DEV Community: Eric Turner

日本で働くソフトウェアエンジニアの給与：東京で働く外人エンジニアによる究極のガイド

Eric Turner — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 02:29:53 +0000

序文

「Software Developer Salaries in Japan: The Ultimate Guide」を和訳しました！直訳だと伝わりにくい部分は、本質を残しつつ新たに書き直ししましたが、ほとんど原文通りです。私の運営するJapan Devが英語話者向けのサイトなので、この記事は元々外国人に向けて執筆しました。そのため、私がこの記事を日本語に翻訳したのがなぜか、不思議に思う方もいるでしょう。

まず、私がこの記事を執筆した一番の目的は、【日本で働く全てのエンジニアが正当に評価され、高い報酬を得ることが可能だという「希望」を伝える】ことです。Japan Devの会社リストは外国人が働きやすい企業を紹介していますが、グローバルかつ革新的なサービスを生み出す企業で良い収入を得て働きたいと考える日本人のためのリストでもあります。

日本人の皆さんにも、もし現在日本でエンジニアとして働いていて、希望が持てていなかったとしても、先進的な企業でより良い環境で働くことが可能だということを伝えたいと思います。誰でも、諦めずスキルを磨き続ければ、正当な評価をしてくれる会社がきっとあるという希望を持って欲しいと思います。日本で働く全てのエンジニアの皆さんに幸せになってもらいたいと心から思っています。そのためのヒントとしてこのブログが少しでも参考になれば私は幸せです。

ーーー

私は日本でソフトウェアエンジニアとして働いており、日本での生活を心から楽しんでいます。私が知っている多くのエンジニアも同じように、日本で働くことを楽しんでいると感じています。そういった幸せな日本在住の外国人エンジニアは、グローバル企業や革新的なスタートアップで働いている傾向があり、グローバル基準で考えて比較的高い年収をもらいながら、最新のテクノロジーに挑戦することを楽しんでいます。

しかし、オンライン上で日本のテックコミュニティを覗いてみると、多くの悪い噂があるため、私たちのような幸せな外国人ソフトウェアエンジニアが日本に存在することはあまり知られていないかもしれません。

私は、日本で働くことを本当に楽しんでいるエンジニアの１人として、その事をとても残念に思います。

以前の投稿では、外国人が働きやすいIT企業を見つけるためのいくつかのヒントを共有しましたが、この投稿では、日本のIT業界で働くにあたり、最大の論点の1つである給与（年収）について深く掘り下げたいと思います。

この記事では、職務経験ごとの適切な年収レンジを提示し、できるだけ多くのデータを用いてその根拠を示します。この記事のゴールは、この不透明で誤解されやすいトピックのデータを元に明らかにし、できれば日本でソフトウェアエンジニアとして良い給与が得られることを証明することです。

以下はこのブログの目次です。ピンポイントでデータをお探しの場合はリンクから移動することができます。

日本で働く外国人のための推奨年収レンジ
日本にある50以上の会社のソフトウェアエンジニアの給与データ

日本のIT専門職の平均給与
給与における「平均」の問題
- 日本で外国人として働くということ
- 日本のIT業界はとてもユニークです
過去行われた、外国人開発者の年収調査について
外国人ソフトウェアエンジニアとして日本でいくら稼ぐことができますか？
- 新卒エンジニア（エントリーレベル）の良い年収とは
- 中堅エンジニアの年収とは
- シニアエンジニアの年収とは
日本で働く外国人エンジニアの給与
日本で働くソフトウェアエンジニアの給与は上昇傾向にあります
- 伝統的な日本企業にも変化が訪れています
すべてのIT企業が高待遇なわけではありません
いい会社で働くためには、まず自分自身で日本のIT企業を研究することが大事です
結論：外国人ソフトウェアエンジニアが日本で働くことは、「先進的な企業」であれば、給与面から考えても、良い選択肢です

日本のIT専門職の平均給与

このデータを見つけるのはそれほど難しくないはずなので、日本全体のソフトウェアエンジニアの平均給与を見てみましょう。予想通り、Googleで検索すると、日本のソフトウェアエンジニア(プログラマーやシステムエンジニアと呼ばれる職種を含む)の平均給与を記載した無数のリソースが見つかります。いくつかの例を見てみましょう。（原文が英語なので、リソースに英語圏のサービスが含まれています。）

Glassdoorによれば、平均年収は年間570万円です。Payscaleによると、490万円です。日本のサービスDODAの調査によると、460万円でした。Heikin Nenshuによると、「システムエンジニア」の平均は550万円です。

数値は約500万円で収束しているようです。これは全体的なキャリアレベルにおいての年収なので、新卒エンジニアの平均はより低く、より経験豊富なエンジニアはもう少しの年収であることが考えられます。

総体的に、日本人および外国人を含めた日本で働くソフトウェアエンジニア全体の平均だと考えると、この値はほぼ正確であると思います。

給与における「平均」の問題
-------------

これらの平均データは間違っていません。しかし、外国人がそのデータを鵜呑みにしてはいけません。外国人ソフトウェアエンジニアに絞った平均給与は大分異なるためです。

日本では48人に1人だけが外国人です。そして、そのほとんどが周辺のアジア諸国から来ているので、アジア圏以外から来日している外国人は、日本在住外国人の中でも、さらに稀な人材だと言えます。

では外国人の中でITエンジニアとして働く人は日本にどれくらいいるのでしょうか？日本の厚生労働省における最近の報告書では、52,038人の外国人がIT業界で働いていると述べられています。日本政府による別のレポートでは、外国人と日本人全て合わせると、2019年にはIT業界全体で1,045,512人が働いています。つまり、IT業界で働く外国人の割合は、全業界における外国人比率より、少し高いということです。それでもまだ、わずか5％ですが。

この事実を踏まえると、外国人人口は、日本の平均IT給与のようなマクロレベルの統計の背後にあるデータのごく一部でしかないことは明らかです。ですから、あなたが日本人でないなら、日本の平均IT給与を参考にしてもあまり意味がないと私は考えます。これらの平均値は、外国人ソフトウェアエンジニアに直接関連するものではないため、外国人はそのデータに左右されて、日本でエンジニアとして働く選択を諦めるべきではないと思います。

良くも悪くも、日本における外国人エンジニアはとてもユニークな存在なのです。

日本で外国人として働くということ

日本で外国人として生きることは、あなたをユニークな存在にします。日本の平均的な外国人エンジニアは、日本人エンジニアとは異なる教育を受けており、キャリアの築き方も違います。そういった異なるバックグラウンドが給与に大きな影響を与えていると考えられます。

日本の企業は、妥当な理由がなければ外国人エンジニアを雇いません。海外から人材を連れてくるということは、普通に日本人エンジニアを雇うより大きなリスクとコストを伴います。なぜなら、ビザのスポンサーシップや移住支援など追加費用が発生する可能性が高いためです。また、日本語を上手に話せない、もしくは、日本独特の文脈依存度が高いコミュニケーションを理解することは高いハードルなので、せっかくコストをかけて採用しても、日本企業になじめず、母国に戻る可能性があるためです。

要するに、日本企業が外国人を雇用するには多くのリスクが存在するため、覚悟が必要です。そしてほとんどの日本企業はそのリスクを上回るような、妥当な理由がなければ外国人を積極的に採用しないでしょう。

日本のIT業界はとてもユニークです

日本の先進的な企業には当てはまりませんが、歴史的には日本と世界を比較すると、ソフトウェアエンジニアの仕事範囲に違いがあると思います。それは日本でソフトウェアを開発するエンジニアは、仕様通りのコードを書くことが求められる、いわゆる「SE」（システムエンジニア）と考えられ「SIers」（システムインテグレーター）のような受託開発企業で働くことが多かったためだと考えられます。多くの受託開発会社は、依頼されたシステムを仕様通り開発する下請け、またはさらにその下請けの下請といった多重下請構造の中に置かれてきました。そのような環境ではエンジニアは外注先として考えられてしまうため、裁量を持って革新的なサービスを生み出すことは非常に難しいと思います。

一方、米国などのIT革新の先行国では、ITを「企業の業務効率を飛躍的に高め、より良いサービスを生み出すコアとなる大事なもの」として高く評価し、積極的にITに投資してきました。そして、ソフトウェアエンジニアはインハウスで雇用されることが多く、非常に重宝されてきました。そういった環境の中では、エンジニア自身が裁量を持って「こういうサービスを世に届けたい」という高い意識をもって開発することが可能となります。そして実際にエンジニア自らが革新的サービスを生み出すことも多くあります。

このような歴史的な背景に違いがあるため、日本と諸外国では、ソフトウェアエンジニアの扱われ方、仕事の範囲に違いが生まれてきたのではないかと思います。

また、日本と世界を比較すると、バックグラウンド、特に学歴が異なる傾向があります（たとえばITエンジニアのうち、インド人は72％、アメリカ人は44％がコンピューターサイエンス(CS)もしくはそれに関連した学位を取得していますが、日本人エンジニアは約23％しかCS関連の学位を持っていません）。米国（私の出身）では、卒業後に最高給与を得られる仕事に就くという夢を掴むためもっとも人気がある学部の１つが、コンピューターサイエンスです。日本においては、人気がないどころか、コンピューターサイエンスを学位として取得できる大学は非常に少なく、プログラミングは専門学校で学び実務に着く人が多いといった事情があります。日本には「新卒採用」という制度があり、学校卒業後一斉に就職する慣習があり、新卒の場合大卒の給与が専門学校もしくは高卒よりも高く設定されています。そのため、一般的な日本のIT企業の新卒ソフトウェアエンジニアの給与は可もなく不可もなくといったところ、大卒でない人も多い影響からか、企業によっては長時間労働で平均を下回ることもあるかと思います。このように、一般的な日本のIT企業は特別高待遇ではない傾向が高く、歴史的には、優秀な人材が目指す職種ではありませんでした。しかしながら、外国人エンジニアの皆さんは、残念に思う必要はありません。

日本のIT業界は今、劇的に進化しており、エンジニアを尊重する企業が増えていること、そして総体的に外国人エンジニアは、グローバルIT企業もしくは一部の革新的なスタートアップで働くことが多く、そういった企業において日本の一般的なIT企業の年収レンジはほとんど関係なく、平均給与は高い傾向にあるためです。

では、このようなバックグランドの違いは給与にどのぐらい影響を与えているのでしょうか？定量化することは非常に困難ですが、ある日本人ブロガーは、同じ技術レベルの場合、外国人エンジニアを雇うために、日本人エンジニア採用に必要な金額より、企業は年間100万円ほどの給与を余分に支払うことを覚悟する必要があると述べています。私の周りの外国人エンジニアについて考えてみると、「同じ技術レベル」かはわかりませんが、日本の平均よりも高い年収を得ている人が多いとは感じていました。外国人エンジニアが日本で採用されるためには、企業が多くのリスクを冒しても採用したいと思うような優れた技術が必要だということを考えると、これは理にかなっていると考えます。

さて、日本国全体の給与データは外国人エンジニアにはあまり関係がありません。では、外国人エンジニアに絞った平均給与を知るためにはどのようなリソースを参照すれば良いのでしょうか。

過去行われた、外国人ソフトウェアエンジニアの年収調査について

ソフトウェア開発者向けの外国人固有の給与データはほとんどありませんが、完全に存在しないわけではありません。

TokyoDevを運営するPaul McMahon氏によるブログでは、外国人エンジニアだけを対象としたアンケートが公開されています。彼は、日本に住んでいる200人以上の外国人エンジニアを対象としたアンケートの結果、平均年収が400万〜1100 万円であったことを公表しています。彼はこの平均年収を経験年数とプログラミング言語別に分類しています（たとえば、GoおよびJava開発者は平均1,000万円）。彼の記事には多角的な洞察が含まれているので、ぜひ目を通すことをお勧めします。

またバイリンガル人材に特化したいくつかの転職エージェントでは、日本の外国人IT専門職に関するレポートを発行しています。例えば、Michael Pageの2018年版給与ガイドには、Web開発者の平均年収が500万〜1500 万円（ボーナスを除く）と記載されています。同様に、Hays 2019 Salary Guideは、開発者が年間500万〜1200万円の年収であったことを公表しています。

また、私は長年に渡り、多くのソフトウェアエンジニア個人による給与レポートに目を通してきましたが、日本の平均給与をはるかに超えた年収が多いと感じています。一例として、台湾出身のエンジニアJuanito Fatasは、彼の周りの日本で働く外国人エンジニアのほとんどが、800万円以上を稼いでいると述べています。

