How Foreigners Actually Find Jobs in Japan: 37.8% Through Friends

Last updated: 2 September 2026

You filter a job site for “foreigners welcome”, you apply, nothing comes back. You check the school noticeboard every day and nothing there fits. Your classmates are getting hired and you are not.

You are probably not bad at applying. You may simply not be using the entrance where most people go in.

A survey published by Japan’s labour ministry on 31 August 2026 records how people actually got their current job. It is based on 11,568 responses. Here are the numbers as they stand.

How foreigners actually find jobs in Japan

The figures below are for foreign workers who were living in Japan before they started the job. People recruited from overseas take different routes and are counted separately. If you are studying at a language school or a vocational school and looking for what comes next, this is your table.

How the job was found	Share
A friend or acquaintance	37.8%
Job adverts (magazines, internet)	19.1%
A private agency in Japan	10.6%
A school career office in Japan	5.8%
Hello Work	4.6%
An agency or individual in the home country	3.9%
A previous employer	2.3%
Hello Work Internet Service	1.7%

Friends and acquaintances rose from 35.2% the previous year to 37.8%, nearly double the share of job adverts.

Why applying and applying does not work

Most people start by filtering a job site for “foreigners welcome” and checking the school noticeboard. Both are reasonable. But those two routes together add up to 24.9%.

Meanwhile more than one in three got the job because someone introduced them. Skip that and a third of the market is invisible to you.

You may be thinking you have nobody to introduce you. But the survey’s “friend or acquaintance” does not mean a close friend. A senior student at your school, someone from your country’s community, a colleague at your current arubaito, someone you see at church or at the mosque. Anyone who knows that workplace counts.

The route that works depends on the industry

This is the practical part. The overall figure is 37.8%, but the ranking flips depending on the industry.

Industry	Friends	Job adverts	School office	Private agency
Accommodation, food service	28.1%	30.6%	4.5%	12.6%
Wholesale, retail	30.0%	20.3%	11.6%	11.3%
Manufacturing	39.7%	11.9%	4.0%	10.8%
Personal services, entertainment	50.0%	23.4%	3.0%	4.3%
Information and communications	27.4%	28.7%	7.8%	17.0%
Medical and welfare	28.7%	15.6%	9.0%	15.8%

How to read it:

• Looking for a restaurant or hotel arubaito? Job adverts are the biggest route there, one of only two industries where they beat word of mouth. Keep applying
• Factory and manufacturing work runs on friends at 39.7%. Job adverts are only 11.9%, so applications alone rarely land
• Wholesale and retail is where school career offices peak at 11.6%, the highest of any industry. For supermarket and shop work, the school office is genuinely worth using
• Information and communications rewards adverts and agencies. This is the sector where registering with a recruiter actually pays

Find the row for the industry you want, and put your time into the column with the highest number.

The school office is safe, but it is one in twenty

As we wrote in our arubaito guide, jobs that come through your school are the safest, because the school can step in when something goes wrong. That has not changed.

But the volume is small: 5.8% overall. If you only watch the noticeboard and nothing suits you, the board is not the problem. There is simply not much on it.

Why job listings do not reach language schools at all is covered in what comes after Japanese language school. Different kinds of school connect you to different things.

A friend brings the job, not the rules

This is the part that matters most.

People who get hired through an introduction are the least likely to check the terms. When someone you know vouches for you, asking feels rude.

It shows up in the data. For people working on a student status, the most common problems were:

• No explanation of the work beforehand: 28.9% (1.3% the previous year)
• Higher Japanese ability demanded than was explained: 21.3%
• The actual work differed from what was explained: 15.8%

The top item jumped from 1.3% to 28.9% in a single year. The sample for that group is small, so treat the exact figure with care, but the direction is clear: more people are starting work without knowing what the work is.

And one more thing. Asking a Japanese friend will not get you the rules.

The person who runs this site can confirm it. Asked questions by the international students he knows, he can rarely answer them, even though he can answer ordinary questions about life in Japan. The reason is simple: the rules that apply to foreign residents are not the rules that apply to Japanese people. Japanese people do not know rules that never touch them. The 28-hour weekly limit, the permission to work outside your status, the fact that what you may do depends on which status you hold – none of that appears in a Japanese person’s life.

