This note collects what to ask and what to watch when interviewing at a Japanese owned IT company. A short self introduction outline covers name, years of experience, tech interests, and the digital nomad goal. The question list runs in three stages. Before meeting HR, ask who the interviewers are and how many steps the process has. Ask HR about company ownership, contract type, insurance, salary reviews, and office rules. Ask the team leader about the tech stack, project scope, meeting style, and promotion path. The closing notes record cultural signals, such as loyalty, rule following, and the risk of saying you only want to learn after joining.
Self-Introduction
- Full name
- Years of experience
- Tech interests
- Goal (digital nomad)
Questions to Ask the Company
Before Speaking with HR
- Who will I be interviewed by?
- How many interview steps are there?
- Who are the interviewers?
Ask HR
- Is the company 100% Japanese-owned?
- Does the company have testers?
- Is insurance paid on the full salary or on the regional base salary?
- Is the contract fixed-term or indefinite?
- How often are salaries reviewed?
- Is the director MITANI MASASHI often in the office?
- How many team-building events per year? Is attendance mandatory?
- Does the company have a fridge or food available?
- Are there any office rules?
- Does the company wifi block Twitter or YouTube?
- Is there a flag salute or a slogan to recite?
- Are there any binding commitments when signing the contract?
Ask the Leader
- Does the project involve microservices, caching, query optimization, or a design system?
- What is the company's main tech stack? Does it depend on the client?
- What is the scope of the project? Does it include DevOps or testing?
- Does the leader code with the team or only manage the project?
- Will I work directly with Japanese bosses or Japanese clients? Could that happen in the future?
- Are multiple projects run in parallel over a period of time?
- Are meetings frequent? Does the company follow Scrum Agile or Waterfall?
- Can you give some feedback on my CV?
- What does the promotion path look like?
- Does the job actually need Laravel, PHP, and VueJS?
- What do the workshops usually cover?
Notes
- Interviewer laughs a lot ⇒ a bad sign
- Japanese companies value people who stay loyal to the company
- Japanese people like those who follow rules and processes
- Japanese companies look for people with potential (little experience or fresh graduates) to train
- Experience from Japanese-company interviews: candidates who say they want to learn more about their specialty after joining fail
See also: Job Applications · Salary Negotiation