次のセクションでは、日本で働く外国人ソフトウェアエンジニアの給料として、「良い給与」とは一体どれくらいなのか、経験年数別で考えてみたいと思います。

日本で外国人ソフトウェアエンジニアとしていくら稼ぐことができますか？

まず正直に...それは環境やスキルによって大きく変動します。それは、給与に影響を与える多くの要因があるためです。ではここから、それらの要因を取り上げて、経験年数に応じて「良い」と考えられる年収レンジを提示しようと思います。

給与に影響を与える大きな要因の1つは、日本語スキルです（日本語のスキルが高いほど、より多くの収入が得られる傾向が高いです）。すでに日本在住であれば、ビザの取得や日本文化に馴染めるかどうかといった企業の懸念がなくなるため、面接の機会をより多く得られるでしょう。そしてもちろん、企業が使っている技術との関連性が高いプログラミングの経験があればあるほど優遇されます。

コンピュータサイエンスのIT分野の学位も役立ちますが、必ずしも必要なわけではなりません。むしろ、日本は大学教育でコンピューターサイエンスを学ぶ環境が確立していないこともあり、CS関連の学位がなく、独学で学んだ人でも優れた経験さえあれば認められやすく、活躍しやすい場所だと感じています。

外資系企業はすでに成長を遂げ、十分な資金があるため日本に進出している場合が多いので、一般的に日本企業よりも高い報酬を得ることができる可能性が高いです。また、日本に限ったことではありませんが、自分自身の強みを最大限アピールし、給与交渉するといったソフトスキルも、得られる年収に大きな影響を与えます。

上記のすべての点を考慮すると、外国人ソフトウェアエンジニアが目指すべき給与は次のとおりです。

新卒エンジニア（エントリーレベル）の良い年収とは

新卒の場合、400万〜700 万円の年収であれば良い給与だと考えられます。Indeedのようなトップ企業は、新卒であっても約1,000万円またはそれ以上支払うことができますが、そのような企業は特別な存在です。その他の外国人が働きやすい企業（つまり、Japan Devで紹介している企業）は、数年未満の浅い経験であれば、400万〜700 万円のうち前半が多いでしょう。

新卒者が気をつけるべきこととして、経験がない、もしくは経験が浅い外国人エンジニアを海外から連れてくることは日本企業にとってリスクが高く、突き抜けて優秀な大学のCS学位保持者などでない限り、積極採用したいという日本企業はまだ少ないということです。ですから、まだ海外に住んでいて、上記の年収レンジでオファーが得られない場合は、日本への移住を延期し、代わりに母国でソフトウェアエンジニアとしての経験を積むことをお勧めします。日本にはいつでも来れますから。

ところで、ブートキャンプの卒業生（またはブートキャンプへの参加を検討している方）のための給与データも存在します。Code Chrysalisの共同設立者であるYan Fanは、Code Chrysalisの卒業生は平均600万円稼いでおり、400万円後半から700万円以上までの年収レンジが多いと述べています。

中堅エンジニアの年収とは

中堅レベルのソフトウェアエンジニア（2〜5年の経験）は、600万〜1200 万円ほど稼げれば良い年収だといえます。繰り返しになりますが、GoogleやIndeedのような一部の大企業はより多く支払うことができますが、その他ほとんどの企業はこのぐらいのレンジでしょう。Japan Devで紹介する企業のほとんどもこれに当てはまりますので、もしそのぐらいの年収を目指している方がいれば、Japan Devをみると選択肢が広がるかと思います。

シニアエンジニアの年収とは

日本のシニアレベルのソフトウェアエンジニア（6〜10年以上の経験）は、800万〜1500 万円の年収を得ることができれば良い年収といえるでしょう。しかし、並外れたスキルを持つシニアエンジニアの最高年収はもっと高くなります。何度も同じ会社を例に上げることは憚られますが、私は実際にGoogleで3000万円以上（賞与含む）稼ぐエンジニアや、Indeedで2240万円の基本年収（株やボーナスを考慮に入れるとおそらくGoogleに近い年収でしょう）を稼ぐプリンシパルエンジニアを知っています。 Japan Devに掲載する企業の多くは、並外れた高いスキルを持つエンジニアに対して、平均年収を大幅に上回る報酬を支払う可能性が高いです。(特に、Japan Devの会社リストの一番上に近いもの）

日本で働く外国人エンジニアの給与

私はキャリアレベル別の良い年収をデータと共に提示しましたが、もしその給与に納得ができなくても、非難はしません。私はただ日本に興味のあるエンジニアの皆さんにとって、希望となり参考となる事実を紹介することで、日本で働くためのより良い求職活動のサポートをしたいと思っています。ここから先は、以下60を超える給与データのリソース（英語と日本語の混合）をご紹介します。これによって、私が共有した「良い年収」というものが、実際に達成可能であることを示したいと思います。これらすべてにボーナスや株式のインセンティブが含まれているわけではないこと、そして多くが日本人ソフトウェアエンジニアを対象としていることにご留意ください。

※データの対象は、すべてソフトウェアエンジニアまたは同様のもの（バックエンド、フロントエンド、開発者、iOS / Android、ML、データサイエンスなど）です。詳細について興味がある方は、リンクをご覧ください。

会社の公式採用ページ

多くの場合、企業公式の採用サイトが提示している給与データが最良のソースです。データポイントの例を次に示します。

Indeed（インディード）: 960万〜2200万円
Fast Retailing（ファーストリテイリング）: 580万〜1500万円
beBit（ビービット）：600万〜1200万円
Kaizen Platform（カイゼンプラットフォーム）：500万〜1,000万円

検索すると、他にもたくさんの例があります。

Findy（ファインディ）

Findyは日本人エンジニアに人気のある求人サイトです。Githubのプロフィールを分析することで、評価と想定される年収を提示してくれます。私は72のスコアを獲得しました。これは想定年収が810万〜910万円に相当し、Githubを改善することで100万〜200万円増やすことができるそうです。仕事のオファーのリストを見ると、あまりデータを公開していない会社の年収レンジがいくつ手に入りました。下記はその例です; これらは、パーソナライズされたデータであるためリンクできませんが、Findyにアカウントを作成すると似たような結果が表示されるでしょう：

Ubie（ユービー）：600万〜1200万円
Medley（メドレー）：600万〜1500万円
Medpeer（メドピア）：500万〜1,000万円
Repro（リプロ）：540万から1200万円
Squeeze（スクイーズ）：600万〜1200万円
SmartDrive（スマートドライブ）：600万〜1000万円
Raksul（ラクスル）：700万〜900万円
Biztex（ビズテックス）：600万〜900万円
Microsoft（マイクロソフト）：650万円以上
MNTSTQ（モンテスキュー）：650万〜1000万円
Freee（フリー）：500万〜1200万円
SmartHR（スマートHR）：500万〜1千万円
Speee（スピー）：550万-1千万円
Open8（オープンエイト）：650万-1200万円

この辺りで終わりにしておきますが、Findyにはもっと多くの年収データが存在します。

転職ドラフト

転職ドラフトは外国人コミュニティではあまり知られていないかもしれません。日本のサイトであり、無料のアカウントを作成する必要がありますが、日本で最も有名な数百のハイテク企業の給与データの宝庫です。一部のトップ企業の年収レンジは次のとおりです。

Merpay（メルペイ）：780万-1130万円
LINE（ライン）：810万〜1300万円
Recruit Lifestyle（リクルートライフスタイル）：600万〜1,000万円
Recruit Marketing Partners（リクルートマーケティングパートナーズ）：650万〜900万円
Speee（スピー）：550万〜1500万円
DMM.com（ディエムエム）：700〜1千万円
LINE（ライン）：650万〜1300万円
Cookpad（クックパッド）：1000万円
LayerX（レイヤーエックス）：600万-950万円
Yappli（ヤプリ）：450万〜1千万円
Works Applications（ワークスアプリケーションズ）：600万〜900万円
Toreta（トレタ）：480万〜1千万円
FreakOut（フリークアウト・ホールディングス）：500万〜1千万円

ここにリストされているすべての企業が外国人雇用に積極的というわけではありませんが、日本で働くソフトウェアエンジニアの給与が、多くの人が考えるよりも高いという私の主張を理解する助けになることを願っています。

OpenWork（オープンワーク）

OpenWork（改名前：Vorkers）は「Glassdoor」のような国内版口コミサイトで、日本で最大の給与データベースの1つです。このデータにアクセスするには月額料金を支払う、もしくは勤務経験のある会社のレビューを書く必要があります。また、ITに特化したものではなく、日本のユーザーを対象としているため、外国人を対象としたデータでないことに注意が必要です。そうであっても有用なリソースとなる可能性があります。

Webサイトのコンテンツがアカウント作成済みユーザーのみアクセス可能なため、データを直接リンクすることはできませんが、いくつかのデータポイントを引用します。

Google（グーグル）：1700万円
Microsoft（マイクロソフト）：1400万円
Amazon（AWS）：1300万円
Mercari（メルカリ）：1100万円
LINE（ライン）：890万円
Voyage Group（ボヤージュグループ）：1000万円
VMWare（ブイエムウェア）：1000万円
Goldman Sachs（ゴールドマン・サックス）：1500万円

これらは口コミによるもので、公式の数値ではないことに注意してください。ここでは、可能性を示すために、より高い年収の一部を厳選しています。それでも、データのほとんどは日本のエンジニアからのものであり、さらに高所得者は口コミで給与を公開することが少ないと考えられるので、このデータは実際に実現可能な年収より低いことが考えられます。

TokyoDev（トーキョーデブ）

TokyoDevのすべてのジョブが給与データを記載しているわけではありませんが、このサイトは外国エンジニアに焦点を当てているため、外国人に特化したデータが手に入ります。Tokyo Devが紹介する求人のほとんどが海外在住でも応募可能で、日本語を必要としません。

データポイントの例：

Chomp（チャンプ）：500万〜900万円＋ストックオプション
Degica（デジカ）：600万〜1000万円

Stackoverflow Jobs（スタックオーバーフロー　ジョブズ）

Stackoverflow Jobsは、グローバル企業からの求人をメインで紹介しているため、ここで示す給与レンジのほとんどが、英語話者のエンジニアに関してのデータといえます。データポイントの例を次に示します。

PayPay（ペイペイ）：620万〜1200万円

Levels.fyi

Levels.fyiはGlassdoorに似ています。Googleのような大規模な外資系企業にとっては優れたリソースであり、そのデータは中小企業に限定されています。日本（または東京）を検索して、日本固有のデータポイントまでデータポイントをフィルタリングできます。以下にいくつかのデータポイントを示します。

Indeed（インディード）：1070万〜2000万円
Google（グーグル）：890万〜1700万円
Microsoft（マイクロソフト）：890万〜1700万円
nVidia（エヌビディア）：1000万円
Rakuten（楽天）：750万円

MP Digital Tech

このサイトは最近更新されていませんが、いくつかの有名な会社の貴重な年収データが掲載されていたので、その例を挙げます。

Rakuten（楽天）：600万〜1100万円
Mercari（メルカリ）：800万〜1500万円

Forkwell Jobs（フォークウェル　ジョブズ）

Forkwell Jobsは、日本のサイトですが、日本企業の年収レンジが多く載っています。特に、スタートアップに焦点を当てています。いくつかのデータポイント：

SmartNews（スマートニュース）：480〜1200万円
RakSul（ラクスル）：450〜900万円
Rakuten（楽天）：400万〜1千万円

個人によるブログ

本当に熱心に給与データをリサーチする場合、個人によるブログは、優れたリソースになります。ツイッターの詳細検索を活用することをお勧めします（日本語が読めることは、ここで間違いなく役立ちます）。たとえば、[「ITエンジニアの平均給与ランキング」]((http://nomad-salaryman.com/it-engineer-salary#ITTOP20)には以下のデータポイントが含まれていました。

Recruit（リクルート）：970万円
GMO Click Holdings（GMOクリックホールディングス）：850万円
CyberAgent（サイバーエージェント）：770万円
DeNA（ディー・エヌ・エー）：760万円
Gree（グリー）：750万円
M3（エムスリー）：730万円

IT界隈で注目を浴びた[「Googleを辞めます」]((https://note.mu/xyx/n/n5d612396ed8f)というブログでは、東京の元Google社員からがエンジニアの給与についての情報を共有してくれました。著者はGoogleでどのように2,000万円を稼いだかについて語り、このぐらいの年収を得ることがが日本で可能であることを、多くのエンジニアに知ってもらい、エンジニアとして日本で働くことに希望を持って欲しいという思いで公開したそうです。

