How to Handle Job Rejections in Japan: a Practical Guide

Getting rejected is one of the main reasons why many people dread the process of job searching. Even worse, when a company doesn’t get back to you with any answer, job seekers are left with many unanswered questions. Did I do anything wrong? Is it because I don’t have three years of experience? Maybe it’s my Japanese?

As a career coach, I’ve partnered with hundreds of job seekers, and one missed opportunity for many is how they handle rejection. I also used to shove my rejections under the carpet and move on as fast as I could without ever looking back. However, keeping your eyes closed to things you don’t want to see may prevent you from finding the next opportunity you’re looking for. The good news is that there are steps you can take that will not only support you in maintaining your momentum but also enhance your ability to perform at every step.

In this article, I will cover how to handle rejections in a way that benefits you as a job seeker. This article is for any job seeker in Japan, new or experienced.

Defining a Job ‘Rejection’ in Japan

A rejection in a job search is typically an email from a company you were in an interview process with, informing you that the company will no longer proceed with your application. A rejection can also be a message delivered via a recruiter you are working with. All of these are explicit because someone told you exactly what the results were. Then there are also interpreted rejections. These are conclusions that a job seeker draws after a long period of silence from the company they have applied to.

In Japan, non-responses to job applications used to be uncommon. Business etiquette and respect are quite important culturally, so it was expected that a company would send a rejection email. In Japanese, a rejection email is called 不採用通知 fusaiyō tsūchi or, more colloquially, お祈りメール oinori mail. Unfortunately, it’s becoming more common for companies in Japan to not send any replies to their applicants. As a general rule of thumb, you should wait about a week before following up to ask about the results. For very large companies, it may take as long as two to three weeks to get back. If you’ve followed up and still there is no response, it would be safe to say that it is a rejection.

This is also a good time to remind you to keep track of your job search.

Keep track of your Job Search

If you are currently job searching and have no written record, I urge you to do this immediately. The importance of keeping track of your job applications is directly tied to the success of your job search. As a job seeker, you are met with an overwhelming amount of information. This often leads to forgetting some key pieces of information that could help you assess, analyze, and strategize your search. Here are a few basic things you should be keeping track of for each application:

• Job Title

• Link to the job description

• The date you applied to the job

• How you applied (Directly, via a platform, referral)

• What stage you are currently at (e.g., sent application, first interview scheduled)

• Notes with your impression of the company. For example, what do you like about the job? What are you not too enthusiastic about?

• (If applicable) The date you received the rejection message.

As you continue on with your search, keep adding more jobs to the list, including ones you get rejected from.

Rejections as a Universal Experience and Why

Before I talk about how to actually handle rejections, it's important to remind you that rejections are an integral part of the job search for all job seekers, regardless of their experience. For many job seekers, a rejection feels like a message that says, “You weren’t good enough for this job.” But this is far from the truth.

There are various reasons why a company may reject you or not reply. As a former internal recruiter for a tech company, one thing I’ve learned from seeing what goes on behind the scenes of recruitment is how many factors influence the recruitment process—many of which have nothing to do with the candidate’s skill or knowledge.

In the fast-moving world of tech, recruitment and business teams communicate frequently to adjust headcounts based on how the business is going. For example, hiring for Team A might halt to prioritize recruitment for Team B due to changes in the business’s goals. Additionally, the qualities of an ideal candidate for a role may shift as the project evolves. This means if a job has been posted online for some time and the project’s cycle changes, what the team desires in a new member may shift, causing some candidates in the existing pipeline to get rejected.

Instead of assuming you got rejected because you weren’t good enough, accept that it wasn’t a match. Rejections are universal because job searching is not just about competency—it’s a fine balance between skill fit, expectations, and chance.

Using Rejection as Feedback

One way to handle a rejection so that it increases your future prospects of getting a job is to use them as feedback. Reflection is an essential process to thriving in a job search and taking rejections as data points for feedback is an excellent idea. 

