Recruitment Information
Ikigai Connections Expand dropdownHi there. My name is Kasia. I'm the founder of Ikigai Connections, based here in Michigan, but I help people all over the United States find Japanese jobs in the US with their Japanese language and cultural skills.
So today, I'll be speaking about Japanese jobs in the US in general. But I would like for you to insert the language that you are studying and the country that you would like to work in as I give you some tips in career and you're starting your new career.
So I see three main benefits for having multicultural and multilingual skills in the professional and academic world.
First of all, your language skills give you this extra niche skill or niche skill however you use it. So if you are, you stand out from all the many candidates because you have a component on the job description that may be a preference and isn't a must for the role, but you stand out because you can shine with that language.
The second benefit is cultural. You have a broader view of the industry. You can help companies and organizations expand to other countries. You can also be more inclusive because you know what it's like to be part of a different culture or even live there if you've had that opportunity.
So, for example, if you are working with Japanese colleagues and you know how it is to introduce yourself, how to conduct yourself in meetings, and even how to make business decisions, even if you don't know the language, you are able to stand out with those skills.
The third benefit is that you are this bridge between cultures and people. You become this glue because you have this emotional connection to both sides, and you naturally want both sides to meet together and work in a more collaborative manner.
So, for example, if you are a US company that wants to expand to Japan, you know what it's like to expand to a foreign country and the rules and regulations and where to go to get help because of how different that culture is. Or for example, if you are working in the US and you have Japanese employees coming from Japan to the US, you can relate to them because you know what it's like to have studied or lived abroad. And also you can share stories between the two sides. So there's more of a cohesion and team situation happening in the company.
So lastly, I would like to offer you also three tips for new professionals again, regardless of language or country that you'd like to work in.
The first one is, as I mentioned previously, please don't underestimate the benefits of having the cultural skills, especially if you're starting out in your language journey. I want you to be confident that the cultural skills in business are just as important, but they may not be perceived as so useful. You'll have to promote yourself in that aspect.
The second is, I want you to be your best advocate when you are talking about your level of fluency, because it's such a term that people are very-- it's a very misguided term, especially when you're talking about verbal and written and professional terminology. It all gets a little blurred, so I leave it up to you to promote your case and say whether you are starting out in the career with your language, or you are more professional and you have more of a higher advanced language level, I want you to be confident and apply for roles depending on how you see your language level applying to the role.
And lastly, I want you to be patient with yourself because learning a language and another culture, it takes time, but it just gets better over time. Just like the more you study something, the more confident you get and you will feel better in that as well.
So have confidence along the journey and good luck.
Pasona Expand dropdownHi, everyone, I'm James with Pasona North America. And I'm here today to talk about jobs for Japanese majors.
Now here's a high-level view of what we'll be talking about today. We'll start by discussing why companies are interested in bilingual candidates, specifically Japanese bilinguals. Then we'll talk about the industries and roles where bilingual candidates are particularly desirable. After that, I'll share some actual job hunting tips, and we'll follow it up with some Q&A about the questions that you sent in prior to this presentation.
Now, I do want to talk a little bit about Pasona and what we do. We're a recruiting company that specializes in working with Japanese companies in the US. So as you can imagine, one of our strengths is helping companies find Japanese bilingual candidates. With all of the different Japanese companies that have branches in the US, and all of the American companies in the US that are either looking to do business with Japanese companies as suppliers or potentially as customers, we do get a lot of requests for bilingual candidates.
So, I want us to start out by thinking about why companies might be interested in hiring you for your bilingual skills. I'm going to share a little bit about why our clients come to us looking for bilingual candidates. Hopefully, this can help you adjust your strategy when updating your resume or thinking about how you want to present yourself in interviews.
The first and most obvious reason why companies are looking for Japanese bilingual candidates is for their hard skills—language skills and the ability to speak two different languages, as well as the cultural knowledge that comes with that learning experience. If you have a Japanese business that's trying to break into the American market, it's extremely useful to have someone who speaks both languages. They can talk to customers who probably don’t speak Japanese, but also understand the local American market in a more intuitive way.
This is also true going in the other direction. If an American company is trying to break into the Japanese market or wants to work with Japanese suppliers, then having a bilingual person on their team is immensely helpful for them. I'd say for Japanese companies in the US, in particular, having bilingual workers plays a crucial role in having bridge builders.
