To Find IT Jobs in Japan

As commonly known that Japan is suffering from labor shortage out of low-birth rate and aging population, while it may be new that the IT(Information Technology) sector is particularly hard hit by this labor crunch.

There is a severe shortage of qualified human resources in the Japanese IT world. For foreigners who would like to work and live in Japan, to work in the IT industry may be a good and easy way. If you are proficient in Japanese and have a large amount of skills in the given area, surely there will be amazing jobs waiting for you. Otherwise you can also try as a fresher.

Many industries in Japan have demands for IT talents, including automotive, banking and financial services, engineering, healthcare and medical, technology and internet services and telecoms. As the multi-layer developing system, there are various IT jobs for each layer such as engineer for embedded layer, middle-ware layer, top layer and so on. The job title also differs depending on the specific technology such as C/C++, OpenGL, BIOS engineer, etc.

How to find IT jobs in Japan

Job searching websites

The most common way to hunt for IT jobs should be job searching websites. Some websites are strong in IT recruitment like LinkedIn, Wantedly. A lot of large IT companies have cooperation with them and only accept entries from these sites in some cases. Almost all of them provide English services and even special sectors for bilingual or multilingual talents. Enormous job vacancies are posted and updated everyday and easy to filter by job titles, industries and cities.

After applying for a job vacancy, there will be several interviews and tests. You can get a job offer if you passed them all. Then the human resource manager will follow you up for entering the company. The employment process for freshers in Japan usually takes time, especially for large companies. While in the case that you are a veteran and get recommended by someone, or apply for some start-up companies, the employment process may be compact.

Recruitment agencies

If you have a reasonable experience in the IT industry and want to change jobs, recruitment agency may be another choice. To register with an agency powerful in your field, you can get job introduced according to your skill sets and expectations, besides an agency can do the difficult salary negotiation work for you.

Some common IT jobs

We are going to introduce some common IT jobs in Japan with their job contents and average salary. The richer experience an engineer has,the more he or she gets paid. And it also differs by prefectures, usually Tokyo is the highest one. Besides the salary,it is al so important to check the welfare before contracting with a company, like housing allowance, traffic allowance, social insurance and so on. Sometimes a job may have a salary a little bit lower than average but with good welfare and vice versa.

Software Engineer

This job title can be needed in all the IT industries and all the development layers, for example embedded software engineers for camera software, C++ developer for financial system, Java developer for applications, etc. The main duty of a software engineer normally includes understanding the customer requirements properly and interpreting them in use cases and functional specifications, performing high level design and detail design of the object software and programming.

The average salary for a Software Engineer is 5,612,862 yen per year in Tokyo, while about 3,400,000 yen for an entry level Software Engineer and in the case of principal engineer the amount can be up to 10 million yen. The average salary in Japan's other prefectures are supposed to be lower than Tokyo.

Data Analyst/Scientist

Normally this job is to analyse data and statistical information accumulated from various external sources and help to provide business solutions or reports to clients based on data. Furthermore, a data analyst may also be responsible for tasks including strategic planning, sales planning and marketing planning. The position is usually needed by consultancy companies, financial services companies and so on. The average annual salary for a Data Analyst/Scientist is 5,623,026 yen in Japan.

Technical/IT Support Engineer

Working contents may differ from company to company, but the main contents are to support the end users, address their questions and concerns regarding the company's products and services, as well as troubleshoot any technical problems they may have, or to support the IT team to maintain and improve the quality of system performances. Technical/IT support engineers work in a wide range of industries, such as telecommunications and health-care or IT service. The average annual salary for a Technical/IT Support Engineer is about 4,200,000 yen.

Platform Engineer

Platform engineers are going to understand a specific platform and develop and troubleshoot on this platform. It is not just about software or just one layer, it is for someone who has knowledge and experience in both hardware and software and multilayer of this platform. Different industries usually specialize different universal platforms to meet their own needs. The average annual salary is about 4,100,000 yen.

Sales Engineer

This job is to support the sales team by making technical presentations in front of potential customers, and answer all their technical questions and provide leadership in the creation and delivery of technology solutions designed to meet customers' business needs. Sales Engineer may be needed by software or technical companies who develop products and sell them to customers. The average salary for a Sales Engineer is 4,200,000 yen annually.

Database Developer

A database developer is responsible for working on database technologies to improve databases, expand their range or functionality, or to develop submissions for a company's IT architecture. The average salary for a Database Developer is around 4,000,000 yen annually.

Network & Systems Administrator

A Network & Systems Administrator's main responsibilities include installing, configuring, and supporting an organization's network or computer system. A Network Administrator may focus on network like LAN(Local Area Network), WAN(Wide Area Network), or internet systems, while a System Administrator is in charge of the computer systems including software and hardware installation and upkeep, data recovery and backup, setup, and training on user accounts and maintenance of basic security. The average salary is around 4,600,000 yen per year.

Web Engineer

A web engineer is going to focus on the functionality of the website, take the template and all the media provided by the web designer and program to make the site work as the design. The average salary is around 4,500,000 yen per year.

Application Engineer

There are Android Application Engineer or Web Application Engineer needed in Japan. The job duties are developing native Android apps or website applications, including design and coding. In some companies they are also expected to coordinate with other teams such as planning, designers and quality assurance. The developed application may be used on automotive head unit, smartphones or websites. The average annual salary for an Application Engineer is around 4,500,000 yen.