Hey, my wife is japanese, and we are planning to move to Tokyo. She mentioned that a lot of companies in Japan are very strict. For example she mentioned, that I might not be allowed to have a beard, or longer hair, if I work in a traditional company. Do you guys think this is something that will be limiting for a foreign Software Engineer? Is this culture also somewhat present in international branches? My plans would be to target international companies, but if push comes to shove, and I can't find anything else, then I'll have to work for a japanese company. Thanks for your insights!
by occasionally_smart
3 comments
IME International companies and most mega-corporations (Toyota, Hitachi et al) won’t give a shit. Smaller companies _maybe_ might care in the interview stage, but once you’re working and providing value your appearance matters a lot less.
No one expects a mangaka or fashion designer to look “normal”, right? A lot of the time SWEs fall into the same kind of “creative weirdo” category.
Can you speak Japanese? That will make everything much simpler for you.
It’s not 1992 anymore. Unless you’re client facing then the beard / long hair / BO / bad teeth etc don’t matter.
My ex had a weird goatee thing and was a software engineer at a pretty big company in Tokyo