When you have a multilingual, multicultural workforce, there can be a tendency for people who speak the same language to clump together and form different cliques. This can lead to the different sides of the company viewing each other as rivals instead of as co-workers and collaborators—particularly when you're dealing with two cultures that have such different communication styles, like American communication and Japanese communication.
So, simply having someone around who can go to the Japanese side of the company and explain what the Americans are trying to communicate, or someone who can go to the American side of the company and explain what the Japanese side is trying to communicate, is really essential to avoiding unintentional misunderstandings and maintaining a collaborative atmosphere where everyone can contribute.
And I want to stress, it’s not just the language ability or the ability to know what words people are saying. ChatGPT is doing a great job with simple language and simple sentences, but it does a terrible job with understanding cultural nuance and what people are trying to communicate with the words they use. It's that ability to understand the cultural context that goes with the language that, in many ways, makes bilingual candidates still very attractive.
I also want to point out that there are many global companies that like to have workers with a global perspective and an intercultural perspective, even if the company doesn't regularly work with Japanese clients or Japanese suppliers. Having experience studying another language or doing a study abroad in a foreign culture can provide insight on how to work with people from backgrounds different than your own. This, in itself, is a very important soft skill.
If your company has a large, diverse workforce with branches in a dozen different countries, this soft skill becomes extremely valuable—even if we take the specifics of the Japanese language out of the equation.
Now, as important as language and cultural knowledge are to our clients and many companies like them, there are some second skills that, if you add them to your language skills, will make your bilingual ability even more important. For example, let’s say we have a Japanese major who has a minor in accounting or a double major in Japanese and accounting. This person doesn’t just have the general language skills that a bilingual candidate would have—they’re also able to communicate specialized knowledge, concepts, and vocabulary related to accounting or the financial side of the company. Having someone who can bridge both sides of the company about money is extremely important.
The same applies to bilingual engineers, whether mechanical or electrical engineers. Someone who understands the technology and can discuss these technical topics with both sides of the company ensures that everyone is on the same page. This person becomes crucial to the day-to-day operations of the company.
So, when planning your education and the classes you’ll take, keep this in mind. Language is essential, but it becomes particularly potent when combined with a second skill.
With that in mind, let’s talk about some industries and roles where bilingual candidates are particularly attractive to companies. First, I’ll touch on industries. I won’t spend too much time here since we only have so much time, and I want to focus more on the roles, but I do want to mention a few industries.
Manufacturing, particularly automotive manufacturing, is probably the single biggest industry for Japanese companies in the US. Many of the available jobs and opportunities are in this space, simply because so many companies are involved in it. Another very big industry is food and beverage. If you think about your local Japanese grocery store or ramen shop, they need to get their supplies from somewhere. They often get them from food and beverage makers. With the growing popularity of Japanese food and other Asian cuisines in the US, many Japanese companies in the US operate in this industry.
I’d say the third biggest one is logistics. If you think about it—if a company makes an engine for a car and needs to send it to the car maker, someone has to move that engine. That’s where logistics companies come in. The same applies to food and beverage companies—logistics companies arrange the import and export, moving food made in Japan to the US and ensuring it reaches grocery stores or ramen shops. Logistics plays a crucial supporting role across many industries.
Now, I want to talk a bit about entertainment, because I get a lot of questions about it. There is a substantial Japanese entertainment space in the US, but it is also extremely competitive, especially in creative roles or translation roles. A lot of people who study Japanese do it because they’re interested in Japanese pop culture, and I’m one of them. However, because there are so many people with the same interest in this industry, competition is fierce, and the wages are relatively low. It’s a hard industry to break into, and even once you’re in, it can be difficult to make a living. I don’t want to discourage you from pursuing it, but I do want you to be aware that breaking into creative or translation roles in this industry is a long, rough road. However, there are other roles that are a bit easier to get into.
Now, let’s talk about specific roles that might be suitable for bilingual candidates, starting with sales. Sometimes referred to as business development or account management, I want to start with this one because many candidates aren’t initially interested in it. I think many of us associate sales with a negative connotation—door-to-door salespeople, used car salespeople, high-pressure tactics, and a slimy image. But when we talk about the type of sales that bilingual candidates engage in, we’re specifically referring to business-to-business sales.
Take the example of Toyota or Honda—they don’t make their own engines. Other companies make the engines and sell them to Toyota and Honda, who then put them in the cars. This type of sales is not high pressure. It’s about building a bridge between the companies, making sure they are on the same page about technical requirements and delivery schedules, and creating mutually beneficial agreements. If you go into this type of sales with high-pressure tactics, you won’t get very far.
