How much Japanese do you need to work in Japan? The quick answer is, it depends on the job or company that you’re applying for. But let me break it down for you a little bit further. After all, landing a job is one thing, keeping it is another.
Jobs that Require Zero to Minimal Japanese Skills
The good news is, you can work in Japan with zero to minimal Japanese skills. Many foreigners in Japan work as English teachers. Obviously, you’ll be hired for your English language skills, so you can totally get away with barely speaking any Japanese.
The same is true for working in a non-Japanese company. For example, there are services in Japan that cater specifically to foreign nationalities, like money transfers. Many years ago, I used the service of a Filipino company to wire money to the Philippines. They had a small office with what seemed like only Filipino workers.
Embassies also sometimes hire foreigners already residing in Japan. The officials may mainly be government employees, but occasionally, you’ll find job listings for administrative functions.
IT jobs also require little Japanese—software developers, engineers, graphic designers, and the like. Keep in mind that this only applies to entry-level positions, because as you go higher up in a Japanese company, you’ll be talking to decisions makers who may not be able to converse in English.
Jobs that Require Japanese Fluency
So what jobs do require a good level of Nihongo? By good, I mean N1 or N2, business to native-like fluency. This is a generalization, but any sales or marketing job in a Japanese company requires a good level, even if, say, your target market is non-Japanese people.
Let me give you my experience as an example. I work as a digital marketer at a Japanese company in the travel industry. I’m an all-rounder, so I do SEO, SEM, SMM and as of late, have ventured into influencer marketing. Originally, my role was to appeal to the English-speaking market, namely the tourists coming to Japan from other countries. All the content that I made, all the I ads I ran were in English, but since the company is Japanese, everything else operates in that language: meetings, company announcements, casual conversations with colleagues.
In my case, I get along just fine, but, I’ve seen people with little to no Japanese skills struggle in the same environment. While the most important announcements come with English translations, many don’t. Because of this, there’s a tendency for non-Japanese speakers to get the information late or miss the big picture of a multi-team project.
Language is Important in Team-Building
Language also affects the bonds that you make with colleagues. More often than not, I see English-only speakers stick together, and sometimes, if there’s only a small number of you in a company, the tendency is for you to feel left out.
I believe I’ve mentioned this in my, “Is it difficult to make friends in Japan?” video, but bonds or friendships can’t be forced. You tend to have a deeper connection with people whom you can be your natural self, and that’s harder to accomplish when you’re using a language that you’re unaccustomed to.
Sometimes it’s factors like these that can determine whether a person can stay in the company in the long run. We all work for the money, of course, that money has to come from an environment that we’re comfortable with.
When it comes to bonding with colleagues as well, English-only speakers tend to stick together. In my “Is it easy to make friends in Japan” video, I mentioned that language plays a huge factor in whether you can achieve this or not. Bonds, friendships… they can’t really be forced. You go to your friends to take a load off your shoulders and you can’t exactly be your natural self when you’re forcing yourself to use a language you’re unaccustomed to.
Catering to the Japanese Market when You’re Not a Native Speaker
Going back to my work as a digital marketer, we all know that 2020 shook things up, and because international travel is more or less non-existent at the moment, the service I worked so hard on was dissolved. Miraculously though, I still have my job, but for a time, my role changed and I needed to market to Japanese people.
How does this work when I’m not a native speaker? My position is managerial. So I come up with strategy and planning and leave the execution to native speakers. The setup may sound easy, but this role was a lot more challenging because you have to have a good knowledge of the market, of the culture behind it. You can’t exactly do keyword research or check the tone of an if you’re not familiar enough with Japanese. Neither can you onboard a Japanese influencer if you don’t speak the language.
My point is, if you want to work in a Japanese company and stay there in the long run, you’ll need to learn the language. Being able to utilize the language means you can communicate your needs, ease tensions with co-workers, and even go up the ladder. After all, advancing in a company means you need to have both hard and soft skills.
What to Do When You Feel Like You’re Japanese isn’t Good Enough
I understand this may be a bit overwhelming, and some of you might be thinking, “Oh my Japanese is not good, I should probably just give up on working in Japan.”
No. A HUGE NO.
Whatever Japanese skills you have now, it’s enough. I’ll repeat, whatever Japanese skills you have right now, it’s enough.
Focus on landing a job first, and then continue to hone your Japanese as you go along. It’ll take time and effort, but what rewarding experience doesn’t, right?
Remember, nobody begins an expert. Expertise is achieved through the cumulative effort that you put in every day. And this applies not just to Japanese, but all job skills.
My current marketing skills are a result of me relentlessly studying no matter how tired I was. My current Japanese is a result of the countless embarrassing mistakes I made trying to communicate.
If there’s one thing I want you to take away from this article, it’s that I hope you don’t let the Japanese language discourage you from pursuing the job you want. It’s a starting point, whatever skills that you have right now. If you keep working on it, it’ll only get better. If you think about it, it’s not really a discouraging factor but more of a motivation. The better you get at your skills, the closer you are to living the life you want.
It’s learnable. It’s achievable. You definitely can do it.
Top image by Victoriano Izquierdo on Unsplash
