I came to Japan on a working holiday visa in 2006, and found a job as a Ruby developer at a Japanese startup. At the time, the options for English-speaking developers in Japan were few and far between: I could only find two positions that seemed like a good fit.
Since then, however, more and more Japanese tech companies have adopted the strategy of hiring international English-speaking developers. On TokyoDev’s job board, I list over 100 such opportunities.
But if you’re looking for your first job here, you probably have a lot of questions. This article will try to answer them by covering the following:
- Do I need to speak Japanese to get a developer job?
- What’s a typical software developer salary in Japan?
- How easy is it to get a visa to work as a developer in Japan?
- Will I need to work overtime if I work for a Japanese company?
- Should I use a Japanese or English resume when applying for a developer job in Japan?
- Can I receive a job offer in Japan while living overseas?
- What languages and technologies are in demand in Japan?
- What are some ways to move to Japan and then get a job?
- How do I get a job as a junior developer in Japan?
- Want to read success stories of developers moving to Japan?
Do I need to speak Japanese to get a developer job?
No, you don’t need to speak Japanese to work as a software developer in Japan, but it’ll obviously help. In the 2024 TokyoDev survey, I found that 24% of international developers never used Japanese at their job, and 27% used it only rarely, implying that the majority of them work at jobs that don’t require any Japanese skills.
On the other hand, I also found that lower Japanese ability among international developers correlated with more professional experience. This suggests that it’s easier to get a job earlier in your career here if you speak more Japanese.
I see it as a balancing act: the more technical acumen and experience you possess, the less likely your job search will be hampered by not speaking Japanese.
So that begs the question—if you’re determined to get a job in Japan, are you better off focusing on improving your Japanese ability, or your technical skills? I think this is a question with no right answer, as it really depends on what you enjoy and have an aptitude for. If you’re someone who likes studying languages, Japanese skills could be your ticket to a developer job in Japan. But if you’re someone who has a hard time pushing themselves to put in the vast amount of work learning a language requires, you could focus on your technical skills instead.
Either way, I’d recommend trying to pick up at least some basic Japanese. While it’s theoretically possible to live in a city like Tokyo with no Japanese ability, daily life will go much smoother and be more enjoyable if you speak it to some degree.
What’s a typical software developer salary in Japan?
As of 2024, the median salary for an international developer in Japan was 8.5 million yen, the same as in 2023 and down 1 million yen from 2022. A junior developer could expect to make 4-6 million yen, a mid-level developer 6-10 million yen, and a senior developer 10-13 million yen.
Salaries like these might seem low by Silicon Valley standards, but they’re among the highest a person working in Japan can expect to make. The average salary in Tokyo is 6.2 million yen, but that’s for someone with an average of about 20 years of work experience. While 42% of international developers earned 10 million yen or over, a 2018 report found that only 5% of salaried Japanese workers did.
Japan’s relatively low cost of living means that these salaries go far, especially if you’re living like a local. For instance, when I was a single person living in Tokyo, I spent about three million yen per year. Though I didn’t live extravagantly, it didn’t feel like I was skimping, either. The main concession, at least by North American standards, was living in a relatively small apartment. Still, having the option to pay 80,000 yen per month for a one-room apartment in good repair and in a central area is something many other metropolises don’t offer.
How easy is it to get a visa to work as a developer in Japan?
Compared to other countries, Japan is a relatively easy place to get a visa as a software engineer. There are no hard caps on the number of visas issued, and if you find a company that wants to hire you, the company faces very little cost or burden to acquire your work visa.
If you have a university degree in a subject like computer science or software engineering, you are basically guaranteed a visa. If you don’t have such a degree, you may still be able to qualify, but it gets more complicated. Japanese companies won’t necessarily know what visas you’re eligible for, so it’s up to you to educate yourself about the options. A good place to start researching this topic is my guide to visas for software engineers in Japan.
Will I need to work overtime if I work for a Japanese company?
Japan has a reputation for an intense work culture that requires lots of overtime. However, it’s certainly possible to find opportunities that involve little to no overtime. When I worked for a Japanese startup, I never worked any overtime, and when I did contracting work for other Japanese development companies, they didn’t ask me to work overtime either.
More generally, I found that 72% of respondents to my developer survey worked 40 hours or less in a typical week, indicating that my experience isn’t uncommon. This article goes deep into overtime in Japan, and explains the legal protections along with the different overtime systems.
Should I use a Japanese or English resume when applying for a developer job in Japan?
A good rule of thumb is that if a position has an English job description, they’re expecting to receive English resumes. If it is a Japanese job description, then you should use Japanese.
I would avoid sending a Japanese resume in response to an English job description, as the person reading your resume might not speak Japanese. The resume reviewer could be another international developer, and I’ve also met internal recruiters at bigger tech companies who don’t speak Japanese.
