Foreigner working as a Pharmacology in JP

At first, I'd like to thanks everyone for reading my question.
I'm a 19 year-old Vietnamese female. I'm studying my first year about Pharmacy in Vietnam National University. I had a gap year last year and i chose to come to Japan and stayed there for 1 months.
I chose to study in Pharmacy field because I have a very great interest in Medical Science. In short, I want to create medicine.
Now I will discuss the reasons I want to leave for Japan. First of all, Vietnam is lack of workplace and technology in Pharmacy. There are medicine companies owned by Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese here. But they usually used technology and researches which was developed from other countries and only run factories producing medicine here in Vietnam. So most pharmacist in Vietnam work as retailers or other places in the company like marketing, quality control. etc. Secondly, I really like Japan society and working environment. I stayed there for 1 month from August to September in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka after 1 month in Korea and I'd say I prefer Japan. I've heard a lot about Japan high working pressure, which maybe not suitable for a foreign female like me. But in my opinion, furthur than that is a good Goverment, healthy lifestyle, clean environment and a workplace where i can dedicate my life to my ideal, which i can not pursue in my homeland (sadly).
I'm thinking about studying Master Pharmacy in Japan and then apply for a Pharmacy company there. Do you think it is possible? I'm not study Japanese yet but I have 5 years ahead to study so i don't worry much. Please give me some advice.
I know that my English is not so well since I've just got Ielts 6.0 b but I'm working on it.
Sincerely thank you everyone who has read till here :'>

Hello,

Working in a Japanese Pharma industry is more complicated.

I am working for a Japanese pharmaceutical equipment manufacturer, who is making aseptic isolators, containment isolators for the pharmaceutical companies who are manufacturing and creating medicines.

So far I have visit many domestic companies such as Daiichi Sankyo, Biken, Nipro, Takeda Teva etc.
There is some foreigners working in the companies. who are expats for study, or project based.
Never met a foreigner working full time at the company.

In Korea, for example Samsung Biologics has many foreigners in many departments

They main reason is that many companies in Japan are conservative and getting high skilled local people is easy to get. Another point is the communication since most companies do local market.
If the company is international than the company has a manufactory in the local county where it sells the product.

I am working in a Japanese CRO , i.e. a company organizing clinical trials for pharmaceutical companies. Not sure if that would still fall under gcreating medicineh. We definitely help medicine to get to the market.

What I would say:
- for an entry level position your Japanese needs to be excellent. We are hiring (mainly Chinese) foreigners every year, but they all studied in Japan.
- the clinical trials market in Vietnam is growing and some Japanese CROs are working with Vietnam. So having a person in Japan who can speak Japanese, Vietnamese and English is a possible asset.
- on the Pharma company side of things I tend to agree with the PP. I donft remember meeting any foreigner in their clinical operations departments except some very senior staff.
- however if what you want is to work in a laboratory and research into new medicines, I think that anyway your way is todo a PhD after finalizing university and the potentially a post-doc somewhere. So you still have a long time ahead before needing to search for a job in the industry. But during PhD and post doc youfd obviously already do drug development research. Then getting a job might still be challenging but at that point you are no longer mainly the gforeigner g but you are the person gexperth in a certain research field.

So with that said, yes, why not. Try to study as much Japanese as you can. Youfll probably will need a year or two of gsabbatical g between Bachelor and Master to study Japanese (in Japan) to perfection and the do your master in Japan. Then you can try searching for a job or if lab work is what you want to do for a PhD position. If you achieve this and complete a post doc as well, assuming you are doing all this in Japan you will already have lived in Japan some 10 years and while not gJapanese g youfd be likely Japanese enough to be considered for your research work rather than as a foreigner.

And even if you decide that Japan isnft the place youfll want to live long term, you have a PhD and should be able to find work in Pharma elsewhere (mainly US).

So, yes, itfs a long way but not undoable. And youfll be studying something useful all along.

Regarding studying Japanese, I know that the school where I studied Japanese in Tokyo (Naganuma school) opened a school in Vietnam as well. There might also be others.

Good luck!

I work for a consulting firm but Ifve advised many pharmaceutical companies.

