Hey there,

Golden Week starts this Wednesday.

If you're job hunting or waiting on anything visa-related, that matters more than most people realise. Government offices, immigration services, and most Japanese companies go quiet for up to 10 days. Hiring decisions that were close to the finish line get delayed. Visa applications that weren't submitted in time sit in a queue until May.

This week's issue is about using the next few days well and knowing what to do when everything restarts on May 7.

Let's get into it.

Golden Week 2026 runs from Wednesday April 29 through Wednesday May 6 (with May 6 a substitute public holiday). For most practical purposes, immigration offices, ward offices, government services, that's an effective 8-day shutdown.

Here's why that matters for anyone with something in motion:

If you have a pending visa application or CoE: The Immigration Services Agency closes during the national holidays. Applications submitted on or after April 29 will not be reviewed until May 7 at the earliest. And because Golden Week creates a significant backlog, processing queues spike in the weeks immediately before and after, submissions made in the final days before the holiday often wait longer than usual once review resumes.

If you have anything that was "almost ready to submit," this week is the window. Friday April 25 is the practical deadline to get anything into the system before the pause.

If your visa expires in May: If your residence card or current visa status expires in May, you should already have a renewal submitted. If not, do it today, not because Golden Week alone is the risk, but because adding holiday processing delays on top of a tight expiry date removes any buffer you had.

If you're applying from overseas: CoE (Certificate of Eligibility) applications filed through a Japanese sponsor are processed by the ISA domestically. Your sponsor's HR team almost certainly won't be actively monitoring or filing anything between April 29 and May 6. If you're waiting on them to initiate your CoE, follow up now and ask them to submit before the break.

The opportunity side of this: After every Golden Week, there's a notable surge in employer activity in the second week of May. Companies return from the break, reopen hiring pipelines that were paused, and move faster than normal to make up for lost time. Getting your applications in and your materials polished, before the pause means you're positioned to respond quickly when that window opens.

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.

Golden Week is one of the most underused stretches of the year for foreign job seekers. Because most companies pause, there's a temptation to pause with them. The candidates who get ahead don't.

Here's how to use the break well:

Research the companies you're targeting deeply. When companies are closed, their career pages are still live. Their press releases, product announcements, and news coverage are still indexed. Use the Golden Week pause to read beyond the job description: what has the company announced in the past 6 months? What is the product actually doing? Who are the leaders? What do Glassdoor reviews say about the interview process?

This level of company knowledge, brought up naturally in an interview, is what separates candidates who feel like they really want to work there from candidates who applied to everything.

Prepare the documents you've been putting off. Cover letter. Updated resume in reverse-chronological format with quantified achievements. A short "self-introduction" (自己紹介, jiko shōkai) for Japanese-style interviews — two minutes, structured: background, what you've built, why Japan, what you're looking for. Write it out, record yourself saying it, cut the filler.

Research what the market will look like when it reopens. May 7 onwards is typically one of the more active hiring periods of the year, companies return from the break, Q2 budgets are confirmed, and delayed decisions get made. This is especially true in tech, where hiring doesn't follow traditional Japanese seasonal patterns. Being ready to respond on May 7 means preparing now.

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

ゴールデンウィーク明けにご連絡いただけますか？ Gōruden Wīku ake ni go-renraku itadakemasu ka? "Could you reach out to me after Golden Week?"

Useful if you're mid-process and a recruiter or hiring manager is about to go on leave. It politely acknowledges the break while keeping the conversation open and implicitly signals you're not disappearing during the holiday either.

Common mistake: Going silent during Golden Week and only picking back up in mid-May. Recruiters and hiring managers check email sporadically during the break, a thoughtful follow-up sent before April 29 (not during the holiday) keeps you visible without being intrusive.

Most job search advice treats Japan's hiring market as linear. It isn't. It moves in waves, and Golden Week is one of the clearest inflection points in the annual cycle.

Here's what actually happens:

The Q1 surge winds down. Japan's traditional hiring calendar peaks in March and early April around the April 1 start date. By the time Golden Week arrives, most of the Q1 batch is closed or close to it. Companies that filled their spring headcount are done. The ones that didn't, either because the hire fell through, or the budget was approved late, carry those open roles into Q2.

