There is a shortage of skilled tech workers in Japan, and a growing number of Japanese companies have responded by building new, multinational development teams. An in-house multinational team, which typically uses English as a first language, can allow a Japanese company to take better advantage of the global talent market.
But what’s it like for the international developers working on those teams? Are there communication issues with management? Is career advancement possible? Are Japanese companies inflexible, or are they willing to accommodate the needs of their international employees?
To help answer those questions, we’ll take an in-depth look at the company policies of Givery Co., Ltd., which has successfully developed and maintained a multinational development team since 2014. Mr. Yamane, an executive at Givery, recently gave a presentation on the impact of this multinational team, which granted us some insight into the company’s inner workings.
Currently the Givery development team consists of about 120 people, more than half of whom are not Japanese. Mr. Yamane reported that such diversity has had a positive impact, not only on the company’s growth, but also—unexpectedly—upon the recruitment of Japanese engineers. In fact, Givery credits its multinational team for much of its business success, and has set new company policies to help its international developers grow and succeed.
This is a win-win situation for both Givery and its international engineers, which we’ll explore in greater depth below.
Why does Givery hire international engineers?
Givery began hiring international engineers in 2014, five years after it was founded. Initially, Givery was developing a programming learning service for B2C. The market was limited to Japan, but they hoped eventually to expand their product overseas.
At the time, however, the company was not well known in Japan, and recruiting new engineers was a slow and difficult process. That was when Givery decided to take a bold step.
The opportunity to hire their first international engineer
Givery was already discussing how to ​​invest in establishing a more global organization. Then, they happened to receive an application through a recruitment service, from an international front-end engineer who didn’t speak much Japanese.
The company decided that, if they were aiming for global expansion, it was only natural to employ people regardless of nationality. At that time there were only a limited number of managers who could speak English; nevertheless, they decided to hire the engineer anyway.
With that engineer at the forefront, the team swiftly became increasingly multinational. Two years later, the team had grown to about 10 people, most of them non-Japanese. The official language gradually switched to English.
As of now, around half of Givery’s 120 development team members are Japanese, and half are non-Japanese. Those international members are also diverse, hailing from 20 different countries.
Company benefits of hiring international engineers
Givery soon discovered several unanticipated benefits of employing international engineers, especially at an early stage in the company’s development.
A more flexible company
In 2014, when Givery hired their first international engineer, their own internal systems and policies were not well-established. This actually proved to be beneficial in the long run.
The newly-hired international employees, Givery’s management soon found, had needs and expectations that differed from standard Japanese business practices. For example, international engineers had requests such as, “Can I go to the gym for two hours during lunch?” or “I want to go back to my home country in December. Can I take a month off?”
Because Givery didn’t have too many procedures in place, it was able to consider suggestions like these and implement more flexible, globalized workplace practices. If Givery had waited to build its multinational development team until its policies were more firmly established, it may have struggled more to adapt to the needs of its international employees.
Effects on local recruitment
One might think that a multinational, English-speaking team might prove a deterrent to Japanese-speaking engineers, and that Givery’s local recruiting numbers would continue to drop. Interestingly—and promisingly—the opposite was the case.
According to Givery, the company’s diversity and forward-thinking policies appeal to Japanese applicants. As a result, the company gradually became more successful in recruiting local developers as well. Now, Givery is one of the few tech companies in Japan to meet its recruitment goals on a regular basis.
A multilingual workplace
That’s not to say that Givery hasn’t experienced challenges with its multinational team. In particular, communication has become a company priority. The official language of the development team is English, but other departments mostly use Japanese, so encouraging collaboration between departments is critical.
Overcoming language barriers
One of Givery’s methods is to place bilingual employees in key positions. For example, the Product Marketing Manager (PMM), who compiles primary information collected from the sales team and conducts user interviews, is a Japanese person who can also speak English. Some development teams have a non-Japanese member as their Product Owner (PO), so this enables the PMM to work closely with all the POs at the company.
In addition, the three international members of the executive management team can speak some Japanese, and more than half of the Japanese executive officers are currently studying English.
Proactive information sharing
Communication efforts at Givery extend beyond language study, however. Each team also holds win sessions and sync-up meetings once or twice a month to ensure thorough, ongoing information-sharing between departments.
What is a win session?
A win session is a meeting to review business or project successes. The main objectives are to share those important stories, analyze the factors that led to success, establish best practices for the future, and in general make continuous improvements.
Through this process, it is expected that the entire team can benefit from the experience, increasing the success rate for upcoming projects.
What is a sync-up meeting?
A sync-up meeting is when teams gather to coordinate project timelines. Each member reports on their progress and achievements, shares any problems or obstacles they are facing, and considers solutions. They may also plan future tasks and clarify the division of roles.
When speaking in Japanese, they also usually translate the meeting into English, so there are no comprehension issues for team members. In addition, they sometimes provide English explanations via chat and other materials.
With these sync-ups, important information can be shared from the sales team to the development team, such as customers’ answers to the questions:
- Why did you choose this product?
- Which features were appealing?
- What features do you expect to see in the future?
Information from the development team, such as “Features we are prioritizing for release” and “When and what features can be released,” can also be shared with the sales team. This allows the sales team to deliver those updates to customers in a timely fashion.
Multinationals in management
In anticipation of the boom in generative AI and future global expansion, Givery has gone out of its way to ensure that international employees are involved in all company discussions and decision-making.
For example, Givery established a specialized executive officer system in 2024 and appointed three international employees to its management team. The international members, who were originally engineering managers (EM) and the VP of Engineering (VPoE), were thus brought into the managerial core of the company.
In addition, many of the current Engineer Managers leading individual teams are non-Japanese.
The company hopes that more non-Japanese members in management will help the company continue its foray into world markets, and also collaborate better with overseas companies.
This should also be reassuring to international developers who are concerned that moving to Japan may hinder their career advancement. The three new executive officers speak some Japanese, which suggests that language ability remains crucial to promotion; nonetheless, Givery’s public statements on the importance of non-Japanese in management seems promising for both that company in particular, and the general trend in Japan.
Conclusion
There are certainly challenges to overcome when operating in a multinational development team at a Japanese company. Even if the team works primarily in English, it still needs to collaborate with Japanese-speaking departments. Bilingual employees in key positions can ease the language barrier, but it’s also important to have communication systems in place, such as Givery’s win sessions and sync-up meetings.
In addition, the company must be realistic about the needs and expectations of international employees, which may differ from those of local developers. Givery had the advantage of hiring international engineers at an early stage, which allowed it to adapt its company policies before they’d been set in stone.
To get the most out of a multinational team, the team members also need opportunities for career advancement, and to have a say in the company’s decision-making processes. Not only does this create a better work environment for employees, but it allows the company to take advantage of their experience, especially when collaborating with overseas companies. That Givery has already brought three international members into its managerial core speaks volumes for the company’s foresight in this regard.
In short, Givery is a great case study for how to build a multinational development team from the ground up. The company took a risk by starting the team when they “weren’t ready,” but that risk appears to have paid off in better recruiting rates, a more adaptable workplace, and greater opportunities overseas.
If you’re interested in working at Givery, check out their open positions on our job board.
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