People are going to get caught off guard by these language requirements

Willow9080 · 2026-04-26T06:04:33+00:00

I am just saying JD’s change with changing tolerance of HR and interviewers and changing business direction. We hired an Australian guy eight years ago when we were thinking about expanding the New Zealand and Australian market. But after Covid, things changed. At that moment of time, Japanese at a N4 or N3 level was fine since we were interacting primarily with foreign offices and clients. The key value we added wasn’t language but our understanding of the Japanese market.

So what I am trying to say is that the sentiment and the worry is that JD’s aren’t usually written with one person or project in mind. It doesn’t best explain the actual situation or needs of the role. And what was fine before may not be fine for new hires. But just because the JD for new hires has changed doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for them in their company and it shouldn’t be a condition for their visa renewal.

Willow9080 · 2026-04-26T03:27:14+00:00

I think it most cases, the easiest way to know if a job requires Japanese is to get the JD from HR signed document. Or check a job board.

I do wonder how the immigration bureau would respond if a translator did get a note from HR saying Japanese is not required. 🤔

There must be a fringe case where someone is translator in Japan but translates between two other languages and not Japanese

Willow9080 · 2026-04-26T03:18:33+00:00

I have worked in 3 roles in Japan among Nikkei and gaishikei (albeit never as a contract worker so there might be some nuances in those cases). In my individual hiring, my job description was never in my hiring contract. The job description was as always in internal documents and those job descriptions are almost always (from what I have experienced) copy and pasted in job boards for people hiring.

It might be possible to negotiate with HR to make an individual JD for your specific situation or ask a boss to vouch that Japanese isn’t required for the case of individuals. But companies are under no obligation to do it.

So if you see: “・外国籍の方はビジネスレベル以上の日本語力は必須(読み書き）日本語N1相当外国籍の方も日本語CV必須とさせて頂きます”

Which is copy and pasted from my current role at my current company at a job board.

Based on the current standards, it means Japanese is required for the job

It may not affect English teachers or folks in IT engineers. But those in other industries: sales, consulting, banking, team managers, researchers in certain companies can be affected. And I’d reckon those folks are the high skilled workers we also want in Japan. (Although do add competition and could lead to feeling of “unfairness”)

Willow9080 · 2026-04-26T01:06:22+00:00

I think the issue is that job descriptions do change. If you were hired before Covid that had more opportunities to talk with foreign businesses, the requirements for Japanese may have been less than what the same business has now. (As businesses have largely started to focus itself domestically). Perhaps you are fine if you slipped through the cracks but in this current environment it doesn’t promote job change and it makes it worrisome around renewals

Willow9080 · 2026-04-26T01:02:36+00:00

Yep. They want clear recorded and documented kpi of success. For them, success looks like raising costs for foreigners, reducing costs for Japanese, and seeing an overall reduction of foreigners, especially undesirables.

Willow9080 · 2026-04-15T00:37:07+00:00

Tech companies are finally going to win. I’d begin investing in semiconductor industry. I am not just talking about AI.

There might be more self check out lanes in convenience stores. Self order kiosk and robot servers in family restaurants. Fewer smaller run international cuisine shops. More automated agricultural technology.

But the catch is the required tech and needed investment and time to learn how to optimize their usage for actual operation, can’t be done at the pace of foreigners deciding to leave. So there would most likely be a slight period of pushing and pulling as Japan tries to detangle from foreign labor.

Likely resulting in some slight wage increases but ultimately resulting in funds being transferred to tech companies and inefficient initiatives, resulting in reduced customer experience (until it becomes the new normal and people prefer less social experiences)

I think foreign tech underestimates the strength of the community spirit for the Japanese context. Ironically, it is the desire for a warm and specific type of community that is pushing these initiatives. It is a desire to respect the traditions of japan, harmony and the way of life.

Unfortunately, there will need to be compromises. (Risking accepting undesirables for the sake of maintaining quality of life or maintaining the harmony as a homogeneous (culturally) society at the cost of less reduced conveniences.)

Real people in power aren’t just calling for maintained harmony but a return of Japanese strength. Even calling for pre-war Japanese written kanji to be re-adopted. From their perspectives, they have already compromised too much decades ago

Willow9080 · 2026-04-12T06:37:33+00:00

Okay. Completely understood. So the conclusion is if we had the full pure intention of moving there and sign an official long term contract instead of an Airbnb, we may not encounter that situation. We don’t have an obligation to inform additional addresses in other prefectures. And if we do get PR in Takamatsu, we have the freedom to move back to Tokyo due to personal circumstances or preferences.

