Information for people who want to work as an IT engineer in Japan. Background surrounding the IT industry in Japan, Salary level, promising technology and required Japanese language skills.

1. IT TRENDS IN JAPAN
MAINLY FOR ASIAN IT ENGINEERS
IT
MAR. 2019
Ayako Ishimaru, Setten LLC. CEO

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Digitization : analog -> digital
↓
Digitalization : about business processes
↓
Digital Transformation (DX) : about social system
5 years ago
2-3 years ago
Now
IT trend in Japan

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©Ayako Ishimaru
ü AI
ü IoT
ü Block chain Technology
(mainly about Fintech)
ü Electronic payment
(Fintech)
ü Big data analytics (5G)
ü Autonomous driving
ü Sharing economy
ü Future work & HRM
(“Hatarakikata Kaikaku”)
Buzz Words
IT trend in Japan

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Background -> Declining birthrate, Aging population in Japan
IT trend in Japan
Source 3 777 2 0 2 /3 0 . 2 3

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Source / . . / 0 / 0. 0. /
IT trend in Japan
Hunting
Farming
IndustryInformation
New Society

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Japan “Society 5.0” Concept movie
IT trend in Japan
/ . .- - . / - -

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Source https://www.meti.go.jp/press/2017/08/20170821001/20170821001-1.pdf
Survey report on IT industry salaries in Japan, APR.2017
IT trend in Japan

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©Ayako Ishimaru
IT trend in Japan
Average salary about IT job /versus all industries
Source https://www.meti.go.jp/press/2017/08/20170821001/20170821001-1.pdf

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Source https://www.meti.go.jp/press/2017/08/20170821001/20170821001-1.pdf
IT trend in Japan
Average salary by IT job category and IT skill standard level
Average salary IT skill standard level
Internet companies
-> Next Page

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©Ayako Ishimaru
IT Consultant 9.285 million yen
Project manager 8.915 million yen
Web sProducer & Director 7.929 million yen
Marketing & Sales 7.833 million yen
IT Architect (Infrastructure Engineer) 7.782 million yen
DB/NW/Security Specialists 7.582 million yen
IT trend in Japan
Average salary by IT job category and IT skill standard level
Source https://www.meti.go.jp/press/2017/08/20170821001/20170821001-1.pdf

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Source https://www.meti.go.jp/press/2017/08/20170821001/20170821001-1.pdf
IT trend in Japan
Average salary by IT skill standard level

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Promising IT engineer in Japan
Major Japanese IT companies are rapidly reducing their workforce and
corporate downsizing. Mainly in the hardware and indirect departments.
Because of Cloudization and the rise of Korean and Chinese companies.
• TOSHIBA 7000 corporate downsizing.
• FUJITSU 3000 corporate downsizing.
> moreover, It seems approaching or redeployment or early retirement to 45 years of age or
older of all employees.
• NEC 3000 corporate downsizing.
• HITACHI consolidation and realignment about associated company for 40% reduction
Source 2019/2/22 XTECH 2019/3/18

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Source https://www.meti.go.jp/press/2017/08/20170821001/20170821001-1.pdf
IT trend in Japan
Japan/US Salary level comparison, JUN.2016

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Less opportunity of System Integration
Source 2010 2017
http://www.soumu.go.jp/johotsusintokei/statistics/statistics07c.html
Sales Amount of Japanese IT Industries (2009 2016) Number of Japanese IT Company (2009 2016)
Promising IT engineer in Japan

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Source doda 2019 3 11 2019 2
https://doda.jp/guide/kyujin_bairitsu/ 2019/3/20
On the other hand, The IT engineering job’s opening-to-application ratio is high
Promising IT engineer in Japan

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Shortage of IT human resources continue to grow
Source IPA IT 2018
Promising IT engineer in Japan

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Most Upper
Upper Process
Lower Process
Business Company (Buyer)
Direct contract
by crowdsourcing services
Entrepreneur
Ex. ”Bridge SE”
Entrepreneur
own business
Promising IT engineer in Japan
Freelancer
Freelancer
Independent
IT Engineer
(Specialist)
Consulting Management
-> must have Japanese ability
Professional engineer
-> no need Japanese ability

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Promising IT engineer in Japan
About Japanese ability
Result of searching IT engineer job for certain job site in Japan :
JLPT N1 -> 500 items
JLPT N2 -> 438 items
JLPT N3 -> 72 items
JLPT N4 -> 2 items
N4-A: Java engineer
- Having experience in web application development using
core Java, JSP and Servlets
- Has knowledge on any backend RDBMS
- Having working experience of 4+ years and perform the
role of Senior Developer
- Should have working experience with Japanese customer
- Understand Japanese working culture and Japanese
customer
- Japanese level (able to read, speak and write) N3 or N4
Certified
- English level: fluent (TOEIC 865-)
- Annual salary will be 9 million yen around
N4-B: AI engineer
- Knowledge of image recognition and deep learning
- 2+ years of experience in developing object recognition
using machine learning
- 2+ years of experience in image processing development
- Business English level (TOEIC 735-860)
- Japanese N4 or higher
- Annual salary 5 ~ 8 million yen, Raises: once a year
Source) https://xn--pckua2a7gp15o89zb.com/

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Python
AI, Machine learning
Data analytics (also recommended R)
Block chain (Ethereum etc)
Web (JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, Web Design …)
Cloud (AWS …)
ERP (SAP …)
Promising IT engineer in Japan

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Source IPA IT 2016
Talented engineers take a high salary as a free-lance
References
Freelance
Employee
IT Salary between Freelance and Employee (by Age)
LOW <-- --> HIGH

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Source 2019/3/20
Average annual income of startup companies is on the rise,
Income of people switching to startups is 1 million yen higher than public listed companies.
The demand for IT engineers data analysis can be, such as EC and AI is high.
Promising IT engineer in Japan

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Source 2018
Promising IT engineer in Japan
Crowdsourcing services in Japan

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Source IPA IT 2018
Qualitative capability required for IT engineers
Promising IT engineer in Japan
High technology General business
knowledge
Spontaneous
action
Meet customer
requirements
Spontaneous
action
High technologyPerspective viewGeneral business
knowledge
Discover the
problem and
Design

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Source IT
Asia IT human resource development, For mutual authentication with foreign information technology engineers test
https://www.ipa.go.jp/jinzai/asia/kaigai/001.html
ITPEC ( IT Professionals Examination Council )
• IPA Information-technology Promotion Agency, Japan introduce “
Information processing engineer examination”, national system of Japan to
the Asian countries.
• Basic Information Engineer Examination ( ), IT passport
exam (IT ) is carried out twice a year. (APR. & OCT.)
• After OCT. 2011 Applied Information Engineer Examination (
) is carried out once a year.
• After 2006, seven countries: Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar,
Malaysia, Mongolia, Bangladesh established a council “ITPEC (IT
Professionals Examination Council)” and examinations are conducted.
References

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Source https://www.ipa.go.jp/jinzai/itss/download_V3_2011.html
References
IT skill standard (ITSS)

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©Ayako Ishimaru Source https://www.ipa.go.jp/jinzai/itss/itssplus.html#section12
References
IT skill standard Plus (ITSS+)
ITSS+は、第4次産業革命に向けて求められる新たな領域の 学び直し の指針

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©Ayako Ishimaru
Source
https://www.bizreach.co.jp/pressroom/pressrelease/2018/0807.html
References
Salary rank by programming language in Japan 2018