Why Moving Back May Be Hard After Living Abroad

I’m basically an immigrant in my home country of the US.

This is the result of living overseas for about 13 years. Here, I’ll highlight some general challenges that I’ve either faced or realized may be an issue that can affect those moving back to the US from wherever they may be.

If you are living abroad and planning to move back to the US or are planning to move abroad, you may find my realizations useful.

1. You may lack relevant professional experience

The work you do overseas may not have much relevance to a job you’re looking to do back home. Even for someone like me who works in marketing, some of the things I do is for the Japanese market, which would be quite different if an employer was looking to market to people in the US.

Even if you do have relevant experience, it may be likely that an employer will favor someone who is equally as qualified as you if their experience is in the US. Why? People want to protect themselves and make sure they’re doing their job correctly.

Not being able to judge your foreign work, skills, company, clients, etc., means more risk to the person in charge of hiring.

You may also have fewer professional connections since you’ve been away.

Knowing people and maintaining those relationships matters. The longer you’re away, the higher the chance that your professional relationships have weakened over time.

Your relevance will decrease with time and distance. This is why I believe you should build some your personal brand (reputation) online at some level so that you can be found from anywhere and people can’t connect with you based on interest.

2. The US government may doubt you

There’s a chance you’ll run into issues with moving back to the US if you’ve been overseas for a while. This is especially true if you end up marrying a foreigner and are sponsoring them for a spousal visa.

While applying for a spousal visa for my Japanese wife, I was asked to provide more proof that I actually intended to move back to the US. This is difficult because while the US has “permanent addresses” that could be a sign of intention to relocate back if it’s a U.S. address, there’s no official legal documentation for it.

I ended up having to gather various pieces of evidence that I still kept an American base, signaling an intention to one day move back. I talked about it in my video, but basically if you’ve been gone for a while, it might not exactly be free sailing back home.

3. Your credit might be good but too weak

Just because your credit score is good doesn’t mean you won’t run into problems, I realized.

I had no problems getting a mobile phone contract nor a new credit card, but I wasn’t able to get a good rate for a car lease. I wasn’t denied, but the amount was roughly double what was being advertised even with a decent downpayment.

The reason given to me was that while my credit was good, I didn’t have enough credit history.

I had never taken out a personal loan or car loan, never bought a house and didn’t have any tuition loans. I did have credit cards, but due to living overseas, they were rarely used.

Even though my credit score was said to be 114 points above the average for my age, that didn’t mean that I was being offered what others with that score were when it comes to bigger purchases.

4. You may notice “gaps” in your existing relationships due to time and distance

When you first move back and see friends, family and acquaintances, things are great because they’re happy you’re back and you can have a good time reminiscing about your past experiences together.

You’ll realize, however, that everyone has different lives, routines and rhythms that aren’t like how they were before. And the same goes for you since you’ve likely changed quite a bit while living abroad.

Activities and interests that tied you together before may have changed, and rebuilding your relationships requires some adjusting. There may be a bit of feeling like an outsider, because in a sense, you are. But if you’re both willing to work at it, you should be able to bring your relationship up to speed and build on them.

I hope this provides some insight into what challenges are common for American expats when moving back to the US. I’m sure this doesn’t cover them all and returning may be difficult, but having an international life isn’t meant to be simple.

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Shopping at Costco Japan

Wagyu steaks, bulgogi bakes and fresh fish galore are just a few of the differences at Costco in Japan.

As of 2020, there are 27 Costco warehouses in Japan.

Their business membership is 4,235 JPY a year, their gold star membership is 4,840 JPY a year. You can use your US membership in Japan as well, but apparently a Japanese membership is required for online ordering and delivery.

Costco is one of the beloved shopping destinations for many expats as they sell a lot of items from back home that can be hard to find at normal shops in Japan.

They do, however, have a lot that are only in Japan.

Here are some of my favorites at the Tamakyo Costco location, just west of Tokyo.

Japanese Wagyu beef steaks. A4 grade. From Hokkaido and Ibaraki prefectures

Japanese Wagyu beef, sliced for stir fry. A4 grade. From Tochigi and Iwate prefectures.

Japanese Wagyu beef, sliced for yakiniku BBQ. A4 grade. From Hokkaido and Iwate prefectures.

Korean bulgogi

Beef garlic rice

Fresh fish for sashimi, and 50-piece sushi platters

Uni packed in salt water

Ikura. From Hokkaido prefecture.