For more on this topic, see our article on how to write resumes for jobs in Japan.
Can I receive a job offer in Japan while living overseas?
This is not an easy question to answer, as it depends on your particular situation. If you’re looking for a role as a software developer in Japan that only requires English (not Japanese), then the competition is going to be fierce. There are orders of magnitude more people seeking such positions than there are positions available.
That’s not to say it is impossible, though. Via TokyoDev’s job board alone, hundreds of overseas developers have found a job in Japan. Here are some characteristics of those people who have successfully used our job board:
- At least three years of professional experience as a software developer. Companies will not typically hire junior developers from abroad, and even three years is on the low end.
- At least two years of experience working at a product company. The kind of companies that advertise with TokyoDev tend to be building their own products, and look for people who have experience doing the same, as opposed to doing outsourced development.
- Relevant technical experience. Though exceptions do exist, companies usually want to hire someone who already has experience in their specific tech stack.
- A connection to Japan. This could be something like a Japanese spouse, past experience living or studying in Japan, or any degree of Japanese language ability. Connections such as these reassure companies that you are more likely to remain long-term.
- Something exceptional about your experience. Examples include working at a company famous for their developers, like Google or GitHub; having significant open source contributions; or having presented at a technical conference. Basically, to get an offer while overseas, the hiring company needs to think you’re going to be an exceptional addition to their team.
You don’t necessarily need to meet all of these criteria to be successful. But if you don’t meet any of them, you may find it quite challenging to land a job.
What languages and technologies are in demand in Japan?
The technology section of our survey can give you some idea of what languages and technologies are in demand in Japan, at least for international software developers.
As of 2024, the most popular programming languages were:
- JavaScript
- Python
- TypeScript
- HTML/CSS
- SQL
- Bash/Shell
- Java
- Go
- Ruby
- Kotlin
However, I wouldn’t recommend picking up a specific language or technology just to boost your chances.
For one, it’s a moving target. In two or three years once you have significant experience with the technology, something else might be the hot language.
For another, companies mostly care about professional experience with a language or technology. Something you work on in the nights and weekends is unlikely to impress professional employers.
What is common about most employers hiring internationally, at least through TokyoDev, is that they’re product companies looking to hire software engineers with a product background.
Ideally, you’ll get that experience professionally. But if you’re able to build something as a hobby project, it might help. The catch is it needs to be obviously useful (and ideally have real users you can point to).
What are some ways to move to Japan and then get a job?
The best—and also, the riskiest—way to get a job as a software developer in Japan is to move here first, and then begin your job search. Current residents have a number of advantages, such as being available to start work right away, and being perceived as lower risk than overseas hires. If you want to go this route, there are a number of paths you can take toward residency.
Working Holiday Visa
I first found work in Japan on this visa. If you’re eligible for it, this visa gives you the best chance of landing your initial job as a software engineer here. Only some countries participate, however. You also need to meet the conditions, which vary from country to country (typically, you must be under 30 years of age).
The great thing about this visa is that it doesn’t require a sponsoring company, and allows you to do basically any kind of work. The concept of the programme is to provide you with a way to support yourself during a holiday to Japan, but there are no strict limits on how many hours you can work, so you’re permitted to get a full time job.
From a company’s perspective, employing someone with this visa eliminates the usual risks associated with an overseas hire. You’re already here in Japan, so they can just put you through their normal screening and interview process. You’ve demonstrated you are committed enough to living here to make the leap on your own. Furthermore, should the company choose to hire you, you’re allowed to start working full time immediately, without needing to change your status of residence.
One thing to keep in mind is that you’re only permitted to take a working holiday once in your life in any given country, so timing is important. I think there are two optimal times to use this visa: when you’ve just graduated from university, and after you have a couple years of work experience.
I came to Japan just after graduation. My thinking was that if I didn’t end up getting a job here, it wouldn’t really impact my future career, as it is fairly common in Canada to take some time off between graduation and your first job. I was lucky enough to land a job as a junior developer in Japan. What earned me the role was some combination of already possessing a working holiday visa, having a natural aptitude for programming, and successfully conveying to the company how much I wanted to work with them. If you’re someone who excelled at programming during university, and are willing to put in sustained effort to find a job here, you’ll probably succeed.
The other option is to wait until you have some working experience. It should be much easier for you to get a job locally than in Japan, so if you aren’t confident about your technical abilities, this could be the way to go. Most Japanese companies hiring international developers are looking for people with experience, so if you’re already battle-tested, that will boost your odds of getting a job here.
Should you go down the working holiday route, though, I’d approach that time as the visa intends: as a one-year holiday. That way you’re prepared for the possibility you won’t find a position, and landing a programmer job becomes a bonus.