One more thing about sales roles for bilingual candidates is that they are among the highest-paying positions available for those without a STEM degree. There is a constant demand for bilingual salespeople in the US, and they are always hiring. If this is something you’re interested in, it’s a great way to get to know a company and its operations. Sales are important to pretty much every industry where Japanese companies are operating in the US.
Next, I want to talk a little bit about purchasing and supply chain, which are very closely related. Purchasing is kind of reverse sales. So the engine maker, they have salespeople who are trying to sell to Toyota. Toyota has purchasing people who are doing negotiation on the other side. One thing that I think is very good about purchasing is that maybe if you're not extroverted enough to do sales successfully, you can have something similar by working in purchasing, but there's more of a focus on the data analysis and production planning side. So if you like working with numbers, you like dealing with schedules, you like making sure that everyone's on the same page, but you want something a little less people-focused, then sales purchasing is a great option. It's most important to the manufacturing, food and beverage, and trading, import/export industries; financial industry, it's maybe not so important. But one of the advantages is that bilingual candidates are highly desirable, and there's no specific degree that's required. You can't get degrees in logistics. A minor in business wouldn't hurt, but you don't need to have those type of degrees in order to get an entry-level role.
Next, translation and interpretation. I'm not going to spend too much time talking about this because you already know what it is. I just have a few comments that might help you if you're interested in this type of role. And the main thing I want to communicate to you is that specialists make more money. If you have knowledge of legal terminology and legal concepts, or financial terminology and financial concepts, or engineering, if you have an understanding of some of technical field, you will make more money. So even if you want to focus on the language side, it can still be good to take a few classes in a different field, maybe get a minor in a different field, just so that you can pitch yourself as a specialist translator. Most of the positions we see in translation are in the manufacturing industry. That's in part because it's such a big industry. And because you have so many big companies, where there's management from Japan and local workers, and so naturally there's much more of a need for translation. I'd say for this type of role, it is best to have a degree in Japanese. But I also recommend that you pass the N2 level of the Japanese language proficiency test as well, since that will help show companies that you are serious and that you do have the linguistic ability to succeed in this type of role, even if you don't have any prior experience.
Next, accounting and finance. We already talked about this a little so I'm not going to spend too much time here. I just want to point out again that this is one of the most crucial roles for bilingual people because they keep the money. And what's more important to a business than the money? We see roles for this in pretty much every industry. I know right now, there is definitely a lack of bilingual accountants in the US. So if you do get some experience with this, even if you just take a few classes, that will make you very, very attractive as a candidate. Now, specific degrees are very often required for accounting and finance. So I think this is a very good one if you want to double major. But you'll sometimes see entry-level roles where you're doing accounts payable and accounts receivable where you can get in just as a bilingual candidate.
Similarly, we touched on why engineering is so important before. Well, because if there's anything more important than money at a company, it might be the product that you're selling to get that money. Mechanical engineering and electrical engineering are the two specific degrees that we see the most demand for. Most of the roles where they're looking for a bilingual engineer, they are going to need a double major. And in terms of industries, manufacturing is, of course, huge, but we also see a lot of demand from energy companies. Especially with how green energy is growing in the US right now, that's also very important to the Japanese market. And then construction companies.
Information technology. This one's, very difficult market right now in the US. There was a lot of over hiring of IT professionals during COVID when IT was perhaps the most important job in the world at that point, after health care workers. Since everyone was working via Zoom. But unfortunately, a lot of IT companies have been having layoffs recently. And so getting an entry level role is extremely difficult. The one exception that I see, at least, if you are a bilingual candidate, you have a shot at those entry level positions, in a way that people who only speak English just don't have the same opportunities right now. Most of what we see is software engineering, specifically for business to business software as a service. So the software that logistics companies will use to track shipments, or the software that financial institutions will use to make transactions. Cybersecurity is also very important to that financial market. For this specific degree or boot camp or professional experience is usually required. But if you are bilingual, like I said, you do have a very clear advantage over other candidates.
