Finding a job in Japan (JLPT N1)

Hi! Sorry to bother you guys with a super specific question but I don't know where to look or who to ask anymore.

To provide some context, I'm a 29-year-old, JLPT N1 level lawyer who has already lived and worked in Tokyo with a Working Holiday Visa a year ago. Back then I had a hard time finding a decent job, which I didn't, despite speaking three languages fluently (Spanish, English and Japanese), having experience working with customers and also teaching all three languages. Even though I went to over 30 interviews I ended up working part-time as a waitress, working between 40-50 hours a week, yet making 150,000 yen a month top after having pension, social insurance and taxes deducted from my salary.

"And why are you stepping into that nightmare again?", you might wonder. Well, my boyfriend is japanese, living in Tokyo, we want to get married next year and considering my country's economic situation, Japan seems to be a better choice.

Thing is, I don't have much hope to find a decent job after my previous experience.
Perhaps it was my visa status which didn't allow me to get a better job last time, but perhaps it was just me not being interesting enough for companies, I honestly can't tell. There aren't many jobs right now that you can apply overseas either, besides English teacher (which I tried to get several times last year in Tokyo but got rejected for not being from a native speaker country).

Law seems impossible, since my country's (Argentina) law and Japan's have nothing in common and aren't "active partners" either.

My boyfriend suggested attending uni in Japan to get a master in business or something alike, but I'm afraid it's quite expensive and I'm not sure it'll guarantee me finding a job. Imagine spending all that money just to be in the same position as now...

Also, if I go for the master I'll be 31, 32 when I graduate, with no experience in the field at all. I'm not sure I'll have it so easy...

What has been your experience getting a full-time job in Tokyo or Japan in general? Should I search for a recruiter company instead of applying myself? Is there any advice you can give me? Thank you very much in advance!

My suggestion. Check a large patent law firm in Tokyo and see if they need a person to translate patent documents from SP to JP and JP to SP. Your law background will help understand the technical Spanish language in the patent documents. Japanese companies file many patents around the world and the same the other way.

With Working Holiday visa, the employers know that youfd be working for maximum either six months or one year, and they might feel that you could leave any time after a few months (the intention of WHV is to help young people travel extensively in a foreign country while having a way to pick up casual work to supplement their travel expenses along the way). So naturally the types of work offered would be limited.

Whether non-native speakers of the English language qualify as an English language teacher depends on whether the applicants can show they have 10, 12 years of their education done gin Englishh (meaning the courses conducted in English, not English language lessons) and also whether their English is free of strong accent. But I would say it is likely it was due to the visa type back then, as mentioned earlier (limit of 1 year), though some English schools hire short-term as substitute teachers, if needed. Demand is smaller than that of English, but you could also look into teaching Spanish?

Once you are married and obtain the gspouse of Japanese nationalh resident status, which comes with no restrictions on the types of job and no time limit (to be renewed), things would look a bit different.

There is no gfiancé visah for Japan, so be sure that when you apply for jobs you can say for sure that you will have gspouse of Japaneseh status by certain timeframe so that the employers know right from the start that they will have no hassle of sponsoring you for a visa (but in that sense time your marriage and move to Japan well).

Still please note that currently the employment situation in Japan (or anywhere else for that matter) is not easy for anyone at allc


Ifm Japanese (bilingual), married to my continental European husband (trilingual including Japanese, with finance/business administration background), who some years ago already struggled after being made redundant from a position in finance in Japan, and later went into translation (in-house initially, then freelance). But currently now the translation business is almost gone, so I would not suggest aiming for that either.

Best wishes.

Did you prepare for your interviews last time?
For the standard questions there are correct answers, you should buy a Japanese interview prep book and memorize those answers. A lot of companies does web tests, so you need to study on those too.

Also always conduct your interviews in Japanese if they give you a choice between English and Japanese, that is often a test and you will fail if you choose English.