Entry-level, non-English teaching in Japan

[zmcnulty]

I'm not looking for advice in this thread. I posted this thread for the sake of those who may be in high school or college and are interested in securing a job in Japan not teaching English or Coordinating International Relations. Those of you already in Japan who want to move into a non-language position may also find it useful.

I'm not fishing for compliments with this thread. I just wanted to post it because a lot of people feel it's impossible to work in Japan at the entry-level doing something other than teaching English. Of course, there's a good reason for that. It's been pretty difficult to find a job, let alone an entry-level one that I can do right when I'm graduating from college. You have an entire country full of entry-level graduates to compete with. That said, it's certainly possible.

I now have three offers for entry-level jobs in Japan:
1. Production Control at a major Japanese manufacturer
2. Product Development at a national Japanese bank (not a megabank)
3. Process Improvement in Operations at an investment bank

Each company is willing to sponsor my visa to work in Japan after I graduate next month.

What's made this possible is proper planning and preparation. I always try to plan several years in advance, and as a result, I always try to take advantage of whatever opportunities come my way. I know that sounds pretty corny, but if you want to live in Japan after undergrad, I think you'll need extensive preparation if you want to do a non-English job. If you decide in your last semester of college that you want to work in Japan but not teach English, you'll probably be disappointed.

I'm not going to go into too much detail, but here's a brief timeline of the Japan-related events:
1998: Started studying Japanese in high school
2001: Study abroad to Japan in high school, 11 months
2001: Took JLPT Level 2, failed it. Whoops!
2003: Entered college, majoring in Business, Japanese minor
2006: Study abroad to Japan, 4 months. Participated in "field study"/internship at a translation company. Knowing I wanted to work in Japan after graduation, I went to a few career fairs, interviews, etc. while I was there.
2006: Attended Boston CareerForum, looking for internship. Found one!
2006: Took JLPT Level 1, passed. Somehow.
2007: Internship (at a bank) in Japan, 3 months. Since graduation is a lot closer, went to more career fairs, interviews, examinations, etc.
2007: Went to Boston CareerForum, looking for a full-time job. Found three!

If you need any additional detail about the above events, just let me know.

I think it's also important that someone have as much experience in Japan as possible. Take advantage of every opportunity you have to go. Do study abroad for at least year. Be proactive about finding internships in Japan. And study Japanese! There are a few entry-level jobs in IT that don't require "so much" Japanese, but I'm absolutely positive many of the opportunities I've had are partially because of my language skills.

This borders on "general life advice," which I'm not qualified to give, but it's very applicable to Japan. It's very, very important that you make opportunities for yourself. Don't be afraid to ask questions, send emails, google search, make phone calls, and so on.

[Fujay]

Nice post. And very true - there are at least two things necessary to get a decent non-English teaching job here:
1) a skill set of some kind
2）Japanese language abililty.

Its not impossible to step out of/avoid English teaching without either of those, but its very difficult.

edit: ex-pat positions where someone is transferred to Japan by their company rarely if ever require Japanese language ability.

[Jenks]

I know all about the career fairs since all my friends (most being Japanese) go there in droves, but I hadn't thought of going to one searching for an internship. Thats a great idea. And here I thought I could avoid the dreaded 就職活動, naive I guess. I have a question though, with all this preparation and such, just what was you're major and why did you choose it?

Personally I'm basically a 3rd year student in a 5 year Intl Business program w/ "emphasis" in Japanese, currently studying abroad. I too am thinking ahead, which is why I'm taking 会計学とファイナンス this semester and more next. As for my major, I'm still undeclared choosing between Finance, Management, and Marketing.

[Volcanon]

Hey, can you tell me how you got that "translation" field study thing? I am interested in participating in something similar after I fininsh my undergrad.

[Gaijin 06]

edit: ex-pat positions where someone is transferred to Japan by their company rarely if ever require Japanese language ability.

Most of the gaijin banks won't require Japanese either, for local hires or ex-pats.

[zmcnulty]

I know all about the career fairs since all my friends (most being Japanese) go there in droves, but I hadn't thought of going to one searching for an internship. Thats a great idea. And here I thought I could avoid the dreaded 就職活動, naive I guess. I have a question though, with all this preparation and such, just what was you're major and why did you choose it?

Personally I'm basically a 3rd year student in a 5 year Intl Business program w/ "emphasis" in Japanese, currently studying abroad. I too am thinking ahead, which is why I'm taking 会計学とファイナンス this semester and more next. As for my major, I'm still undeclared choosing between Finance, Management, and Marketing.

I wouldn't personally call what I did "就職活動." Granted, 就職活動 just translates to "job search," but I didn't go through a lot of the same stuff that a Japanese college student does. Their 就職活動 is usually so intense that they have few to no classes the entirety of their 4th year. You'll find that many Japanese companies have already begun their 2009 hiring rounds, and some end in April 2008.

Obviously as someone attending a school abroad this doesn't apply to you though. Japanese companies are willing to make exceptions for such students (whether they be Japanese or non-Japanese) and that's what the Boston CareerForum is all about. One of the banks I received an offer from, their 2008 hiring closed in May of 2007. Yet I got an offer to start in February 2008 in November 2007.

My majors are International Business, Supply Chain Management, and Entrepreneurship. Minor in Japanese. That may sound like a lot but combined it only adds up to the hours of Accounting or something. It's taken me an extra semester to graduate, but it's all worked out.

Looking back I sort of wish I had majored in finance (as well?), but I ended up getting a nice job so all is well. I think majoring in finance may have opened up a few additional doors for me (the one to the front office). I can certainly say that the Boston CareerForum is very, very dominated by finance/accounting companies, and as a result I feel that most of the entry-level positions for foreigners in Japan are going to be in such companies. I think there's also a decent amount of opportunity in consulting, if you're interested in that.

Hey, can you tell me how you got that "translation" field study thing? I am interested in participating in something similar after I fininsh my undergrad.

The field study was part of the study abroad program I participated in, IES Tokyo. One day a week you would go into work with a local organization: one person was an assistant at a temple, one person at a homeless shelter, one guy at a manga studio, one person at a trading company, one person in insurance, and I was at a game translation company. They decided that my Japanese abilities were good enough at the time, and since I had "video games" listed as a hobby on my application form, they figured it was a good match. It wasn't extremely serious and most of the students ended up doing random tasks, but in my case it was a nice first experience being exposed to a Japanese office environment.

However, the company was able to get a feel for my work style, so they decided to put me in the database as a freelance translator after I came back to the US. They send me assignments from time to time. Nothing serious like an entire game (or at least a big game, I've done small ones); it's usually supporting materials like manuals, press releases, and so on. It's nice to be able to say I have some semi-professional translation experience in addition to the JLPT.