Find Jobs in Japan

There's no doubt that more and more people will be interested in finding a job in Japan, as Japan government has created a new visa status designed to admit foreign workers with certain skills or knowledge to make up for a serious workforce shortage. There are two categories for the new visa status that the first is provided to foreigners who have certain levels of knowledge or experience in specific industries and the second is for those who have expert knowledge and skills for specific industries.Japan expects to accept near 35 million foreign workers in five years under the new visa statuses to work in the care-giving business, food service, construction industry, building cleaning, farming, food and beverage manufacturing, and the lodging industry.

So if you own these skills or knowledge and want to have a try for living in Japan, you may start with finding a job in Japan. In this article we are going to show how to find job opportunities, popular occupations for foreigners, and well-paying jobs in Japan. You will also found this article helpful even though you just want to find a part-time job.

How to Find a Job in Japan

In the days before people usually look at the newspaper or magazine want-ads to find jobs. Though you can also get job information with the traditional way, nowadays people choose a much more effective and powerful way to collect job information by "Internet"

Social Internet

Actually most of job vacancies are never advertised, as said to be the "hidden job market", which is especially true for Japan because of the lifetime employment, which is a distinctive characteristic of Japan's postwar labor system that large companies hire graduate students right out of school and keep them until retirement. New employees are chosen for their potential, not because of any spectacular skills. The employee is going to serve the company loyally and not try to leave for a better position.

So Japanese seldom change jobs and also companies are cautious to hire someone, let alone advertising for recruitment.To get knowledge of these hidden jobs, you need to find a way to get a foot in the door. Social internet can help a lot in getting this kind of information.So try to contact with your friends, classmates, former colleagues, customers, anyone you know who may have connections with Japan.Even if no one you know has direct knowledge of a job available, there is a chance that they know someone who does.

Social internet can be made both in face-to-face and online. You can take classes in language schools, attend events in your field, join chat rooms of people working in Japan or try to connect with professionals who work in your field on social network sites like Facebook.

Job Search Engines

There are many job search engines on the internet that post occupations, such as rikunabi, mynavi, en-japan, doda, or daijob. They function in a similar way to the traditional want-ads, however, they have a powerful search engine to allow you to search a much larger number of jobs by types, train lines, locations, etc.A job search engine may be a good choice if you have no target company.

Recruitment Agency

If you have no idea which company to apply for and want to look for some professional help, recruitment agencies can definitely lend you a hand. There are a number of companies hiring recruitment agencies to find job candidates because agency recruiters will help them to identify qualified people, screen the candidates, and provide support to the employer during selection of the new hire. There are many recruitment agencies like RecruitAgent or JACJapan.

The 6 Most Popular Jobs for Foreigners in Japan

You will find out that the jobs on the Internet start from entry-level to proficient level, so what's the most popular jobs for foreigners in Japan?

English Teacher

Teaching may actually be one of the most common and most greatly desired jobs in Japan, and it is especially if you are native English or Chinese speakers. Nowadays many Japanese people choose English or Chinese as a foreign language. You can get a full-time job in a private school or a part-time teaching job person-to-person.

Translator or interpreter

If you are good at Japanese, you can try to become a translator or an interpreter in Japan.You can register to a translation company for a long term job, or find one time jobs on the website. Usually these kind of work can be done at your own place. You may be required for a college education background and a Japanese-Language Proficiency Test(JLPT) level.So make sure to take your certifications along to Japan.

Waiter or waitress in a restaurant or bar

A waiter/waitress is responsible for providing guests with food and drinks as requested in an efficient and polite manner.As working in Japan, you will be required to speak polite Japanese, but as the number of foreign bars and restaurants is ever increasing and usually they will hire an English speaker. And the restaurants in tourist spots where Chinese tourists often go, may also want to hire a Chinese speaker. Notice that some visa status holders like "College Student" and "Working Holiday"; are not permitted to work at the adult entertainment related businesses, such as bars, night clubs, pachinko, etc.

Staff at convenience store

It may be the most popular jobs for foreign students in Japan to work as a staff at convenience stores.Tough the quick expansion of convenience store chains in Japan, there are less and less young working people out of an aging society.One of the solutions taken by these employers is to hire foreign students who are willing to work part-time while studying. Also there are management trainings provided to enhance part-time workers' technical skills as well as improve their knowledge of the job.

Bet making

You may also choose to work as a bet making in Japan, but make sure that you are allowed by checking your visa status.If you violated you may be punished such as deportation, imprisonment, penalty charges, etc.

Nursing care worker

There are government estimate saying that nursing care workers can only fulfill 86 percent of demand in 2025, when the youngest of the nation's postwar baby boomer generation will have turned 75 and the need for nursing care services will significantly increase. Currently the government has been taking steps to increase the wages of nursing care workers to attract them, and planning to increase the use of IT devices and robots to alleviate the burden on them, as well as to accept more foreigner workers for the nursing care sector. The government even created a new visa status for care-giving business. And this efforts are expected to continue and there will be more and more foreigners working in this industry in the future.

How to find job information efficiently

As there are various jobs posted on the Internet, you need an efficient way to filter them to save your time. Understanding the difference between job search engines and recruitment agencies and their strengths and weaknesses will absolutely increase the efficiency of finding a job. For example, rikunabi has rich needs from major companies, while there are also many ventures and small business jobs on en-japan. Daijob mainly deal with jobs for foreign companies and MBA holders so you should try it if you are good at English.Some of them may be focusing on a special industry like IT.

What is the average salary in Japan

The average annual salary in Japan in 2017 was ￥4,180,000. And the industries with the highest average salaries are Specialist Professions (Consulting/Auditing) with ￥6,090,000, Planning ＆ Management with ￥5,200,000, Technology (Electric, Electronic, Machinery) with ￥4,840,000, Technology (IT/Communication) with ￥4,630,000, Sales with ￥4,430,000, and Financial Services with ￥4,250,000. It's found that average annual salary increases by age group, but there is also a significant gender gap across age groups especially in the 50-something age segment. The average salary for a 50-something man is ￥7,070,000, while for a 50-something woman is ￥2,620,000 less.

What are the best paying jobs and industries in Japan?

According to the survey in 2017, the best paying job category in Japan was investment banking services. And the best paying industry was Information Technology (IT) and business planning, as about two-thirds of the jobs in the Top 30 highest paying jobs are related to.

Summary

It is common for foreigners to struggle at the beginning due to the language barrier with a job in Japan. However, more often than not, you will face the challenge and feel eager to learn not only just Japanese but job skills. Finally, you will hurdle this obstacle and come out more practiced in both language and career. So there's no need to be afraid of finding a job in Japan.And based on the job searching methods, popular jobs and salary analysis results shown in this article, we hope that you are able to find out which industry and which company that you would like to work in and get an ideal job in Japan.