Hawaiian ahi (tuna) poke

Salmon

Nihonshu (Japanese sake) and other alcohol

Egg tarts

Pineapple smoothies, soft serve ice cream from Hokkaido, cold brew, coffee and lattes, cheeseburgers, hotdogs, pizza, bulgogi bakes, clam chowder and chicken caesar salad at the Costco food court in Japan

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First Day Back in the Tokyo Office After Lockdown

In Tokyo, we had a stay-at-home request issued by the government that lasted for the majority of April and May 2020.

When the emergency declaration was lifted, some companies were quick to bring everyone back (despite few adjustments to the work environment), while others, like my company, are moving towards trying to work out a balance.

I went back to the office for the first time in early June as we are trying to get team members to be in the office at least twice a week.

I made a vlog to show how that first day was.

Returning to office work makes you reconsider its value.

What I realized was that while office work and remote work each have positives and negatives, it depends on the person and tasks at hand.

As a non-native Japanese person who isn’t fluent at Japanese but works primarily with Japanese colleagues, being in the same physical space helps eliminate existing barriers when it comes to understanding meanings or contexts.

It’s also beneficial when working on a team project or if there’s a lot of collaborations happening to get things done.

On the negative side though, it really made me question the need of commuting every day.

Despite it only being about 40 minutes door-to-door for me, the stopping of what I’m doing, getting ready, then commuting twice per day is an interference in production. While I can work on my phone, it’s often not as easy as a laptop.

Tokyo trains also can become very congested, and with the virus still around, it’s a little nerve wracking to be body-to-body in a box with little ventilation.

Working in the office isn’t comfortable as well due to mask-wearing and no new seating arrangements or protective adjustments.

Because of this, I noticed that I drink far less water throughout the day.

How will companies adapt moving forward?

It will be interesting to see how companies continue to adapt. There is a need to due to changes in people’s psychologies and behavior.

People like Andrew Yang have said there’s been 10 years of progress in the last 10 weeks. How much that’s true with regards to Japan is unknown, though.

A survey revealed that in mid-April, a couple weeks after the emergency declaration was made by the Japan government, 64% of small to medium-sized businesses did not move to remote work. [J]

There’s also the issue of Japan as a whole being resistant to let go of traditional work practices - many of which require a physical presence. And of course, there is the workforce that is accustomed to it.

On the flip side, there are companies like Twitter and Shopify saying they will be making efforts to move to 100% remote work.

As of today, Shopify is a digital by default company. We will keep our offices closed until 2021 so that we can rework them for this new reality. And after that, most will permanently work remotely. Office centricity is over.

— Tobi Lutke 🌳🌲🛒🕹 (@tobi) May 21, 2020

While I think that may be a bit farfetched for most, the boldness of the move is admirable.

What companies can’t do is simply go back to exactly how things were. The world has and is changing since this global pandemic.

Let’s see what happens.

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Working in Japan Can Be Lonely

This time working remotely has let me reflect a little on why I sometimes feel lonely working in Japan.

Since moving to Tokyo in late 2014, I’ve been working in marketing at a Japanese agency. My immediate team has just under 20 people. Everyone is Japanese aside from myself and a couple of Taiwanese who are either based in Taipei or frequently in and out of the Tokyo office.

I’m generally fine working on my own.

When working in marketing, however, especially with regards to strategy and creative - things that I do - it’s best to be able to collectively brainstorm and have discussions where ideas are bounced off each other.

But I don’t really have that on an everyday basis. Nor am I able to fully take part in a lot of discussions or training events.

There are a couple main reasons why a separation exists.

1. My Japanese isn’t good enough.

Not only does my Japanese language capability provide an obstacle in my comprehension and ability to effectively communicate, my not being as culturally in tune as the Japanese people around me can sometimes put me on a different wavelength.

A recent example is when a colleague talked about an “online business card trading” service being amazing, especially during this time of remote work. I understand business card trading is a part of Japanese business culture so the service may be useful, but I consider it more to be a timid half-step forward. This is especially the case for me since while on a business trip to the CES convention in Las Vegas in 2015, I was about to give my business card to someone when he simply waved his phone over my neck pass and got my info. I remember clearly how I felt like an outdated fool. That was 5 years ago.