Glassdoor（グラスドア）

Glassdoorは、掲載されている企業は大企業中心ですが、口コミ情報が非常に多く、給与情報も多く寄せられています。関係のない条件を除きより的確な情報を得るために、場所によるフィルタリングを必ず行ってください。

Jobtalk（ジョブトーク）

Jobtalkでは、すべてのデータを見るにはアカウントが必要ですが、サインアップしなくても、多くのデータポイントを見つけることができます。例えば：

SmartNews（スマートニュース）: 900万円

カイシャの評判

カイシャの評判は多くの有用なデータがある日本企業の口コミサイトですが、エンジニアを対象にしていないため、データにはかなりのノイズがあるため、注意しなくてはいけません。次に例を示します。

Fast Retailing（ファーストリテイリング）：950万円
SmartNews（スマートニュース）：1050万円

以上、今まで紹介させていただいたデータはあくまでそういった事実があるという参考にすぎませんが、日本で働くソフトウェアエンジニアとして良い年収を得ることが可能だという私の主張の根拠を裏付けるデータであると考えます。

日本で働くエンジニアの給与は上昇傾向にあります

もしかすると平均的な日本のIT企業は外国人ユーザーにとって、特別魅力的ではないかもしれません。しかし私は昨今の日本のIT業界は良い方向に向かっていると、とてもポジティブに捉えています。私は2013年から日本でエンジニアとして働いていますが、その間、テクノロジー業界は急速に発展し、スタートアップ経済圏は急速に拡大していると実感しています。そして、私自身が経験と知識を得ることで年収を上げてきたこともあり、若干の主観も入っているかもしれませんが、日本で働くエンジニアの給与が以前より相対的に高くなっていると思います。

日本でのエンジニア需要はこれまでになく高く、需要と供給のギャップは少なくとも今後10年ほどは益々拡大し続けると予測されています。それに伴い、企業が優れたエンジニアの獲得に必死になっているため、引き続きエンジニアの給与は上昇していくと予想されます。

日本におけるソフトウェアエンジニア不足

上記のグラフは、約30万人のソフトウェアエンジニアが日本で不足するとの予想を示しており、今後数年間にわたって不足人数は毎年増加すると予想されています。これは重要な指標です。日本には、開発者を直接雇用するのではなく、受託開発会社にシステム開発を丸投げしてきた長い歴史がありますが、より多くの企業がエンジニア採用を増やしているという事実は、企業がソフトウェア開発をより真剣に受け止め、企業内でエンジニアが専門家としてより評価されるようになってきていることを示しています。エンジニアを重宝する企業が増えることで、企業内エンジニアの数も増加していくことが見込まれます。

以上のグラフからもわかるように、熟練したスキルを持ったソフトウェアエンジニアの需要が高いことは明らかであり、その結果、外国人エンジニアコミュニティが急速に拡大しています。例えば、日本においてブートキャンプはほとんど知られていない存在でしたが、ここ3〜4年で、一気に存在感を増しました（グローバルなブートキャンプではLe Wagon、CodeChrysalisなどが今勢いがあると思います）。Japan Dev、TokyoDev、TokyoTechなどのような英語中心の外国人コミュニティはより注目されるようになり、ミートアップコミュニティはとても活気づいており、東京ではほぼ毎晩テック関連のイベントが開催されています。

このような外国人によるテックコミュニティの成長がすべて、日本で働く外国人ソフトウェアエンジニアの給与の増加につながると信じています。

伝統的な日本企業にも変化が訪れています

スタートアップの増加に加えて、かなり多くの日本の大手IT企業も、エンジニアの給与引き上げに向けて前進しています。多くの老舗IT企業には年功序列に基づいた厳格な給与レンジや昇給制度がありましたが（日本では一般的でした）それらを廃止し、新卒でも優秀であれば高い給与を得ることができるといった実力主義に基づいた給与構造に移行してきています。例えば、SONY（ソニー）、NEC（エヌ・イー・シー）、DeNA（ディー・エヌ・エー）などの大手企業では、AIエンジニアの新卒給与を大幅に上げており、 AIのような先進技術に大きな投資をしています。（AIエンジニアは新卒であっても優秀であれば、年収1,000万円以上稼ぐことが可能です）。

富士通もAIに全力を注いでおり、優秀なAIエンジニアであれば、年収が最高3000万〜4000万円まで引き上げること発表しました。こういった日本の大手IT企業の動きは、日本のIT業界全体の給与が上昇していることを示す、明確な兆候です。

スタートアップでもいくつかのトップ企業は、新卒採用から、世界の優秀な人材の獲得に力を入れています。たとえば、Mercari（メルカリ）、TRI-AD（トヨタ・リサーチ・インスティテュート / Toyota Research Institute）、SoftBank（ソフトバンク）などの企業は、世界的IT大企業のトップを続々と輩出しているインドのトップ大学、IITキャンパスでの採用に力を入れ始めています。すでにMicrosoft（マイクロソフト）やUber（ウーバー）など巨大グローバルIT企業がトップエンジニア獲得のため、積極的にIIT卒業者を採用していますが、日本企業がこのグローバル人材獲得競争に参加し始めたことから、日本企業が今後の成長を見据え、世界の優秀な人材を獲得することを重要視していることが考えられます。 100％正直に申し上げると、多くの伝統的日本企業は、平均レベルの外国人エンジニアを積極採用していないと思いますが、そういった日本企業も今後は外国人エンジニアの力が必要だと気づき始め、人種に捉われない優秀な人材の獲得を目指していくことを心から願っています。

すべてのIT企業が高待遇なわけではありません

正直なところ、すべての日本のIT企業が本ブログで提示したような高い給与を支払うことができるわけではありません。実際、大半の企業はできないでしょう。事実、先進的なグローバル企業よりもはるかに多く日本伝統的な企業が存在するからです。ですので、このブログで示した年収データは先進的なIT企業に限ったものとなります。

Japan Devの会社リストは、日本にある外国人が働きやすいトップIT企業だけを選別した包括的な優良企業リストであり、私自身が外国人として良い職場を見つけることに苦労してきた経験から、外国人エンジニア達にはもっと効率よく網羅的かつ客観的な情報を取得でき、共有しあえる場を提供したいと考えスタートしました。外国人が働きやすい先進的なIT企業は少なくとも日本国内に100社ほどあり、上記で紹介した年収レンジは、ほとんどすべての企業に当てはまります。

個人的には、約100社ほどの優れた企業があれば、外国人エンジニアが日本で働くことを十分選択肢として検討できると考えています。特に、異国で生活し、言語を学ぶといった、文化的経験を得ることを大切にしている人たちにとっては。しかし、先進的な企業からオファーを獲得できなければ、エンジニアとして働くために日本に来ることはあまりお勧めできません。

いい会社で働くためには、まず自分自身で日本のIT企業を研究することが大事です

もし日本の企業について自分自身で研究し知見を高め、日本で仕事を見つけるためのベストプラクティスを実行しても、まだ低い年収のジョブオファーしか獲得できなかった場合は、日本に来ることは良い選択肢ではないかもしれません。日本には数千のIT企業があるため、あなたのスキルレベルがまだ未熟であったとしても、沢山応募し続ければ、標準以下の待遇の企業で良いのであれば、おそらく1つや2つのオファーを得ることができると思いますが、そういった妥協をすることはあまりお勧めしません。

私の経験則は次のとおりです。経験が浅いエンジニアであっても少なくとも年収400万〜500万円程度のジョブオファーを得られない場合は、日本へ来ることを避けた方が良いかと思います。なぜなら、先のデータで示したように、この金額は先進的な企業で働く、ソフトウェアエンジニアの年収としてほとんど底辺と考えられるためです。この年収を下回るということは、企業がエンジニアを大切にしないカルチャーである可能性が急激に高まります。そのため、時代遅れの技術を使用し汎用的なスキルの向上ができなかったり、長時間労働など、日本企業が生み出してきたネガティブなイメージを体現するような働き方をしなければならない可能性があります。

もしあなたが一刻も早く日本に来たいため、とにかくどんな仕事のオファーでも受けたいのであれば、もちろん否定はしません。しかし、せっかく日本に興味があったのにも関わらず、来日してから苦労し、日本に失望してしまうことは避けて欲しいと思います。日本に対して悲しいギャップを感じないためにも、平均以下の年収のジョブオファーしか得られない場合は、母国に滞在して、そこでエンジニアとしてさらに経験を積むか、日本語を向上させて、1、2年後にもう一度挑戦した方が良い仕事のオファーを得ることができ、日本で幸せな生活が送れると思います。

結論：外国人ソフトウェアエンジニアが日本で働くことは、「先進的な企業」であれば、給与面から考えても、良い選択肢です

日本では外国人ソフトウェアエンジニアとして高い給与の仕事を見つけることができます。そのためには、入念な調査が必要であり、外国人エンジニアの市場レートに見合う年収を支払うことができる、良い会社を選択する必要があります。私は身を以てこれを経験しています。私は、日本でエンジニアとして働くことのネガティブなイメージばかりが先行してしまい、3K労働（きつい、汚い、危険）や過労死といった言葉が一人歩きしてしまっていることを非常に残念に思っています。そして、革新的でエンジニアを尊重する企業が日本に存在するにも関わらず、この過度に誇張されたネガティブな働き方のイメージによって、良い企業の存在がグローバルに活躍するエンジニア達に伝わりにくくなっていることに危機感を持っています。そのため、私の使命は日本のIT業界の事実に基づいたポジティブな側面をきちんと、何度でも伝えていくことだと強く思っています。

私は、オンライン上で日本のネガティブなイメージ先行の記事を読んだことで、日本という国、文化に興味がありこの国での生活を経験してみたいと考えていた外国人達が来日を断念してしまうのを、とても悲しく思います。そして、彼らに日本で働くことに希望があることを伝えたいと強く願い、このブログを執筆することにしました。日本で働く全てのソフトウェアエンジニアが高い年収を得られるわけではないことは紛れもない事実です。しかしそんなことは関係ありません。なぜなら、あなたに必要なのはあなたに最適なたった１つの仕事だからです。日本の多くの「平均的な」ITの仕事が魅力的でないと感じているのだとしたら、それはそれで構いません。そして、あなたはそのような日本の平均的な年収レンジの仕事に就く必要はありません。いや、むしろ、そんなことはしないで欲しいと思います。あなたが平均以上のスキルを持っているのであれば、それを正当に評価してくれる会社はきっと日本にありますから。

How to find the salary range for any tech job

Eric Turner — Mon, 31 May 2021 04:59:58 +0000

Originally posted on Japan Dev — the best way to find modern tech jobs in Japan.

Applying for jobs is stressful.

Have you ever applied to a position just to find out — late in the process of course — that there's no way the company can pay your expected salary?

It's rough... knowing you've wasted your time. Having to start over with the next company.

I used to be a bit of a job hopper, so I've run into this problem a lot. Eventually I applied to so many jobs that I developed some techniques for finding salary data. Even when they don't share that data publicly.

Everyone seems to struggle with this problem so I thought I'd share some of the tips I've learned.

Hopefully they'll help you walk into your next job interview or salary negotiation a little more prepared.

Here's a rundown of what I'll cover:

Company career pages
Salary data aggregation sites
The recruiter copy and paste trick
Going deeper
Blog posts from employees
Using heuristics
LinkedIn trends
Recruiters
When all else fails

Let's start with some basics.

You're probably already aware of these, but I want to cover all my bases. So I'll start with a few simple resources to begin your search.

I'll assume you have a company (and role) in mind.

Company Career pages

It sounds obvious but sometimes you can simply go to a company's career page and they'll have the salary range published. So if you've just heard about a new company and you haven't actually looked at their job posts yet, definitely try this first.

For example, Indeed is one of the highest-paying tech companies in the Japanese market. And one day they just added salary ranges to all their job posts.

↑ Yes, you can earn $200k+ base as a dev in Japan. Check the Japan Dev company list for more companies paying top-tier salaries in Japan.

So it's worth a shot.

Not listed? That's OK. Let's take a look at some sites that are purpose-built to solve this problem.

Salary data aggregation sites

Our next step is to check all of the salary sharing services. There are quite a few of them these days, so there's a pretty good chance one of them will have relevant data.