Below are some way to interpret rejections and how to  direction yourself based on the situations: 

I applied to 30 jobs and over half are rejections

If you are in this situation, this feels devastating and you might even be thinking about giving up. Before you make that decision, check your rejections if you see any trends. Did you apply to most jobs using only one platform? Did you use the same version of your resume? Most likely, there is at least one trend you’ll notice. 

By analyzing the circumstance of each application, you can start to create some ideas for improvement for future applications. Let’s say you noticed most of your rejections came from one website. You could think about spending less time applying through that website and think about how you can diversify your method of applications. Maybe you noticed that your rejections are mostly from Front End engineering positions. In this case, look back to your resume and ask yourself if the list of experiences reflects the skill set and knowledge that the job descriptions are saying. This could be a good moment to consider creating multiple versions of the resume to tailor your experiences better to what’s being asked. 

I had some first interviews but none have moved past the initial screening

The initial screening is typically a non-technical interview with the HR or a C-level person if it’s a startup. If this is your situation, there is a high chance there is a mismatch between the impression you’re giving off in the resume versus how you’re presenting yourself during the interview. Are you going back to read the job description and the version you’ve sent of your resume before you go into the interview? The way you’re introducing yourself and speaking about your experiences may need to be improved along with how you are describing them on paper. 

Another common reason why candidates get rejected from the first screening is due to the lack of demonstration on their knowledge of the company and why they want to work there. In Japan, when university students go through their job search, there is a strong emphasis put on the student’s ability to research and learn about the company. It’s a given that a candidate knows about the mission, values, and business. For the company, it’s an indicator of the candidate's level of interest. This indicator also applies to recruitment for experienced professionals. This means that for any job, at any level of experience, you need to have a good understanding of the company’s business, not just the tech stack. Your reason for wanting to work there will be much more polished if you can showcase your knowledge when you speak about why you want to work there.

To take this reflection into practical next steps, the first thing you can do is to practice your self-introduction. I recommend you record yourself, then listen to the recording while looking at your resume. Practice so what you’re saying does not confuse the listener. 

Another step you can take is to improve your research of the company by taking notes. The job search tracker is a good place to keep your notes. Take special note of any recent news, like press releases, that may be relevant to the position. Write down why you want to work there by weaving some of the information you’ve gathered from your research.  

You can also check out this article where Japan Dev asks tech leads, CTOs, and hiring managers from Japan’s top tech companies for their best job interviewing tips.

I had some interviews, including technical interviews and tests, but no final interviews

If most of your rejections come from the technical screening process, the natural conclusion for most job seekers would be to pause the job search to spend more time studying or working on projects to brush up their skills. This isn’t necessarily off. The key is to take note of the types of technical screening and the time investment you’ve made. In an ideal world, having infinite time to prepare for each and every technical screening would be the best. However, for most job seekers time is very limited. 

There are various ways companies implement technical screening nowadays and the diversity has increased for tech companies in Japan. Most technical job seekers with some experience in job searching know their preference on the kind of technical screening (or the one they hate less). There is nothing wrong with that, better yet, it would be better to understand this. When you go and analyze the rejections, see if you can also reflect on your experience going through these technical screenings. Were there any types of screening you found more stressful? Do you do better when you are in a live interview? Do you prefer timed tests? 

Based on your preferences, you can begin to come up with some ideas for other future technical screenings. First, you could think about allocating more time getting ready for certain types of screening that you feel less confident in. Second, you could think about how to spread out your interviews so you have more time to prepare. Third, you could also ask if companies with certain types of screening actually match with what you’re looking for. An application process is a reflection of the company. If the screening process leaves you with many questions, you’ll want to take note of it yourself to assess if you truly want to work there.