Finally, I want to talk a little bit about human resources and recruiting. This is also extremely important in manufacturing because, as we said, the managers and upper management are very often on assignment from the home office in Japan. And you have a lot of blue-collar workers working under them that might not care so much about adapting to Japanese culture and the Japanese way of doing things. They just want to do their jobs and get their paycheck. And that can make communication very difficult. So for this reason, a lot of Japanese manufacturers will hire bilingual candidates to be in human resources roles. And often, it will be a combination of translation/interpretation and HR roles. It's very important to have people who have an understanding of the local culture, the local labor laws, the local standards for benefits programs, and can help management navigate this task that they're not necessarily prepared for by their home company. I'd say this is important in every industry just because of the system of assigning people from the home office to run local branches. But manufacturing is probably the biggest one. Now, specific degrees in human resources are sometimes required, but not always. And this is also a field where there are a lot of certifications you can get in order to get some of those entry-level roles.
Next, now that we've talked about the jobs, let's talk about actually getting those jobs. So a lot of candidates will ask me, what's the timeline for getting a job with a Japanese company? The answer is it depends. If you're a Japanese major and you've passed the N2 level of the JLPT and you're willing to relocate anywhere in the US, I can probably find you a job somewhere between one to three months. However, if you are only looking for jobs in Michigan or you're trying to get an $80k salary right out of college, or you only have N3 level Japanese and you're only looking at remote positions, if you have a lot of conditions and must-haves, it can be more like three to six months. And if you have some unrealistic ones, it can be even longer—six months, one year, two years. So I want to encourage you, when you're thinking about the types of positions that you're looking for, you need to focus on what's most important. Most people don't get their dream job directly out of college. Usually, you've got to build your career to that point. So you need to start by thinking about what is the direction I want to move in? And what are the experiences—the professional experiences—that are going to get me there? That will help you narrow down your job search to things that are actually going to be a good fit because you will get those things that are actually most important to you.
This is kind of what a perfect world application process looks like. I'm not going to go through all the steps one by one, since I think all of this is going to look pretty familiar. Instead, I want to focus on giving some tips for various parts of the process. First of all, I'd say after you put in your application with the company, when you're doing that job search, you're in that mode, get used to checking your email every day. If you get phone calls from numbers you don't recognize, go ahead and pick up the phone. If there's a company that's interested in reaching out to you, they're going to call you, they're going to text you, they're going to email you. But if you don't pick up or don't get back to them in a timely manner, they're going to assume you're not available anymore and move on to the next candidate. This goes throughout the interview process as well. When you're getting emails from the company trying to set up interviews, respond to those emails within 24 hours, 48 hours in a pinch. Anything longer than that, and you're really risking that they're going to move on to the next candidate.
One other thing that's worth mentioning. For more traditional Japanese companies, they're only going to want to talk about your salary at two points in the process. When you put in your application, they're going to ask what your desired salary is, and you should put it in there. And then when you get through the interviews and you're in the negotiation phase, you get an offer letter, then it's OK to talk about salary again. I do not recommend talking about salary in the interviews themselves, especially with Japanese companies, it can come off as you're only interested in what you're getting out of the position and not what you can contribute to the company. So yeah, keep it to the beginning of the process, and the end of the process.
One other thing worth mentioning. When you get the offer letter, you need to respond to that within 24 hours. You don't necessarily need to accept it though. It's perfectly acceptable to say, hey, thank you very much for this offer. I'm very excited. Can I have a few days to think about it? Can I have one week to think about it? Anything more than one week is getting kind of iffy. I'd say a few days or one week, most companies are going to be fine with that. And if they're not fine with that, it's potentially a red flag. But you do need to respond to them to let you’ve received it and you are considering it so that they don’t just move on to the next candidate.
Finally, when you get to the background check, you are going to need to fill out some forms, give them some information so that they can start the background check. You also want to do this as soon as possible. Because until you submit that information, the company can't start doing the background check. And there are a lot of people who aren't going to be able to do their part of the process until they have that information. Background checks are not automatic. They are not fast. If they need to contact your references, then they need to find a time when they can talk to them. And if they're waiting for that information, then they can't do their part of the job, and you might not be able to start your job on time. Don’t wait until the last minute. Fill out that information as soon as possible so that everyone can do their part.
Next, just a few things to keep in mind. Professionalism in the process really matters a lot, and that includes keeping a professional appearance. Japanese companies in particular, like to see you wearing a suit and tie or a pant suit or something like that. You want to dress up, you want to go business formal. Additionally, you want to have a nice clean haircut. You want to look very well groomed. I have a beard right now and I work for a Japanese company. But if I was interviewing for a positions, I'd probably shave my beard. I get comments from my coworkers every now and then about how big and bushy my beard is, which, personally, I don't feel it's that bushy, but there are different cultural standards in different environments.