Here's a list of sites to check:

Levels.fyi - Great resource for level-specific info for primarily software engineers. It's focused on bigger US tech companies though.
Blind - Another good resource, also somewhat focused on US tech companies but not exclusively (there are threads about Japan and other countries).
H1B Data - In the US, companies have to publish salaries publicly for H1B visa applicants. It's an amazing source for US-based companies.
Glassdoor - Probably the biggest public database of salary data online. You can filter by company, role, location etc.
Angel List - Focused on tech start-ups, but they have a pretty cool "estimated salary" feature that can come in handy. It's just a guess so it's not as good as official data, but I've found it to be reasonably accurate.
Reddit spreadsheet - Huge Google sheet of tech salaries from a Reddit form

And if you're in Japan, there's a lot of data out there now:

Opensalary.jp - Crowd-sourced database of salaries for tech companies in Japan, with detailed data like years of experience and grade level.
Japan Dev Ultimate Salary Guide - I shared a massive amount of Japan-specific resources in this post, so take a look if the company's in Japan.
Project COMP - Japanese-only site that's similar to OpenSalary above.
OpenWork - Previously known as Vorkers, this site is only in Japanese, but they have an enormous amount of data across a wide variety of industries.
OpenMoney - Another Japanese site with info like age, take-home pay, insurance costs and more.

Most countries will have equivalents, so be sure to do some research.

This should be enough to get a ballpark figure for most companies. Even if the exact company you're considering isn't on the list, you can look at comparable companies and get some idea of what ballpark you should be thinking about.

Still can't find the range for the role you want? Don't worry... we're just getting started.

The recruiter copy and paste trick

A lot of companies work with external recruiters (AKA headhunters).

Most of them re-post jobs publicly, but they remove the company name. This makes it harder to search for posts from a specific company on these sites. But not impossible.

Because luckily for us, most recruiters don't actually change the content of the jobs they post — at least not enough to avoid being searched. They copy portions of the job description directly from the original.

These posts are useful because they're more likely to have salary ranges listed.

So how can we find job posts for our target company on these recruiting firms' sites?

Here's all you have to do:

Go to the company's official careers page
Find the job description for the role you're interested in
Copy a (unique-sounding) sentence from it
Search Google for that sentence, with quotes around it

Let's look at an example.

I grabbed a sentence from this official job post (which has no salary range listed):

Then, I Googled that passage in quotes.

And found this on the first page that popped up from a recruiting agency's site:

It's clearly the same job, but would you look at that? 8 million yen. Good to know!

If a recruiter has hired someone for a role in the past, they'll have salary data that might not be available publicly. And a lot of companies work with multiple recruiting firms, so be sure to check all the links that come up on Google.

If one recruiter doesn't share the salary range, another might.

I should mention: if a recruiting firm's data proves helpful, maybe consider applying to the company through them rather than directly.

If they have salary data, they probably have other insights that can help you in the interview process. So working with them could increase the chances of getting the job.

Going deeper

Depending on the job, there may be more niche online resources with the data you seek. Here are a few examples of communities to check.

Reddit's /r/CSCareerQuestions subreddit is a great source for tech-focused salary discussions.

They have regular threads where users input their offer details. Try searching Google for the company in question's name and "site:reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions" to find the discussions.

They have salary sharing threads for every experience level and cost of living, so it's a good idea to search these threads. Even if you can't find data for your target company, you can get a general sense of what people at your level are aiming for.

Hacker News

Hacker News has special Ask HN: Who is hiring? threads every month.

These threads are another great way to find data. Search for your target company and you may be surprised to find that they shared a salary range (HN users greatly prefer it when companies do). There are services that track these threads, or you can search them manually via google.

Even outside these threads, it's worth doing a search on Hacker News to see if people have discussed your target company before. I'd recommend searching from Google for this (e.g site:news.ycombinator.com salary OR comp OR pay).

Twitter advanced search

Searching Twitter using their advanced search can unearth a treasure trove of data. Similar to the above example, you can search for the company name plus words like "salary" or "total compensation" and you might find a tweet that mentions salary info.

Blog posts from employees

Blog posts are another potential data source. Don't ignore them. Search for the personal blogs of people working at the company, or informational blogs about your industry.

One of the first examples I came across of someone talking openly about salaries at Google Japan was a Japanese blog post from someone who used to work there.

If you still haven't found any hard data despite all of the above, then there simply may not be any available publicly.

You may not get an exact number, but there are still ways to get a feel for a company's compensation level indirectly.

Using heuristics

When there's no actual data out there, you have to get creative. There are signals out there that will give you a sense of what a given company can pay. They won't give you an exact range but you can still use them to your advantage.

Ultimately, you just want to determine if the company's a good fit or not. Whether it's worth interviewing with them or not. So even if you can't find exact numbers, the following technique will give a sense of where a company fits in the salary hierarchy. And that's usually enough to go on.

I like to use LinkedIn for this.

LinkedIn trends

This trick is a bit more art than science, but it can be useful.

Basically, you go on LinkedIn and search for people working at the company (now or previously).

Why?

The trends of people joining and leaving the company can be very telling.

Imagine there are two companies: Company A, and Company B.

You're interested in working at Company B, but you can't figure out how much they pay. What if there was a trend of people leaving Company A and joining Company B for similar roles?

That would suggest pretty strongly that, at the very least, Company B pays as much as Company A. In fact, they probably pay more.

Unless something catastrophic occurs at Company A, people don't leave en masse to go work somewhere else for less money.

So how do you use LinkedIn to discover these trends? Easy. Just do an advanced search for people doing the role you're interested in, and check their previous jobs.

You can also see where people go when they leave the company:

If there's a trend (several people leaving the same company to work at the company in question), then you can look for salary data on that company and it should give you an idea of what to expect.

Quick LinkedIn tip

By the way, the more connections you have on LinkedIn the better this works. Their search only lets you see people within a few degress of separation, so I recommend amassing as many connections as possible. That will improve the quality of your search results.

Still can't find the data you're looking for? Starting to fear that it doesn't exist? Don't despair, there's still one avenue we haven't pursued yet.

...Talking to actual humans.

Recruiters

As I mentioned, recruiters often have access to a treasure trove of data about their clients.

Remember the copy and paste trick I mentioned earlier? This can also be a good way of discovering which recruiters work with a company. So you can employ it to find the names of some recruiters who might have access to the data you seek.

Then send them a message (LinkedIn's good for this, they're usually pretty active there) and ask them about the company. They can probably tell you if you're in the right ballpark or not with your expectations based on their past dealings with the company.

And, to reiterate what I said above: if they spend time and provide value to you, please consider applying to the company through them.

This can work with both external recruiters and internal recruiters (recruiters who work directly for the company rather than an external agency) by the way.

Not able to find any recruiters that work with the company? Or you can't get them to respond?

That's OK. The company's gotta have employees right?

When all else fails

It may be time to make a friend at the company.

Obviously, this is only worth doing if you really want to know what the company pays. But reaching out directly to people currently working at the company is a highly effective tactic — as long as you do it right.

Plus even if you conclude that the job's not for you, you'll gain a valuable connection.

First, check your network to see if you know anyone at the company. It's a lot easier to reach out if you're already connected.

Otherwise, I hope you took my LinkedIn advice to heart and upped your connection count. It'll make outreach via LinkedIn way easier.

Note: Ex-employees also work. Arguably better than current ones in fact, since they might be more honest. LinkedIn's advanced search lets you search by "previous company" so it's easy to find ex-employees.

And ideally this should be someone doing the same role you're interested in (or at least something close).

Also LinkedIn is just one avenue for this. Twitter is another great option. Here are a couple of other ideas:

Ask for an intro if someone in your existing network knows someone working there
Talk to them at a meetup or conference (search for ones their company sponsors)
If you saw discussion about the company on Reddit/Hacker News, you can reach out to someone there.

Alright. So you've found your target and it's time to send them a message.

What do you say?

How NOT to reach out

Well, you could simply ask them how much they earn:

Hey, could you let me know how much you earn as an engineer over at _______? Thx.

Yeah... don't do this. No one will respond to a question like this (nor should they).

You can't just ask about salary up-front. You have to be respectful. And you have to show genuine interest in working at the company and start a conversation first.

Try this instead

Something along these lines is more likely to get a response:

Hey, I'm Eric. I saw you're working as an engineer at ______. It seems like a great place to work so I was thinking of applying... any chance I could ask you a few questions about the role?

This is a lot better.

But there's still a chance they won't respond. In that case, I'd recommend politely following up once or twice and then moving on to someone else.

When you do get a response, you should discuss the role for a while before mentioning anything about salary. Once you've shown that you've done your research on the company and have a real interest in applying , then you can broach the salary topic.

But you have to do it carefully. You still shouldn't ask them their salary. Or even what they think the range is for the role. It'll just make them uncomfortable.

Instead? Be honest. Throw out the range you suspect the company pays based on the research you've done so far (or your expectations).

You could say something like:

I wasn't able to find much data on salary... I'm thinking of aiming for around $100-120k. Any idea if that's in the right ballpark for someone at my level?

A couple things to note here.

First off, give a range (e.g. $100k-120k). If you say "is $100k the right amount?" and they're doing the same role, saying yes amounts to telling you their salary.

The range gives them some plausible deniability. It creates some distance between the discussion and their own private salary info.

Framing it as for someone at my level also helps take the focus off of them. Everyone's situation is different — maybe your level is different from theirs. More distance between them and the numbers.

If you do this right, they shouldn't have too much reason to refuse to answer.

In most cases they'll tell you what you want to know.

Did you find this useful? If so please do share it with your pals — it helps a ton. It also lets me know I should write more content like this.

And be sure to subscribe to the Japan Dev email list below for alerts when I write a new blog post.

--Eric

Originally posted on Japan Dev — the best way to find modern tech jobs in Japan.

Best Tech Meetups in Tokyo

Eric Turner — Sun, 30 May 2021 08:11:12 +0000

Originally posted on Japan Dev — the best way to find modern tech jobs in Japan.

Tech companies in Japan keep getting more diverse.

Over the past few decades, more and more international engineers and designers are coming to Japan.

Thanks to this, Japan's tech community is more vibrant and diverse than ever. And meetups remain one of the best ways to interact with this community.

Now, COVID-19's taken a bit of a toll on Japan's tech meetup scene and it's true there aren't as many in-person meetups as before.

But meetups are far from dead — most just moved online. In fact this presents a chance for people living outside Tokyo (since that's where most international meetups are based).

I analyzed all the tech meetups in Japan and made note of the current status of each. This is your guide to the most popular meetups in Japan during COVID-19.

Meetups are still one of the best ways to break into Japan's tech scene, so definitely take a look if you're interested in working in Japan!

Hacker News Tokyo
Machine Learning Tokyo
Tokyo Fintech Meetup
A11yVR-Accessibility Virtual Reality Group
Dev Japan
WebHack Meetup
A.I. University by Team AI
Tokyo Python Society Club
Tokyo Startup Founder 101
Tokyo Dev Roundtable
Tokyo Tech Meetup
Tokyo Tech Startups
Tokyo Design
UX Talk Tokyo
Code Chrysalis
Le Wagon Tokyo
MercariDev
Tokyo Linux Users Group
Nerd Nite Tokyo
Tokyo iOS Meetup
Tokyo Rubyist Meetup
TOKYO Rails Meetup
Tokyo Agile Community
Women in Tech
- Women Who Code Tokyo
- AnitaB.org Tokyo
- Women in Technology Japan
- SheShaped
- Ladies That UX Tokyo
- Droid Girls
- Django Girls Japan
- EdTechWomen (ETW) Tokyo
- AITC女子会

Hacker News Tokyo

The main language in this community is English.

Hacker News Tokyo is an international community for tech lovers living in Japan. It was created by the founders of IT company MakeLeaps, Jay and Paul.

There are around 2000 users in their Slack Community. It’s a very lively space, with people actively sharing information every day.

I highly recommend joining this Slack community — it's one of the best ways to make direct connections with people in the industry here.

If you’re looking for friends, or you just arrived in Japan, introduce yourself in their Slack #_introductions channel. You’re sure to receive a warm welcome from the community :)

Most members are foreigners, but there are also some Japanese people in the group too.

※ Prior to COVID-19, they held an English meetup once a month. If the vaccine is administered widely enough, they’ll probably start holding these again.

Machine Learning Tokyo

This is Tokyo's main English-language ML meetup, and it's super popular.

They are an online, global, nonprofit organization based in Japan. With around 9,000 members working in the machine learning field, they aim to democratize machine learning through Open Education, Open Source and Open Science.

Open Education – They hold AI workshops, study meets, and lectures.

Open Source – Volunteer teams tackle various machine learning projects and publish them on GitHub.

Open Science – They present research papers in workshops at international ML conferences. Working together with Japanese universities and research institutions, they support machine learning researchers from institutes such as University of Tokyo, Tokyo Institute of Technology, and RIKEN CBS. They also run workshops and bootcamps on topics relating to machine learning and data science.

