From US Military in Japan to IBD Tokyo
Good evening everyone,
I am an officer in the Marine Corps stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Over this past year I have fallen in love with the culture/language/country, and after my 4-year contract is done I plan on staying in Japan (ideally, to work a finance job in Tokyo).
Some reference: for undergrad I went to a competitive non-Ivy target school (think MIT, Stanford, Duke, UChicago) and completed two ibanking summer internships; I eventually opted to turn down my FT offer and join the military instead.
I am only somewhat conversational in Japanese, but am working hard to reach a level of functional/professional fluency. I might even end up marrying my current Japanese girlfriend.
I was curious about what my chances are of landing a BB IBD job in a Tokyo office (or perhaps at a Japanese company like Mizuho), or if this is too far-fetched a dream considering my lack of true Japanese fluency, my foreigner status and how hard it is apparently to get sponsored for a visa.
Thanks for your time / どうもありがとうございました
-Lieutenant Chimp
Hey there,
I've seen a few friends go work in Japan so getting a visa should be possible but I suggest you up your language skills first. All of my friends who were able to land a job there had passed JLPT Level 1 so you need to be pretty fluent.
I've heard there aren't enough Japanese workforce who are fluent in English so if you are a native English speaker fluent in Japanese from a target school, you should have a fair shot.
In terms of looking for jobs, take a look here. I heard about this event from some friends who were interested in working in Japan:
https://careerforum.net/en/event/bos/companylist_67/?forums%5B%5D=67&pe…
This is a career fair hosted every year in Boston and a lot of major firms come to recruit Japanese/English bilinguals. It seems like its virtual this year so you should look into it.
If you look at the list in the link, I see banks like Citi, Nomura, Mizuho, Sumimoto and consulting firms like BCG, Bain, Deloitte, EY and NRI.
Good luck!
Thanks a million, really great info
Okinawa is chill as fuck, would almost join the military just to get stationed there..
I know nothing about Japanese banking but I feel like it would be tough to break in as a gaijin
Lloyd stop playing Yakuza.
Haha I agree it's paradise, essentially the Hawaii of Japan. I could stay here forever
Hi there, I am a SA for a BB in Tokyo, but in S&T. I am non-Japanese but have passed N1 and consider myself somewhat fluent (except for keigo and specific finance terms) Contrary to the post above, I would say that your chances now in IBD in Tokyo is quite low. I say this because I know that investment banking in Japan is very domestic, meaning you have mostly have exposure to Japanese clients who you naturally need to interact in Japanese. From how you describe your own Japanese skills, I think you would not have an advantage over a native Japanese applicant who has perfect command of the language, keigo, etc. I know a non-Japanese Tokyo IBD intern at my bank this year, but he went to primary school in Japan so one could say he is native-level... As for me, well, I broke into my Tokyo BB S&T internship by Boston Career Forum or BCF (the link above) last year. Obviously I have to do it remotely in the US, but when I'm done with the internship my managers (from the US team) told me I would receive an offer from another office (think NY/HK) because "my skillsets are more suitable for those offices"... In any case, I think you have better chances if you land IBD in the US for example and after a few years transfer to the Japan office (if there is such opportunity). If you are dead set on staying in Japan after your time in the services, I would encourage you to go to BCF but look for non-IBD roles in investment banks. (I guess you can still try S&T if you want to, but you are probably going to be considered for Equities only since FICC is again so domestic) I say this because you probably don't want to deal with the sad ~240k yen monthly base salary of most Japanese companies at BCF. Do be aware that if you go that way you are going to make sacrifices for the sake of staying in Japan, such as taking a pay cut and probably looking at a less broad career path. But I personally did receive another SA offer in Risk for another top-tier BB in Tokyo at BCF last year, and they made it sound like they don't require too much Japanese. I turned it down in favor of my current bank, so this is purely for your information. I'm posting anonymously because the info I give out makes me really identifiable... but feel free to ask questions below and I'll be happy to answer.
