Top all-time · #2631
TokyoDev
Company blog · tokyodev.com/articles · on HN as pwimcareerbusiness
TokyoDev is the company blog at tokyodev.com, writing about career and business. Since 2011, 27 different Hacker News readers have linked it 67 times, most often “Recruiters and Human Traffickers”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (15) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link TokyoDev for English-friendly developer job listings in Japan, tips on working there as a foreign engineer, and salary data posts that commenters cite as sources.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 15 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
TokyoDev is a job board and community for English speaking software engineers in Japan.
Most-linked posts?
- Recruiters and Human Traffickers3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-10-09
- /3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-07-04
- /articles/software-developer-salaries-in-japan3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-03-24
- Salaries for international developers working in Japan2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-01-07
- Legally operating a job board in Japan2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-11-27
- The English Paradox: Four decades of life and language in Japan2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-11-07
- /2014/02/13/japanese-developer-salary/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2014-08-04
- Facebook is Japan's LinkedIn2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-01-23
- Suica, Japan's First IC Transit Card2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-08-26
What Hacker News says?
Dev here working in Japan for few years, I don't think the main reason software salaries are low in Japan is financial, but social/cultural. Software has traditionally not seen as valued as hardware, it was just an "extra" added on top of the hardware part. Basically never went through the startup revolution of the 2000s in US. Also Japan is still very hierarchical, so old ideas change much slower. I would say the c…
Comment linking /articles/software-developer-salaries-in-japan
on “Tell HN: Help restore the tax deduction for software dev in the US (Section 174)”Submitted Suica, Japan's First IC Transit Card as a story · 284 points
HN discussionThis is pretty cool, thanks for sharing! It's reminiscent in some ways of Slashdot of yore, which would include a slug describing the submission. One of my more persistent issues with HN is that the 80-character-limit title gives parlous thin information on whether or not a submission is worth reading. Additional microcontent, even just another 120-240 characters (10--20 words or so) often helps greatly, and your pr…
Comment linking /articles/the-english-paradox-four-decades-of-life-and-language-in-japan
on “Show HN: Hacker News frontpage as a print newspaper that you can personalize”Submitted How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan as a story · 205 points
HN discussionIt sucks to hear you've been getting one year renewals. Unfortunately when it comes to bureaucracy here in Japan, things are on a case by case basis, so its hard to make any sweeping judgements. As a counterpoint, I came here on a working holiday visa (6 months) and found a job at a Japanese startup. When I renewed my visa, I switched to an Engineer visa and got a three year one. Mid-way through that three year visa…
Comment linking /2014/04/17/creating-company-japan/
on “Japan eyes startup visa program”Submitted The English Paradox: Four decades of life and language in Japan as a story · 204 points
HN discussionI believe you can now enter Japan for the purpose of working, if you have a job offer. There are several tech companies that speak English internally. You can google for Tokyo Dev Jobs or Japan Dev Jobs and a few websites will popup. Edit: https://www.tokyodev.com/jobs/ https://japan-dev.com/jobs/
Comment linking /jobs/
on “Cities with Nice Weather”Submitted Doing a Machine Learning PhD While Working in Japan as a story · 147 points
HN discussionIn the UK, recruiters actually used to be licensed, but this requirement was largely removed in the 1970s. In researching my other article on recruiting in Japan ( https://www.tokyodev.com/2020/10/01/recruiting-in-japan/ ), I discovered that there was a movement globally to move to ban, or at least license, private recruiting world wide as part of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. The concern then was more…
Comment linking /2020/10/01/recruiting-in-japan/
on “Legally operating a job board in Japan”Submitted Legally operating a job board in Japan as a story · 122 points
