The Complete Guide: Japanese Resume Writing for Software Engineers

GUIDE
The Complete Guide: Japanese Resume Writing for Software Engineers

After talking with 100’s of software engineers and developers living in Japan and abroad, I’ve noticed there is one problem that is shared among all of them: Japanese resume writing.

One of my followers on LinkedIn mentioned that I should make a course built around resume writing, but I think releasing it for free would be better!

Usually this newsletter is focused on tech market and job searching in Japan, but I think it is important to make a complete guide to writing software engineering focused resumes in Japanese as I haven’t seen many other articles online that go through each step.

I also want everyone to understand that I will be posting photos of every single step to make sure this is as straight forward and simple as possible (sorry for all of the images!)

This article will be broken into three different sections:

• What is expected in a Japanese resume (like your Rirekisho and Shokumukeirekisho)

• How to write the Rirekisho

• How to write the Shokumukeirekisho

I hope this article will help lower the barrier to entry into tech jobs in Japan for people living abroad, please let me know if there is anything else you would like me to cover week to week through my newsletter.

I will also be attaching templates for both Japanese resume versions, hopefully this will help!

JAPANESE RESUMES
What is expected in a Japanese resume?

When applying for positions here in Japan, most companies will require two separate resumes:

• A Rirekisho (履歴書)

• A Shokumukeirekisho (職務経歴書)

First, the Rirekisho is specifically for writing down the names of the companies you joined, as well as any kind of schooling. You will also be writing down any certifications, licenses, current address, birthdate and any other relevant information.

The next type is called a Shokumukeirekisho (職務経歴書). This is the resume where you want to go into detail about your specific roles, as well as what responsibilities you had during work projects.

Often they want to know about your projects in detail, as well as specific title you had during that time.

Once you have both of these updated, they can be sent off and your target company will start processing your application.

HOW TO
Write a Rirekisho

Please take a look here to download the template.

First, we need to fill out the date. The first kanji “年” is the year, then month and so on.

Generally, you also need to attach a photo of yourself to your Rirekisho. I ended up using a photo of Hideo Kojima, please use your own!

Write your name in Romaji in the “氏名” box. Then, write your name in Katakana in the “フリガナ” section.

Next, under the box with your name, you need to write in your birthdate. As previously stated, start with the first kanji “年” and proceed to month, day and year. After that, they are asking for your current age, make sure to put it next to the “歳” kanji.

Finally, they ask you for your gender. At the moment they only have the kanji for “男” male and “女” female. Be sure to circle one of them.

Underneath that, we write down our address. Make sure to write it in the box next to “現住所” which means “current residence”. If you are living abroad it is perfectly fine to write this initially in English, then translate it into Japanese and paste it in the フリガナ section.

After that, write your phone number in the “電話” box, along with an email they can reach you at in the “メール” box.

The next section is designated for previous schooling and work.

At the top, put the kanji “学歴” to indicate you are talking about your university and school history.

From here, is it very important that you get the years and months correct from when you entered, stopped, transferred and graduated university.

As we discussed before, the “年” section is for year, while the “月” section is for month.

After you have put in your dates, input your university in the next box and make sure to put “入学” which stands for “enrollment”.

I personally ended up stopping my studies and transferred to another university, as you can see in the second box I used the kanji “中退” to indicate leaving that university.

From there, I input the name of my new university and added the kanji “編入” to show I transferred.

In the end, I graduated from that same university and indicated that with the “卒業” kanji.

Once you’re done with your school history, its time to move on to the job history. To show you are going to start writing about your job history put the “職歴” kanji.

Every time you write down your company name, it is important to put 株式会社 before it.

I personally started as an intern, so I wrote “インターン開始” after my company name. After the internship, I joined the company as a full-time employee, which is shown through the “入社” set of kanji.

Once you switch jobs, is it important to write that as “leaving” from your past company through “退社”, then use the same “入社” set of kanji to show you have joined your next company.

If nothing has changed since joining your last company, write “現在に至る” to show that your are still working in the same company and role.

Finally, to show you are finished writing out your work history put the “以上” set of kanji at the end.

Now, we will move onto the certification and qualifications section written as “免許・資格”.

This is the place to write any certifications, licenses or language testing that are relevant for the position you are applying.

Often, you will end the name of the certification with “取得” which roughly translates to “acquisition” or “obtained”.

Now we move onto the next part with the dreaded “PR” section.

The PR section is where you talk about your abilities and why you want to join the specific company you are applying for.

You will be writing this in the “志望の動機、特技、自己PRなど” section. I already have an example sentence, but I also recommend you take parts and pieces of it to draft your own skills and reasons for applying.

“約7年間、詳細設計から開発フェーズまでたくさんのプロジェクトに携わり、開発エンジニアとして経験を積んできました。主にJavaでの開発を得意とし、javaフレームワークspring bootやStrutsとSeasar2等の新規構築経験もあり、サーバ側からフロント側まで幅広く見ることが出来ます”

This roughly translates to, “I have been involved in many projects from detailed design to the development phase for about 7 years, and have gained experience as a development engineer. I am mainly good at development in Java, and have experience in building new java frameworks such as spring boot, Struts, and Seasar2, etc. I can see a wide range from server side to front side.”

At this point my example sentence doesn’t have any reasons for wanting to join, so be sure to write something in your own words as well.

The section to the right of your “PR” is asking you about your travel time to office, marital status and whether or not you have someone you are supporting (so they can add them to your company’s health insurance).

For this example I put that I am one hour from the office, don’t have any dependents in the “扶養家族（配偶者を除く）” section, circled that I am married in the “配偶者” section and circled “No” or “無” for my wife needing assistance through my health insurance.

