How to Find a Part-time Job in Japan for Newcomers | Guidable - Your Guide to a Sustainable, Wellbeing-centred Life in Japan
How to Find a Part-time Job in Japan for Newcomers

How to Find a Part-time Job in Japan for Newcomers

By Guidable Writers Apr 21, 2017

This post is also available in: Chinese (Simplified) Spanish Chinese (Traditional)

If you have a work permit in Japan, you may want to earn some money for traveling or to experience the Japanese business and social environment. In Japan, we call part-time jobs as アルバイト or ARUBAITO. Now let’s go through how you could find a job and the type of things you need to prepare.

 

1. How to find a job

In Japan, a common way to look for a job is to go online and search jobs through the classified ads section.

In recent years, some job agencies have started ARUBAITO websites you can use which can be translated according to your language preference. If in case they are written in Japanese, when you notice the words like 外国人歓迎GAIKOKUJIN KANGEI (foreigners welcome) or 留学生歓迎 RYUGAKUSEI KANGEI (exchange students welcome), this actually means that you can apply for that particular job. If the job post/s do not mention that, the chance of getting the job will be very slim. There might be so many reasons behind it. For example, the employers may only want to hire Japanese locals or they are not familiar with hiring people from other countries in terms of labor law or immigration law and other professional reasons.

 

2. What do I need to prepare for job hunting?

 

1. Resume

In Japan, you don’t need to prepare a cover letter. It is neither necessary or needed.

The most traditional way to write a resume for all jobs is by handwriting.

In recent years, some people, even for the Japanese people, they have already started to think that writing resumes in a word file on your computer is acceptable, especially when you apply for an admin or office job. However, still, the majority of Japanese people prefer a handwritten resume for better understanding. Therefore, try to write your resume by hand. The standard printing size is A3 or B5, depending on what type of format you will use, you can buy a basic type resume sheet at a 100Yen shop or at a convenience store. Remember in Japan, you need to include all your job experiences and educational history in your resume even if you think that they are unrelated to the job that you are applying for. Your future employer usually prefers to hire people who can continue their jobs for a long time. Also, the employer would also want to know if you have any work experience/s before. It may not leave a good impression if you don’t have any work experience at all.

 

2. Business Profile Photo

Putting on ID/ identification photo on your resume is a standard practice in Japan. I have seen many candidates putting photos of them with their dogs or when they were wearing Kimono…

You may want to show what kind of person you are, but as for the standard, those photos are not acceptable in a business situation. The standard ID photo for a resume should be a face to shoulder photo in size 4cm×3cm. You should wear something clean, not too much makeup for a woman, and it should be taken recently within the last 6 months.

When you are looking for a part-time job, such as in the service or hospitality industry, it is not necessary to wear a suit, but try not to wear anything casual like a hoodie, tank top, spaghetti top, or shorts. Japanese people tend to consider those clothes “too casual” or unethical for work.

You can take a photo at a 証明写真機 SHOUMEISHASHINKI (photo booth). Also, some job agencies provide photo apps for job hunting. As for the photo booths (照明写真機), you can often find them in the stations or in shopping malls. Taking the photos will cost 700 yen to 1000 yen and it depends on whether you need a hard copy or a soft/digital copy. You can save some money by using apps because you just need to pay for the printing. You can take photos using those apps and then go to a convenience store to print them.

 

Hope you are ready to go for a job interview now!


Would you like to teach children English at home?

Well, let Guidable Jobs help you! Just click here and apply for this job!

Of course, you may search for more job information on Guidable Jobs.

Link: https://jobs.guidable.co/