Teaching English
Teaching languages, especially English, is a relatively easy way to get a job offer while still overseas. I know several developers who started their life in Japan this way. If you’re someone without any teaching qualifications, there are two main paths: the JET Programme and teaching at a conversation school.
The JET Programme
The JET Programme is a Japanese government programme that brings international university graduates to Japan, with the aim of exposing young students here to people from around the world. Most of the positions in the program are teaching related, though if you have strong Japanese skills, there are also some bureaucratic positions available.
Although you can have some input on your placement, you’re more likely to get a position in a small rural town than a metropolis like Tokyo. This means you’re unlikely to make job-related connections while on the programme unless you really go out of your way to do so. On the flip side, you’ll have a great opportunity to improve your Japanese, as there won’t be many fluent English speakers around you. You should also have a relatively large amount of free time, which you can use to bolster either your Japanese or technical abilities.
One restriction of the programme is that you are committed to a one-year contract. Because of the programme’s fixed recruiting cycle, should you drop out, there won’t be any replacement for you. This will leave your school in a lurch, so unless you’re serious about completing the full contract, you shouldn’t apply.
I do know Japanese people who first became interested in English and international affairs because of this programme, so I view participating in it as a service to Japan. Because it is a government-run programme, I also have a hunch you’ll receive more respect from potential employers, as opposed to teaching at a conversation school. Had I not received a working holiday visa, the JET programme would have been attractive to me personally.
Teaching at a conversation school
The other option is teaching at a conversation school. While enjoyable to some people, others find it soul crushing. The quality of schools varies quite a bit, ranging from high-quality institutions to outright scams. The advantage over the JET programme is that more opportunities are available, and you have a decent chance at finding a job in a large city, where it is much easier to get involved with the developer community. Also, because these schools are businesses with fairly high turnover, should a developer job opportunity arise, you’ll be able to leave without guilt.
While teaching at a conversation school for a year or two probably won’t impact your career, if you persist for much longer it will affect your resume. If you go down this route, I’d put a deadline on yourself to either transition out of teaching, or return to your home country.
Attending Japanese language school
If you want to live in Japan long term, you’ll want to improve your Japanese skills anyway. That’s why attending a Japanese language school is another good option for living in Japan and entering the local developer community.
While on a student visa, you can work part time, which theoretically would let you do some work as a developer. Because the visa also requires you to attend school full time, finding employment might be challenging; you’d need to convince a company to be flexible on your work hours until you receive the appropriate work visa.
If you do decide to enter a Japanese language school, I’d count on spending at least a year enrolled. This means you need enough money saved up to cover both the cost of tuition and your living expenses.
Attending a Japanese university
I know a number of developers who came to Japan initially as graduate students and then found jobs. Japanese employers place a lot of value on the name of the university you attend, so I’d aim to enter a top-tier one.
Postgrad studies are preferable to completing an undergraduate degree in Japan. Generally speaking, the quality of undergraduate education in Japan is low—-most students don’t take it seriously. On the other hand, interesting research does happen at the graduate level. Furthermore, while undergraduate degrees at top-tier schools are almost always offered in Japanese, at the graduate level you could get by with English (though don’t be surprised if some of your classes are still in Japanese).
Though a Japanese university could potentially help you connect with companies, your best bet is still networking on your own time. So in addition to completing your studies, you should build relationships with the local development community.
Since you’d have a student visa, you’d also be able to work part time. As a university student, you’re also more likely to be able to obtain a software development-related internship than someone attending a language school.
There are a number of scholarships available for international students studying in Japan. If you manage to obtain one, you might not be able to save money, but at least you shouldn’t be losing any.
Participating in an internship program
While it can be challenging to get an internship as a developer in Japan, if you are a university student, there are some opportunities available to you. Vulcanus in Japan gives EU engineering students the chance to study Japanese and do an internship with a Japanese company. Another similar option is The Canada-Japan Co-op Program. Occasionally, companies will also list intern jobs on TokyoDev.
How do I get a job as a junior developer in Japan?
As mentioned earlier, getting a job in Japan as a junior developer while overseas is almost impossible. If you are physically in Japan, though, your chances improve. I managed to land a job here with no professional experience outside of a summer internship and only the most basic Japanese ability.
Another of TokyoDev’s community members has a similar story. He moved to Japan on a working holiday with no professional experience, and after a tough job hunt, landed a junior developer job role.
Want to read success stories of developers moving to Japan?
If you’re considering transitioning to Japan, you may want to learn from those who’ve already succeeded. TokyoDev has a collection of such stories from international developers in Japan.
Additionally, we’ve also highlighted the experiences of a wide range of international developers including women, Indonesians, Filipinos, and game developers.