Tokyo Fintech Meetup

※The main language in this community is English. During the COVID-19 crisis, they have been running regular online meetup events.

They are a fintech nonprofit community that was founded in Tokyo in 2017 by former Goldman Sachs managing director, Norbert. Their aim is to bring innovation to the Japanese financial industry.
In addition to regular meetings, they also upload a podcast where they give a wide range of leading information on Japanese Fintech, Blockchain and Insurtech, which is listened to in over 50 countries.
They invite cutting edge startups from Japan and abroad to take part in monthly discussion meetup events, where they discuss how Fintech is reinventing more traditional financial services, such as P2P lending, comparison sites, robo-advisor wealth management, bitcoin and cryptocurrency.

A11yVR-Accessibility Virtual Reality Group

※The main language in this community is English. During the COVID-19 crisis, they have been running regular online meetup events.

This international community based in Tokyo shares information about XR/VR/AR, and the accessibility of technology to people with disabilities.
Their aim is to create a society where the views of marginalized minority groups, such as people with disabilities, are properly represented.
They hold regular events and digital forums, as well as inviting XR/VR/AR professionals from the industry to give presentations and talks on accessibility.

Dev Japan

※The main language in this community is English. During the COVID-19 crisis, they have been running regular online meetup events.

This casual English community is made up of engineers, designers and other tech lovers, who get together once a month to work on projects, study, and make friends. They currently have around 5500 members.

WebHack Meetup

※The main language in this community is English. During the COVID-19 crisis, they have been running regular online meetup events.

WebHack Meetup is a non-profit group based in Tokyo. They organize meetups where engineers and engineering managers can share their knowledge and network. The organizers are super enthusiastic about the planning and they make sure everyone has a good time.

A.I. University by Team AI

※The main language in this community is English. They have been holding Clubhouse Meetups regularly during the COVID-19 crisis.

This is a community for those interested in AI, machine learning and deep learning. Their mission is to democratize machine learning technology, and to raise the skill levels of a wide range of people, from beginners to experts. They regularly hold study groups focusing on specific machine learning topics.

Tokyo Python Society Club

※The main language in this community is English. During the COVID-19 crisis, they have been running regular online meetup events.

This is a community for Python enthusiasts in Tokyo. Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, everyone is welcome. They mainly hold study groups where they share their knowledge with each other on the following topics.

Tokyo Startup Founder 101

※The main language in this community is English. During the COVID-19 crisis, they have been running regular online meetup events.

This community is made up of engineers thinking of starting their own businesses, as well as experienced technology entrepreneurs who have already done so. They get together to share their startup knowledge with each other, and are building a cooperative startup ecosystem.

In this community, you’ll find the opportunity to receive feedback from local entrepreneurs and investors, attend workshops, and take advantage of a variety of opportunities. There are currently around 3500 members.

Tokyo Dev Roundtable

※The main language in this community is English. During the COVID-19 crisis, they have been running regular online meetup events.

This community holds meetups for people who are using or want to learn to use React, React Native and Ruby on Rails. They focus on group discussions where people can share their knowledge. The discussions are primarily high-level ones that are aimed at experienced practitioners, but beginners are welcome to take part.

Interested in exploring Tokyo but don’t have anyone to explore with?
Try this friendly community, Tokyo Tech Meetup!!

Tokyo Tech Meetup

※The main language in this community is English. Whilst they haven’t been very active during the COVID-19 crisis, they still organize occasional online meetups. Before COVID-19, they held meetups once a quarter.

Tokyo Tech Meetup is an international community for people who love tech from Japan and around the world. They hold regular meetings based on the current affairs of Japanese technology, 3-5 minute ‘lightning’ talks, and social meetings to interact with other members. To help connect the English and Japanese speaking tech communities in Japan, the events are run simultaneously in both English and Japanese. Anyone is free to join, whether you’re studying Japanese or English, an engineer, designer, entrepreneur or just someone who loves technology. We recommend this community for anyone looking to make some tech-loving friends.

The organizers Shane and Shoin in particular present the current tech news in English and Japanese with a great sense of wit, making it a fun and helpful way to learn new information. We recommend taking a listen to them first!

Tokyo Tech Startups

※The main language in this community is English. During the COVID-19 crisis, they have been running irregular online meetup events.

This Tokyo-based community is for entrepreneurs and startups with a strong interest in technology and startups. They hold global meetups in Tokyo, where the main language used is English.
With their mission of bringing the next generation of Japanese startups to the global stage, they bring together startups with global reach to pitch and network with each other in English. There are a large number of early-stage startups, as well as foreign startups who are aiming to break into the Japanese market taking part too. There are currently around 5000 members.

Tokyo Design / 東京デザインミートアップ

※The main language in this community is English. During the COVID-19 crisis, they have been running regular online meetup events.

This international meetup for designers is run by Hitomi, an American-born Japanese woman. Although English is the main language, there are also many Japanese speakers too, so those who are still learning English should feel free to join. Anyone who works in creative fields such as UX, UI and graphic design, as well as those with an interest in design, are free to take part.

UX Talk Tokyo

The main language in this community is English. This community is mainly for people working in Tokyo who have an interest in UX.

Prior to COVID-19, they would hold discussions about user experience and networking one Wednesday a month in Shibuya from 7pm to 9pm.

Everyone is welcome to this community, whether you’re a UX designer, another kind of designer, or simply someone else interested in design, regardless of your nationality. Although presentations are held in English, as many participants speak both English and Japanese, networking is often done in a mixture of the two languages.

Code Chrysalis

※The main language in this community is English. During the COVID-19 crisis, they have been running regular online meetup events.

Code Chrysalis is a short-term intensive software engineering training school based in Tokyo. Founded by a Silicon Valley native, this school puts an emphasis on teaching not only hard skills, but also soft skills, such as the ‘Silicon Valley spirit’. You can choose to take courses in either English or Japanese.
They regularly hold English meetups and workshops.

Le Wagon Tokyo

※The main language in this community is English. During the COVID-19 crisis, they have been running regular online meetup events.

Launching in Tokyo in 2016, this community offers a coding bootcamp that was created in France. They currently run events in 27 cities around the world. They run regular English meetups and workshops, as well as talk sessions run by engineers from the industry.

MercariDev

※The main language in this community is English. During the COVID-19 crisis, they have been running regular online meetup events.

This global technology meetup is run by Mercari, Japan’s first unicorn company. Meetups are normally held in Tokyo. They’re normally held in English, but many participants are bilingual in Japanese and English.
They regularly run very useful events, such as lightning talks from global engineers and debriefings from global tech conferences.

Tokyo Linux Users Group

Non-profit group TLUG is still running physical and online meetups in both English and Japanese. They talk about developing and using Linux and open source software, plus any other interesting projects that group members are working on (including ones not related to Linux).

The group was created by pioneers in Japan's Internet industry. Realizing the importance of Linux, they started the group in 1994.

It was originally called the "LINUX" conference on TWICS (the only ISP in Japan at the time) and had an exciting atmosphere from the start. People used their events to learn and share information about using Linux. One early member said this time “felt like we were all on the edge of this frontier and that together we were taming this networked, high-tech jungle. It was great!”

Nerd Nite Tokyo

Nerd Nite Tokyo's organizers describe the event as “the Discovery Channel with beer”.

Pre-Covid it was a monthly event at GRID in Nagatacho. Right now they're on hiatus, but the group's planning to restart their in-person events once it's safe to do so.

Their English events consist of a mixture of talks, performances, demos, trivia and more. It sounds like a super fun time so we're really looking forward to joining in once the events start up again.

Tokyo iOS Meetup

The main language in this community is English.

This group was first started in Tokyo in 2009, and is made up of around 3000 iOS developers. Events are held in English, but are attended by many multinational iOS engineers working in Japan. It’s a great meetup to hear and share the latest iOS technology.

Tokyo Rubyist Meetup

The main language in this community is English.

The Tokyo Rubyist Meetup is a meetup created to connect Japanese and international engineers who like Ruby. This group primarily uses English.

It seems to be mostly attended by foreign and Japanese engineers who love ruby and live in the Tokyo area. The event is mostly held in English but, as it’s a casual meetup, even those who are not so good at English are welcome to attend.

TOKYO Rails Meetup

The main language is mostly English, but LT can be given in both English and Japanese.

This is an international community for engineers who have an interest in Ruby on Rails. There are a lot of foreign engineers working in Japan and Japanese people studying English in this community.

Prior to COVID-19, this community would gather in the large kitchen of the Cookpad office (who run a recipe locating service) in Ebisu where drinks and snacks were served in a home party atmosphere.

Tokyo Agile Community

※The main language in this community is English and Japanese. During the COVID-19 crisis, they have been running regular online meetup events.

This is a community for people involved in agile development in Tokyo. Based upon the idea that agile development is a keyword for Japanese companies looking to adapt to the digital age of business, this community invites professionals practicing agile development to share their information, experiences and knowledge, in order to learn about the best agile practices. They organize case studies, presentations, workshops, coaching, conferences and other events related to agile development.

Women in Tech

Whilst women are making strides in societies around the world, Japan is lagging behind. In particular, the number of women working in decision-making positions, such as managerial and leadership positions, is extremely low. It is said that Japan has the largest gender inequality in the developed world.

What about in the IT industry? As a matter of fact, whilst the proportion of women-to-men working in IT in Japan is still very low, the number of female engineers and technicians has slowly been rising over the last few years.

This is in part thanks to the support offered by a range of groundbreaking communities that are supporting women working in the STEM field.

Below are some of the organizations and groups working to support women.

Women Who Code Tokyo

※The main language in this community is English. During the COVID-19 crisis, they have been running regular online meetup events.

This is the Tokyo chapter of the global NPO dedicated to empowering women in the technology world「Women Who Code」, whose headquarters are based in San Francisco, North America. Launched in 2011, this global tech community has over 80,000 members in 70 cities across 20 different countries (including software engineers, data scientists, solution architects etc.). In order to help female engineers achieve even more, they run workshops, study groups and conferences to support them.
They have a support system created by a worldwide network of volunteers, which is supported by many actively working engineers. This group has a warm, supportive atmosphere that makes it easy for beginners to get involved, which further strengthens the local network.

AnitaB.org Tokyo

The main language in this community is English and Japanese.

AnitaB.org is a US-based nonprofit organization created to empower women working in the technology industry.
AnitaB.org Tokyo, based in Tokyo, is open to anyone interested in the technology industry, from beginners to professionals.

Women in Technology Japan

※The main language in this community is English and Japanese. During the COVID-19 crisis, they have been running regular online meetup events.

This community is dedicated to the empowerment of women in the IT industry in Japan. Their mission is to support diversity and entrepreneurship in the IT industry, as well as to increase the number of women working in the industry.

SheShaped

The main language in this community is English.

This international community is dedicated to the goal of empowering women in the IT industry and beyond. They regularly run events, have lectures from prominent female workers in industry, and through the forming of their community, they aim to tackle some of the challenges that women face in society.

Ladies That UX Tokyo

This community uses both English and Japanese.

This non-profit organization, based in the UK, aspires to empower women working in the UX field. Their speakers and mentors offer help to all genders, and they regularly hold study groups and workshops in over 40 cities around the world. This community uses both English and Japanese language. Anyone with an interest in UX is welcome to join this community.

Droid Girls

※ The main language used in this community is Japanese. During the COVID-19 crisis, they have been running regular online meetup events.

This is a community for women who are interested in Android.
Each week they hold a workshop where they take a library or service related to Androids, and try to practically use it.

Django Girls Japan

The main language used in this community is Japanese.

This is an international community that first started Berlin in July 2014, and has since expanded to many cities around the world. With the aim of bringing the joy of programming to many women, they create and translate tutorials to many languages, as well as holding workshops all around the world. There are many workshops aimed at beginners, which provides an opportunity for all women to enjoy the art of programming.

EdTechWomen (ETW) Tokyo

The main language used in this community is Japanese.

They launched in Japan in 2016. It is a community for women who work in the Japanese technology education field. The main language used in this community is Japanese. Women from diverse backgrounds, not only in the IT field, but also from various fields such as entrepreneurs, school staff and NPOs etc., gather here and can exchange information.

AITC女子会

The main language used in this community is Japanese. During the COVID-19 crisis, they have been running regular online meetup events.

