Hi there,

Golden Week ends this Wednesday (May 6th).

Which means right now, this week, Japan's hiring market is coming back online. Hiring managers are clearing inboxes. HR teams are reopening pipelines that went quiet on April 29. Decisions that stalled are getting unstuck.

The window from now through late May is the second most active hiring stretch of the year. Companies that didn't finish their spring headcount are moving to close it. Q2 budgets are confirmed. And because everyone is returning from the same break at the same time, the pace of activity compresses into a short burst.

This week's issue is about what to do with that window and what changed in the immigration calendar while Japan was on holiday.

Let's get into it.

The post-Golden Week window changes the calculus on a few visa and entry strategies. Here's what's worth acting on as the market reopens.

The moment engineering candidates have been waiting for:

Japan's tech labour shortage didn't pause for the holiday. The country is projected to be short 220,000 IT engineers by end of 2026, and companies that came into Golden Week with open technical roles are coming out of it under pressure to fill them. Backend, cloud, AI, security, and data engineering remain the clearest paths in for candidates without N2, companies in these categories are the most likely to drop language requirements and sponsor visas for the right hire.

If you've been preparing applications and waiting for the market to restart, this is it.

The new Specified Skilled Worker system, worth understanding before you apply:

Japan's government is launching a restructured Specified Skilled Worker programme in FY2026, covering 19 industrial fields including manufacturing, construction, agriculture, nursing care, and food processing. The major change: permits are now renewable on a 3-year cycle, replacing the old 5-year non-renewable structure. For workers targeting these sectors, that's a meaningful shift, it moves SSW Type 1 from a time-limited arrangement toward something closer to a long-term track.

One thing to check before applying: the food service sector hit its fiscal 2026 quota in April and is closed to new overseas applications until April 2027. All other categories, manufacturing, construction, nursing, agriculture, remain open and well below their respective limits.

Visa fees are now higher than they were a month ago:

A set of immigration fee increases took effect in April 2026. The practical numbers: status change applications are now ¥30,000–¥40,000 (up from ¥6,000). Permanent Residency applications are moving toward a ¥100,000 cap under the new fee structure. If you have any pending applications or renewals in your near-term timeline, factor these figures into your planning and don't assume the rates from last year still apply.

The fastest path to PR just got a bit clearer:

The Highly Skilled Professional visa remains the most direct route to accelerated PR in Japan, 3 years at 70 points, 1 year at 80+ points. Given the May surge in hiring activity, this is a good week to run your numbers if you haven't recently. A salary bump in a new offer can move your point total meaningfully. The HSP calculator takes about five minutes.

This free newsletter is for understanding how hiring and work in Japan actually function.

If you’ve started applying already, you’ve probably run into this:

Most jobs you find either require Japanese, are already filled, or you never hear back after applying. And it’s not always because you’re unqualified, a lot of those roles just aren’t meant for overseas candidates in the first place.

So I built something to make this easier.

It lets you search across company career pages directly and filter down to roles that actually fit your situation. You can focus on English-friendly positions, narrow by role or location, and set alerts so new jobs come to you instead of constantly checking.

It’s a much clearer way to see what’s actually available right now.

Check it out here.

Post-Golden Week is not a forgiving hiring window if you're underprepared. Companies return from the break trying to close the roles they couldn't fill in Q1. They move faster than usual and they do not always re-open the full process for candidates who weren't ready when the opportunity came.

Here's what it means to be ready this week.

Have your documents in send-ready condition right now.

Not "almost ready." Not "I'll clean up the CV before I apply." If a recruiter responds to an application today and asks for your resume and a brief cover letter, you should be able to send them in under 30 minutes. The candidates who win in the post-GW window are the ones who can respond the same day.

At minimum: updated reverse-chronological resume with quantified achievements, a cover letter template you can customise quickly for each role, and a 90-second self-introduction that covers your background and why you're interested in Japan.

Know what you want and be able to say it clearly.

Post-GW hiring conversations move fast, and hiring managers don't have patience for candidates who are still figuring out what they're looking for. Before you start sending applications, be clear on: the type of role, the company profile (international vs. domestic, startup vs. established), your timeline, and your salary range. Having clear answers to these in an interview signals readiness and it saves everyone time.

Follow up on anything that stalled before Golden Week.

If you had conversations, interviews, or introductions that went quiet because of the holiday, now is the right moment to re-engage. A concise, professional follow-up sent this week is completely normal and expected. Something like:

One sentence acknowledging the break. One sentence re-stating your interest. One sentence making it easy for them to reply. That's it.

🇯🇵 今日の面接フレーズ (Today's Interview Phrase)

ゴールデンウィーク明けで改めてご連絡させていただきます。 Gōruden Wīku ake de あらためて go-renraku sasete itadakimasu. "I'm following up with you as Golden Week comes to a close."

Use this in email or at the start of a call when re-engaging a recruiter or hiring manager after the holiday break. The phrase あらためて (あらためて, "once again, properly") signals intentionality — you're not just checking in out of habit, you're deliberately resuming the conversation.

Common mistake: Waiting until the second week of May to start applying, on the assumption that companies need a week to "get back to normal." They don't. HR teams and recruiters are often the first people back at their desks after the holiday. The applications that land in the first few days have less competition and a better chance of standing out.

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The May surge is real, but not all of it looks the same. Here's what's actually happening in Japan's job market as it comes back online.

