I’m from Indonesia, and right now I feel really stuck with my career path in Japan. Back in Indonesia, I worked as a UI/UX designer for about 1.5 years. My experience wasn’t continuous at a single company—it was scattered, so I don’t have a solid 2+ years at one place. After that, I moved to Japan and studied Japanese for 2 years.
But even after studying, I still feel my Japanese isn’t strong enough. Many companies here require high fluency, which I don’t have. Eventually, I got a job, but it was as a translator/interpreter for Indonesian technical interns. The work was exhausting—long hours, no real rest, even on weekends I was contacted and consulted by the technical interns. It drained my energy and left me no time to build other skills.
I quit that job, and now I’ve been unemployed for almost 3 months. In the first two month I studied hard and tried to build a portfolio to return to UI/UX. But whenever I apply, I usually get rejected because of my Japanese level. My coding skills are only basic, and with AI automating some parts of UI/UX, I feel even more uncertain. The jobs that available for native language are again interpreter roles, or things like tour guide, which don’t help me grow my career.
Going back to Indonesia isn’t really an option—because the salaries are much lower, and life there feels more stressful with less stability compared to Japan. Honestly, I prefer living in Japan, but the language barrier keeps holding me back. Language school helped, but it also felt too rigid, and I couldn’t really express myself the way I wanted. The only real way to improve is to make Japanese friends and use it naturally, but that’s also not easy because of work situation.
I tried applying UIUX roles, but again, that require strong communication in Japanese. Some applications are still pending, and one reached the interview stage, but once they realize my Japanese isn’t good enough, maybe they will rejecting me.
So right now I feel torn:
• Should I keep pushing for UI/UX (or PM in that field), even though the language barrier is huge?
• Or should I just give up on that and pivot to something else, even if it means losing what I actually want to do?
To make it more stressful, my visa won’t last forever, and if I don’t land a job soon, I might lose my status in Japan.
Does anyone have advice on what I should do?
by Electronic_Salt_