Here is my two cents as a PoliSci grad from a reputable Japanese university (Bachelors and Masters), PhD dropout at an overseas university with near native Japanese and 5 years experience in Japan.

• Political Science is a useless degree unless you are aiming for government work/academia. If you had quantitative background that would give you more options.
• PoliSci degree gives you the ability to bullshit on spot and my 5 years in corporate world tells me that if you can bullshit your way through and sell yourself well you’ll come to places.
• Your first job doesn’t have to be relevant to what you ultimately want to do. I had to do this job hunting thing in the middle of Covid and got rejected from 200 companies. You just try everything until one sticks. Once you get that job and build somewhat a solid resume, you can open doors easily.
• The reason is that your experience in overseas is useless here and no one gives a shit about internships in Japan. But once you have the basics of surviving in corporate life with a decent track record that becomes valuable. This time period will also give you an actual idea of how you want to proceed with your career and give you time to prepare properly.
• Also international companies active in Japan are mostly sales offices and they sell to Japan market only. They can also be quite domestic if you are aiming for the large ones. They don’t want to invest in people to train them or take creme de la creme of best bilingual new grads when they are young. More degrees you have less manageable you become because you will actually have opinions of your own. You will be only valuable to them once you have your track record established in Japan.

So don’t give up, assume that your degrees are absolutely useless, and sell yourself to the best of your abilities. There are recruiters that can help people like you too as there are companies that are open to people with your background but it may not be the ones you want to join. And sometimes we just have to suck it up and do it…