Next, we already talked about this, but timely responses matter. And I just want to repeat that because if there's anything that I see recent graduates stumbling with, this is one of the big ones. You need to make your interest in the position very clear by responding to communication in a timely manner. Next, the total package matters. If there's a second thing I see recent graduates struggling with, it's this. There is a tendency to only look at the salary number. And while that is extremely important, if you aren't making enough money to pay rent and buy groceries, then that's not a good offer. But you also need to keep the benefits in mind. Japanese companies tend to have very strong benefits packages, especially in terms of the percentage of the healthcare that they pay for. Most companies, they'll either pay 100% of your healthcare cost, for the insurance, or 90% is paid by the company and 10% paid by you, 80% by the company, 20% by you. Whereas with American companies, you do get some that are in that high level range, but you also get a lot where 0% of the insurance cost is paid by the company or 50% of the insurance cost is paid by the company. And when you're talking about things in that range, that can be a difference of $10,000, $20,000 a year, depending on the type of packet and the details. 401(k) programs, especially if they're a matching contributions, that is extremely huge. That is free money, that is tax-free money. You're young now, you're just getting started out. But if you start saving for retirement now, compound interest is a huge deal, and you will achieve financial independence a lot sooner if you have that type of benefit. So don't just absolutely look at the salary. But also look at the total benefits package because the details really do matter when it comes to your financial independence.
Finally, we already touched on this a little, but you need to approach your first job after college as a move in the right direction. Hey, if you do get your dream job right out of college, that's wonderful. I'm very jealous of you. But for the 99% of us that don't, you need to think about how you want your career to develop, what type of professional experiences you need to get in order to get to the career you want to have. So again, focus on the things that are most important to you, focus on getting the right type of experience so you can develop yourself professionally, and you're going to have a much longer, much healthier, much more stable career.
All right. Q&A and contact, I'm going to go ahead and answer the questions that were submitted. And I do also want to say, I'm going to give you my contact information at the end. Feel free to reach out if you have additional questions. Even if you're not looking for jobs right now, if you have questions about, what type of courses you should take, or how you might think about developing your career, feel free to reach out. I also studied Japanese in college. I was a Japanese major. And there are a lot of things that I wish people had told me, and I'm happy to tell those things to you. And also that way, when you are looking for jobs and you come to me, it'll be easier for me to find you a job, and it'll be one that pays better. So it's win-win.
All right. "Are there many Japanese companies or jobs that require Japanese language in the United States and the Midwest?" Short answer, yes. Long answer, yes, yes, yes, yes. The automotive industry, the manufacturing industry, are huge in the Midwest, and a huge part of that industry is companies headquartered in Japan. This is not just automotive manufacturers, these are all the companies that supply them, and the companies that supply them, and the logistics companies that grow up around that, and the import export industry, the trading industry that grows up around that. There are so many opportunities. And I'd say, especially in the Midwest.
"Is it hard finding a job where you can use your skills?" Well, yes and no. I assume we're talking about language skills here. If you really want to get a job that utilizes your language skills directly out of college. I would say one of the most important things is to pass the N2 level of the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test. That is the point at which a lot of companies are going to be very interested in talking to you about bilingual positions. If you can pass the N3 level, that's also good. That would be more for positions where you're just going to be using Japanese internally in the office. But we do get a lot of positions like that, especially sales positions, purchasing, logistics, food and beverage. There are a lot of jobs where simply-- even if your Japanese isn't the best. If you can hold a conversation, if you can talk about work topics, yeah, we can find you a job.
"I am majoring in Japanese language and minoring in general business. Am I able to do something with that or would it be recommended I turn my major into international trade and language?" That's a great question. I will say this will partially depend on what you were hoping to do with your career. So if you want to discuss this in more detail, feel free to reach out. That being said, you will be able to do something with that. Having Japanese language plus that second skill of general business, that is going to make you attractive for a lot of roles, especially if you want to pitch yourself primarily on the strength of your language skills. If you really want to focus on positions where you'll be using the Japanese language a lot. I'd say where you are right now is where you want to be. If you want to pitch yourself more as on the strength of your business skills and maybe less so on the strength of your language skills, international trade and language would probably be good for that. But beyond that, I'd say it really just depends on what you think you want to do with your career. So yeah, if you want to discuss in more detail, feel free to reach out.