And of course there’s just a lack of commonality in the pop-culture we’re a part of for general conversations. Compare App Store, Apple Music or Netflix popularity rankings - Japan is often quite different from a lot of other countries. I wouldn’t expect it to be like my or another foreigner’s home countries obviously, but it does mean that there may be even less common ground to connect on.

2. Lack of “International”

In relation to non-Japanese residents living in Japan, this is a really general outline of society:

LEFT: You have typical Japanese people. The majority doesn’t speak English, have little or no international experience and aren’t used to working with non-Japanese.

RIGHT: You have the various foreign expats who may or may not speak some Japanese and are in Japan for a short-term.

MIDDLE: The internationals. They have experience both in Japan and out but some may not be truly native-level speakers anywhere, they likely speak a language that mixes English, Japanese and perhaps another language. Many of the capable ones will work in international companies.

I fall into the “international” category, probably leaning to the right because of my mediocre language skills. But because almost all of my colleagues and company itself falls firmly into the left side, it takes more effort for someone like me to try to include myself.

The truth is a lot of Japanese - and this is for any country, not just Japan - don’t have an interest in things foreign. My non-Japanese colleagues and I have been told in the past that there are some colleagues that we can’t work on international projects with because of a lack of interest and ability to comprehend things foreign. This wall and lack of workaround is an unfortunate reality that only impacts the foreigners.

I was reminded of this separation when the only email to unsubscribe from the English newsletter I sent out on behalf of our team was, in fact, our own team’s email address. That meant a colleague decided to unsubscribe from it.

To be honest, I thought that was fucked up considering it’s clearly sent from our own company. I know better than to unsubscribe from our Japanese or Chinese communications. Our non-Japanese communications are generally ignored, which can feel isolating, but to take action to stop it is another level.

But other than that, there’s no real maliciousness or purposeful segregation. It’s mostly whether or not someone wants to make an extra effort to connect. I was astounded when I took a look at how much time I spent on just trying to understand communications, time I could be spending on being productive in something else. That’s completely on me.

This feeling of separation and created walls, though, is to be expected unless a company is really striving to be diverse.

I think this is a challenge for any Japanese company attempting to be more international. How do you do that without straying from being “a Japanese company”? It’s a structural revision tied to core values that needs to be carefully planned out and purposefully followed. I don’t have an answer for that either, but I know it’s not just adding foreigners onto the payroll.

I’m lucky that, for the most part, I have some colleagues who I do connect with, others who are in that left side but do their best to do so, and that there’s no discrimination or anything.

Yes, it is often lonely and there is a separation that’s often felt. After all though, the choice of where to work, where to live and what to do is our choice and up to us.

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Why Japan Has Strange English Ads

Japan is well known for its Engrish here and there, but why do even big companies in the country launch large scale campaigns using incorrect phrases?

I’ve been questioning this ever since moving to Japan. After all, I had initially moved to the country on one of the government’s expensive initiatives to improve the people’s English ability. While it would be absurd to expect perfection in a non-English speaking country, big tax payer money is being spent on this education.

Why is it then that in 2020, after years of rapidly increasing tourism and it being the year of the Tokyo Olympics, that major corporations still put out English that clearly hasn’t received a legitimate edit?

Japanese ads with questionable English

Before I theorize as to why questionable English is still being put out, here are some of the memorable ones I've seen in the last few years:

"Have a nice d!" - Docomo

Docomo is a major communications company, and is the largest mobile service provider in Japan.

Their promotion for their d-point point card system [J] was big, featured actress Ayami Nakajo, and was blasted across TV and the internet.

Their slogan and tune telling everyone to "Have a nice d" seemed playfully, well, dirty.

"Enjoy the girl!" - Musee Platinum

Musee Platinum [J] is an international hair removal salon with 185 locations in Japan.

Their 2016 campaign slogan was to "Enjoy the girl," a message that would be a better match for a hostess bar. And capitalizing it just looks like they really want customers to enjoy them.

After prematurely posting it everywhere in Tokyo’s busiest trains, the ads were pulled and replaced soon after with an odd "Enjoy, girls." (Is the hair removal process that enjoyable?)

In 2017, they began using a new slogan, "Girls power."

“Girls Power” according to Musee Platinum

This company’s campaign messaging seems to range from trivializing movements to being completely tone deaf.

"I'm fruity." - Yebisu Beer

Yebisu Beer, owned by Japan's oldest brewery, Sapporo, had begun to promote a new brew called Hanamiyabi [J].