The AITC (Advanced IT utilization consortium) is a community that aims to empower women working in the AITC field. Regardless of which type of job they have (designer, engineers, planning etc.), this community supports women working in the IT field by helping them with「Meeting people・technology・knowledge」. They hold regular seminars and meetups where women can exchange information, deepen their know-how, and expand their network. This gives these women a greater opportunity to make an impact on society.

What is your other favorite tech community in Japan? Let me know on Twitter !

Originally posted on Japan Dev — the best way to find modern tech jobs in Japan.

Software Developer Salaries in Japan: The Ultimate Guide

Eric Turner — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 23:13:55 +0000

I work as a software developer in Japan and I love it. Most developers I know seem to enjoy it too. They tend to work at global companies or progressive startups, they earn good money and they're relatively happy.

And yet, spend time on any online community about Japan and you might never know people like us existed. Because there's an enormous amount of negativity and misinformation out there when it comes to Japan's IT industry, and as someone who genuinely enjoys working here I find that disheartening.

In my previous post I shared some tips on finding foreigner-friendly tech companies, and now in this post I'd like to drill down on one of the biggest sources of contention when it comes to IT jobs in Japan: salaries.

I'll present what I consider to be a good salary range for each experience level and support them with as much hard data as I can find. My goal is to offer a more nuanced view of this opaque and frequently misunderstood topic, and hopefully prove that it's possible to earn a good salary as a software engineer in Japan once and for all.

Use the links below if you'd prefer to skip ahead to the data itself:

Recommended salary ranges for foreigners
Raw salary data for 50+ tech companies in Japan (and where I found it)

Here's a more detailed rundown of what I'll cover in the rest of this post:

Average salary for IT jobs in Japan
The problem with averages
- Working in Japan as a foreigner
- Japan's IT industry
Prior Work
How much can you earn as a foreign software developer in Japan?
- New Graduates
- Mid-career
- Senior Engineers
Salary data for foreigners in Japan
Salaries are trending up
- What about "domestic" companies?
Not all companies are created equal
Do your own research
Bottom line: Japan is a valid option

Average salary for IT jobs in Japan

Let's begin by looking at the overall average software engineering salaries across Japan, as this data shouldn't be too hard to find. As expected, if you search google, you'll find countless resources claiming to know the average salary of software engineers in Japan. Let's look at some examples.

Glassdoor says the average is 5.7 million yen ($57k) per year. Payscale says it's 4.9 million ($49k). A survey from Japanese service DODA found it to be 4.6 million ($46k). Heikin nenshu says the average for "system engineers" is 5.5 million ($55k).

Quick aside: I'll use a rate of 100 yen per USD for simplicity. The current purchase power parity is closer to 103:1 so the USD values might be slightly high, but the yen values are exact.

Looks like the figures converge at around 5 million yen ($50k). This is for all experience levels, so we can assume averages for new grads to be lower (maybe 3-4 mil?) while more experienced engineers will earn a bit more (6-7 mil?).

On the whole, I believe this figure is mostly accurate when applied to Japan as a whole.

The problem with averages

The problem with relying on this data is simple. It's not relevant for foreigners.

Only one in ~48 people in Japan is non-Japanese. And the majority of those come from the surrounding Asian countries, so if you're from anywhere else you're even more rare than that. That means being a foreigner here puts you in a very small minority.

What about engineers specifically? A recent report from Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare found that there are 52,038 foreigners working in the IT industry Japan. Another government report says that in 2019 there are 1,045,512 people working in IT overall, which means the foreigner percentage of IT workers is actually a bit higher than the average for the general population. But it's still only 5%.

It's clear that the foreign population represents a small portion of the data behind macro-level statistics like average IT salaries in Japan. So I'd argue that there's pretty much no point in looking at them if you're not Japanese. These values aren't directly relevant to us and we shouldn't let them hold us back.

Because for better or worse, foreign engineers in Japan are unique.

Working in Japan as a foreigner

Being a foreigner here makes you an exception. The average non-Japanese developer in Japan has followed a very different path to end up at their job than a Japanese developer, and this impacts salaries.

Companies in Japan don't hire foreign developers without a good reason; bringing someone over from abroad is usually a bigger commitment than hiring a Japanese developer. We're more likely to incur extra costs like visa sponsorship and relocation assistance. We're much less likely to speak Japanese well or understand the subtleties of Japanese culture, and there's a chance we'll give up and move back to our home country.

In short, hiring a foreigner is a liability. It's taking a risk, and most companies don't take risks like that without a good reason.

Japan's IT industry is... unique

The distribution of IT jobs done by foreigners is also different than that of Japanese engineers. Historically, IT in Japan has been a different beast than in many other countries, with unique positions like "SE" (system engineer) and a higher prominence of "SIers" (system integrators). Attitudes towards IT here are different than in places like the US.

We also tend to have different educational backgrounds (e.g. only 23% of Japanese engineers have related college degrees, compared 72% for Indians and 44% of Americans ). In the US (where I'm from), Computer Science is a top major that pays some of the highest salaries for new grads. In Japan, it's not particularly popular and the average salaries of CS graduates are just okay. There's also the fact that, as foreigners, we're more likely to work at established, international companies and much less likely to work at small domestic startups (which tend to pay a bit less).

So how does this impact salaries? It's difficult to quantify, but one Japanese blogger says that companies should expect to pay an extra $10k/year to hire a foreign developer over their Japanese counterpart at the same skill level. I have no idea if that's accurate or not, but I can say that anecdotally, I've found that foreign developers earn a bit more on average (I'll introduce a few more sources to support this assertion in the next section). I think this makes sense when you consider the scarcity of foreigners here combined with the exceptional circumstances that tend to precede our hiring.

Alright, so country-wide salary data isn't relevant for foreign engineers. In that case, where should you go to find salary ranges?

Prior Work

Foreigner-specific salary data for developers is scarce, but it's not completely non-existent.

Paul McMahon's recent post from TokyoDev is one example of an article aimed directly at foreign engineers. He surveyed over 200 foreigners living in Japan and found that their average salary range was 4-11 million yen ($40-110k). He breaks this average down based on years of experience and programming language (for example Go and Java developers averaged 10 million yen ($100k)). His post contains a lot of great insights so I highly recommend checking it out.

Certain recruiting firms have also published reports about foreign IT workers in Japan. Michael Page's 2018 Salary Guide lists the average salary for web developers as 5-15 million yen ($50-150k) (excluding bonuses). Similarly, the Hays 2019 Salary Guide finds that developers earn a base salary of 5-12 million yen ($50-120k) per year.

I've also read a few individual reports over the years. As one example, Juanito Fatas says that fellow international developers around him make more than 8 million yen ($80k+).

Now, I'd like to go ahead and present my own personal ranges for what I consider to be a good salary at each experience level.

How much can you earn as a foreign software developer in Japan?

Honestly... it depends. There are many factors that can affect salaries here. I'll try to cover a few of them and then give what I think is a "good" salary for each experience level.

One big factor is your Japanese skill level (the better you are the more you'll earn). Already being in Japan will also give you a leg up because more companies will be willing to talk to you. And of course the more relevant programming experience you have the better.

A degree in a related field like Computer Science will also help, although it's not a necessity, in fact I feel like Japan is a good place for self-taught engineers.

Foreign companies will also generally pay more than domestic companies on the whole (though there are exceptions). And while this isn't specific to Japan, soft skills like being able to sell yourself and knowing how to negotiate your salary can also make a big difference.

Given all of the above caveats, here's what I think foreign software developers should aim for in terms of salary.

New graduate salaries

As a new grad, you should be looking to earn 4-7 million yen ($40-70k) per year. Top companies like Indeed can pay around 10 million yen ($100k) or a little more for new grads, but they're an exception. Most foreigner-friendly companies (i.e. those listed on the Japan Dev company list) will pay closer to the lower half of this range for anyone with less than a couple years of experience.

One more caveat for new grads is the fact that fewer companies will be interested in bringing you over from abroad. So if you're still living overseas and can't find an offer in this range, I recommend postponing your move to Japan and gaining some experience in your home country instead. Japan's not going anywhere.

By the way if you're a bootcamp grad (or considering joining a bootcamp) there's data for that too. Code Chrysalis co-founder Yan Fan has stated that their graduates start at 6 million yen ($60k) on average, with the full range being from the "high" 4 millions to over 7 million.

Mid-career salaries

International mid-career software engineers in Japan (let's say 2-5 years of experience) can earn in the range of 6-12 million yen ($60-120k). Once again, companies like Google and Indeed can pay more, but most companies will be in this range. Pretty much all the companies hiring through Japan Dev can pay somewhere in this range, so be sure to check out our current offerings if you're in the market.

Senior developer salaries

Senior developers (6-10 years of experience or more) in Japan should expect to earn anywhere from 8-15 million yen ($80-150k). However, the sky's the limit for those with truly exceptional tech skills. I hate to keep using the same examples, but I've heard of people earning 30 million yen ($300k) or more (total comp) at Google, and "Principal Engineers" at Indeed can earn a base salary of up to 22.4 million yen ($224k), so probably something similar when you factor in stock and bonuses.

Most of the companies on our company list should also be capable of paying senior developers salaries in this range (especially those near the top of the list).

Salary resources for foreigners in Japan

I've offered a little bit of data here and there to back up my claimed salary ranges, but I don't blame you if you're still not convinced. What follows is a data dump of resources (in a mixture of English and Japanese) with over 60 salary data points that hopefully prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the ranges I presented are in fact achievable. Keep in mind that not all of these include bonus and stock incentives, and many are aimed at Japanese developers. Let's dive in.

Official company career pages

Many times companies' own websites are the best source of official salary data. Here are a few examples of data points:

Indeed: 9.6-22 million yen ($96-220k)
Fast Retailing: 5.8-15 million yen ($58-150k) (dev ops)
beBit: 6-13 million yen ($60-130k)
Kaizen Platform: 5-10 million yen ($50-100k)

There are lots of other examples out there if you search.

Findy

Findy's kind of a cool service. It's in Japanese, but it analyzes your Github profile to give you a rating and an expected salary range. I got a score of 72 which correlates to an expected salary of 8.1-9.1 million yen ($81-91k), but they said I could increase that by 1-2 million yen by improving my Github. Looking through the list of offers, I saw some ranges for companies I hadn't seen anywhere else. Here are some examples; I think they're personalized so I can't link to them but you should see similar results if you create an account:

Ubie: 6-12 million yen ($60-120k)
Medley: 6-15 million yen ($60-150k)
Medpeer: 5-10 million yen ($50-100k)
Repro: 5.4-12 million yen ($54-120k)
Squeeze: 6-12 million yen ($60-120k)
SmartDrive: 6-10 million yen ($60-1000k)
Raksul: 7-9 million yen ($70-90k)
Biztex: 6-9 million yen ($60-90k)
Microsoft: 6.5 million yen+ ($65k and up)
MNTSTQ: 6.5-10 million yen ($65-100k)
Freee: 5-12 million yen ($50-120k)
SmartHR: 5-10 million yen ($50-100k)
Speee: 5.5-10 million yen ($55-100k)
Open8: 6.5-12 million yen ($65-120k)

I'll stop there but there are lots more data points by creating an account.

Job Draft

Job Draft is a little-known (in the foreign community) Japanese site that requires you to create a free account, but rewards you with a goldmine of salary data for hundreds of Japan's most well-known tech companies. Here are the ranges for a few top companies:

Merpay: 7.8-11.3 million yen ($78-113k)
LINE: 8.1-13 million yen ($81-130k)
Recruit Lifestyle: 6.5-10 million yen ($65-100k)
Recruit Marketing Partners: 6.5-9 million yen ($65-90k)
Speee: 5.5-15 million yen ($55-150k)
DMM.com: 7-10 million yen ($70-100k)
LINE: 6.5-13 million yen ($65-130k)
Cookpad: 10 million yen ($100k)
LayerX: 6-9.5 million yen ($60-95k)
Yappli: 4.5-10 million yen ($45-100k)
Works Applications: 6-9 million yen ($60-90k)
Toreta: 4.8-10 million yen ($48-100k)
FreakOut: 5-10 million yen ($50-100k)

Not all the companies listed here are English-friendly, but hopefully this helps drive home my point that developer salaries are higher than people think.

OpenWork

OpenWork used to be called Vorkers. It's the closest thing Japan has to a domestic version of "Glassdoor" and it contains one of the largest databases of salary information in Japan, but it requires you to either pay a monthly fee or write a company review yourself to access this data. It's also not specific to IT only, and targeted towards Japanese users so not super focused. It can still be a useful resource though.

