Finding work without speaking Japanese

A major source of anxiety for many of you: will the language barrier be an obstacle to finding work in Japan?

Japanese: opens many doors, but not an absolute requirement

Not speaking Japanese will limit your options because for a large proportion of jobs, a minimum level of Japanese corresponding to JLPT N3 is generally expected.

However, even though it is more difficult to find casual work without speaking Japanese, it is by no means impossible. Waiter, babysitter, language teacher, IT, recruitment — many of the jobs most commonly chosen by foreign nationals require little or no Japanese.

Basic Japanese: well worth the effort

It can still be worthwhile to invest some time and money in learning the basics of Japanese. Beginner-level spoken Japanese is very feasible to learn.

It is also tremendously helpful to memorize the hiragana and katakana syllabaries. For casual jobs, the most important thing is being able to communicate with customers and colleagues, not reading kanji (Chinese characters).

English is essential

That said, be careful: to compensate for a lack of Japanese, it is strongly recommended to have at least a good command of English if it is not your native language. If you are comfortable in neither Japanese nor English, then things will be very difficult for you.

Other Asian languages

If you speak a language such as Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese or Thai, this is a major advantage. With the boom in tourism, shops and hotels are increasingly recruiting staff who can communicate in the languages of their diverse clientele.