If you speak a little bit of Japanese and fluent English, you could possibly wish to work internationally such as communicating with international business partners or having a business trip to other countries.
Also, you possibly wonder what kind of international jobs are available in Japan or concerned if it could be fun and suits your working style or not.
In this article, I’d like to share below matters
-3 types of international jobs in Japan (Job description of each job)
-The required ability of Japanese
Let me introduce about myself.
I am Hiro from Tokyo, Japan, born and raised here.
I have working experience in Japanese companies (logistics and manufacturing) as an international sales for almost 10 years, so I well understand Japanese international companies.
After reading my article I hope you will well understand the types of international jobs in Japan and you may decide whether to apply for those or not.
3 types of international jobs in Japan
There are mainly 3 types of international business jobs in Japan as follows.
1. Logistics Company
2. Manufacturing Company
3. Trading Company
Each type of job has different job descriptions and I’d like to explain each of them.
1. Logistics Company
A logistics company is a company arranging export/import such as the arrangement of trucks, and containers, space booking of ships or airplanes, and customs clearance.
A logistics salesperson usually visits Japanese manufacturing companies and trading companies to receive order bookings for export/import
and after receiving an order booking from them, the company carries out above those and closely communicates with those customers, so a fluent level of Japanese is usually required. However, if your customer is foreign-based companies, then a high level of Japanese ability could not be much necessary.
Also, you are required to communicate with an overseas branch or agent to handle export/import so your skill of language (English, Chinese, etc.) can possibly be well used.
You may have a chance on business trips to other countries or have the possibility to work there for several years.
When I was working in a logistics company after graduation from university, I had a chance to stay in China (Hong Kong & Shanghai) for 2 years to cultivate the market there.
If you hope international environment in Japan, I consider a logistics company can be a good choice.
2. Manufacturing Company
A manufacturing company is a company manufacturing Japanese products and as you might know, there are a lot of worldly famous manufacturing companies in Japan, so there is a lot of international business to sell those products to other countries and you could have a lot of opportunity to use the skill of your mother tongue language.
If you enter the company, you communicate with distributors around the world or branch people of the same company to promote selling with those business partners.
You would communicate with not only foreign customers/branch people but also the internal manufacturing department, legal department, or service engineers depending on each case of selling the products, registering products in other countries before selling or any defective countermeasure, etc, so a certain fluent Japanese skill is required to smoothly communicate with them.
Also, you could have the opportunity on business trips to other countries or to be transferred to other countries to work to promote sales there for several years.
I now belong to a manufacturing company of industrial products and I am in charge of the Indian market, so I often visit India (If no COVID-19 restriction, the frequency of visiting India is every 1-2 months) to have discussions with Indian distributor or Indian customers to promote our products.
If you hope international environment in Japan, a manufacturing company could be a choice as well.
3. Trading Company
A trading company is a company that exports/import product and sells those in other countries or sells domestically in Japan. It is similar to the above logistics company but the biggest difference is that logistics companies professionally take care of export/import arrangements, but trading companies’ purpose is not just export/import but to sell products to other markets.
Also, the difference between a manufacturing company and a trading company is that a trading company doesn’t manufacture by itself but purchases and sells in another market, so market research is really important for trading companies.
The main market is not only in japan, so if you are fluent in other countries’ languages you could have a lot of opportunities to do business there.
I am now belonging to a manufacturing company, but our company also has the side of the trading company because, we procure US products and then sell them in India or other countries, and we need to correspond with US manufacturers and Indian customers at the same time, so fluent in English is kind of mandatory.
Japanese skill is sometimes required when the company’s target in the Japanese domestic market or manufacturer is in Japan because you need to communicate with Japanese customers or manufacturer to do business with them.
However, similar to my situation, supplying products from another country and selling them in another different country there is a little requirement of speaking Japanese.
If you hope international environment in Japan, the trading company could be a choice as well.
The required ability of Japanese
If you plan to live and work in Japan, of course, it is much better if you speak a fluent level of Japanese. It is similar to other countries, for example, an advanced English level is mandatory if you live and work in the US.
However, if there are such below situations, Japanese abilities are not much required.
Working in foreign based company
If you are working in a foreign-based company in Japan, there is the possibility that Japanese ability is not much required. For example, some foreign-based companies in Japan target foreign persons or foreign companies, so communication tools could not be Japanese.
When I was working in a logistics company in Japan, I often communicated with a foreign-based logistics company and the person in charge of me couldn’t speak Japanese at all and he mainly communicate with foreign-based companies or foreign branch people in English, so he wasn’t required to speak Japanese fluently.
Working in a globalized company
There are a lot of companies that are globalized such as becoming English an official language in the office or promoting hiring a lot of foreigners in Japan, especially in manufacturing companies and trading companies.
Examples of globalized manufacturing companies are as follows:
Sharp, Takeda pharmaceutical company, Honda motor, etc.
Examples of globalized trading companies are as follows:
Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsui & Co., Itochu Corporation, Sumitomo Corporation, Marubeni Corporation, Sojitz Corporation, etc.
Although those companies possibly require a basic or intermediate level of Japanese, you have much more chance to enter those companies since their target sales markets are other countries.
Please have a look at the job posting of those companies and check language requirement and I hope you may find an appropriate company for you.
Conclusion
I introduced 3 types of international companies in Japan in this article and all of them could possibly provide you with a good opportunity to work if you could speak a little Japanese and fluent English.
Hope you find a good working environment which suits you well.
Thank you for reading my article till the end.
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