Zeals

At Zeals, the developers use primarily English (dev-related discussions happen in English on Github or Slack). There might be occasional discussions in Japanese, but most Slack messages are in English (or both languages).

As for meetings, all dev-related ones take place in English. In the past they used Japanese at times, but now they have a clear policy to use English since they have several members who don’t speak Japanese.

Given the above, Japanese skills are not required for engineers. But one unique aspect of the culture at Zeals is that many Japanese members are working on their English while many non-Japanese members also work to improve their Japanese skills.

Since before Zeals was focused on global expansion, around 40% of their members were non-Japanese but most spoke Japanese fluently. In order to build a truly global team, these multilingual members will typically help out when communication is needed between people who don’t speak a common language. In this fashion, Zeals has slowly been turning English into their official language for engineers.

Even now Zeals has many multilingual members that proactively support the rest of the team to ensure smooth communications.

Even outside of the development team, important company-wide announcements are made in both English and Japanese. For example hiring announcements, new product launches etc. they’re announced in both Japanese and English.

Also, they provide simultaneous interpretation for presentations at their monthly all-hands meetings, among other tactics to ensure that everyone gets the information they need.

• All Japanese public holidays off
• 10 days of PTO (awarded 3 months after joining)
• Summer holiday, Year-end holiday, Childcare leave, Congratulations/Bereavement leave

Here are some examples of the benefits which full-time employees can receive.

💻 Preferred laptop provided

👩‍🏫 Language Learning Support (Language courses)

🇯🇵 Translation support (EN<>JP)

👶 Shorter work hours for employees taking care of children

👶 Parental Leave

👕 Flexible dress code

🏠 Rent allowance

💜 Social security / insurance benefits included

🏥 Healthcare insurance, Periodic health checks

💚 Pension insurance

🚃 Commuter allowance

Zeals allows their members to work remotely from anywhere in the world.

• Once COVID-19 is no longer a concern, those that are able to can join their monthly all-hands meetings in person. But people are also free to join via video chat.
• In case of working remotely from outside of Japan, you’ll work as a contract employee (due to limitations around local Japan taxes etc). Upon moving to Japan, you’ll switch to being a full-time employee.

Zeals is flexible when it comes to working hours. They work on a flex time system with core time of 1:00PM to 3:00PM.

Values

FROM ZEAL

< Passion > Good things come from giving it your all

BET ON PARADOX

< Unorthodox > Never settle for the established norm

UNITED WILL

< Team > Teamwork is the heart of achievement

Office

The Zeals office is situated a 4-minute walk from Gotanda station in Tokyo. They have a free address system where people can work wherever they’d like, as well as meeting rooms. They provide everyone with their preferred hardware and have Ergohuman chairs. Everyone is free to choose the work style that works best for them, either full-remote or using the office.