How Kei Went from 0 to $100K as a Developer in Japan

Profile: With no tech background or English skills, Kei took a leap of faith to move to Canada on a working holiday visa. He hopes his journey inspires others who feel late to the game or outside the traditional career path.

Kei Yamashita didn’t come from a privileged background. And he didn’t take a traditional path into tech either.

Born and raised in Osaka, he spent several years after high school working various part-time jobs, unsure about his future.

He couldn’t speak much English and didn’t have any formal tech experience. One of Kei’s many part-time jobs was working as a language school’s receptionist. Being surrounded by people who had studied abroad inspired him to believe that going overseas for a better life is possible.

This spark led him to apply for a working holiday visa and take a leap that would change his life.

We sat down with Kei to hear about his unconventional journey—from odd jobs, moving away from Japan, and his path into software development. 

More of a podcaster? You can check out Kei’s Interview with Japan Dev on Spotify!

Moving from Japan to Canada

At 22, Kei was juggling multiple part-time jobs. Since he didn’t go to university, he felt left behind when he compared himself to his peers who were starting their careers. 

One of his jobs was working as a receptionist at an English language school in Japan. One of the perks allowed Kei to have English lessons for about 40 to 50 minutes per week. Here, Kei thought, “Hey, English can be fun.”

After hearing these people’s stories about living abroad, he believed that going overseas could be a possible option for him as well. “It built the idea of one day, one time, after saving some money, I can go abroad and spend some time over there.”

He discovered that he could get a working holiday visa. Since he was already working various jobs in Japan, he might as well do so in a different country and gain some experience abroad. 

Why move to Canada?

At first, Kei wanted to move to the UK. However, a visa agency told him their visa is a lottery system. So, his chances of getting that visa depend on luck, not qualifications.

So, instead of the UK, he thought maybe the USA. However, the agency informed him that it might not be possible because of his limited budget. 

Eventually, they suggested Canada, and Kei thought, “That was the moment I started to think about going to Canada.”

One of the packages introduced to him was a co-op program, which included going to a language school for six months, followed by another six months of hotel work for international experiences. However, Kei didn’t expect to get into that line of work.

Why the language school didn’t work for Kei

Before his work experience in Canada could start, Kei needed to go to language school first. After some classes, Kei realized that the environment was not for him.

While the class was taught by a native English speaker, many students went back to using their native languages for group activities. Kei knew that it wasn’t the right environment to improve his English. 

Since the language school was disappointing, Kei assumed the hotel job would be just as bad.

Kei’s path to software development in Canada

Since the language school course was in addition to his working holiday visa in Canada, dropping it didn’t affect his visa status. So after a month, he left the language school.

But Kei didn’t know what to do next. “I was lost. I had no objectives in Canada that I was supposed to follow.”

Looking for motivation, he looked up the kind of job that allowed you to work anywhere in the world as a decent English speaker.

“Thanks to Google, it provided me [with] some clever answers. Maybe you want to be a software developer because software development skills are transferable in any country.”

That was when Kei decided to pursue a career in software development. 

“I had no experience and no interest in building websites. But software developers sounded cool. And that was the motivation I had.”

Kei thought, “Am I really going to do this?” after looking at Google images of simple HTML code.

Considering his situation, Kei saw it as a good starting point to study from the ground up. After some more research, Kei found a 2-year university coding bootcamp course. The first year was for learning how to program. Afterwards, he could work or intern for another year in Canada.

Kei was able to enroll after working multiple part-time jobs for eight months to start his software development journey.

Breaking into tech

Having already taken a couple of online courses, Kei wasn’t too shocked at the lines of code. As it turns out, most of his classmates were already experienced coders. 

“The teacher knew I was the only complete beginner. So they adjusted their class to my level. Until I actually understand something, they stop and try to explain what’s going on.”

While studying, Kei got an internship in software development after meeting someone who was offering an opportunity to write code for free for about 10 months. 

“It was when I joined a team and developed some stuff together. [Learning] practical stuff I could use to develop [code] rather than taking classes.”

Kei was able to put that experience on his developer resume, which later helped him land a full-time junior software development position.

You can say that it was because Kei was in the right place, at the right time. He overheard a conversation between his teacher and their friend, a CTO in Vancouver, offering the full-time opportunity. Kei didn’t hesitate and said he was interested.

Early software development challenges

“The first [software development] job, the salary was quite bad. It was like 39 grand.”

At first, he thought that amount was enough to live on, as it was higher than his part-time work. But after showing the offer to a teacher, they said Kei needed to negotiate for a higher salary. 

After emailing the CEO about a salary increase, Kei’s salary was increased by 2,000 Canadian dollars, which Kei accepted.

“At the time, I was going top speed for what I wanted to achieve, like juggling multiple things. I was pretty happy about what I was doing because I embraced this entire experience.”

Growing in the software industry

Ever since that first internship, Kei has always been a frontend developer. He used React Native to help build iOS and Android apps for his company.

With his experience and coding school training, Kei could use these skills for web and mobile development. 