"Would it be beneficial or recommended to take the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test along with the Business Japanese-Language Test?" Yes. Now, my advice here is to start by focusing on the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test. For the simple reason that more Japanese companies know what that is. They're a surprising amount of Japanese companies that are not as familiar with the BJLT. So it doesn't carry as much weight. So maybe start by passing the N3 or the N2. And then after that, look into the Business Japanese-Language Test.
"Are dialects considered when speaking Japanese in the workplace?" Yes and no. I'd say most workplace conversations tend towards the more formal Japanese, which means most people are speaking in the more standard Tokyo dialect. However, it is very common that you'll have coworkers or customers that have a regional dialect, and if you want to talk to them, then being able to understand those dialects is extremely important. It can also be fun if you know kansai dialect or the Osaka dialect if you have a coworker from that area, it can be fun to talk in it with them. I will say, however, that the formal keigo, sonkeigo, that's more important. Being able to speak in that and write in that is more important than being able to speak or write in a regional dialect. Although understanding a regional dialect, that is, yeah, very useful.
"Is honorary language utilized often in the workplace?" Yes. And the better you are at it, the better positions you're going to be able to get, especially if it's a position where you're interacting a lot with customers, you absolutely need to use honorary language. If you're just using it internally with the company, it's not as important. But I'd say, I mentioned, things I wish people had told me when I was studying Japanese. I wish I could go back and tell myself to spend more time studying the honorary language, the honorifics, the keigo, because I ended up having to study it anyway. I could have started out on a stronger foot.
"What knowledge of Japanese is required when applying to Japanese-operated businesses?" I'd say if you have the N3 level, then that's going to be a plus with companies in the Midwest. If you're looking for jobs in California or New York, N3 isn't going to go as far, there are a lot more Japanese speakers in those places. So that's not going to be as compelling. N2 is where companies really start to get interested. Especially if it's a bilingual role where you will be talking in Japanese a lot, and especially if you're going to be interacting with customers. So for a more internal position, N3 is good, but for more external facing positions, you really, really, really want to get N2.
"Do you get opportunities to travel to Japan within the companies?" Yes, but it depends on the role, and it depends on the industry. For example, I'd say salespeople and engineers probably get to travel to Japan the most, as well as bilingual accountants, that's also up there because they want these people, because they're so important to the operations of the business to get experience with the headquarters as well and see how they do things there, and then take that information back to the US branch so they can make sure that everyone's on the same page. Other roles, like customer service or administrative assistant, you're not going to get as many opportunities.
"Do you get the opportunity to be a translator depending on your speaking/listening comprehension?" Well, no and yes. No, because there are some positions that are 100% translation where you're only dealing with written documents and emails or things like that. And for those positions, speaking and listening doesn't really matter. However, most of those pure translation positions are contract-based or temp-based. Most companies don't have enough translation work that needs to be done, that they can justify hiring a full time permanent employee to do just that. If you're looking for permanent full time positions, then you need to be both a translator and an interpreter, and be able to interpret spoken conversations as well. And in that case, yes, you're speaking and listening comprehension absolutely do matter.
All right. Well, that's all the questions that were submitted. So I'll go ahead and leave you with my contact information. And like I said before, even if you're not ready to start looking for positions yet, if you do have questions or just kind of want to pick my brain, feel free to reach out. I love talking to students and helping them plan their careers, figure out what they want to do after they graduate. It's why I got into this industry to begin with. So thank you very much for listening. And good luck out there.
Career Forum Expand dropdownCareerForum.Net (CFN) is a career services platform designed for Japanese-English bilinguals seeking global career opportunities. CFN regularly hosts Career Forums, or job fairs, in cities such as Boston, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Osaka, and London, providing participants with opportunities to engage directly with international companies seeking bilingual talent. In addition to the Forums, CFN offers a variety of services including online job postings, company seminars, and a scout service that allows employers to proactively reach out to job seekers.Among these events, the Boston Career Forum is the world’s largest job fair for Japanese-English bilinguals, held annually in Boston. Open to students, recent graduates, and professionals with study abroad or international work experience, the forum connects participants with companies seeking individuals with bicultural and bilingual backgrounds. Attendees have the opportunity to engage in in-person interviews, explore internships, receive job offers, and more.