The 3 Strategies I Used to Build a Successful Career in Japan

Don’t just survive in Japan, thrive and live your best life

Life was hard when I first moved to Japan.

My first few weeks here I had no electricity, sat on the floor with no furniture, and ate my meals exclusively from convenience stores. I also didn’t get paid for 2 months, that was fun.

I was an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) which meant I basically just played games with little kids at an elementary school. My pay was low and had no possibility of rising…ever.

Most of us just can’t seem to get out of the English teaching trap. About 20,000 people are working as ALTs in Japan; of those surveyed, 84% are unhappy with their positions.

What if you want to go beyond this and live a life of success in Japan? A life of decent pay, with a sense of control, in your career.

I did escape the ALT life. I now have a tenured, high paying, and meaningful vocation teaching high school history.

Even though your desired field may be different than mine, the principles are the same. Here are the strategies I followed to make success happen.

#1) Master Japanese

This shouldn’t come as a shock. But I hear this all the time:

Fictional person in my head: I want to get X job, it’s so unfair that I can’t.

Me: Do you speak Japanese?

FPIMH: Why should that matter?

Those who don’t master the language shouldn’t expect to be able get a foot in the door of a decent job.

Some things understanding Japanese can help you to do are:

Interview in the language.
Search job advertisements online.
Research a company you want to work for and email them directly.
Cold call potential clients.
Put your potential employer at ease knowing that not only can you communicate, but you probably understand cultural norms as well.

When I was trying to get the job I have now, I found a grand total of 3 openings in the entire country for that type of work, so I applied thinking I didn’t have a chance.

Somehow, by the grace of Amaterasu, I got an interview for just 1 of those openings. The school was using an online system where you could see how many people had already applied for the job, and it was about 300, with 20 of us going to the final interview stage.

Against all hope I got the job! Years later I asked the guy who interviewed me what stood out about me, and one of the things he said was that I was the only applicant who could speak Japanese.

Everyone else could cobble together some phrases, but they failed to answer any of the questions about classroom management or curriculum development.

Years later I was up for a tenure interview, the big leagues. Once again, THE single thing that made me stand out amongst other candidates was my Japanese ability. The guy I was up against had more qualifications than I did and, frankly, was a better teacher.

In the end, I was chosen over him solely because of my Japanese.

#2) Master Your Craft

So if you can speak Japanese now, congrats! You are now at the same level as the average Japanese person.

The next thing to focus on is to become really good at what you want to do. Even if you have no experience yet, then get the qualifications. My basic rule that guided me was “if I’m not good enough to be X in America, I’m not good enough to be that in Japan.”

Research what the position requires, or looks favorably on. For me that meant getting a Masters degree and an American teaching qualification.

My American license helped get me noticed. I’ve realized since then that foreigners could take the test for the Japanese license as well, which honestly matters much more than a foreign one.

I didn’t take that step but one of my former colleagues did and succeeded. You have to have a strong grasp of Japanese to do it, see step 1, but if successful, you can apply for any of the same jobs a Japanese person can.

Outside of education, the same idea applies. I’m reminded of Jake Adelstein, who is the first foreigner ever to pass the exam to be a police reporter for the newspaper Yomiuri Shinbun. There was no special test for foreigners, he just rocked up and took the same test all other Japanese people had to take, and passed.

Back to my history teacher interview: another thing I was told that stood out were my qualifications. A few others had a Masters like me, or a teaching license like me. But nobody else had both.

I also took the time while I was an ALT to gain as many “titles” as I could. I became the head teacher for my region, which sounds great on paper. In reality, I just asked my manager if I have the role and he said yes. The responsibilities were minor, but the sound of “head teacher” worked wonders for my CV.

#3) Leverage Your Time

Here I’m going to actually reverse course on bashing ALT jobs and say you should start as one!

If you can get hired in your dream job before moving to Japan, obviously do that. If not, starting as an ALT first is an excellent path regardless of whether you want to work in education or not.

Why?

Working as an ALT gets you to Japan. You get the work visa. You get an apartment set up for you. You get some support usually on setting up a bank account and other necessities. It’s an easy start to the country.
You can speak with Japanese people all day and master the language/experience cultural norms in person.
You will have TONS of free time.

With that free time, you have a boundless resource at your disposal.

I finished my ALT responsibilities around 1pm each day. I knew other teachers who would just zombie out on YouTube for hours upon hours until the end of the shift.

I decided to work. To work on myself.

It was during these boring hours that I learned a good amount of Japanese. It was during these boring hours that I did my Masters course. It was during these boring hours that I got my teaching license.

You will have so much time where you have to be at work, but with not much work to do. Awesome. Use that time to work on steps 1 and 2.

You can also use that time to search for opportunities. I spent 20 minutes each day researching different job boards and seeing what was out there. I eventually started looking at Japanese language only jobs sites as well.

A fellow ALT complained to me once that there just weren’t any jobs out there worth finding. I slapped him (verbally people!) and pointed out a dozen resources online, with a few of them outlining the exact kind of position he was looking for. It just takes some extra work every day.

You can do so many things with this time. Design your own business cards to hand out to people. Find out if there are conferences near by in your field and join them!

There really is no excuse to not know about what opportunities exist and to make progress towards them in the boring hours of nothingness you will experience as an ALT.

Conclusion

Are these the only 3 strategies possible? Of course not. A few others that come to mind are:

Work harder than anyone else in the office (a dangerous game if your Japanese colleagues live and breathe work).
Network. Get to know people and build relationships that could take you somewhere.
Find a need in your locality and create an answer to that need.

There are tons more to do, if you have experience with them please leave some ideas in the comments.

The 3 steps are just what worked for me.

Master Japanese so that you know what jobs are out there and are able to work in an all Japanese environment.
Master your craft so that employers fight over you.
Master your free time in Japan to better yourself and find the vocation you desire.

There is no guaranteed success if you do these things. But I can guarantee you that you will not be successful if you don’t do them.

Let’s end with my favorite quote from the Stoic philosopher Seneca:

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

Originally published at https://shawnswinger.substack.com.