Make Space for Self-recovery

Many people overlook self-care during the job search but I argue this is one of the most impactful parts of the job search that you can control. When you experience a rejection, especially from an opportunity you had expectations of getting, it’s natural to feel disappointed, rejected, or feel you’re not actually as competent as you thought. While you may be able to get past one rejection, experiencing multiple can be indeed energy draining. Without a proper plan for self-recovery, it can quickly lead to job search burnout.   

Especially if you have been job searching for more than a month, I highly suggest implementing a self-care routine as part of your job search. The purpose of self-care after a rejection is to help regain energy to send applications, do networking, and speak with recruiters. If you notice signs like sleeplessness, drastic change in eating habits, loss of motivation, these may be signs of job search burnout. Being in a state of burnout while being stuck in a job you don’t want to be in, is extremely tough and can have a heavy impact on your mental health. Below are some examples of self-care: 

• Getting rest

• Going for a walk

• Listening to music

• Talking to someone about what happened

During my coaching sessions, I very often see a shift in a client’s energy when they talk about what happened after a rejection. Having a safe space to verbalize your experience can be an impactful way to make progress.  

What makes this a strategy and not procrastination? By deciding on a time limit. 

You got rejected. Now what?

Now that we’ve talked about the different ways to handle rejections, let’s look at what it looks like as a timeline. When you receive that message that you have been rejected, there are some steps to follow that will support your job search.

The first 24 hours after a rejection

Send a thank you message as a reply. If you’ve had multiple interviews, you could add in a few sentences to share your learnings from the experience. It’s good to keep in mind that a rejection does not mean a lost opportunity forever. In Japan, you’ll typically hear people say to wait about a year before reapplying to the same company. However, with the increased competition in the market, it’s not so uncommon nowadays for a candidate, who did not pass the resume screening, to get an interview through a referral, for example. 

Once you’ve sent the thank you message, go back to your job search tracker to update the status of the rejection. At this point, write any notes about the particular rejection. For example, were there any comments or feedback on why you got rejected? What are some observations you can make? After you’ve updated the tracker, check to see if you have any immediate interviews or tests coming up. If not, give yourself the space to recover your energy. 

Beyond the first 24 hours

Once you've had some time to decompress, it’s a good idea to go back to the job search tracker to analyze your current situation. I encourage you to do this especially when you start to feel a little stuck. When you are feeling stuck you might hear some internal dialogue like, “I’m not sure if I can find any more jobs,” or “I just don’t feel like doing this anymore”. Before those thoughts take over, spend some time looking at your progress. This is where you’ll want to use your rejections as feedback. Look for actionable steps to help you keep going.

Understanding Japan-Specific Nuances

If you are job searching in Japanese, Japanese rejection emails may feel very indirect. In Japanese, a rejection email is colloquially known as お祈りメール oinori me-ru or “prayer mail” because the template rejection letter often includes a closing sentence like「ご活躍を心よりお祈り申し上げます。」or “I’m praying for your future success and endeavors”.  It’s also not clear what the results are at times. Here are some examples of phrases used in rejection emails:

• ご期待に添いかねる結果となりました。

• 今回はご希望に添いかねる結果となりました。

• 採用を見送らせて頂くことになりました。

It’s also not a common process for companies to give direct feedback about why you got rejected. This said, it’s not rude to ask for feedback especially if you’ve had multiple interviews with a company. During an interview, you might also find feedback from interviewers to be much more nuanced. To be more proactive, you could consider asking for ways you can improve for the future. The effort to make constant improvement and progress in itself is generally appreciated. 

Conclusion

Getting rejected is no doubt tough, but it’s useful to keep in mind that rejections don’t define your self-worth or your capabilities. Learning to take rejections as part of your overall job search strategy will greatly help you develop the capacity to excel in every step. By taking the time to track your job search, reflect on each experience, and find ways to take care of yourself, you can shift from dreading rejection to embracing it as a learning experience.

While most of us would prefer to see job searching as a sprint, it is more of a journey than a short run. The great thing about treating it as a journey is that every experience is unique. With these strategies, I trust that your journey will take you to the next step.