Job Hunting in Japan as a PhD Student — Deciding to Leave Research
Getting a job in Japan as a foreign PhD graduate wasn’t easy. I promised on my About page that I would one day write about that whole process in detail — this series is that story. It starts not with an application form, but with a decision.
Why Industry, Not a Postdoc
Contrary to what many people assume, a postdoc is not “the natural next step” after a PhD — it’s just one option. Broadly, a fresh doctor chooses between staying academic — a researcher at a university or a research institute — or going to industry, typically as an R&D researcher in a company. Choosing between them is really choosing what kind of life you want next.
For me, the decision to leave research came before job hunting even began.
Life as a funded PhD researcher was exhausting in a very specific way: research every day, with no real break. That pressure had a concrete source — my program required three international journal papers before graduation (or two published and one submitted). By the middle of 2024, I had only two published — my first-author paper from the Master’s didn’t count — and the third paper’s results were still in progress, with an optical setup that kept demanding modification and re-alignment. On top of that, there was no extra pay for the extra hours. By the final year, I was sleeping 4 to 6 hours a night. (I’ve written about that period in the doctoral defense story.)
So industry was never a glamorous dream for me. It was a deliberate retreat — chosen with one hope: to get time back for myself and heal from a dark PhD. If you’re reading this while quietly wondering whether it’s “allowed” to leave research after a doctorate: it is. Sometimes it’s the healthiest option on the table.
When I Started: November 2023
I started job hunting in November 2023, during my second year of the PhD. This wasn’t random timing — the Japanese hiring system practically demands that you start a year or more before graduation. Company information sessions, applications, interviews, and the naitei (job offer) all happen far ahead of your actual start date.
If you take one date away from this article: D2, not D3. Starting in your final year means job hunting while writing your dissertation — a combination I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
The Job Fair That Wasn’t for Me
My first job fair was in December 2023 — a career fair for international students, held in Hamamatsuchō. It sounded perfect on paper. I won’t call it useless — for some people it may be genuinely worthwhile — but it wasn’t for my profile.
Most of the positions on offer were 特定技能 (Specified Skilled Worker) roles and service jobs such as translation, and a good share of the booths belonged to recruitment agencies (Ninja, Sojitz, and the like) rather than the hiring companies themselves. Nothing wrong with any of that — but there was almost nothing aimed at someone finishing a doctorate.
The lesson: before spending a day traveling to a fair, check which job types the exhibitors are actually recruiting for, and whether you’ll meet companies or middlemen.
The Fairs That Actually Worked
Two kinds of fairs genuinely helped:
- My university’s own career fair — the University of Tsukuba’s fair brought companies that actually expected to meet graduate students.
- The fairs held by Mynavi and Rikunabi — Japan’s major job-hunting platforms run their own events, and these were worth attending.
Beyond the fairs, the platforms themselves earned their place: I used Mynavi and Rikunabi to apply for 会社説明会 (company information sessions), and that turned out to be one of the most useful parts of my entire early job hunt. The fairs and the online platforms complement each other — sometimes talking directly to a person from the company tells you more than any website can.
My Strategy: Every Route at Once
I didn’t pick one elegant route. I took all of them at the same time:
- the 新卒 (new-graduate) track
- scout services
- agents
- the university career center
No pride about channels. My goal was simple: get a job — no matter the pay. That mindset gets criticized sometimes, but I’ll explain in a later article why, for me, it was the right call.
Coming Next
The first real battle wasn’t an interview. It was a single sheet of paper: the rirekisho. In the next article, I’ll share how I prepared my Japanese application documents — and why ChatGPT alone wasn’t enough.