I'm wondering: How are you all pulling it off? Where are you working?
From what I've seen, salaries and working conditions at Japanese software firms seem generally on the weaker side.
Obvious options seem to be:
1. Work for Google Japan, or some other major Western company with a Japanese engineering presence 2. Work for a Japanese game company 3. Become an entrepreneur 4. Work at a Japanese company (Rakuten, etc)
What are most of you doing and do you have any advice here? I'm wondering how the crowd here distributes between these four options (or possibly others).
I'd love to return to Japan, and if possible I'd love to work outside of the Tokyo region (so, likely remote if necessary).
I can speak Japanese and would prefer a Japanese language working environment, but am flexible on that if need be. Thanks!
As for companies in Japan, there is a wide range. From very old fashioned businesses where programming is seen as simple grunt work to modern development shop that keep up with industry best practices. If you don't speak Japanese you will limit your options, but filtering for English speaking workplaces will probably leave you with a smaller number of better companies.
Start off by taking a look at the English speaking expat focused job sites [1][2].
If you have a university degree and can get hired by a company in Japan the visa situation is very straightforward. No lotteries or waiting lists, just a few forms.
You would be right in saying that salaries tend to be lower. This article[3] from JapanDev is a good starting point. Cost of living is also lower, depending on your lifestyle. Inflation is starting to catch up with Japan so it's not clear what things will be like in the future.
[3] https://japan-dev.com/blog/software-developer-salaries-in-ja...