So split it: jobs come from people, rules come from official sources. You do not need to distrust whoever introduced you. They just do not know.

Living outside Tokyo is not a disadvantage

If you have been told you need to move to Tokyo to find work: the biggest route, word of mouth, runs on the people around you. Wherever you live, those relationships already exist, and using them costs no train fare.

The jobs are not all in Tokyo either. As set out in where international students get hired, the Kinki region takes 7,754 a year, with roughly 5,900 in Osaka and Hyogo alone.

The public service is free wherever you are

Hello Work and the Employment Service Centre for Foreigners come to 6.3% together. Not large. But free, usable while you are still studying, and with interpreters at some counters is a combination nothing else offers.

How much Japanese is enough

The same survey records reading ability by status of residence, which turns the question into a number.

• Student status: N3 is the largest group at 42.6%, then N2 at 22.9% and N1 at 11.1%
• Work status (engineer, specialist in humanities, international services): N1 at 29.4% and N2 at 30.8%, so 60.2% are at N2 or above

If you are around N3 on a student status, the next step is N2. Six in ten of the people already hired are there. The second most common problem, “higher Japanese ability demanded than was explained” at 21.3%, points the same way.

Plenty of people are working on it: 42.7% of those on a student status studied for their job in the past year, outside of Japanese language study itself. Kanji practice and keigo come back to you in the results of your applications.

What to do this week

1. Pick one industry and read its row in the table above. Move your time to the column with the highest share
2. Ask one senior student or one colleague whether anywhere is hiring. More than one in three jobs are found this way
3. If you want restaurant or hotel work, keep applying to adverts. That is the one industry where adverts lead
4. If an introduction is turning into an offer, ask the employer three things: the work, the rate and pay date, the weekly hours
5. Book one appointment at the Employment Service Centre for Foreigners

Step 2 can happen today, and being told no costs you nothing.

FAQ

Q. How do foreigners find jobs in Japan?
According to the labour ministry’s 2025 Survey on Employment of Foreign Workers, among those already living in Japan, 37.8% found the job through a friend or acquaintance, 19.1% through job adverts, 10.6% through a private agency in Japan, 5.8% through a school career office and 4.6% through Hello Work.

Q. I keep applying on job sites and nothing happens. Why?
Job adverts account for 19.1% of hires, one in five, and only 11.9% in manufacturing. It may not be your applications; it may be the route. In accommodation and food service, though, adverts are the top route at 30.6%, so for that industry it is worth continuing.

Q. I do not have anyone who could introduce me.
The survey’s “friend or acquaintance” is not limited to close friends. A senior student at your school, someone from your national community, or a colleague at your current arubaito all count. Start by asking one person where you already work.

Q. What should I confirm when a job comes through someone I know?
The work itself, the hourly rate and pay date, and the weekly hours – and ask the employer rather than the person who introduced you. The most common problem reported by people on a student status was “no explanation of the work beforehand”, at 28.9%.

Q. How much Japanese do I need?
Of people working on the engineer, specialist in humanities and international services status, 60.2% read at N2 or above. On a student status the largest group is N3 at 42.6%, so N2 is the next target.

Q. Do I have to move to Tokyo to find work?
The largest route, an introduction from someone you know, runs on the relationships where you already live, so being outside Tokyo is not a disadvantage. The Kinki region also takes 7,754 hires a year, about 5,900 of them in Osaka and Hyogo.

Summary

• Among foreign workers already living in Japan, 37.8% found the job through a friend or acquaintance
• Job adverts 19.1%, private agencies 10.6%, school career offices 5.8%, Hello Work 4.6%
• Job sites and the school noticeboard together are only 24.9% of hires
• Industry flips the ranking: adverts lead in accommodation and food service at 30.6%, friends lead manufacturing at 39.7%
• School career offices peak in wholesale and retail at 11.6%, the highest of any industry
• Word of mouth runs on where you already are, so living outside Tokyo is not a disadvantage
• An introduction brings the job but not the rules: confirm the work, the rate and pay date, and the hours with the employer
• Asking a Japanese friend will not get you the rules that apply to foreign residents
• 60.2% of people on a work status read at N2 or above, while the largest group on a student status is N3

Sources: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Survey on Employment of Foreign Workers 2025 / Osaka Employment Service Centre for Foreigners / Hello Work Internet Service