Their promotion for it featured Japanese actress Kyoko Fukada who says the beer’s slogan, "I'm fruity."

Rather than saying that the beer is fruity, using the word to describe herself doesn’t really make sense, and it could potentially have negative or offensive connotations.

Why do Japanese companies use strange English in their promotions?

Here's my insight on this after working at a Japanese marketing agency.

1. English is often for styling

English slogans are often used in a way a graphic or emoji would be - it's mainly there for decoration or to create an image. The best comparison would be clothing with kanji wording or kanji tattoos in the West.

Judging from English copy requests from Japanese clients, many ask for something that sounds fancy but can be understood by the average Japanese person at the same time. Those criteria are usually in conflict with each other, so words will be replaced with generic ones like “happy” or “enjoy”.

Basically, the company is mainly thinking that their target is Japanese people and they have no real intention to communicate with the English they use. Because of that, allocating money and time to do so just isn’t a priority.

2. Katakana English confusion

A growing number of Japanese words are adopted from English and other foreign languages. A lot of times, those words are shortened into an entirely different word and disregard grammatical points such as tense.

For example, department store becomes “depart” and “get” is never changed to got. This adds a layer of confusion when switching from Japanese English to actual English, and if no one on the team is proficient in English, the outcome is whatever their best person can come up with.

Furthermore, loan words never really adapt to changes in definition or usage, and this occasionally leads to embarrassments like McDonalds Japan naming their dessert something that translates to “Adult creampie”.

McDonalds Japan’s “Adult Creampie” dessert in 2020

Japanese use “大人の” (Adult) to describe something rich or slightly bitter, and “cream pie” was never adapted to the times. This, of course has caused the international and English-capable Japanese community to question the naming.

3. Limited resources and separations in organizational structure

A lot of companies don't do much of their own marketing and advertising, especially when it’s digital. It’s almost mind-boggling sometimes how even the most basic work is outsourced.

Many of these companies don't have internal teams that communicate with each other on a regular basis, or don’t have teams to begin with. Because of this, it’s not uncommon for small scopes to be outsourced separately to different agencies. What results is too many walls and segmented parties, leading to too many inefficiencies to overcome.

4. Pride and stubbornness

Age is often a factor in promotion at traditional Japanese companies, and it’s not unusual for the decision-maker to be a 60-year old man who doesn’t actually understand what they’re overseeing. Just look at Japan’s minister of cybersecurity who doesn’t use computers.

Having them carelessly approve what they don’t fully comprehend while subordinates are unable to tell their superior they’re wrong is probably quite common.

Staff themselves may be in charge of the English, either unwillingly assigned or because they overestimate their capabilities. A large Japanese company recently had a staff member who wasn’t fully English-capable “correct” my English and submit it for final release. Needless to say, this led to a hectic, last minute effort to reverse the damage they did.

Will English in Japan improve?

The Japan government and businesses talk about improving, but it’s a slow process.

Here we are in 2020, the year of the Tokyo Olympics and a time when Japan is making enormous efforts to appeal to international tourists, and we still get things like “Hello, our stadium” and “Please push the under button” at the Olympic Stadium’s unveiling.

To be determined, I guess.

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10 Years Living in Japan - A Reflection

I officially made 10 years living in Japan.

It’s hard to believe. I arrived in August of 2009, landing in Tokyo ready to start a new job with the JET Programme teaching English to junior high kids in Fukuoka prefecture.

To be honest though, I had no real interest in teaching.

WHY I MOVED TO JAPAN

After visiting Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima) on a high school graduation trip, I became intrigued, always wondering in the back of my mind what it’d be like to live in the country. It had that kind of impact, and I’d occasionally think about it throughout college and while I worked at a Silicon Valley startup.

I finally applied and luckily got into the JET Programme, pulled the trigger and decided to make the jump. I’ll experience life in Japan for 2 years, I said to myself.

Well, those 2 years flew by.

WHY I STAYED IN JAPAN

It was 2011, the US economy hadn’t fully recovered, the yen was stronger than the dollar, I liked my job, made some good friends and I was having a great time. It didn’t make sense to go back. Another year, I decided.

3rd year. 4th year. With the JET Programme, you can only work for 5 years so I decided I might as well finish it out. But I felt that I still wasn’t done.

