Ask Me Anything: Working as an Associate in Japan, Tokyo
I am just wondering if anyone is interested in learning about the work culture, financial experience, and lifestyle in Tokyo, Japan. You can also reach me in Japanese as well.
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Thanks for doing this. A couple of questions:
Is it possible to work in Japan without knowing/speaking Japanese fluently?
How do working hours/pay/culture differ than investment bank counterparts in the US?
Pros/cons of working in Japan.
Is it easy to move to different offices?
1) Is it possible to work in Japan without knowing/speaking Japanese fluently?
Yes, but financial industry wise, your option will be limited. Departments that do not require Japanese language skills are primarily Quant, IT, Communication, and Legal.
Other departments require JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) N1/N2 level depending on the demographic of client.
2) How do working hours/pay/culture differ than investment bank counterparts in the US?
(1) Hours: Regardless of Front/Middle/Back Office, you will be expected to stay longer, not because the boss tells you to, because execution, transaction, or communication could happen after 5pm. All bilingual(JP-EN) positions are associated in dealing with global branches, so you will be expected to stay longer for a global meeting due to the time zone difference. However, the recent trend is that companies are reducing OT to promote work-life balance. It’s actually getting better these days.
Pay: Expect 10 - 20% cut from the US counterpart with a similar position. However, there are perks like housing allowance, stable price level, and transportation allowance.
Culture: It varies depending on the department and company, but generally Japanese companies are conservative and hesitant to challenge. Points are earned as regards to not making mistakes rather providing fresh new ideas.
3) Pros/cons of working in Japan. Pros: (1) Moving between departments is actually pretty easy. BO to FO is common in comparison to the financial companies in NA.
(2) Job security is tight. Japanese companies hardly lay off people unless if you screw something up bad.
Cons:
(1) Pay structure is same regardless of FO/MO/BO so people actually prefer to stay MO/BO instead of FO due to high stress environment at FO. Pay is also weak compared to US.
(2) High frequency of meaningless relocation are main problems of working for Japanese companies. Companies can just randomly ask you to move to the branch in China next week.
4) Is it easy to move to different offices? Yes. Many numbers of bilingual employee experience the relocation of office at least once as an expat.
Also to add as a perk, Corporate Sponsorship MBA program is an usual practice in Japan. Most famous companies in Japan (like Nikkei 225 companies) offer the perk to promote employees to have 2 years of foreign school experience. Just to remind that you have to sign a contract to stay for the company at least for 5 years after graduation. (at least for my company)
What are your thoughts on doing a short-term (1-2 years) stint in Japan just for the experience?
Not a good idea. Japanese companies prefer candidates that are willing to stay and commit for a very long period of time unless if you are working for contractual basis based on the IT project.
Just to add, becoming a full-time from a contract position is nearly impossible in Japan. Therefore, it is preferable to just aim for a full time position not mentioning leaving in 1-2 years.
What is the culture outside of work like; thinking in terms of social settings like afterwork drinks, company parties etc.?
What is the culture outside of work like; thinking in terms of social settings like afterwork drinks, company parties etc.?
1) Afterwork drinks: This happens so frequently. You will be expected to have at least one afterwork drink once in every week.
2) Company parties: Japanese companies have corporate-sponsored varsity sports club to promote the unity of organization. My company has American Football/Baseball/Golfing/Basketball etc. varsity teams.
Otherwise, golfing with coworkers are common.
Hi and thank you so much for the AMA.
I am currently a BB analyst in London; while at school I spent 1+ year in China doing double degree at a top school in BJ/SH and would like to come back to Asia in the future, with Japan topping my list by far.
I believe my China experience will be quite useless in order to pivot to Japan, but any advice would be golden!
Thanks!
Thank you very much for your useful information. I just want to hear how you got the position in Japan.
How is WLB? I know even regular Japanese work culture is insane, so how is IB?
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