Ultimate Guide to Jobs in Japan for Foreigners P1
Finding a job in Japan can be a challenge. Finding a good job and company is even harder.
As a company specializing in human resources consulting services, professional recruitment support for companies, most of which are Japanese enterprises or have Japanese investment. NipponLink Vietnam will help guide you through the process.
Full-Time Jobs in Japan for English Speakers
Here is our definitive list of jobs in Japan for English speakers. We will cover each individual job in more detail below.
English Teacher Jobs in Japan
The most common job in Japan for English speakers is becoming a full-time English teacher in Japan. There are many schools both large and small who hire awesome people like us to teach in their schools. My guess is that there are more than 40,000 full-time English teachers in Japan.
You will most likely start out at an entry level position receiving around 220,000 – 250,000 yen working as an ALT or Eikaiwa teacher and you can work up to owning your own school or working at a kindergarten which pays 250,000 – 350,000 yen or international school which pays 280,000 – 450,000 yen depending on your experience and qualifications.
Travel Agency Jobs in Japan
Another job in Japan for English speakers is with a travel agency. Travel agencies want foreigners on staff to assist with non-Japanese clients. Salaries and benefits are based on experience, but most positions are entry level but a good way to get your foot into the door if you want to avoid teaching. You get to help individuals and companies book travel experiences, and you’ll often get opportunities to travel yourself.
The best place to look for job postings from travel companies are craigslist and Gaijin Pot. Japan Travel is another company that actively provides jobs in Japan for foreigners.
With the boom of foreign travelers to Japan, there has been an increase in the amount of media companies who target travelers. Another option for you is to look into some of the many media companies that are popping up or companies that are making investments to enter the travel arena.
Translation Jobs in Japan
Most translation jobs were full-time ten years ago because there weren’t many foreigners who could speak Japanese, but now positions are a mixture of full-time and part-time. The unique thing about this field is that it doesn’t involve any Japanese. Most of the documents or writings have already been translated from Japanese to English, and all they need is employees to translate those articles from English to your native language.
There are many travelers to Japan from European countries, and few of them speak Japanese. This means that you, as a native speaker of that language, have an advantage for getting hired. Asian languages tend to have an abundance of translators to and from English, so the most important documents have already been converted for those languages.
Be aware that many places want to hire someone part-time at first and see how well they can translate before offering full-time, so don’t despair if you don’t see many posts for full-time.
Marketing Jobs in Japan
There were almost no marketing jobs in Japan for foreigners in 2010, but luckily for you marketing is currently a high-demand position. In years past, Japanese companies hired Japanese employees to market to a foreign population, and that seldom worked as well as expected. Learning from this experience, more Japanese companies are hiring people from the target country or region to lead and develop marketing strategies.
From the business standpoint, bringing in foreigners to their headquarters in Tokyo to spearhead marketing has not played out the way most companies expected. The problem for many not-huge companies is that upper management doesn’t understand marketing and can’t train new recruits on how to do it. They tend to avoid hiring experienced marketers because they’re not willing to pay the higher salaries needed to attract proven performers.
What often happens is that these companies hire foreigners whom they like and assign them to do marketing, but they don’t provide any clear vision beyond “bring in customers.” If you ever interview for a marketing position (especially you new grads out there), always ask what the marketing budget is. Avoid any companies that expect you to do marketing purely through free channels and/or without a budget. It takes money to bring in money; ground-up organic marketing is tough for any new hire.
Full-Time Computer Programming Jobs in Tokyo
There are plenty of programming positions available in Tokyo for those who don’t speak Japanese. Programmers are few and far between among the Japanese population, and companies both Japanese and foreign can’t find the number of local IT employees they need to expand their businesses.
The number of programming academies and schools for beginner-level foreigners has recently increased. The coursework will enable you to operate on your own and find employment as an entry level programmer. These schools charge a hefty tuition but provide intensive courses; you’d have to quit your current job to attend this full-time study. If you need to keep your employment while taking IT classes, there are alternatives that are less intensive but take much longer.
Most of these programming schools have a connection with companies who hire entry level programmers, so make sure to consider their ability to teach you and help you find programming jobs in Japan once you graduate the course. Most likely, they will introduce you to companies that have recently received a subsidy from investors to expand the business.
IT Jobs in Japan
Currently, there are lots of companies that are related to the IT world and are looking for IT workers in Japan. The major offers come from large tech companies and startups. These last ones are pretty famous in Japan, as there are more than 10,000. Startups are newly established companies, founded by a few entrepreneurs to bring to the market new innovation and innovative technologies.
The range of job opportunities in the IT field includes software developers, machine learning developers, data analysts, data scientists, IT technicians, It project managers, IT consultants, and also freelance IT workers. These jobs can be tough because you have to develop plenty of skills and knowledge, which require time and energy. Japanese language knowledge is one of these skills, however, there are also a lot of opportunities for non-Japanese speakers.
