How can I move to Japan, and find work as an attorney (before I'm 40).?

Start dating a Japanese chick. Shouldn't be too hard to find in California. Let her practice English on you while you practice Japanese. I bet a few months of successful dating will refresh your memory. It'd be nice if she is marriage-worthy and her family has links in the old country, of course.

I doubt it they don´t like people not japanese, they even got a word for that but I forgot.

You can to practice much other thing also!

What is your motivation for wanting to move to Japan?


If you are willing to take less than your ideal you can still find a job here.
The fluency part is not accurate. It will depend on your motivation and for what you are willing to settle.

See if there is a Japanese cable channel and if so sign up and watch it exclusively. Read Japanese newspapers.Visit Japanese bars and cafes. If there is a Japanese film showing-see it. If you make an effort, you can create sort of a mini Japan in CA.
There are people who have lived here for years speaking only Spanish, Chinese, Korean Etc. by living in their own communities.

This site contains some decent advice and links to general job sites like this one and this one.

You might have a better chance of getting a job with a foreign law firm than securing an in-house position. If you've practiced law in the US for a minimum of three years, then you can qualify as a gaikokuho jimu bengoshi. If your legal career in the US has been entirely in-house, I believe there you are still otherwise employable in Japan. Plus, there are plenty of gaiben I know with minimal Japanese-ability.

You might start with some of the recruiting firms that specialize in legal positions, however, you should not use them as the sole guide to opportunities in the market. Headhunters get paid 25-35% of the first year of compensation of each candidate they manage to place - and they like to maximize their own odds. That means they won't "waste time" with candidates who might not fit the spec exactly which includes being physically out of the country.

It would make much more sense to go direct. It should not be difficult to draw up a list of US and British law firms with offices in Tokyo who has relative strength in your area of expertise. You could start with MoFo, White & Case, Latham Watkins, Paul Hastings, Freshfields, Clifford Chance, Allen Overy, etc. and try reaching out first to any Partners or Associates from your alumni network.

The legal job market still probably sucks but it has to pick up some time. You might consider a dual-purpose sightseeing/job-hunting vacation to Tokyo in 2010. You might even be able to deduct a good portion of those expenses from your taxes. You should be able to find a decent centrally-located hotel that won't break your budget - for example, b-akasaka. Give yourself at least one week and use the time to fill it up with meetings you've scheduled beforehand with alumni and friends of friends at the aforementioned targeted law firms. They can be simple informational meetings - it's pretty hard for most people to say 'no'. Make sure you check out their corporate websites for any openings however - don't walk in blind.

Meet with headhunters but give them 2nd or 3rd priority. Don't screw it up so that they've pimped your resume out to prospective employers who might otherwise be interested in hiring you but might be a bit hesitant as they now need to pay the headhunter a 30% success fee.

Temple law school has the only ABA-approved semester program in Tokyo, I did it last year. We met lots of bengoshi and gaijin bengoshi, but the job-scene was oriented more towards internships and recent graduates rather than experienced attorneys. All of our professors seemed to be advisers of some sort, a JAG, and an immigration lawyer... but the advisers seemed very well off. All of them were fluent in Japanese, and all the students I saw getting interviews were at least semi-fluent. I don't know, the whole scene sounded pretty brutal to me in terms of expected work hours, especially when you consider what's expected of native bengoshi.

Are you doing this just for the women or do you have some special connection to Japan? You sound like a relatively recent graduate if your debts are still 6 figures. I've interned some abroad and from my experiences I wouldn't do it just for some vague paradigm of life being more exciting there... life is life wherever you are. If you're looking for women (you wouldn't be the first in Japan), I might recommend a more southern Asian country simply because Japanese women (on top of not being that attractive in general) are on average more conservative than most Westerners prefer, but that's of course a very broad generalization. So long as you remain single, a high-flying legal job in Bangkok sounds like paradise to me... but the single international drifter over 45 is a bit of a tired image.

Yes, I hate the stereotype too, it's really hard to avoid though with so many guys perpetuating it. There are a lot of genuine, well-meaning 'Japan nerds' out there that wrongly get put in that category. That being said, the exact same gaijin-fetish exists on the other end, so it's not that big of a deal. A year or two actually sounds optimal, I've found that anyone who gets so obsessed with one specific culture that they want to live there forever is a bit odd. The respect though the Japanese treat eachother with is indeed unbelievable. As a humble reserved person, I really treasured it and it is so vastly superior to the primitive locker-room interactions here in the US.

I don't get a choice for my interest rate, and I think it actually averages out to 6% or something with a principle of 130k in debt... so you're not alone. Anyway, good luck.

Aren't you a little old to still be in that late teenage idealistic mode of thinking?

So basically you're willing to let go of everything you've got so far for two years of "clean street"?

good luck, and I seriously mean that.

The collective knowledge of this forum is truly impressive. Let me hopefully add to it: http://www.daijob.com/en/

Move to Switzerland, it's as clean and not filled with those annoying yellow people that are all over Japan. In fact Switzerland is pretty much the place to be if you don't want any inferior races (or minarets) around.