For our final section “本人希望記入欄　（特に給料、職種、勤務時間、勤務地、その他についての希望などがあれば記入）”, they are asking for any other requirements you may have when considering a new position.

The two items that I wrote down were “remote work possibility” (リモートワーク可能) and “child care services” (子育て支援). Be sure to put whatever else you think may be necessary when considering a new position. Although I would highly recommend not writing down expected salary.

After everything is completed this is what our finished product looks like! Now time to move onto the Shokumukeirekisho.

HOW TO
Write a Shokumukeirekisho

Please take a look here to download the template.

To get started, change the “名前様” at the top of the page to your name, make sure to put your birthdate as well in the “生年月日” section.

Next, they are asking for your nationality “国籍” which I put as American.

Then, they ask for any languages you are proficient in “言語”. I personally put “Japanese business level” and “English fluent”.

After that, they are asking for any useful experience you may have towards the position you are applying for, as well as any beneficial knowledge or technologies. I went ahead and put a couple of technologies on there, but be sure to add whatever is best for you.

In the next section “資格” they are asking for any relevant certifications, you can take the same one from your Rirekisho and post them here. I just went ahead and put “drivers license”.

Once again we need to put some educational history “学歴”. I would recommend only putting the universities you graduated from.

Now we are onto the Job history part. On the left side where you see “株式会社” be sure to delete all of the X’s and write in the name of your company. All the way on the right side is the timeline of our employment. For this part I went ahead and put in a start date of October 2014 to present.

Underneath that, delete the X’s again and put in the name of the project (if you are able to share). If not, it is okay to just put “Project 1” or “プロジェクト１”. Don’t forget to write your job title during that project as well.

After inputting the name of the project, they also want to know the exact department you were working in as well as the amount of members in your team. The current example for department is set to “ピ新サービス& 楽天レシピ”. Be sure to put the number of team members (after deleting the X’s) next to the “人” kanji.

Then, we start talking about any specific responsibilities you had during this project.

A couple of examples:

• Basic design, detailed design, program production, testing, and maintenance of management tools, API, and Sitemap Batch

• Performance improvement modification of image thumbnail generation Batch

• Development of new functions for Android and iOS apps

• Development of new Apple Watch app

Here is the Japanese used as well if you would like to mix and match:

• 管理ツール、API、Sitemap Batchの基本設計、詳細設計、プログラム製造、テスト、保守

• 画像サムネイル生成Batchのパフォーマンス改善改修

• Android、iOSアプリの新規機能開発

• Apple Watchアプリの新規開発

Then, under the “実績・取り込み” section which roughly translates to “achievements”, add a couple of bullet points describing what you completed.

Here are some more examples:

• Estimating and Scheduling

• Implementation of Spring Boot framework

• Proposed UI improvements to management tools

• Reduced costs by learning Android and iOS on our own and switching maintenance in-house

• Learning Windows Azure and deploying Java web apps and PHP apps

Here is the Japanese again:

• 見積もりとスケジュール管理

• フレームワークSpring Bootの導入

• 管理ツールのUI改善提案

• Android、iOSを独学し、保守は自社切り替えすることによりコストダウン

• Windows Azureの学習とJava Webアプリ、PHPアプリのデプロイ

Make sure that you also add the dates and timelines for each project. Here we can see the 1st project took approximately 5 months, but they worked at this company for 7 years.

It is extremely important to list all of your completed projects within the company and their timelines.

Here is what a complete work history looks like for a Shokumukeirekisho. In this example this person only moved jobs once. In reality your Shokumukeirekisho will be a lot longer, but please use this as a template to understand the necessary structure.

Finally, we have one more PR section to cover. This is where you need to go into deep detail about your tech stack and other big projects you’ve worked on.

Here is the example provided in English:

“I have been involved in many projects from detailed design to the development phase for about 7 years, and have gained experience as a development engineer. I am mainly good at developing in Java, and have experience building new java frameworks such as spring boot, Struts, and Seasar2, etc. I can see a wide range from server side to front side. Even without experience in application development, I have taught myself to add new features to Android and iOS applications and created a new Apple Watch (8 screens). I am very curious and light on my feet, and I am proud of the speed at which I can catch up with technology and the environment.

　　I have a strong sense of responsibility for my work and am able to promote team awareness through her high communication skills. I am confident in my ability to face new knowledge and technology with my own perseverance.”

Now the Japanese:
“約7年間、詳細設計から開発フェーズまでたくさんのプロジェクトに携わり、開発エンジニアとして経験を積んできました。主にJavaでの開発を得意とし、javaフレームワークspring bootやStrutsとSeasar2等の新規構築経験もあり、サーバ側からフロント側まで幅広く見ることが出来ます。アプリの開発経験なくても独学によって、AndroidとiOSアプリの新規機能追加とApple Watch（８画面）を新規作成しました。何事にも好奇心旺盛でフットワークが軽く、技術や環境に対するキャッチアップスピードは速い方だと自負しております。

　　出向先が変わってもすぐ新たな現場で人間関係をうまく構築でき、マーネージャから、仕事に対する責任感を強く、高いコミュニケーション能力でチームの意識決定を推進できるの評価を頂きました。持ち前の根性で新しい知識、技術と立ち向かうの自信があります。”

Here is our finished product! Again, I think for anyone else this will be must longer, but this is the general format to follow when creating a Shokumukeirekisho.

CONTACT
Requests

I hope those who read this article find it useful! I will try to keep this article continuously updated to make sure all of the information is accurate.

If you have any requests on what else you would like to learn about, please contact me through my email [email protected] or through my LinkedIn.

Looking forward to helping many more of your find your dream tech jobs here in Japan!