Golden Week functions as a reset. When companies return in May, there's typically a reassessment: which roles are still open, which have changed scope, what do we actually need for the second half of the year? This creates a real opening for candidates who were close but didn't land a role in Q1. The post-Golden Week window from May 7 to late June is the second most active hiring stretch of the year.

International companies and startups hire differently. Unlike traditional Japanese companies, which cluster hiring around April and October, international tech companies, foreign-affiliated firms, and startups in Japan hire on a rolling basis. Golden Week barely affects their pipelines, they may slow slightly but never fully pause. If you're targeting this segment, the break is less of a factor.

The September-October window is your next major opportunity if you miss May. Japan has a second traditional hiring surge in autumn for October 1 start dates. If you're still building your applications or finishing your N2 prep, that is the next natural target. Don't let anyone convince you the year is lost if you miss the spring cycle.

April 2026 closed with two notable immigration shifts that will shape the market through the rest of Q2. Here's where both stand as we head into Golden Week.

1. The N2 requirement for Engineer/Humanities visa is now fully in effect.

As of mid-April, all new applicants for this visa whose roles involve Japanese-language communication must provide proof of JLPT N2 or CEFR B2. This is no longer upcoming, it's live.

For applications currently in progress: if your sponsoring company has not yet submitted your CoE or visa application, confirm before Golden Week whether your application documentation has been updated to reflect the new requirement. Applications filed without the updated framework may face delays or additional review upon return.

For roles that are English-only: the exemption is still in place. Companies can specify that the role does not require Japanese, and the N2 proof is not needed. This has not changed.

2. Specified Skilled Worker Type 1 — food service sector suspended.

On April 13, Japan's Immigration Services Agency suspended new overseas applications for the SSW Type 1 visa in the food service (restaurant and catering) sector after the fiscal 2026 quota was reached. No new applications in this category will be accepted until April 2027.

If you were planning to apply in food service through this route, that window is closed for the year. The manufacturing, construction, nursing care, and agriculture SSW categories remain open and are well below their respective quotas.

Golden Week processing note: The Immigration Services Agency's offices are closed April 29–May 6. Standard processing times (5 working days under normal load) will not apply to anything submitted in the final days before the break. Practically: assume anything submitted after April 25 will not begin review until May 11 or later, accounting for the post-holiday queue.

Company: LY Corporation (formerly LINE + Yahoo Japan)
HQ: Tokyo (Chiyoda / Minato)
Category: Tech / Messaging / E-commerce / Media
English-Friendly: Yes — many engineering teams operate entirely in English Hiring from Abroad: Yes — visa sponsorship + Japanese lessons provided

LY Corporation is the entity formed from the merger of LINE and Yahoo Japan, two of Japan's most widely used digital platforms. Together they reach over 100 million users across messaging, e-commerce, news, search, and financial services. The scale is significant: LINE alone processes billions of messages per day, and the Yahoo Japan platform handles some of the heaviest traffic in the country.

For foreign engineers, the interesting detail is in how the merged entity has structured its teams. Engineering at LY Corporation is genuinely multicultural, approximately 40% of engineers are non-Japanese, and certain divisions communicate primarily or entirely in English. The company has kept LINE's longstanding policy of not requiring Japanese for technical roles, and provides Japanese lessons to international hires who want to build the language over time.

What makes them worth targeting this week in particular: LY Corporation continues hiring through Golden Week, their recruiting pipeline doesn't pause the way traditional Japanese companies do. If you submit an application or reach out to their team before April 29, you may actually get a faster response than usual because there's less internal noise during the holiday.

What else stands out:

Current open roles span backend engineering, mobile (iOS/Android), data engineering, AI/ML, security, and SRE.

Application tip: LY Corporation's hiring process moves differently depending on the team. Engineering roles tend to involve a take-home coding challenge and a system design round — prepare for the scale of their infrastructure in your answers. Roles on the Yahoo Japan side sometimes move through a more traditional Japanese interview structure. Check which entity is listed on the job description before you prep, and tailor accordingly.

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.