TokyoDev

It sucks to hear you've been getting one year renewals. Unfortunately when it comes to bureaucracy here in Japan, things are on a case by case basis, so its hard to make any sweeping judgements. As a counterpoint, I came here on a working holiday visa (6 months) and found a job at a Japanese startup. When I renewed my visa, I switched to an Engineer visa and got a three year one.

Mid-way through that three year visa, I quit, and created a consulting company. After consulting with an immigration lawyer, I was told it was "probably ok" to be the director of a company on an Engineering visa, so long as the primary thing I was doing was Engineering related. When my three year visa expired, I successfully had my own company sponsor it, and got another three year one, followed by a five year one. Last year, I successfully got PR here.

Its hard to say why you're continually getting one year visa renewals. If you're not already doing it, it could be worth having an immigration lawyer submit the application on your behalf. Because it was a cheap business expense (~80,000 JPY) compared to the cost of screwing something minor up, that's what I did for every renewal I did under my own company (for PR, I did it myself though).

I'd argue that Japan has a relatively friendly policy for skilled immigrants. To get a job as a developer here, all you need is a company that's willing to sponsor your visa and a university degree in a related field. As far as I'm aware, there's no onus on the…

This is pretty cool, thanks for sharing!

It's reminiscent in some ways of Slashdot of yore, which would include a slug describing the submission. One of my more persistent issues with HN is that the 80-character-limit title gives parlous thin information on whether or not a submission is worth reading. Additional microcontent, even just another 120-240 characters (10--20 words or so) often helps greatly, and your project demonstrates this.

Auto-selecting slugs is of course itself somewhat fraught, one example on the front page of YourHackerNews as I write has a slug beginning "This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution...", which is probably not what you'd prefer: <https://www.tokyodev.com/articles/the-english-paradox-four-decades-of-life-and-language-in-japan>.

I'm not a fan of animations as noted in another comment. The "Passport Photos" story has a hero image which animates: <https://maxsiedentopf.com/passport-photos/>. One option would be to permit removing an item entirely from the layout. Hitting "X" on a story does not presently do this. HN itself has "hide" feature accomplishing this.

In general, I would strongly caution against auto-including images from sites, particularly as those can be pathways to future abuse, including the appropriation of the image-hosting site by unsavoury content. I'd run across an example from an earlier HN submission a few…

I think the options you have listed are pretty accurate. If you are a working for a large multi-national then getting an internal transfer to the Japan office is probably the best way to move to Japan.

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.

[1] https://japan-dev.com/

[2] https://www.tokyodev.com/

[3] https://japan-dev.com/blog/software-developer-salaries-in-japan-the-ultimate-guide

I got my current employment being introduced by someone inside. I found my previous company via job website, here are two that I find most helpful:

https://japan-dev.com/jobs

https://www.tokyodev.com/

Obtaining residence: my current visa is (quite long):
"Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/ Int'l Services" (技術・人文知識・国際業務)
I got this visa sponsored by my first company, which is the most common thing for foreigners. Mine is 5 years, some are just a year long. It all depends on the company and how they file your paperwork.

I don't have permanent residency. I could switch over to spousal visa, but since I still have a lot of time left with my visa, I'm not going to bother the bureaucracy. Also, getting residency isn't as easy; it's like a point system here: how long you've been working, if you went to school in Japan, JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test), etc.

Guarantor is only necessary for renting apartments (from my experience).

Dev here working in Japan for few years, I don't think the main reason software salaries are low in Japan is financial, but social/cultural. Software has traditionally not seen as valued as hardware, it was just an "extra" added on top of the hardware part. Basically never went through the startup revolution of the 2000s in US.

Also Japan is still very hierarchical, so old ideas change much slower. I would say the combination of these 2 are the main reason software is not as valued as in e.g. America, but there are many others like lack of international competitiveness due to the low English skill, ZIRP, and the ones you note seem totally valid ofc.

This is a very interesting recent report about salaries in Japan (e.g. foreigners, and/or foreigner companies get paid/pay a lot more):

https://www.tokyodev.com/articles/software-developer-salaries-in-japan

Exceptions abound, but in general software development jobs even at smaller studios pay a lot less in Japan than in the US.

In Tokyo you'd expect to make around 400,000 yen a month, which is about $3500 a month. That sounds nice until you see that a 400sqft apartment with no bedrooms can cost 100,000 yen or more. A one bedroom can hit 150,000 - 200,000 yen in a nice area with convenient access to train stations.

Edit: the website linked has good statistics on this:

https://www.tokyodev.com/2020/01/07/japan-developer-salaries/

Notably, "this 2018 survey conducted by the Japanese government found that the average "System Engineer" (a roughly analogous position to a software developer) in Japan had 12 years of experience and an annual compensation of ¥5.5 million."