Software Developer in Japan Myths: Work-Life Balance

A lot of foreign developers I have talked to abroad or visiting Japan have told me “Yeah, I would love to work in Japan, but…“ and then some kind of stereotype about Japan whether it’s that the salary is too low or that they’ve heard horror stories of the Japanese work environment. I want more foreigners and more developers in Japan and I think some of the stereotypes around Japan have been greatly over-exaggerated so in this series I wanted to take the time to address a couple of the concerns people have about working in Japan as a software engineer. As a disclaimer, the things I will be talking about will be specific to engineers in Japan, not necessarily about other professions.

So let’s get to it with our first and biggest myth.

“I would love to live in Japan but…”

I will have no work-life balance

Japan is infamous for having a brutal, traditional work culture where people work 80 hour weeks (or more) and can’t leave until the boss leaves. They even have a word for “death by overwork” (過労死, karoushi). Now this work culture still definitely exists in certain companies and in certain professions. But lucky for you, you are a developer. And currently, technology companies and engineering departments are leading the way in Japan in terms of adopting modern Silicon Valley thinking regarding work-life balance and having an employee-first mindset. Add this to the fact that Japan is in dire, dire need of engineers, a lot of companies have no choice but to accommodate the desires of engineers since it’s the only way to attract and maintain talent.

Here’s the thing:

Working hours are actually good at a lot of companies

I personally have not heard of any foreign engineers complaining about being forced to work too many hours. Virtually all engineering departments have an 8 hour workday policy and there generally isn’t that much pressure to stay longer than that (unless your system crashes at the end of the day or some other extenuating circumstances). I would say a higher proportion of companies in Japan might have a culture of working more hours in general in comparison to other parts of the world, but it is really not by much (maybe like 45–50 hours but never anything absurd like 80 hours) and it is not because they are forced to. I actually even heard one company say they wanted to hire more foreign engineers that would leave early so other employees would feel more comfortable leaving early too (yes, we can help the cause!).

Basically, if a company has expectations that you work absurd hours, just leave. There are so many companies here that don’t have that expectation and trust me you’ll be able to find a job with more reasonable hours.

Long story short don’t worry, you’ll still have time to write that novel you’ve been working on for the past 4 years.

Most companies offer flexible work hours

Are there some companies that still have rigid, set work hours? Yes. But the majority of engineering departments offer at least some level of flexible work time.I have worked at both startups and large companies in Japan and I’ve always had fully flexible work hours; one was a really small startup and the other is my current company which is part of a humongous Japanese organization. And it’s not one of those, “Well they say the hours are flexible, but everyone gets there at 9am anyways” kind of deals. I strolled into my office at 2:15pm today and no one batted an eye since I tend to like to start later and end later (it’s also not just me, other people get there even later than that). I’m not saying fully flexible hours is super-common but having at least some level of flexibility in terms of your work hours is common (like only having to be in the office between 12pm and 4pm) and it’s becoming more and more common.

It’s really great because if you have a dentist’s appointment in the middle of the day you don’t have to take a day off of work just for that.

More and more companies are offering the ability to work remotely

Full remote is still rare in Japan (it’s not necessarily the norm in other parts of the world either) but at least working partially remote a day or two a week is becoming more and more common. I would say most companies would not have a problem if you work remotely on a day here and there as needed. Having this ability though lets you skip your commute and gives you more free time during the day. I still think Japan has a ways to go in terms of broader adoption of more flexible work-location policies but it is changing and it is not uncommon.

You actually get more vacation than you would think

Ok probably not as much as some countries in Europe but generally at least as many in the US.

The standard in Japan is to give everyone 10 days of holiday when you first join…which sounds like so few… but wait! Most companies also give 3 summer holidays which can be used freely anytime during the summer months and a couple extra days off around New Years. Additionally, Japan has 16 national holidays of which probably 14–15 will fall on a day resulting in a day off of work. This means that probably on average you get about 29 days off per year (not including weekends obviously).

I think most people hear the 10 days of paid holiday and get scared without actually considering all the other days you get off.

You’ll have a life outside of work and it’s only getting better

Year over year, Japanese companies as a whole (not just tech companies) have realized that having happy employees means having productive employees and have been taking proactive measures to start shedding the image of Japanese companies being full of overworked drones. On top of this, the government has also actively been trying to promote more work-life balance in the workplace by introducing more mandatory national holidays (Mountain Day was introduced in 2016) and they also have been encouraging Premium Friday, which is the last Friday of every month where workers are supposed to go home early (granted many companies still do not abide by this, but it is still a step in the right direction).

Japan already has a lot of companies that have wholeheartedly adopted measures to encourage work-life balance and every day there are more and more.

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