Originally, the company Kei interned with was going to hire him full-time with visa sponsorship in Canada. However, the company couldn’t provide the sponsorship. Realizing that, Kei quit and applied to an American company based in Canada. 

“I think one big factor that helped me land that job was that I was kind of an expert in React Native at the time. I had lots of familiarity with the framework compared to other candidates.”

At this time, Kei was working on his company’s mobile app for solar panels and battery systems to track consumption, capacity, and the amount of energy being generated. 

When he signed with that company, his salary doubled—from about $40,000 to nearly $85,000. He thought, “Oh my god. Can I earn this money as a software developer?” 

After a year with them, Kei’s salary increased to close to 100,000 CAD. While it was still lower than what Canadian-based companies offered, Kei was still happy with the amount.

“I wasn’t really chasing money. But still, when I saw the big number in my bank account, I was really happy.”

Gaining Canadian Permanent residency for career flexibility

Kei’s next goal in his career plan was to gain permanent residency in Canada. One of the requirements was two years of work experience, something Kei was actively doing. 

With PR in Canada, his legal status was no longer tied to his job. He could switch roles, take time off, or even freelance without visa restrictions. 

So, once he obtained his permanent residency, Kei was able to relax.

“Aiming for higher freedom of your stay means a lot in your career.”

After two years at that company, Kei was ready for something different. After attending a local tech event, he met an American startup CTO in Canada who was actively looking for talent in Vancouver, and Kei was a perfect fit.

Moving back to Japan

While working in Canada, Kei shared his story online, hoping to inspire and help Japanese people trying to get jobs in North America.

One person from Wix Japan reached out because they weren’t confident in their English skills. Kei helped them, which resulted in them landing a job overseas.

Later on, that same person referred Kei to Wix Japan when an opportunity came up as a way to say thank you and to work with Kei in the future. After the interviews and processes, Kei took the offer and returned to Japan.

“If he didn't refer me or if I didn’t accept the offer, I would have been in Canada still.”

Kei was open to moving back to Japan for the right opportunity. “[After] living in [a different] country for quite a long time, Japan feels like a country you go for vacation. I could work in a vacation situation. But I was quite ignorant of the working culture of Japan.”

At the same time, though, moving back to Japan made sense to Kei. He could support people who want to be software developers abroad by hosting events or providing resume workshops in Japan. 

Finding the Right Tech Job in Japan

Kei realized there’s a difference between working in Japan vs working in Canada. “Those stereotypes of working super hard, going back with the last train, waking up and going back to the office on the first train are [the] Japanese style company.”

In Japan, there is a common practice known as 多重下請け構造 (tajū shitauke kōzō), or multi-layered subcontracting structure. In it, software development is seen as secondary rather than as a more valuable and prestigious field. So projects will be outsourced through multiple layers and continuously outsourced to prioritize cost and speed over quality and long-term skill development. 

Kei says, “If you want to build your career in Japan, try to get into [a] modern company rather than these traditional ones. [Japanese] people are recognizing that to make some big money in tech, we have to follow some Western ways. Then they want to hire more good talent from abroad who want to get into the industry. ”

In a more traditional Japanese company, it can feel that you are being trapped. There’s a higher chance that you work to exhaustion and end up burned out or depressed. So it’s difficult to get out of that environment. 

That’s why finding the right company is critical if you want to build a long-term career in Japan and for a good work-life balance. Unfortunately, it’s not always obvious which category a company falls into.

That’s where Japan Dev comes in. 

Japan Dev is a curated tech job board for those looking for modern and developer-friendly companies in Japan. Every company is vetted to align with more modern and Western-style companies, so you can avoid low-skill, exploitative jobs.

Whether you're in Japan or abroad, Japan Dev helps anyone in software development to find companies in Japan that value your skills.

As Kei put it, “The most crucial thing you gotta do is to find the right person, or right group, or right company that takes care of you. If you are one person trying to get all the information to grow your career in a specific field on your own, there are countless companies trying to get you into cheaper labor work.”

And looking at Kei’s experience, he reflects, “I went to a horrible [visa] agency, and they tried to put me into this situation. Go to Canada and make beds. There were countless groups and companies [that] tried to [do] that just for them to make some money.”

Life in Japan: Growth & Career Advice

Despite the inflation, Kei still sees Japan as offering a good balance of cost of living and quality of life.

Since coming back, he has been helping other Japanese people who want to move to North America. 

“Working abroad as a software developer helps you both personally and professionally because [living in] other countries open lots of doors in terms of how you think and how you progress your career.”

As he continues to help Japanese people go abroad, he hopes that the same people can bring back new work perspectives to modernize Japan's tech industry. This kind of cross-pollination can help Japanese companies move away from bad working conditions.

For now, Kei is going to stay in Japan. Depending on where he is in life, he might switch jobs again or move to North America.

Kei’s advice when it comes to breaking into software development is: don’t be afraid of jumping in. While cliché, you need to start somewhere.” He also includes finding people with similar interests to learn the basics and to help you out. 

“Jump in. Gather information. Prepare. If you do those three things, then you should be able to achieve something big.”