I can't link directly to the data because it's behind a paywall, but here are a few data points from there:

Google: 17 million yen ($170k)
Microsoft: 14 million yen ($140k)
Amazon (AWS): 13 million yen ($130k)
Mercari: 11 million yen ($110k)
LINE: 8.9 million yen ($89k)
Voyage Group: 10 million yen ($100k)
VMWare: 10 million yen ($100k)
Goldman Sachs: 15 million yen ($150k)

Note that these aren't official numbers and I'm cherry-picking some of the higher values here in order to show what's possible. Still, almost all their data is from Japanese engineers and I suspect high earners are less likely to share their salaries here so I bet the data actually skews a bit low if anything.

TokyoDev

Not all the jobs on TokyoDev's job board have salary data, but the site is focused on foreign developers so the ones that do should be directly relevant. Pretty much all companies listed are willing to bring applicants over to abroad, and most don't require Japanese. Example data points:

Chomp: 5-9 million yen ($50-90k) plus stock.
Degica: 6-10 million ($60-100k)

Stackoverflow Jobs

Stackoverflow Jobs hosts job posts from companies that are likely to be English-friendly, so the salary ranges found here are usually pretty relevant to English-speaking developers. Here's an example data point:

PayPay: 6.2-12 million yen ($62-120k).

Levels.fyi

Levels.fyi is similar to Glassdoor; it's a good resource for big foreign companies like Google, their data is limited for smaller companies. You can search for Japan (or Tokyo) to filter the data points down to the Japan-specific ones. Here are some data points:

Indeed: $107-200k
Google: $89-170k
Microsoft: $89-170k
nVidia: $100k
Rakuten: $75k

MP Digital Tech

This site has recently stopped working, but I took note of some unique salary data for a few well-known companies from there there so I'll include a few examples:

Rakuten: 6-11 million yen ($60-110k)
Mercari: 8-15 million yen ($80-150k)

Forkwell Jobs

Forkwell Jobs is another Japanese site with salary ranges for some Japanese companies; it has a focus on startups. A few data points:

SmartNews: 4.8-12 million yen ($48-120k)
RakSul: 4.5-9 million yen ($45-90k)
Rakuten: 4-10 million yen ($40-100k)

Blog posts

If you really search, personal blog posts can be a great resource when trying to find salary data. I recommend utilizing twitter's advanced search to help find interesting ones (understanding Japanese definitely helps here). For example, "IT engineer average salary ranking" includes the following data points:

Recruit: 9.7 million yen ($97k)
GMO Click Holdings: 8.5 million yen ($85k)
Cyberagent: 7.7 million yen ($77k)
DeNA: 7.6 million yen ($76k)
Gree: 7.5 million yen ($75k)
M3: 7.3 million yen ($73k)

"I'm leaving Google" is a great post from an ex-Googler in Tokyo. In it, the author talks about how they made over 20 million yen ($200k+) at Google and expresses a desire for more people to realize that this salary level is possible in Japan.

Glassdoor

Glassdoor is definitely worth checking for larger, international companies. Be sure to try filtering by location as it might give you a better signal-to-noise ratio.

Jobtalk

Jobtalk requires an account to see all of the data, but can still be useful for finding data points here and there even if you don't sign up. For example:

SmartNews: 9 million yen ($90k)

EN-Hyouban

EN-Hyouban is yet another Japanese site with some useful data, but it's not targeted at engineers either so there's kind of a lot of noise. Here's an example:

Fast Retailing: 9.5 million yen ($95k)
SmartNews: 10.5 million yen ($105k)

This is only a sample of the salary data out there, but hopefully it's enough to lend some credence to my assertion that it's possible to earn good money as a developer in Japan.

Salaries are trending up

Even though I don't think most average Japanese IT companies are very attractive to foreigners, I have a positive outlook on tech in Japan. I've been here for around seven years and I've noticed a lot of positive trends in the tech industry. And while my perception may be skewed by my own increasing experience and knowledge, I have no doubt tech salaries in Japan are increasing.

It's clear that the demand for developers has never been higher, and the gap between supply and demand is forecast to keep growing for at least the next decade or so. It stands to reason that this will continue to translate to higher salaries as companies become more and more desperate for engineering talent.

The above graph shows the estimated software engineer deficit at around 300,000 people and increasing every year for the next several years. It also shows that the number of in-house software engineers is increasing, which is an important metric.

Japan has a long history of using dispatch companies for engineering tasks rather than hiring developers directly. The fact that more companies are hiring engineers shows that companies are taking software development more seriously and engineers are becoming more respected as a profession.

The need for skilled developers is clear, and the foreign developer community is expanding as a result. In just the last 3-4 years, bootcamps have gone from non-existent to relatively mainstream (see Le Wagon, CodeChrysalis). English developer-focused communities like Japan Dev, TokyoDev, TokyoTech and others have become more popular and the meetup community has become way more vibrant, with tech events happening pretty much every night in Tokyo.

I'm confident that all of this growth will lead to higher salaries for international software developers.

What about "domestic" companies?

In addition to the increasing number of startups, quite a few larger Japanese tech companies have also made strides toward increasing salaries for tech workers. Many of them have done away with strict salary ranges (which used to be the norm in Japan) and moved to a more meritocratic salary structure where even new grads can earn high salaries. They've also begun investing more into emerging tech like AI with companies like Sony, NEC and DeNA all sharply increasing their new graduate salary ranges for AI roles (to as high as 10 million yen ($100k) starting).

Fujitsu is also apparently going all in on AI, reportedly offering salaries of 30-40 million yen ($300-400k) to AI engineers. These moves by large Japanese companies are another clear sign that salaries in Japan's tech industry are on the rise.

Several top companies have also expanded their new grad hiring beyond Japan. For example, companies like Mercari, TRI-AD and SoftBank have begun participating in hiring at India's IIT campuses. A lot of other global tech companies like Microsoft and Uber also go to IIT to find top engineers, and Japan joining them shows a realization by these companies that they need to start looking beyond Japan for talent.

To be 100% honest, I feel that a lot of the older, traditional Japanese companies have a ways to go before the average foreigner would find them to be attractive options, but I do genuinely believe that they're making an effort.

Not all companies are created equal

I'll be honest: not every Japanese tech company can pay salaries in the ranges I'm suggesting. In fact the majority probably can't. The fact is there are way more domestic, traditional Japanese companies than there are progressive international ones, and these ranges are only relevant for the latter.

The Japan Dev company list is my attempt to share what I believe to be the most comprehensive online list of the foreigner-friendly tech companies in Japan. I'm confident there are at least 100 such companies, and the salary ranges I introduced above should hold true for pretty much all of them.

I personally believe ~100 or so good companies makes Japan worth considering, especially for people who value the cultural experience of living here, learning the language and all the other benefits. But I can't recommend coming to Japan to work in IT unless you can secure an offer from a progressive company.

Do your own research

If you've educated yourself about companies in Japan and followed the best practices for finding a job here and still can't find anything but low-ball offers, then it might not be a good idea to come to Japan just yet. There are thousands of domestic companies here so if you send enough applications you'll probably get an offer from one if you drop your standards enough, but I'd advise against doing this.

Here's my rule of thumb: if a company can't pay at least 4-5 million yen per year, it should be avoided. Because as we've established, this is the bottom of the range for skilled engineers at the better companies. Go below this value and the chances of a company not respecting their engineers goes up sharply. So do the chances of using outdated technologies and not gaining transferable skills, having to work lots of overtime and all the other negative things associated with IT companies in Japan.

If you want to come to Japan no matter what and you're willing to do what's necessary to improve your situation once you arrive this might be a valid stepping stone, but I recommend that most people avoid these companies. It might be better to stay in your home country and gain some more experience or work on your Japanese and try again in a year or two first.

Bottom line: Japan is a valid option

It's possible to find a high-paying job in Japan as a foreign software developer. It requires diligent research and you have to choose a good company that pays market rates for foreign developers, but it's possible. I know this for a fact, and I'm going to keep repeating it as long as I have to because we need more positive voices in our community to drown out all the negative ones.

It pains me to see people who could've had a great experience here giving up on Japan because of what they read online, so my hope is that that those with an interest in working in IT here will give it a chance. It may be true that not every software engineering job will be fulfilling or high-paying, but that doesn't matter. You only need one. Even if the "average" IT job in Japan isn't very attractive, that's okay. You don't have to work at an average IT job. So don't.

How to find a job as a software developer in Japan

Eric Turner — Sat, 23 Nov 2019 07:19:24 +0000

Originally published on the Japan Dev Blog

Finding a job as a software developer in Japan can be tough for foreigners. There are a lot of great opportunities, but they're often hard to find. Especially for developers searching for their first job in Japan. The language gap combined with a lack of online resources makes separating the good tech companies from the less desirable ones a challenge.

It's not that there are no resources available. In fact there's a myriad of Japan-focused job boards and recruitment agencies out there. The problem is that the data you actually want can rarely be found online at all, let alone in English. And while the reports of "black companies" may be overstated at times, it's true that you need to be selective when choosing an IT job in Japan. Especially when you're a foreigner.

In places like the US software engineering has become one of the most popular careers, but this isn't the case in Japan. Many Japanese companies see programming as a necessary evil. To them it's low-level work that's not worth investing in. However, as Japan's internet tech industry matures, more and more companies are seeing the value of software development and things have improved rapidly in the last 5-10 years. I feel the industry has reached a point where there's a critical mass of good software jobs for foreigners that want to work here.

So the question is: how do you find the good jobs? In this post I'll explore this question and offer some resources and advice based on my own experiences searching for jobs as a developer in Tokyo. I know for a fact that working in Japan can be a deeply fulfilling experience, so my hope is that I can help other foreigners avoid the pitfalls I've faced and achieve success here in Japan.

What I won't cover

This is not a guide on the mechanics of physically moving to Japan. That's not specific to software engineers, and many such guides have been written already. You can find them online, and the requirements will be pretty much the same for everyone. So if you're looking for general info about the logistics of your move to Japan, then I recommend consulting them instead.

For example, TokyoDev's guide on finding your first programming job in Japan is a good place to start. You can also check out BFFTokyo for most anything else related to moving (such as visa info). These topics are important too, but in this post I'm going to try to avoid them. I won't go into how much money you should bring or what visa you should get. Instead I'd like to focus on how to find a software development job that you'll actually enjoy and avoid the ones you won't.

First things first: Educate yourself

If you want to find a software job in Japan (that's actually good), the first step is research. In order to thrive as a developer here, it's crucial for you to understand what kind of job you want. You'll then need to determine which tech companies in Japan are actually willing to hire foreign engineers for that position, and most importantly, which ones can actually provide the type of environment you expect.

Maybe in part due to Japan's historic culture of "lifetime employment", I feel that tech recruiting here is still in its infancy. There are a few general Glassdoor-like sites like OpenWork and EN-Hyouban, but they're all in Japanese. The data collected there is somewhat useful, but it's often not relevant to non-Japanese engineers. That's why I built Japan Dev as a resource aimed directly at foreigners who want to work at tech companies here.

I recommend browsing the Japan Dev company list page to get a holistic view of the foreigner-friendly companies hiring developers in Japan. Everyone has their own criteria, so you should decide yours and then research which companies meet them. Whether you're looking for an English-speaking environment, remote work or visa sponsorship, you should be able to come up with a list of tech companies in Japan that fulfill your requirements.

Pro tip: Know what kind of job you want, and spend time researching the best companies offering those jobs. Don't set yourself up for failure by assuming you'll be happy with any old job as long as you're in Japan.

Foreigner-friendly resources for developers

Here are a few more hand-picked resources that you can use to improve your understanding of the programming jobs available to you:

Japan Dev - We offer the most exhaustive list of top foreigner-friendly tech companies hiring developers in Japan. There's also salary data for most companies as well as "pros" and "cons" for each.
LinkedIn - Many top companies in Japan advertise software jobs here. LinkedIn also recommends companies based on the info in your profile, which is useful.

Pro tip: Set your LinkedIn location to Tokyo even if you're not here yet. You'll get more interest from recruiters.

TokyoDev - Great resource for programming jobs in Tokyo. Pretty much all jobs posted here include visa support and most don't require Japanese skills.
AngelList - More startup jobs. Most are globally-minded companies.
Justa.io - Focused on Japanese startups (and not just for software developers), but leaning toward English-friendly companies.
HN Tokyo Slack - Connect directly with fellow developers in Tokyo. This is especially valuable for people who are not in Japan yet.
StackOverflow Jobs - StackOverflow is an English site, so the companies in Japan posting jobs here are typically pretty global.

