The “Dev” in TokyoDev stands for “developers.” Our founder, Paul McMahon, has always called himself a developer because he’s from Canada, where only licensed professionals call themselves engineers. Yet the job title Software Developer (ソフトウェア開発者) is only rarely used in Japanese.
This article will cover:
- The most common software development job titles in Japan
- The cultural perceptions that influence those job titles
- How this could affect your job search
The most common job titles
Among TokyoDev clients, the most common job title used is Software Engineer (ソフトウェアエンジニア). Many companies use just Engineer (エンジニア) broadly to designate a range of roles.
Yuki Ito, a 40-year veteran of the industry, said that “Commonly used job titles in Japan today include Backend Engineer (バックエンドエンジニア), Frontend Engineer (フロントエンドエンジニア), and Full Stack Engineer (フルスタックエンジニア).”
Technical recruiter Edmund Ho has also found that both Engineer and System Engineer (システムエンジニア) are more common than either Programmer (プログラマ) or Software Developer (ソフトウェア開発者). Matt Gillingham, who has lived and worked as a Software Engineer in Japan since 2010, concurred with Ho.
“If you want my impression,” Gillingham told me, “it is still more common to use Software Engineer than Developer, and I would also expect that salaries will tend to be higher if the job description is for a Software Engineer than a Developer.”
Masafumi Okura, who has been developing software in Tokyo for over 10 years, thinks there’s another reason that Developer is not a popular job title in Japan.
We rarely call ourselves ‘software developer’ in Japan, partly because we prefer katakana job titles, but ‘developer’ is strongly related to ‘real estate developer.’ When we say デベロッパー it mostly means 三菱地所 (Mitsubishi Estate) and so on.
International developers might ask—how much does a specific job title matter? In fact, your job title in Japan carries significant professional weight, and can even affect your legal status and compensation.
Cultural and legal nuances
For complex historical reasons, including Japan’s early success in manufacturing hardware, Japanese companies’ preference for maintaining software systems rather than investing in innovation, and the lack of quality computer science education in Japanese universities, software development was until recently viewed as a “blue-collar” profession rather than a high-prestige career.
That paradigm is changing rapidly. In 2024, junior high school boys in Japan for the first time ranked their number one dream job as “engineer/programmer.” A representative of the survey company speculated that students were influenced by Japan’s new policy mandating programming instruction in schools.
It’s interesting however that the survey listed “engineer/programmer” as a single profession, because according to Japanese labor law, there’s a significant difference between the two.
Yuki Ito noted that despite the legal distinctions still in place, the various roles in software development have begun to blur—and she’s not sure that’s a good thing. “When I began my career over 40 years ago, there were structured layers: keypunch operators, coders, programmers, and system engineers, each with their own specific roles.” That is no longer the case today. “Often, job titles have outpaced the actual responsibilities they represent.”
What is now referred to as a ‘programmer’ is more like what we used to call a ‘coder,’ and today’s ‘system engineers’ are essentially performing what programmers used to do. In many cases, consultants have come to take on what system engineers once handled, but without necessarily having the same technical expertise.
“There is also a growing tendency to avoid responsibility, which has weakened developers’ ability to make solid proposals,” she added. “I’m concerned that many have shifted from being professional white-collar engineers to more passive, instruction-following blue-collar workers.”
Masafumi Okura believes that programming, though its reputation is in flux, carries cultural cachet. “I remember that 10 years ago, becoming a programmer without official education was considered very difficult or mostly impossible. Coding bootcamps have appeared and now it’s considered less difficult. Also, now people think working as a programmer is “modern” partly because it’s connected to remote working. But there are some remaining attitudes.”
Programmers are still connected with being smart.
Practical implications
This article should help clarify what job titles you should be searching for, as well as what Japanese employers may expect of different roles.
You can use this information to localize your resume for Japanese employers. For example, if your last job title includes “Programmer,” but the work you did more closely resembles that of a Japanese Software Engineer, you can emphasize those particular duties at the top of your description and highlight them in your cover letter.
You can also translate your specific job title to something more general, and put the actual job title in parentheses: “Senior Software Engineer (Code Rockstar III).” This will help prevent Japanese companies from making assumptions about your previous work based on the title alone.
If you want to continue the conversation on software development job titles in Japan, you can join our Discord.
If you want to read more about job-hunting in Japan, networking as a developer (without feeling sleazy), or why Japan needs international developers, check out our extensive library of articles.