HN discussionGenerally that's the starting rate for a college graduate, who I assume would be most likely to be interested in relocating to Japan. Here's some good numbers at different experience levels: https://www.tokyodev.com/2020/01/07/japan-developer-salaries... I'll trust his higher end estimate of 16+ years netting you 11 million yen, but I've never seen a job posting anywhere near that even for senior engineers. And even…
Comment linking /2020/01/07/japan-developer-salaries/
on “Legally operating a job board in Japan”Submitted How I obtained a business manager visa in Japan as a story · 68 points
HN discussionExceptions abound, but in general software development jobs even at smaller studios pay a lot less in Japan than in the US. In Tokyo you'd expect to make around 400,000 yen a month, which is about $3500 a month. That sounds nice until you see that a 400sqft apartment with no bedrooms can cost 100,000 yen or more. A one bedroom can hit 150,000 - 200,000 yen in a nice area with convenient access to train stations. Edi…
Comment linking /2020/01/07/japan-developer-salaries/
on “Legally operating a job board in Japan”Submitted You're Too Old for That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech as a story · 66 points
HN discussionThere’s some nuance and history to this—- https://www.tokyodev.com/2020/10/01/recruiting-in-japan/
Comment linking /2020/10/01/recruiting-in-japan/
on “Legally operating a job board in Japan”Submitted The rise and fall of D&D in Japan as a story · 57 points
HN discussionWhile there are many companies in Japan where people do work a ton of overtime, there are also companies where people work little to no overtime. For instance, I'm currently doing consulting for a Japanese start up where most people leave around the official clock out time, and I've been one of the last to leave an hour after it. Software developers in Japan have traditionally been undervalued, as it has been seen a…
Comment linking /jobs/
on “Working at a Japanese Company (2015)”Submitted The Downside of Thanking Security Contributors as a story · 48 points
HN discussionI'm trying to help people like yourself come to Japan. Feel free to contact me: http://www.tokyodev.com/jobs/ If you have a university degree, it is actually pretty easy to get a visa here. While you might have trouble getting a job at a 3-person startup, something a bit more established shouldn't be an issue (as the article mentions, Gengo recruits non-Japanese, and they'll even hire people who aren't already in Ja…
Comment linking /jobs/
on “A New Tech Generation Defies the Odds in Japan”Submitted Recruiters and Human Traffickers as a story · 34 points
HN discussionIf you don't have a CS degree, it is harder to get a job here, because visas are tied to your career path, and for an engineering visa, you need a related degree or ten years of professional experience. It is possible though to do development on a visa other than the engineering visa, as I've written about here: http://www.tokyodev.com/2013/01/12/japan-visa-programming-jo...
Comment linking /2013/01/12/japan-visa-programming-job/
on “Can Japan reboot its startup culture?”Submitted Facebook is Japan's LinkedIn as a story · 29 points
HN discussionI got a job as a developer in Japan right after I graduated from University. I wrote about my experience here: http://www.tokyodev.com/2011/08/19/finding-a-job-as-a-ruby-d... Having an in demand skillset (like being a developer) opens up a lot of possibilities.
Comment linking /2011/08/19/finding-a-job-as-a-ruby-developer-in-japan/
on “Why Young Americans Should Work Overseas”Submitted LinkedIn's Broken Automation Took Down My Company's Page Without Warning as a story · 28 points
HN discussionHere you go: http://www.tokyodev.com/2014/02/13/japanese-developer-salary... ¥8,000,000 is around $71,000 a year in the U.S. Junior developers out of boot camp can make that much here.
Comment linking /2014/02/13/japanese-developer-salary/
on “Japan in Need of ‘White-Hat’ Hackers, Pays Handsome Bug Bounty”Submitted Not setting up Find My bricked my MacBook as a story · 18 points
HN discussionIt's hard to come up with concrete numbers, but here's a unscientific survey I did: http://www.tokyodev.com/2014/02/13/japanese-developer-salary...
Comment linking /2014/02/13/japanese-developer-salary/
on “Show HN: Geek Bridge – Find dev work in Japan without knowing Japanese”Submitted Unbricking my MacBook took an email to Tim Cook (and a #1 post on Hacker News) as a story · 15 points
HN discussionIf you are interested in working as a developer in Japan, it's a topic I've written about a bunch: http://www.tokyodev.com/jobs/ One thing you might be clear is whether the positions are for English speakers living in Japan, or if they are open to developers worldwide. In my experience, most companies where Japanese isn't necessary still prefer people to already be in Japan, as bringing someone from abroad is seeing…
Comment linking /jobs/
on “Show HN: Geek Bridge – Find dev work in Japan without knowing Japanese”Submitted A Look into NaviDial, Japan's Legacy Phone Service as a story · 6 points
HN discussion