I always wanted to live and work in Tokyo, it was the image of “working in Japan” that I had. Tall buildings, energetic crowds, catching the trains. So I found a job (here’s how I found a job in Tokyo) and made it happen.

Back to my former field of marketing working at an agency in Tokyo, 5 years quickly became 10.

Japan has become my second home, and the days of being a wide-eyed tourist are long gone. Despite that, like with living in any foreign country, living in Japan continues to have its fair share of challenges.

WHAT HAS KEPT ME LIVING IN JAPAN FOR 10 YEARS?

Simply put, it’s the overall quality of life.

Japan is not perfect and life in the country is full of frustrations and wtf moments, and I can really get into that when asked. But aside from some language and cultural hurdles, it’s a pretty easy place to live.

1) I feel safe.

I was shocked shortly after I moved to Japan when I saw little kids and elderly women walk down small, dark streets alone at night. I hesitated going down alleys myself, it’s something we avoid doing in the US.

Yes, there is crime but I’ve never felt threatened or actually been threatened like I did while living in places like San Francisco or Los Angeles.

2) Food is good. And AFFORDABLE.

Japan has an image of being expensive, and while it’s relative, it seems cheaper to go grocery shopping in Tokyo than anywhere I lived in the US. I do tend to eat more Asian foods, which helps, but prices like tofu for less than $1 and a bag of bean sprouts for $0.30 are hard to beat.

Eating out can be just a good of a deal. There are decent quality beef bowls for about $5. If you pay more than $9 for lunch, it’s considered expensive as many of my colleagues spend half that.

I’ve had dinners with 48-piece sashimi platters, a few other dishes, beer and Japanese sake for 4 people for $90.

And no tip.

3) APARTMENTS ARE REASONABLE AND OF GOOD quality.

My first studio in Tokyo was about $950/month. In a 10-year old building with an elevator and secure lobby, I had my own gas stove, my own washing machine (I had to buy it), bathroom, AC/heater, and a balcony, and it was only a 3-minute walk from the station within Tokyo proper. That is very hard to find in any major US city.

To top it off, the average studio in Tokyo is in the $700-range, and other cities in the country are even less.

4) THE DAY-TO-DAY IS Relatively smooth.

Most days are quite normal - go to work, go home. People tend to mind their own business and do little to disturb the peace or attract attention to themselves.

People are more or less presentable in public with relatively few aggressive drunks, druggies or crazies, even in a large city like Tokyo.

5) It’s clean.

Anyone who’s visited Japan can tell you that it’s almost abnormally clean and borderline sterile, even in the huge city of Tokyo.

People are mindful about their trash, and the trash system has been requiring everyone to separate their garbage for quite some time.

Even the little things like not having to worry about coming in contact with a bunch of old gum under a table makes a difference.

YEAR 11 AND ON…

I’ve never planned on living in Japan forever. Even though I’ve stayed 5 times longer than I had planned and some American friends think I’ll never return, I do plan to sooner than later.

I’ll look to work and live a life that connects the two countries.

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Valentine's Day Differences in Japan That You Can See

For those who may not know, Japan’s Valentine’s Day is somewhat opposite of the men giving flowers and chocolates day that many of us are familiar with.

In Japan, women give chocolates to men, friends and colleagues. Stores will create sections for selling cutesy kits for homemade dessert-making, marketed to women. 

Men return the favor a month later on what’s called “White Day.” Clever for companies to make two days of gift giving out of one.

Here are a few of visible differences of Valentine’s Day in Japan.

Baked goods and chocolates sections of stores are 98%+ women.

You’ll rarely find men looking for ingredients to make chocolate treats for anyone. If you do, there’s a decent chance they’re non-Japanese.

Flower shops don’t package sales for Valentine’s Day.

Go to a random flower shop’s website and they allow for online ordering. They let you search bouquets by occasions like birthday, celebrations, presents and more. There will likely be no section to search for Valentine’s Day flowers. While they’re trying to change the culture to have men buy flowers for their female companions, it’s still not really a thing.

It’s just a normal day at work.

There are no deliveries of flowers to the office, no oohs and ahhs by female coworkers over how amazing their colleague’s boyfriend or husband is. It’s a normal, uneventful day. At my office, it was business as usual with most still at their seats at 7PM.

For those who are in intercultural relationships, good luck deciding on which Valentine’s day traditions you’ll follow!

