#12 - Life as a QA Engineer in Japan (Without Speaking Japanese)

Episode #12 of the Japan Dev Podcast features Naman Garg’s story!

Naman moved from a small town in India to Tokyo to work as a QA engineer 🇮🇳➡🇯🇵

In this episode, Naman talks about how he got a job at Rakuten without knowing Japanese, what it was like moving to Japan, and how the work culture helped him grow.

He also shares what it's like working remotely at PayPay, the challenges he faced as a vegetarian in Japan, and how he's now helping Indian students explore startup opportunities through his project, Youth Yatra.

If you're curious about working in Japan as a software or QA engineer, this episode has lots of useful tips and honest insights!

More from Naman:

LinkedIn - / naman-garg-119662106

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

01:20 - Moving from India to Japan

02:00 - Inspired by Japanese technology

05:50 - Deciding to relocate

07:50 - Job and relocation struggles

11:30 - Renting issues for foreigners

13:25 - Language challenges

17:00 - Indian food at Rakuten

18:40 - Hybrid work post-COVID

22:05 - QA + coding job

23:50 - Flexible work culture

28:55 - AI helping startups

32:25 - Japan’s startup ecosystem

47:50 - Building social life in Japan

54:15 - Learning Japanese early

💬 Have questions about tech jobs in Japan? Drop them in the comments — we’ll read them. And we’ll do our best to answer them!

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