Sales and Business Development Jobs in Japan
There are sales jobs in Japan for English speakers in recent years. These positions are limited, but they exist and pay well. Most are with technology companies who want to sell software to large corporate clients. Foreign English textbook publishers like Oxford and Cambridge also hire sales people from time to time, and you can find their positions on GaijinPot.
If you are bilingual, you have more options for sales positions. Be aware that most companies who want to sell to Japanese clients will normally just hire a Japanese person, unless your Japanese and knowledge of Japanese culture is phenomenal.
Export Business Jobs in Japan
There are many companies involved in exporting goods from Japan to a country near you. The most common type of export business that hires non-Japanese-speaking foreigners is the used car industry. Companies in Japan export used cars, trucks, and other vehicles to foreign countries. They are looking for staff to serve as customer support, using your native language or English to find clients in your home country.
These jobs can be tough because you have to learn export law and tariffs. You also have to work when your client is working, so you may be in the office during some strange hours of the night. People in customer support positions don’t make much, but you can find employers who accommodate your schedule preferences.
Study Abroad Support Jobs in Japan
Japanese language schools are always looking for foreigners to join there school. There are companies match foreigners with schools and these companies are looking for foreigners to bring in new customers and to take care of current customers in Japan.
They provide jobs in Japan for English speakers, but also French, Spanish, Italian, and hire people from several other European countries.
Apartment and Housing Jobs in Japan
Some companies provide jobs in Japan for foreigners, even those on a working holiday visa, for full-time positions. When I went there to see what they offered for housing, I was impressed to see so many people from countries all over the world. Those employees handle general emails in English and customers in their native languages. They did not need to speak any Japanese at all because they had a team of Japanese staff who could speak English. Since they are all receiving an influx of foreign residents, they are almost always looking for staff..
Real Estate Company Jobs in Japan
Not all real estate sales positions in Tokyo require Japanese language proficiency. You will only target foreign individuals, companies, and investors who want to purchase property in Japan. Some of these people will be purchasing for personal reasons, while others are doing it for investment purposes.
They offer a good amount of jobs in Japan for English speakers, but normally once someone gets one of these nice positions, they are unlikely to change jobs. Especially those working in the high-end industry. You will be surprised, but you can do this job without Japanese skills.
Full-time Relocation consultant jobs in Tokyo
A relocation consultant is a professional who oversees the largest portion of the moving process for an executive or high-level employee of a major company. These corporations normally pay the relocation costs, and relocation consultants support the new employee with everything from getting a phone, gym membership, moving companies, utilities, the paperwork for visas and registration, to nearly anything else involved with moving.
The time of these high-level executives is extremely valuable, and they want their minds focused on the company from the moment they sign the contract to the moment they arrive in Japan. They need the process of moving to Japan to be as simple as getting on a plane, having a private taxi pick them up at the airport, and arriving at a fully-set up apartment. Dealing with any aspect of the moving process takes them away from the job they were hired to, which means that you can be hired to do that process for them.
Health Care Jobs in Japan
I am very accepting of the fact that Japan has its established customs and methods and is often not foreign-friendly. Despite this acceptance, I am unable to recommend the hospital aid position unless you really need the money or a visa to Japan.
When you mix a stressful situation like the environment of healthcare with communication issues, you will have a lot of conflict and anger issues between the staff members. The Japanese staff are under tremendous pressure, and they often take out that frustration on the hospital aids. Working these types of jobs can be incredibly draining and a difficult job in Japan for foreigners.
Hospital Aide or Caregiver Positions in Japan
A hospital aid does caregiving work requiring a formal nursing education to accomplish. This will involve more of the individual care aspects of healthcare, such as lifting and washing the patients. You will be working in an all-Japanese environment, so if your Japanese is not good enough that you can operate on autopilot (without stopping to recall vocabulary or grammar), you will slow down your Japanese coworkers and they will get frustrated.
1. Hotel Staff Jobs in Tokyo
There’s a large number of hospitality jobs in Tokyo and all over Japan. Some high-end hotels in Tokyo want foreign staff to assist with their international guests. Some hotels prefer Japanese abilities, but in general they seem to be fine as long as you have conversational Japanese skills and business-level or above English language skills. Hotels positions outside of Tokyo are usually seasonal, with winter positions in Niseiko and summer positions in Okinawa.
The challenge with finding these positions, though, is that hotels use different names to describe the position, and you have to search for them all. Here are some of the names we saw: Front Staff / Hotel Staff / International Reservations Consultant.
2. Tour guides and travel planner jobs in Tokyo
Similar to hospitality jobs in the hotel industry, tour-based jobs in Tokyo are in abundance. Many require that you have conversational Japanese, but seldom more than that. Positions range from tour guides to travel coordinators. Travel coordinators manage the whole process of a trip, from pre-arrival to return flight, making sure that everything goes smoothly for the customers paying for a full-service sight-seeing trip. Tour guides oversee the actual tour, ensuring that customers get on and off in a timely manner at each stop.
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