MMoving to Japan

Mapping & GIS Jobs in Japan (Seeking Advice)

  • November 3, 2025

Hello everyone, thank you for taking the time to read my post! This post is potentially a 5 year outlook. I have researched on other web resources, but wanted to meet people with maybe more specific experience being in the industry or a related industry.

About myself:

I am 27 years old, have visited Japan 4 times, and my wife is a native born Japanese with Japanese citizenship and speaks Japanese as her first language.

I have a bachelor's degree in GIS and a bachelor's degree in Geoscience. I have worked professionally as a GIS Coordinator for a government agency for 5 years now.

I currently hold a JLPT N4 certificate and am actively working towards N3, N2, and eventually N1 as my wife helps me along the way.

I am proficient in writing Arcpy and regular python code.

Outlook:

My wife's parents are aging and disabled, so part of this move would be to assist them in their elder years while they are still in their independent home in Osaka. On top of this, it would be a great opportunity for when we have kids to grow up learning one of their native languages and the culture being connected with their family in Japan.

Question:

Does anyone have any related experience working within Japan doing any GIS related work whether it's from a foreign or Japanese company? If so, how was your experience and what credentials did you need for it?

by champ4666

1 comment

  1. GIS services in Japan are generally automative or defense industry in nature. Japan is a small island, that is mostly static in geography and what is being mapped thus it is niche. Best bet would be find a recruiter that would be in this industry. Otherwise, you can move to japan and work on a dependent visa without any restrictions as your wife is japanese.

    This will give you the leg up against all those searching from overseas that require sponsorship. So just move and the find a job once you land. If you can I’d recommend moving and enrolling in a full time language school for the first 5 to 9 months, use that time to increase fluency and job hunt and interview.

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