The numbers behind the reopening:

Japan's job-to-applicant ratio sits at 1.18 — 118 open positions for every 100 jobseekers. Unemployment is at 2.5–2.6%, near historic lows. The foreign workforce passed 2 million people for the first time in 2025 and continues to grow. The structural labour shortage isn't going anywhere, and it hits hardest in the sectors that are growing fastest.

The sectors moving fastest right now:

Tech remains the highest-urgency hire category in Japan, but the post-GW surge also runs hot in construction (where multiple large infrastructure projects are actively staffed), nursing care and elder care (where demand is structural and ongoing), and logistics. For foreign candidates, tech is where the language barrier is lowest and the salary ceiling is highest. For candidates with N2 or above, the other sectors are worth monitoring as the SSW programme expands.

International companies vs. traditional companies, the timing gap:

If you're targeting international tech companies, foreign-affiliated firms, or startups, Golden Week had minimal effect on their pipelines and the "surge" framing applies less directly. These companies hire on a rolling basis year-round, and many were actively screening candidates throughout the break. The sense of urgency is still real, you want to be visible and responsive, but you're not competing against a compressed window the way you are at a traditional Japanese firm.

Traditional Japanese companies, by contrast, are where the post-GW restart is most pronounced. These companies cluster hiring decisions around specific calendar periods, and May 7 is a genuine re-entry point for many. The trade-off: traditional companies also tend to have stricter Japanese requirements and slower processes. Foreign candidates without N2 are better served staying focused on the international track regardless of the season.

Mid-career hiring is the story of 2026:

The traditional Japanese hiring model, batch hiring of new graduates, linear career paths, internal promotion, is under real pressure. Japan's labour shortage has forced more companies to open mid-career roles than at any point in the modern era. A 2025 government survey found that a majority of major employers were increasing mid-career recruitment. For foreign professionals, this is significant: mid-career roles are where your prior experience is an asset, not something to contextualise. They're also where Japanese ability is more negotiable, because companies are hiring for expertise they don't have internally, not assimilation into a fixed structure.

Two immigration updates became fully operational in April and are worth understanding clearly as you head into May.

1. The new Specified Skilled Worker system is now live.

Japan's restructured SSW programme took effect in FY2026. The updated system:

Practically: if you're targeting a non-tech sector in Japan, this programme just got meaningfully more flexible. The 3-year renewable structure removes the previous hard ceiling and makes it a viable path for workers who want to stay beyond the original limit.

Note again: food service (restaurants, catering) is closed to new overseas applications until April 2027 — the fiscal 2026 quota was reached in April.

2. Visa fees increased in April — here's the new picture.

The fee increases announced last year took effect this month. For reference:

Approximate figures — confirm with ISA for current rates.

The message from Japan's immigration policy is consistent: the country wants skilled international workers, and it's raising the cost structure to invest in processing capacity. For candidates planning applications in the next 6–12 months, budget accordingly.

The N2 requirement, now fully settled:

The Engineer / Humanities / International Services visa language requirement has been in effect since mid-April. The picture is clear: roles requiring Japanese communication require JLPT N2 proof. Roles at English-operating companies, with documented English-primary job duties, remain exempt. If you're applying to companies in the exempt category, make sure your job description and sponsoring company documentation reflects that clearly, it matters at the application stage.

Company: Money Forward, Inc.

HQ: Tokyo (Minato)

Category: Fintech / SaaS / Financial Services

English-Friendly: Yes — English is the engineering team's working language since September 2021

Hiring from Abroad: Yes — visa sponsorship, apply from overseas, full flex schedule

Money Forward is one of Japan's most widely used personal finance and business accounting platforms. Their products: Money Forward ME (personal finance) and Money Forward Cloud (SME accounting and payroll SaaS) are used by millions of individuals and hundreds of thousands of companies across Japan. They've been publicly listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange since 2017 and have been expanding both their enterprise product line and their international hiring pipeline.

In September 2021, Money Forward formally moved to English as the default working language for their engineering organization. That commitment has deepened over time — and today, engineering roles at Money Forward explicitly state "no Japanese required" in their listings, not as a caveat, but as a standing policy.

What makes them worth targeting now:

The post-Golden Week window is when Money Forward, like most companies that hire on a rolling basis, tends to move applications forward. Their engineering organisation doesn't pause the way traditional Japanese companies do, so applications sent in April may already be in motion. But May is when hiring decisions tend to get made.

What stands out:

Current open areas include backend engineering (Go, Scala), frontend, mobile (iOS/Android), data engineering, ML infrastructure, and security.

✏️ Application tip: Money Forward's interview process is technically rigorous, expect a coding assessment and system design round focused on financial systems at scale. They're particularly interested in candidates who've worked with high-reliability infrastructure or payment-adjacent systems. The English-language process means you'll be assessed more directly on technical substance and less on soft cultural signals than at a traditional Japanese company, lead with depth and concrete examples of what you've shipped.

🔗 Careers page

If your goal is to actually start applying, this is the approach I’d recommend.

Instead of relying on fixed job lists or jumping between job boards, you can search across company career pages directly and focus only on the roles that actually fit your situation. You can also set alerts, so new opportunities come to you instead of constantly checking.

You can start here

If you’re still figuring out your strategy or trying to understand how the market works, that’s what this newsletter is for.

I’ve recently started posting on youtube, check out last week’s video here (sorry for the low audio, will fix it in the next video!):