Long story short, I will be attending Sophia University in Tokyo starting next April, as the part of G30 programme, and will be majoring in economics.
However, due to personal reasons, I will be around 26 (if I am eligible for early graduation) or 27 at the time of graduation, and I've heard from people that age does matter in Japan, especially when job hunting as a newly graduate.
I’m sure that I will be able to maintain a good GPA at the uni, and I’m native in English and very fluent in Japanese and Korean.
Imagine if I follow the typical job search schedule as an undergraduate in Japan (Internships, starting a job search in the 3rd year, etc), would it be still hard for me to get a good job just because of my age??
by tunaawarrior
3 comments
Totally depends on the company.
Japanese don’t change jobs as much as Americans/westerners.
So when a company interviewing they look at you as a potential 20,30,40 years employee.
So age would matter in a typical Japanese company yes. Personally I’ve seen numerous job listings with age limit written on there in my job hunting time.
But with the aging population and labor shortage Japan facing, it feels that this mentality is fading.
TLDR; yes but don’t worry about it too much. There is still jobs available.
26 is fine for shinsotsu. Not uncommon for people to be around that age range. Maybe a handful of places might dislike it but you don’t want those places anyway.
I was a fresh graduate of 32 when I landed my first job in Japan. You will be ok.