My name is Koji Aizaki and I am half Chinese, half Japanese. My mom is from China and my dad is from Japan. My background is actually a bit strange: I was born in China but because of my dad’s work, my parents moved me back to Japan for 6 years, I lived in Kobe for 3 years and then in Tokyo for another 3 years. After that, I went back to China and stayed there for around 12 years. After finishing high school at an international school in China, I went to Canada and studied for a Bachelor’s degree at York University in Toronto. At my university, I majored in international business, with a specialization in accounting and entrepreneurship. Fast forward, now I’m working in an auditing firm called Mazars, which provides professional financial services.

After graduating from university, I first thought about working in Hong Kong. However, the working environment there was very competitive and it was super difficult for foreigners to get a visa sponsorship. That, coupled with the protest happening during that time, made it really hard for me to get a job in Hong Kong. I also considered working in Canada for a while but there was another problem: many companies still preferred local candidates. The recruitment process didn’t go smoothly for me, as a foreigner. While I was waiting for some interview results, back home my dad got really sick, which made me decide to come back to Japan. So far it’s been working out great for me here, my company has a really international environment, and my colleagues are also friendly and supportive.

The most memorable or proudest thing during college 

During my time at university, I was very ambitious. I joined two internship programs and participated in many extracurricular activities. 

My first internship was at the United States House of Representatives as a research analysis intern. During the internship, my tasks involved representing our district’s Congressman by answering phone calls from Constituents. At that time, my district was full of Democrats who were displeased by the election of Donald Trump, so we received many phone calls complaining and requesting policy changes. It was overall a very heated period. Aside from that service, I also did research on average household income in our area. By interviewing different households, I discovered that low income resulted in serious health problems for children due to poor eating habits or lack of healthy food. Through my research, I proposed a solution, which was delivered by our Congressman to the government. Even though the proposal was not approved by Congress in the end, I’m still glad I could learn more about U.S. politics, practice working under great pressure and improve my research skills thanks to that experience.

My next internship took place during my second year at university. I was fortunate to be selected as an intern at PWC Hong Kong, which was one of the “big four” accounting firms globally. As one of the biggest accounting firms, their requirements were very demanding, they were looking for candidates with some background in accounting, as well as with an aspiring future in accounting. The company was not easy to get in at all, and it was fortunate for me to work for two months there as an audit intern. Those two months of working and living in Hong Kong was really memorable. I enjoyed the international atmosphere in Hong Kong and also got the first-hand experience in the world of professional accounting, which is valuable for my career prospects.

What do you wish you had done during college and why?

Back then I was very much focused on doing extracurricular activities. As a big fan of volunteering activities, I loved helping out others by working as a student mentor or joining a leadership program. Because I put too much priority on extracurricular programs, my grades went down. Compared to many of my friends my grades were definitely not that high, my GPA was around 3.2, which is not too bad, but I do wish that I had put more effort into studying. I think at that time I didn’t put much emphasis on maintaining the grades because I thought that grades don't matter. Now that I’m working full-time, my grades seem to be good enough. However, I do have plans to study for a Masters someday, which means I need to focus more on studying and getting better grades.

Still, overall I am happy with what I accomplished during my time in university, I wouldn’t consider it a regret, but rather if I had another chance, I would try to focus more on the academic aspect.

Create a good LinkedIn profile

I highly recommend everyone to try and create a good LinkedIn profile for job hunting. It’s unfortunate that many Japanese people don’t even know LinkedIn because they tend to use Japanese websites more and to a great extent, LinkedIn is more suitable for foreigners or English speakers in general. Many big companies put their job postings on LinkedIn and personally, I landed my current job through LinkedIn. It’s definitely a really good resource. Creating a good profile there will attract a lot of recruiters. Even these days, I’ve been getting messages from headhunters everywhere on LinkedIn. They would like me to work with their clients, or introduce to me a good opportunity from their companies. Having a solid LinkedIn profile is 100% recommended for anyone who is either at the mid-career level or doing job hunting as a new grad.

