries are posted up-front for every single position. The agent even told me that the market rate for English-Japanese bilinguals doing office work is about 1800 yen per hour, so that's what I should expect. You can straight-up tell them that you want to make X yen per hour or you won't sign; you can specify hours, location, anything. (They're very accustomed to working with mothers who need to plan around childcare and such.)

It was a great phone call after months of frustration with direct-applying and dealing with recruiters. Sure, the salaries aren't amazing and there's not as much employment stability, but knowing that you can probably have a job within a week if your skills match up is such a relief. Am I missing something, or is this a great shortcut to finding employment? I wish I had looked into getting hired this way sooner!

[Hiring] Le Foyer Ebisu is a cozy French bistro and wine bar located in the vibrant heart of Tokyo, just minutes from Ebisu Station. Our concept is built around authentic French regional cuisine, a warm "home-away-from-home" atmosphere, and our unique specialty: Fouée, a traditional wood-fired-style pocket bread from the Loire Valley, baked fresh to order and served piping hot.

To support our growing team, we are looking for a passionate, rigorous, and driven Line Cook / Chef de Partie to join our close-knit kitchen brigade!

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES:

Working in an open-kitchen environment (25 seats), your duties will include:

• Mise en Place & Service: Preparing appetizers, main courses (bistro classics, homemade charcuterie, slow-cooked dishes), and traditional desserts.
• Oven Mastery: Shaping and baking our signature "Fouée" bread live in front of our guests.
• Kitchen Management: Managing stock, monitoring inventory, and maintaining strict hygiene and food safety standards.
• Creativity: Contributing ideas for weekly specials and seasonal menu changes.

 YOUR PROFILE:

• Experience: A first experience before of couple month is required
• Skills: Solid mastery/interest of classic French culinary techniques (sauces, jus, knife skills, precise cooking temperatures). Comfort working with raw, fresh ingredients.
• Mindset: Positive attitude, strong team player, autonomous, and comfortable working in an open kitchen facing an international and Japanese clientele.
• Languages: Fluency in English or French is required to communicate with our multicultural team. Conversational Japanese is required.
• Visa: You must already hold a valid visa allowing you to work in Japan (Working Holiday, Working Visa, Permanent Resident, etc.).

 WHAT WE OFFER:

• Contract Type: Full-time.
• Location: Ebisu, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo (a 8-minute walk from Ebisu Station).
• Schedule: Mainly dinner service, with lunch service from Wednesday to Sunday.
• Work Environment: A supportive, international, and creative team where your autonomy and growth are encouraged.
• Compensation: Competitive salary, negotiable based on profile and experience.

 HOW TO APPLY?

Please send your resume/CV (in English or French) along with a short introductory message to:

 Email: contact@lefoyer-ebisu.com / Instagram:@le.foyer.ebisu / Website:www.lefoyer-ebisu.com

Come join a unique culinary adventure in the heart of Tokyo! 

Hi everyone, my wife and I called Tokyo Regional Immigration Services Bureau today to ask about the status of my online spouse COE application since it’s already been taking quite a long time. The person on the phone told us that the application is already “finished/completed,” but they didn’t directly say if it was approved or denied.

We’re really anxious because I had a previous COE denial before, so now we’re overthinking what this could mean.

We still haven’t received the official email or notification through the online system yet.

Has anyone here experienced the same thing before? If immigration told you your application was “finished,” did it end up being approved? And how long did it take before you got the actual result after that?

Hi everyone.

I recently joined Reddit, so my karma is still very low.

I am interested in Japan, Japanese companies, and future job opportunities there. Right now I am trying to improve my skills step by step.

For people already living or working in Japan:

What was the hardest part at the beginning?

Language?
Finding work?
Culture difference?
Visa process?

I would love to hear your real experience.

Thank you.

I am currently a first year Film/TV directing student in Romania and I've been working in television for almost 2 years as a video editor. I am an N5 level japanese (I want to take the n4 exam this year). My plan is to finish university (around 2028) , and then find a job in television in Japan. What are my odds? What should I prepare?

Any tips/Advice for finding said jobs?

Are there some better and similar alternatives I should consider?