General-purpose Japan job boards

There are tons of other more generalized job boards (Gaijinpot, Daijob etc.), but they can be overwhelming. The above resources either curate jobs for English-speaking developers or attract the type of company interested in hiring foreign developers, so I recommend focusing your efforts on these sites (and others like them; let me know if you have others!) as they provide a better signal to noise ratio for those specifically seeking programming jobs.

In general, the more you educate yourself at this stage, the better off you'll be when you're talking to recruiters and actually meeting with companies. So definitely take the time to vet companies and gather as much information as you can.

Utilizing developer events

The above set of resources should provide you with quite a lot of data about companies as well as specific job opportunities. Once you're confident that a given company is a good fit, applying directly through one of those sites can be a good option. But this should not be your only plan of attack. If you're in Japan already, then events are invaluable for finding jobs. It's a well-known fact that many of the best jobs will never be posted online, and this definitely holds true in the Japan developer community.

There's just no replacement for physically coming to Tokyo and meeting people in person. You can get the latest information from fellow software developers already working in Japan, and they'll be much more likely to refer you to their company if they have a chance to meet you first.

Finding someone to vouch for you

Did I mention that companies in Japan love referrals? Because they do. A lot of companies here get 50%+ of their employees from employee referrals because it's a win-win for the company and the employee. Even if the company has to pay a fee to the employee, it's usually much less than what they would've paid to a job board or recruiter. With a referral, the employee gets money and the company gets to reward one of their members and create some good will in them towards the company. This means that many companies' employees want to find people looking to work with them and are even financially incentivized to do so.

In other words, the more people you can talk to at your target companies, the better your chances will be of landing a development position with them. And referrals are one of the best ways to make connections with many companies.

Finding the most impactful English-friendly events for developers

Tokyo has a never-ending stream of programming and IT related events, so there should pretty much always be something, but here are a few of my personal recommendations for software developers interested in attending events in Japan:

TokyoTech - This isn't actually a meetup, but it's my favorite resource for finding meetups in Tokyo. It showcases most of the upcoming tech-related Tokyo meetups in one place so you don't need to go hunting for them across the internet.
Tokyo Tech Meetup - A recent addition, this bilingual event is great for meeting fellow developers -- plus it's free!
Hacker News Tokyo - This is a great event for networking in Tokyo. There are always plenty of software engineers and designers as well as entrepreneurs and anyone else interested in tech or startups.
Dev Japan - Originally an event where programmers could go to work on projects, Dev Japan has been expanding lately and sponsoring more and more events in Tokyo.
Meetup.com - Many of Tokyo's developer events can be found here. There's something pretty much every night.
Doorkeeper - Doorkeeper is another site for organizing meetups; it's home to events like the venerable Tokyo Rubyist meetup.

What about recruiters?

Recruiting firms can be a valuable tool for finding software engineering jobs in Japan. In fact, anecdotally speaking, I think this is one of the most popular ways to find jobs here. However, I feel it's important to understand how recruiting in Japan works before enlisting their help. I would also advise against using recruiters as your only avenue when searching for jobs.

The thing about recruiters is that each recruiter only works with a subset of companies. Recruiting firms have contracts with specific partner companies, and those are the ones they'll introduce you to. Thus, it's usually a good idea to at least talk to a few different recruiters to get as wide of a view as possible of the jobs available to you before signing a contract.

Good recruiters will be honest with you about your options and not try to push you toward a company unless it's a genuinely good fit, but you do need to be a little careful. Recruiting fees can be 25-50% (or more) of an applicant's yearly salary, which means recruiters have a massive financial incentive to convince you to join one of their companies. This is why you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket and make sure you talk to several different ones.

When working recruiters, always do your own research and only agree to deals that are mutually beneficial for you from a business standpoint. And make sure you arm yourself with knowledge so you can avoid falling for sales tactics.

Do I need to speak Japanese?

No, but the more Japanese you speak, the easier finding a programming job in Japan will be. This may sound obvious, but it's profoundly true in my experience. The number of software development opportunities available to you will correlate directly to your Japanese level. As your skills improve, doors will open. However, this doesn't mean you're totally sunk if you don't speak any Japanese. It just means that you'll need to compensate by being stronger in another area.

For example, the stronger your technical skills, the more acceptable it will be for you to not speak Japanese. In fact if your Japanese skills are non-existent and you want to move to Japan and work as a programmer ASAP, then it might make more sense to drill Leetcode and brush up on your technical interviewing skills than to try and learn Japanese. You can also work on improving your communication skills and ability to sell yourself, as these will also have a direct impact on your performance in technical interviews with Japanese companies.

Pro tip: No one in Japan cares about the JLPT.

Well, some other foreigners might care a little bit. But very few Japanese companies even know what the JLPT is, let alone what the different levels actually mean. And if it matters, yes I'm speaking from experience here (I have N1). What I found was that the higher levels might help you get from the resume stage to the interview stage at certain companies, but it's literally useless after that (not that you'd need to rely on a resume screening anyway since you got a referral, right?). The JLPT still has a lot of value as a way to measure your learning progress and keep you motivated, you just shouldn't expect companies to roll out the red carpet for you because you passed it.

The only thing that actually matters after the resume screening stage is your communication during the interviews themselves. At the end of the day, companies have requirements, and either you fulfill them or you don't. And when it comes to Japanese skills, this means you need to show one of two things to get hired: (1) enough Japanese skill to do the job or (2) enough passion that they're willing to trust that you'll learn. If a company requires Japanese and you can't show either of these, they won't hire you. So if I were you I'd focus on practical speaking skills and company research rather than test prep.

Do I need to move to Tokyo?

This really depends. I personally believe that being in Tokyo (as opposed to somewhere else in Japan) increases the chances of finding a fulfilling job as a development job by magnitudes. Which is not to say that there are no good jobs elsewhere. There are tech companies throughout Japan, it's just that the vast majority of foreigner-friendly ones are in Tokyo.

There are a handful of big companies with offices in places like Fukuoka (LINE, Mercari) but the number of programming jobs that provide the type of environment sought by most foreigners will be much smaller.

Outside of Tokyo, salaries will also usually be lower, even relative to the lower cost of living. There will be fewer events and the ones there are will have fewer foreigners and less English. Having said that, there are still foreign software developers working happily from places like Fukuoka and Osaka, and the number of progressive startups is continuing to increase and the situation outside Tokyo seems like it will continue to improve. Fukuoka recently introduced a special visa to encourage people to open startups there, and Kyoto has also become somewhat of a hot spot in the last couple of years.

So it's up to you. Being in Tokyo will make it a lot easier to progress in your career, but it's at least worth searching elsewhere for those who don't want to (or can't) move to here.

What about remote jobs at foreign companies

While it can be tricky to pull off, working remotely for a foreign company while living in Japan is a viable option for some people. This opens up an entire new set of companies, and is also worth looking into if you can get a visa that allows it and you don't mind the full-remote lifestyle. Keep in mind that while the number of companies allowing remote work is definitely on the rise, most companies still require remote workers to be in the same country as the rest of their team (or at least the same time zone).

Resources for remote work in Japan

It may be fairly rare, but I have heard of people working remotely from Japan, so here are a few resources for finding remote jobs for developers:

Remoteive.io
RemoteHub
Hacker News "Who's Hiring" threads (Google the one for the current month)
Github - remote-jobs
Github - awesome-remote-job
WeWorkRemotely

Japan's interview process for developers

I'm not sure there's much to say about the actual interview process for developer jobs here in japan. If you're applying to companies from abroad they'll typically do at least the first few interviews via video chat, in fact flying candidates out to Japan for interviews is still relatively rare (with a few exceptions). Interview dress code depends on the company just like in the US and most other places. Banks will typically expect you to wear a suit whereas startups won't care what you're wearing.

Hardcore algorithm and data structure-focused interviews are rare, although programming challenges and take-home tests are common. Every company will ask you why you want to work there so you should have a good reason lined up. Many will also ask you specific questions about their product or service so you should actually use it beforehand. Most companies will have 3-4 rounds of interviews before making an offer, and the vast majority will ask you your current and expected salary pretty early in the process, so have your negotiation strategy ready (I'm a proponent of the Patio11 method personally, but that's a whole topic on its own).

Lastly: Try to stay realistic

Pretty much any semi-skilled, English-speaking software engineer who wants a job in Japan could probably find one if they just search. But foreigners should be careful when looking for a job in Japan, especially in the software industry. It's crucial that you do your own research and find a company that you can genuinely see yourself working for.

A lot of people dream about living in Japan, and some of them get so focused on that dream that they forget to do their due diligence and end up in jobs they don't really want. Working in Japan can be an amazing experience, but the novelty of being here will wear off, and when it does you need to make sure you're in an environment where you'll be okay with that. Being in Japan doesn't remove the need to keep moving forward in your career and learning new skills.

We've all heard the horror stories from engineers who moved to Japan and had bad experiences at tech companies here. The truth is that if you're not careful, it's easy to end up in a poor environment as a programmer here. And this is especially true if you accept an offer from a company just because it's in Japan. As someone who has spent my entire career as an engineer in Japan, the job landscape here for foreign developers has never been better, but you still need to be discerning.

There are still a huge number of companies out there that wouldn't be a good fit for the majority of English speakers, yet may be willing to hire them anyway. So if you choose a company because you're desperate, or move here as an escape, there's a good chance you'll end up at one of them. And then you'll be the next foreigner telling horror stories about Japan's IT industry.

Knowledge is power when it comes to working in IT in Japan. If you do your research and don't compromise until you find somewhere you can thrive, you'll likely have an amazing time in Japan. On the other hand, if you exhaust all of the progressive, foreigner-friendly companies and still can't find a position, consider putting your move to Japan off and spending some time to improve your Japanese or your tech skills. Japan's not going anywhere, and if you really want to end up here, you will.

I think the best litmus test when deciding whether to accept a tech job in Japan is this: Would you be genuinely excited about this job even if it weren't in Japan?

If the answer is yes, then go for it! That's what I did, and I've never regretted it a day in my life.

DEV Community: Eric Turner

日本で働くソフトウェアエンジニアの給与：東京で働く外人エンジニアによる究極のガイド

序文

目次

日本のIT専門職の平均給与

日本で外国人として働くということ

日本のIT業界はとてもユニークです

過去行われた、外国人ソフトウェアエンジニアの年収調査について

日本で外国人ソフトウェアエンジニアとしていくら稼ぐことができますか？

日本で働く外国人エンジニアの給与

会社の公式採用ページ

Findy（ファインディ）

転職ドラフト

OpenWork（オープンワーク）

TokyoDev（トーキョーデブ）

Stackoverflow Jobs（スタックオーバーフロー ジョブズ）

Levels.fyi

MP Digital Tech

Forkwell Jobs（フォークウェル ジョブズ）

個人によるブログ

Glassdoor（グラスドア）

Jobtalk（ジョブトーク）

カイシャの評判

日本で働くエンジニアの給与は上昇傾向にあります

伝統的な日本企業にも変化が訪れています

すべてのIT企業が高待遇なわけではありません

いい会社で働くためには、まず自分自身で日本のIT企業を研究することが大事です

結論：外国人ソフトウェアエンジニアが日本で働くことは、「先進的な企業」であれば、給与面から考えても、良い選択肢です

How to find the salary range for any tech job

Company Career pages

Salary data aggregation sites

The recruiter copy and paste trick

Going deeper

Reddit

Hacker News

Twitter advanced search

Blog posts from employees

Using heuristics

LinkedIn trends

Quick LinkedIn tip

Recruiters

When all else fails

How NOT to reach out

Try this instead

Best Tech Meetups in Tokyo

Contents

Women in Tech

Software Developer Salaries in Japan: The Ultimate Guide

Table of Contents

Average salary for IT jobs in Japan

The problem with averages

Working in Japan as a foreigner

Japan's IT industry is... unique

Prior Work

How much can you earn as a foreign software developer in Japan?

Salary resources for foreigners in Japan

Official company career pages

Findy

Job Draft

OpenWork

TokyoDev

Stackoverflow Jobs

Levels.fyi

MP Digital Tech

Forkwell Jobs

Blog posts

Glassdoor

Jobtalk

EN-Hyouban

Salaries are trending up

What about "domestic" companies?

Not all companies are created equal

Do your own research

Bottom line: Japan is a valid option

How to find a job as a software developer in Japan

What I won't cover

First things first: Educate yourself

Foreigner-friendly resources for developers

General-purpose Japan job boards

Utilizing developer events

Stackoverflow Jobs（スタックオーバーフロー　ジョブズ）

Forkwell Jobs（フォークウェル　ジョブズ）