Hey thank you so much for your detailed response; I'll look thoroughly through the BCF opportunities, but I can see that it's not looking great for me lol. I'm starting to think I should just go back to the US, get an MBA with the GI Bill, then try to move laterally later on if that's possible
Great post ! I’ve a few questions that I would really like to ask you in private. Do you mind pm-ing me ? I
Sure PMed
Also interested in talking to you! Do you mind PM me as well? Appreciate it.
PMed you
How about the income tax rate for those in S&T? I hear it’s 55% for above $400k comps. Do you get any tax refunds or any way to reduce?
One of my buddies is Italian and works in S&T in Tokyo, selling equities internationally. I think it's going to be tough. You absolutely need to be fluent (as my friend is) and work for an international platform. Difficult to do IBD there given the local nature of the clients. I'm outside of Japan, and living in Hong Kong, so I'm no expert, but to my understanding it's quite a local environment and difficult for foreigners to penetrate. But you're a marine, so if anyone can crush it and get in it would be a marine.
Really appreciate it brother. It's starting to look like internationally-focused S&T is my best bet, and even then my Japanese probably won't be good enough. Rather than shoehorning in something less than ideal for the sake of staying in Japan, I might go back to America for an MBA then follow a more strategic long-term approach to coming back
if you're dead-set on Japan, then here's my advice: 1) learn Japanese to fluency BEFORE you go to MBA. This is going to set you back a year or two, but it's the only way you can get a role in Japan. Good news is that the MIL is the single best provider of intense courses for language training in the world. You are in the best location to immerse yourself in Japanese. Can you get the MIL to put you into that intensive language training?
2) while you're learning Japanese start learning the finance and business language of Japanese. You'll need all the usual terms you would use in English - like walking through the financial statements in Japanese. 3) learn finance and accounting before you go to MBA. You may as well do this in parallel with the above endeavors. 4) apply and try to get into UPenn's Lauder program . That's a program that gives you an MBA+MA joint degree integrates two degrees in two years. Japanese is one of the tracks, and a very well established one. With that you can tap into Penn alumni in Japan. 5) learn some Mandarin too. You’ll never be better than locals in either but by having a passable amount in both you may be able to do what the locals cannot - bridge the gaps and be uniquely useful
I hear the income tax rate is quite high. Is your friend in s&t able to reduce the tax he pays?
out of curiosity, why did you decide the marines and how do you think of your decision in hindsight? Im tempted to join the rangers out of college so thats why im asking
Hey man, joining the military was a dream of mine since childhood and I realized that taking a FT IBD offer at a boutique would mean that it would essentially never happen. Whereas if I did four years in the USMC, I could always go back into finance later by going to bschool (which, by the way, would be totally free with the post-9/11 GI Bill and Yellow Ribbon Program).
In my opinion becoming a military officer is one of the greatest but most rewarding challenges a 22 year old can possibly take on. Marine OCS and the following school TBS were pretty difficult but the lessons in leadership, resilience, discipline etc. teach you a lot (mostly through failing, getting yelled at, and having to lead other people in temporary leadership billets). It may suck most of the time, but being a platoon commander (in charge of and directly responsible for 30-40 subordinates) is an unparalleled leadership experience.
As much of an incredible journey it's been, I'm definitely not staying past my 4 year contract (I'm a first lieutenant now, on track to get promoted to captain, but will probably never wear that rank in the fleet since the board is right before I get out).
I had a buddy in college who did Army ROTC, got the 11A MOS and just finished Ranger School. He loves it. I'm POG as f*ck (think intelligence, logistics, aviation wing) so it's a totally different experience from a combat arms MOS like infantry, and especially an SOC group like the Rangers. I hated "the field" but if you're passionate about it I'm sure you'll make a great warfighter.
props to you man for walking the walk.
alot of dudes on wso talking about how they could've or would've joined the military but didn't because xyz
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