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Why Street Photography in Japan Can Be Difficult

In countries like the US, if you’re in a public space, there is no expectation of privacy and therefore people are free to take photos of basically anything around them. This is not the case in Japan, however, as the country generally favors the Right to Privacy over Freedom of Expression.

For a street photographer, capturing people in their natural element of existence can create powerful imagery and invoke a range of emotions. It can paint a picture and tell a story, give others a glimpse of life somewhere unknown to them. The way it’s shot, edited, captioned and shared reflects how the photographer interpreted that moment, and a collection of these can show how they see the world as a whole. In some cases, it can serve an educational purpose. It’s an art, similar to songwriting and painting.

In “shy” Japan, it’s a bit different.

Their take on it is that even if a person is in a public space without expectation of privacy, a photo taken of them should first get their approval and consent before sharing, even if it’s with neutral or positive intent. Obviously this can be rather difficult, especially in cities like Tokyo where people fly by in a split second.

This perspective does make sense on a personal level though, and it is good manners - after all we don’t like unflattering photos taken and shared of us. But giving preference to one’s rights in a situation can naturally inhibit another’s freedom. In this case, the photographer’s ability to communicate freely through their work becomes filtered, and therefore can be seen as an infringement on their right to express.

So in a public space, should a photographer be legally bound to go through the same steps to consent as if in a private space?

As it is today, even if no negative or malicious intent exists and the work is not for sale or for profit, people may take legal action on the photographer in Japan.

It is said that hampering creative genius harms society, but these hurdles on a photographer’s art exists in countries like Japan.

What do you think? Feel free to comment below.

(For reference: The Photographer’s Right in the US)

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Finding a Job in Japan

Updated April 2021

So you want to work in Japan but aren’t sure how. As someone who is on their second job in the country, I’ll tell you what I did as it may provide some help to a few of you.

First of all, my work background.

WORK BACKGROUND

For some context, I began my work life in Japan by teaching English through the JET Programme. It is one of the most common jobs for a foreigner to hold in Japan regardless of if they actually care about English education. JET is known to be the most accommodating, but Interac, Gaba, etc. are alternatives people can look into.

Prior to that, I was doing social media marketing at a startup in Silicon Valley before I just couldn’t ignore my desire to experience life in Japan anymore.

JOB SEARCHING IN JAPAN

Teaching English can be a trap if you’re not serious about that career path, and I wasn’t. Keeping in tune with the online social and startup worlds was what helped me find my second and current job.

But I had a couple of big challenges:

1. I wasn’t fluent and didn’t speak business level Japanese

2. My only work experience in the country was teaching English

I tried reaching out and tweeting to Japanese startup founders to no avail — they weren’t ready to expand internationally (where I would fit in).

Networking with anyone at internationally-ready companies were limited since JET has the vast majority of its workers living in the countryside.

Paying attention to trends in Japan - the growing number of outbound-looking companies, the push for foreign tourists, the increase in usage of international social apps and services by Japanese - led me to come across the service that helped me.

The tool that I became aware of that helped me get my second job was Wantedly.

About Wantedly

Wantedly can be called Japan’s LinkedIn, with about 3 million users and 40,000 registered companies as of April 2021. [J]

It’s a service that looks to connect people and companies from a more vision and empathy alignment approach, rather than one that’s focused on things like salary.

There’s more English now than when I began using it in 2014 which will be helpful. It also has broken its service into 2 areas:

• Wantedly People - The profile and people networking side, also the ability to scan business cards (5M users)

• Wantedly Connect - The connection of people and companies (3M users)

Wantedly is used mostly by those in the IT and digital space. Here’s the approximate breakdown of its users, according to Direct Sourcing Lab [J]:

• Engineers - 25%

• Sales - 18%

• Marketing - 16%

• Directors - 14%

• Designers - 13%

• Corporate - 10%

• Writers - 3%

To compare, most on LinkedIn are in business development.

My experience on Wantedly

I created a profile, wrote my experiences in Japanese and simple English to quickly show I’m somewhat capable in both languages. From there, I began “showing interest” (there’s a button) in interesting companies that either were hiring or allowing office visits.

I had a few meetings, all of which ended up being with companies not ready to do international work, until I met with one where the CEO was ready to start moving in that direction due to realizing that Japan was behind in the online space.

There are job listings on GaijinPot or JapanToday Jobs as well. If you’re looking for an internet-related job, possibly at a startup, check out Justa too.

Here’s my video where I talk about my experience:

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