I have seen plenty of foreigners working full time in both Japanese and foreign pharma, so it is definitely possible.
Many pharmaceutical companies have global leadership programs now as well which you can join.

At only 19, I think you have plenty of time to study and learn Japanese as well.
I recommend you to keep an eye out for internships and industry events while you are in school.

Also I generally would not recommend joining CRO if you can join a large pharma, the difference in pay would be very significant and it may hurt your future career prospects.
However, if it is between large global CRO and a small-mid sized JP pharma without much of a pipeline, then the global CRO probably will give you more future opportunities.

you don't need to have a pharmaceutical license (or career ) to work in creative sections in pharmaceutical companies.
it is better for you to have more broad interest on biological sciences.
if you do so, you can enter graduated schools of biological sciences, i.e., in pure and applied science fields, medical fields, and pharmaceutical fields.

hmmm as far as I understand, if I want to work as a Pharmacology in JP, I need to be really fluent in Japanese at first, then a really stand out profile, right?

I've been studying Pharmacy recently so it is impossible to change now. I would have to wait for another whole year to enter the University Entrance Exam. That is way too long!

To have a stand out profile, I'm thinking about joining a Scientific Research Project from the first year, and participate in as many Internships and Leadership Programs as possible, as well as having good grades of course. Can I have a higher chance of success by doing so? Or maybe shorten the time of studying? I'm hoping that having a great profile in University and coming to JP to study Master Degree is enough to have a job as I wished XD

I'd like to ask LikeBike... Yes you are right, I want to work in Laboratory and research new Medicine. Can I work somewhere and receive salary while studying PhD?

Thank you everyone for such conscientious replies!

Normally for a PhD you get a kind of scholarship and thus are paid. There are some programs by the Japanese government for that as well as for postdoc. What isnft really realistic is to work a part time job and do a PhD. I am sure some person exists who managed but that would be hard.

It sounds like you just started with university. But yes, having high grades and doing internships, research projects etc will obviously help. But you also need time to study Japanese.

When I started university I also considered pharmacology but after a 2 weeks internship in a pharmacy decided against it because I found working in a pharmacy very boring. What I didnft realize is that there are so many other places you can work in as a pharmacist. I am now working in pharma industry and CRO since 20 years and am surrounded by pharmacists, but also biologists, chemists and by people having studied something completely different all doing my type of job. So there are many ways to the same goal and many ways forward with a pharmacy degree.

I donft know if for working in a research lab pharmacy is gthe besth. Probably there are statistics out there but likely there are many chemists and biologists as well. But there must be some pharmacists as well. Just choose your master and PhD wisely.

Thank you LikeBike. Your replies have cleared my vision a lot.

Seems like I can do more with Pharmacy Degree than I realize. But I believe I will explore more about my career's opportunity and ability during university.

I will consider your advice. Now I know that I would definitely need to dig deeper into the Pharma system, i.e company, lab work, working positions, ect. I'm believing that Researching suits me the most but now I can not tell that for sure anymore haha

I think after you come to Japan for Masterfs, you should find a job at pharma at the Masterfs level. You should start your job hunting at end of 1st year at Masters.

In Japan, it is hard to find jobs as Ph.D. in industry.
I would advise against getting Ph.D.
Of course you should tell your Japanese professor you plan for Ph.D. ;)

I simply forgot that all programs in department of pharmacy in universities are 6 years now.
I think you can not enter their master degree programs.

Thank you Ddd. I will keep that in mind.

Dear Ken,
I can still find some Master course of Pharmaceutical Science and Medical Science in Japan in 2019 and 2020.
Here are they:
https://www.jpss.jp/en/grad/59/2261/
https://www.mastersportal.com/studies/227108/medical-sciences.html

Can you tell me some more information?
I really want to leave for Japan someday... But it seems hard if you just have a Vietnamese University degree to work in JP. So a Master Degree is a bit more hopeful way for me. Thank you.

pharmacology is one section of faculties of medicine, pharmacy, and dentistry.
I think that information is not faculty of pharmacy. that is a section of fundamental medical research in faculty of medicine. even when you take this program, you can't become a medical doctor.

I think there is no such a program in faculty of pharmacy.