Find internship opportunities

I feel like many young Japanese people are not interested in pursuing high-level business careers, such as a top position in professional service, financial industry, or accounting industry. Many Japanese university students don't really have the habit of applying for internships overseas or taking part in extracurricular activities because of that lack of ambition. For those who are interested in pursuing those kinds of career or any other career, I would say it doesn't hurt to try applying for internships from high-level organizations. It can be the most critical factor when it comes to job hunting. Here in Japan, many companies will look at your personality and your capability as a whole, that’s why I would say in the long run, they will start to expect you to have some internship experience, not just like normal part-time job experience. Along with internships, you should also try other leadership activities or study abroad programs. I think these would be the main factors when it comes to job hunting in the future. Maybe not at the moment, but I can see that companies are becoming more demanding than before. Also, for an internship, the payment could be a bit low in many cases. Unless you have a really heavy financial difficulty where you have to make a lot of money, I would still recommend you to do the internship even if it's unpaid, because it's going to be worth it in the long run.

Don’t give up

Don't be scared when applying to any company because honestly, it might be challenging in the beginning because you don't have any experience. However, companies know that you don’t have experience if you’re a fresh graduate and that's why they don't expect much from you. I would 100%, maybe 200% recommend people to just apply for the job because it doesn't hurt to try. It doesn’t cost money to apply for a job. Yes, it costs time, and it might be discouraging sometimes, especially when a company rejects you. Just remember that everyone goes through the same struggles. Even for myself, I still have my Excel sheet where I recorded the number of companies I applied for. I think I applied for around 350 companies and only got around 15 interviews. I would say it's actually not a bad ratio because I know some of my friends who are more brilliant than I am, and they still have trouble finding a suitable job. Especially now with the Coronavirus, job hunting is becoming even more difficult. One of my friends even got fired, not because of their performance, but simply because their company was not doing well financially. Companies are more demanding, it can be very discouraging and stressful when it comes to job hunting, but don’t give up. Honestly, don't give up. That's all I can say. Don't give up. Never give up.

Merge Yourself with The Japanese Culture

It’s up to you to merge yourself with the culture here. It's very unfortunate because in Japan, even though we have more and more foreigners coming in, if you want to land a job in a company here, especially in a Japanese company, you need to be part of the Japanese society.
You need to learn the language, lifestyle, and job-hunting techniques. For example, job hunting in Japan is a bit different than in North American countries - networking is not very common. It’s good in the sense that there’s almost no such thing as corrupted nepotism, and it's more of a pure skill-based job hunting. That’s why it's essential for foreigners who want to work here to learn the way of life here. Even for me, it used to be really difficult to assimilate myself into the culture. Throughout my time abroad, I did come back to Japan once every year, but I never actually lived here long enough. It's just the Japanese culture, you have to be proactive. They're not going to change themselves for you. You have to be the one to understand their culture, learn more about their culture, and then be part of it.

Constantly Develop your Skill-Set

From what I see, a sad reality is that many Japanese students don’t focus much on learning skills like Excel or Powerpoint. Of course, this depends on the industry that you work in, but in general, companies these days expect a certain level of Excel/Powerpoint proficiency. It may be difficult since Japanese universities don’t focus on teaching those skills, so you need to be proactive and learn by yourself. As far as I know, some companies do provide Excel training, but obviously they want you to have some skills in the beginning so that they won't have to invest a lot of time in training you. The more time it takes to train you, the less likely they hire you because it’s simply a waste of time. It’s also important to work on your soft skills such as communications, teamwork, or problem-solving. You can develop those by joining school clubs, volunteering, or other extracurricular activities.

Being Multilingual Is a Huge Plus

When it comes to job hunting, obviously being native-level in Japanese is really admirable from a company's perspective, but as long as you can write business emails, answer phone calls or handle inquiries, that is already a big plus. The same goes for English or any other foreign language. Improve your English, make friends with foreigners, and don’t get stuck with Japanese people all the time. Being multilingual will give you much better prospects for your career. There is also a good reason why companies these days tend to require students in Japan to submit their TOEIC grades. Many Japanese companies are taking advantage of globalization by moving or further expanding their business overseas. Therefore, they want to hire more young and motivated people who can speak English as well as Japanese to work for their companies. Traditionally, many Japanese companies have their business with China because China used to offer efficient labor and manufacturing costs. However, these days as China is developing rapidly and costs are getting more and more expensive. Japanese companies are actually thinking about doing more business with partners in Southeast Asia, such as Thailand or Malaysia.