Japan

Feeny is tracking about 1,264 open tech roles in Japan, from roughly 249 companies hiring. Each listing is pulled from a company's own careers page, so a role that appears here is one they're actively staffing. Nearly all of it runs through Tokyo, which functions as the country's single tech hub. Filter by discipline to focus the set.

Tokyo runs it. The vast majority of the country's tech roles sit in and around the capital, and for most job seekers Tokyo is effectively the whole map. Other cities have pockets of engineering work, but nothing that rivals the concentration in Tokyo. Across the 1 we index, this is a one-hub country in practice.

The recent energy is in AI, with Sakana AI and Preferred Networks doing frontier research out of Tokyo. A maturing SaaS layer is the other growth story, led by SmartHR and SmartNews building real product businesses. Global names staff large engineering teams here too, from Sony to Datadog to Databricks. Feeny lists roles from about 249 companies, so the live openings are worth checking directly.

SaaS engineering is a steady source of work as companies like SmartHR build out product teams. AI research and applied ML are the fast-growing category, thanks to labs like Sakana AI and Preferred Networks. Big-company engineering fills out the rest, with established firms and global offices needing people to run and extend large systems. The country is catching its software layer up to the size of its economy, and hiring reflects that shift.

Tokyo has become genuinely more open to foreign engineers, and English-only roles do exist, especially at global firms and newer startups. Japanese still helps a lot once you step outside those international teams, and it shapes daily life more than work. Tokyo is expensive, though housing costs less than many people expect for a city its size. The honest trade is that the language gives you far more range, even where a job technically runs in English.

Japan's Engineer/Specialist in Humanities visa is well-established and a common route for foreign tech workers, tied to a qualifying job offer. Strong candidates can go further through the Highly Skilled Professional points system, which fast-tracks residency for people who score well on education, salary, and experience. The country has grown noticeably more welcoming to foreign engineers in recent years. Japanese isn't required for many global-facing roles, but it widens your options considerably.