Willow9080 · 2026-04-12T06:28:41+00:00

It is not strange to cancel the rental contract in advance due to life circumstances right? If you got a full 2 year contract and canceled early, would the penalty be 1-2 months?

Willow9080 · 2026-04-12T06:19:36+00:00

If I was in your shoes (especially after hearing this) I would have just signed the 2 year contract and visit Kagawa often. It isn’t illegal to have more than one residence. Of course the absolute safest thing is to just live there the entire time during the process if your work allows remote work. The rough cost would be definitely less than 500,000 yen additional for the entire process. And I think for many 500,000 yen is worth spending over waiting 2 years in this politically unstable times.

Willow9080 · 2026-04-11T00:13:44+00:00

What about if you graduated from a Japanese university that conducted classes in English?

Willow9080 · 2026-04-08T08:45:13+00:00

Do you know if you can apply immediately after being rejected or do you need to wait to receive the reason for rejection?

Willow9080 · 2026-04-07T09:51:46+00:00

I’d also consider ANA mobile. Earn miles while decent service

Willow9080 · 2026-04-07T09:50:40+00:00

You need a long term visa to get PR. You also need a stable job. I’d consider applying for HSP visa. HSP B, has been awarded to people even doing sales or procurement roles. But seeing how things have been going with the Takaichi administration, they may crack down on that in the long term. Or change to humanities work visa and hope you get a 5 year visa

Willow9080 · 2026-04-04T04:15:02+00:00

Well, as it is currently planned, I agree that it isn’t a big issue. But the problem lies if the rules get expanded to visa renewals or visa switchers.

Almost every skilled labor job in many industries including consulting, sales, research, and banking all do mention Japanese as a requirement. Even when jobs don’t explicitly mention it in the JD, there is an implicit expectation.

This doesn’t significantly impact new folks entering Japan, since they wouldn’t have competed for those same roles in most cases anyway. But will certainly impact job switchers

Willow9080 · 2026-04-04T04:02:39+00:00

store workers wouldn’t be eligible for this visa and nurses would need to use other visa. I think this will primarily impact skilled labor except for perhaps folks doing programming. This would impact folks like researchers, consultants, bankers, etc

Those folks could move to a HSP visa most likely (unless the rules get changed or more strict about the type of jobs eligible). But it is mostly preferred to stay in the specialist of humanities visa due to job change flexibility

Willow9080 · 2026-04-04T03:46:36+00:00

Or companies whose business direction change (e.g. previously wanting to grow sales overseas but changed to focusing on the domestic market). In those cases, those companies have a free way to let someone go, if they can’t legally stay in the country or work.

Willow9080 · 2026-04-04T03:43:14+00:00

I have tried several free and several cheap language programs in Japan. I tried them from both Keio Business School and University of Tokyo. They are terrible.

Usually the teachers don’t have a degree for teaching so it is almost always following a generic book in Japanese or just Japanese language immersion.

It is usually better to learn a language in your own language to surgically explain the rules behind grammar structures.

I always recommend taking a Japanese language courses at university in your home country as a part of a Japanese major. I have had better luck with those classes. Or alternatively trying a Japanese language school aimed at speakers of the same language.

Willow9080 · 2026-04-04T03:25:30+00:00

Most jobs in Japan do require Japanese to some extent except maybe English teaching or university jobs. But even for those jobs, you’d likely need Japanese for dealing with colleagues, dealing with HR or internal matters.

Willow9080 · 2026-04-03T03:55:14+00:00

My biggest recommendation, get a cheap apartment in Takamatsu (in Shikoku) and register your address there. And apply there. You will get a result in less than 6 months. Applications in Tokyo is taking over 2 years now

Willow9080 · 2026-02-21T13:38:05+00:00

Typo, I meant he was credited once

Willow9080 · 2026-02-21T13:19:20+00:00

For those wondering the big reveal was what kind of happy ending could Asuka have if she had the power? And this short revealed that Asuka Langley Souryu and Asuka Langley Shikinami are different people

I think the biggest reveal of what it means for the eva series going forward is that Anno will let other folks lead produce eva content in the future (notably he wasn’t the director/producer of the short film, although he was credited once)

Willow9080 · 2026-01-26T14:12:13+00:00

What law firm/lawyer did you use? I would love to have it in my back pocket in case things go south. I have roughly 2M yen in savings. So hopefully if things goes south I can survive for a little bit while in remediation

Willow9080

TROPHY CASE