Ask HN: What is working/living in Japan like as a software engineer?
5 comments
My understanding is that in Japan, engineers generally make a lot less money than they do in the USA, and that American companies with engineering offices in Japan tend to pay better.
- https://unseenjapan.com/japan-programmers-salaries-poor/ - https://japan-dev.com/blog/software-developer-salaries-in-ja... - https://opensalary.jp/
- https://unseenjapan.com/japan-programmers-salaries-poor/ - https://japan-dev.com/blog/software-developer-salaries-in-ja... - https://opensalary.jp/
I'd say everyone makes less salary than the US for a variety of reasons. The question is likely geared more towards work culture.
HN Tokyo's folks are great, you can ask them on Slack: https://hntokyo.io/ :)
I would read some articles on Patrick McKenzie's blog (patio11 here on HN.) Not sure how recent they are, but I imagine the rough outlines are still accurate.
https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan...
https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan...
The bad news: - Eng pay is maybe 50% or less of what you'd make in the US. - Lifetime employment is standard in Japan so there's not a healthy market for switching jobs. This is not to be underestimated. There are tales of salarymen committing suicide to get the insurance money to care for their families when they're laid off. That's how difficult it can be to find another position. - They can ask for your photo and age when applying for a job and judge you based on this. - Japan is homogeneous and if you're not Asian, you'll usually be judged primarily by your race, second by your abilities. - Being fluent in Japanese will not help you if you're not Asian. You will be expected to speak English. You'll need to learn to play along with people's expectations, pretending to only speak English until they grow tired of practicing their English, and only then switching over to Japanese. If you are non-Japanese Asian you will be expected to speak Japanese perfectly or else judged harshly. - Though the government is trying to address this, Japan is not a healthy market for start-ups or small companies. Most employers are medium to large companies. - Generally in Asia power distance is much larger than in western countries. You'll likely encounter power harassment at some point and without a competitive job market you'll have no recourse but to endure it. - You may be granted vacation but culturally not be able to take it. - You will likely have to work long hours. I typically worked 70h weeks with peak of 100h/wk for small bursts of 1-2 months. A 60h/wk felt like a vacation. - Generally, the consequences for failure in Japan are much more severe than in the US. At work, you need to be able to deliver near perfect quality results at all times. This can be wonderful in that your coworkers can be relied upon highly. However, it can be a lot of pressure. Pareto: the last 20% results can take 80% of the effort.