For a while now I've considered that I'd like to move to Japan at some point in my life. I started to get to the point where I was thinking I'd like to move within a couple of years and began doing heavier research. My spirit was crushed when I realized that getting a Bachelor's Degree seems to be a baseline requirement for finding work in Japan, as I never thought I would need this. I'm currently 26, and if I enroll in a community college this year, I will be 27 by the time the semester starts. I live in The United States.

I have a fair bit of money saved up. Going to college is certainly doable for me, and moving to Japan is a very important goal for me. That said, I really don't want to invest years of my time and thousands of dollars going to college just for the chance to find a job in Japan, only for it to lead nowhere. My standard for finding a job in Japan would not be particularly high. Anything I could take that could lead to long term residency would be just fine with me. If being an English teacher is the best bet, that does sound like work I would enjoy.

Because I would be starting on this degree somewhat late, I have a lot of fear that this might look bad to a Japanese employer and make it even harder for me to find work. Heck, a lot of people I know who went to college aren't making use of their degree in any capacity, which is a large part of why I avoided college in the first place. I feel like no matter what, if I go to college, I'm going to be continually feeling an immense sense of dread that I may be wasting my time.

Essentially, I'm trying to learn this: What is my best option to study for finding a job in Japan if I'm starting from scratch? If I'm very passionate about Japan and its culture, but not too particular about what job I end up working, what path is the most likely to find success? Is getting a degree relatively late going to seriously hinder my chances of employment in Japan?

If it's helpful for me to be a tiny bit more particular about work paths, teaching in general is very appealing to me. Fields related to tourism are attractive given my interest in Japanese culture. Working as a chef is an appealing job to me as well. I've worked as a line cook, and enjoyed it, and I love to cook as a hobby. I have a lot of experience with computers, but not too much desire to work on them as a job. I keep hearing that IT is oversaturated, anyway. Just about anything aside from office work would be a preference for me, but if that's really what I need to do to find work in Japan I would still be willing to pursue that path.

I previously posted this in r/movingtojapan and got several comments, some of which were moderately helpful, before the thread was locked and I was suggested to post in a more relevant community. One suggestion was to work for a multinational company and transfer to Japan, although I don't know how difficult it is to make that happen. Another was to go to a Japanese Language School after getting my Bachelor's Degree but I'm again uncertain of the chances of this working out long term and landing me work in Japan. And of course, building a career in America before transferring, which is the option I like the sound of the least as it automatically entails several further years of development before I can have any hope of being able to move.

If you've job hunted in Japan as a foreigner you probably know the pain: the big boards skew toward roles with paid listings, half the postings are vague about Japanese requirements, and visa sponsorship is often a coin flip you only find out about in the first interview.

A lot of the good roles aren't on aggregators at all, they're on individual company career pages in 100 different formats.

I built https://atarashift.com to fix this for myself while job hunting. What it does differently:

- Crawls company career pages directly (not just paid listings)

- Every role is tagged with Japanese level required, English level required, and whether visa sponsorship is available so you can filter to roles that actually fit

- Free, no signup needed to browse

Honest about where it is: company coverage is still limited and growing, and the "let companies scout you" side is in early days while I work on signing more partners. The browse + filter side works today and that's the part that helped me (definitely needs more work though as some categorization for language is not accurate).

Would genuinely appreciate feedback especially if you spot why a tag is wrong, or if there's a company you wish was on there.

So I got an offer from my Japanese language school, in which I'm currently enrolled at and on my final years, to become one of the school staff tasked with students recruitment from my home country. The school wants to expand their students scope, and as they don;t have any connection whatsover to my home country, they asked me if I'm willing to.

For backround, I enrolled in the school last year on 2025/04 with a newspaper scholarship program. Because of this, I'm the only one from my country enrolled here. During my 1st year, I managed to passed N2 on 2025/07 and N1 on 2025/12. The other reason my school offers this position is because I'm currently jobs hunting.

Now, I'm really interested in the recruitment fields, and targets to become a consultant in recruitment. However, I have 0 experience and knowledge in this field. The question is, should I accept the school's offer? I'm really interested in the offer but the jobs entails a different kind of recruitment than what I'm trying to pursue. But on the other hand, I'm thinking this could be a great learning experience for 2-3 years. I'm hoping for any advice as I'm currently in a fork and undecided for what to do. Thank you in advance.

P.S.: Beside Japanese, I also got 950 points on TOEIC around 2024. Also I hold a Master's degree, albeit unrelated to recruitment, hence I'm going to the career path instead of education.