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2019 Hiring Trends │Sales and Marketing

SALES & MARKETING

MEDICAL DEVICES

In 2018, many companies actively hired CEOs and division presidents from Western medical device manufacturers. These companies did not have Japanese branches previously and only recently entered the Japanese market. In addition, foreign-affiliated companies integrated their operations one after another, boosting competition in the market regardless of the scale of the company. Many companies embarked on recruiting executives with the aim of raising competitiveness by reforming Japanese executive teams.

We expect medical device manufacturers to hire an increasing number of experienced professionals in 2019. In addition to a further increase in the demand for executives mentioned above, we expect to see an increase in the hiring of managers who lead groups of specialists. Foreign-affiliated companies usually have an organisation in place for gathering specialists. However, many medical device manufacturers are unable to hire mid- to senior-level managers capable of supervising professionals. This is due to a significant depletion of the talent pool. As a result, we anticipate that companies will make strong bids for English-Japanese bilinguals with experience in executive positions. Management candidates with experience in marketing and quality assurance will also be highly valued.

Following the trends in the pharmaceutical industry, the healthcare industry is focusing on improving the efficiency of sales activities. We expect that companies will restructure their sales organisations over the next one or two years. However, companies will certainly strive to maintain their competitiveness by hiring excellent talent on an ongoing basis. There are few fears concerning growth and stability of the market because of the ageing population. So we anticipate that the number of medical device manufacturers that are actively hiring will not decline too significantly. The demand for human resources will be steady regardless of external factors such as price revisions by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW).

Many professionals hired by medical device manufacturers through Robert Walters Japan in 2018 were provisionally offered salaries that were 10-20% higher than their current job. It's likely that companies are proposing these salaries to reflect their highly valued experience and skills to demonstrate their willingness to compete. We expect this trend to continue in 2019.

PHARMACEUTICAL

Just as in the medical device industry, the hiring demand for executive positions in the pharmaceutical industry has increased as a result of globalisation.

Many companies are attempting to improve the efficiency of their organisations to achieve a lean structure. It's prepared for fluctuations in profit caused by external factors such as drug price revisions. Since medical representatives (MR) and clinical development positions have continued to be outsourced, contract research organisations (CRO) hired a large number of clinical research associates (CRA) in 2018. Pharmaceutical companies have hired more medical science liaisons (MSL) and medical affairs professionals. These positions that are typically not outsourced. Experienced talent capable of managing subcontractors are also hired, such as managing CROs as clinical development managers.

A growing number of companies are hiring medical doctors to compete effectively. Over the last few years, companies in the industry have started assigning doctors to handle three functions: medical affairs, clinical development/clinical trials and safety information. Job offers mentioned above showed a new trend corroborating that companies throughout the industry have gradually adopted such assignments. Although many of the doctors hired didn't have any corporate experience, it was expected that they would speak English fluently. It is particularly for those who assume senior management positions and act as counterparts to overseas locations. 

A majority of companies are offering salaries that are 10-15% higher than candidates’ current positions. In 2018, we saw a sudden increase in HR departments in the APAC region working directly with recruiters rather than HR departments in Japan. They were primarily looking to recruit for key positions such as managers and executives. These companies seemed to want to experience the actual conditions of the Japanese pharmaceutical market and various labour issues such as labour shortages and hiring difficulties. Speed was also a factor, and hiring decisions were accelerated by APAC HR departments assuming direct responsibility for hiring. In many other industries, companies are allowing APAC locations such as Singapore to hire personnel simultaneously even when domestic locations have recruitment functions. This can also be viewed as a growing trend in the pharmaceutical industry.

In the Kansai region in 2018, there were also many specialist hires in all areas of healthcare, including drug manufacturers, medical equipment makers and life science companies. The number of MSL hires among drug manufacturers was especially high, as the lack of talent has established a sellers' market where candidates enjoy advantages. Most companies are increasing the number of personnel for MSL positions in place of MR positions, but for generic drug manufacturers, the number of hires is decreasing. The demand for doctors has remained high. As a continuing trend from 2017, the number of hires for professionals capable of handling tasks involving regulatory compliance increased. English proficiency is needed due to the rapid globalisation of regulations, and for foreign affiliated CROs, the demand for CRAs has remain high. Professionals changing jobs within the Kansai region are receiving annual salary offers that are about 10% higher than that of their current positions.

CONSUMER

We saw a rapid growth in sales in convenience stores and drugstores. Therefore, companies in the FMCG industry wishing to grow further strengthened their sales, trade marketing and shopper marketing departments in 2018. Many people expect a further increase in tourism spending leading up to the fall 2019 world rugby tournament and the 2020 Olympics, both to be held in Japan. We predict that companies will hire more employees for these three types of sales and marketing departments in 2019. These recruits will be revenue generators for convenience stores and drugstores.

In 2018, consumer electronics companies were seen to hire account managers in remarkable numbers. Although this role involves conventional sales activities for consumer electronics shops, many companies within this industry have been in fierce competition. They aim to obtain, maintain and utilise sales channels by upgrading their specialists, with growing expectations regarding tourism spending. These companies have also made similar tactical movements in terms of marketing by newly appointing product managers or replacing existing managers in order to compete with rival brands. Similar to the FMCG industry, companies in the consumer electronics sector are beginning to move to a more bricks-and-mortar approach. We expect companies in 2019 to continue to focus on recruiting for positions directly related to this shop-focused approach.

The fast food industry saw several major foreign companies enter the fray a few years ago. Many of these new entries have made bold moves in strengthening their organisations following favourable results since joining the market. In 2018, these companies hired more personnel for sales, marketing and senior management positions.

Although the Japanese market has been saturated, many people anticipate growth. This is resulted by an increase in the number of foreign nationals arriving in the country. Furthermore, competition has emerged between companies fighting for a greater market share. We expect that the demand for specialists with industry experience will further increase in 2019. Despite the imbalance between the supply and demand of talent, the average salary in the consumer goods and services sector remains largely unchanged. Nevertheless, offering competitive salaries is a necessity for companies wishing to hire excellent candidates with ample experience and high linguistic ability. Each year has seen an increasing need for swiftness in companies’ evaluation and hiring processes.

Companies throughout the industry have made strong bids for entry-level employees with two to five years of experience. They also highly value entry level/mid-tier employees with five to ten years of experience. Marketing positions now also require a higher level of English proficiency. A growing number of companies prefer Japanese-English bilinguals as the conventional business level fluency is no longer sufficient.

RETAIL

The retail business continues to be promising in Japan as it enjoys a surge of overseas visitors ahead of the 2020 Olympics. There has been a succession of new store and branch store openings in metropolitan areas all over the country, and the hiring of sales staff has been especially brisk.

Hiring for positions in corporate offices have mainly been to fill vacancies. However, the demand for experienced professionals with a good command of English remains strong. The market is progressively becoming one that has job seekers in an advantageous position. In the fashion, sports, beauty and jewellery industries, where many companies are looking for front-line talent, the demand for English-speaking staff is greater than ever. Despite this, the human resources market in Japan for bilingual workers is becoming increasingly tight. Companies looking to strengthen their internal structures and expand domestic operations are seeking to recruit experienced personnel from the retail sector.

Furthermore, digitalisation in the market has also accelerated, and the presence of digital and social media in marketing continues to grow stronger every year. For this reason, many companies are looking for candidates with experience in and knowledge of essential consumer engagement through digital media when hiring PR/marketing specialists. There has also been an increase in the hiring of CRM specialists due to the expansion of e-commerce and to bolster clienteling. We expect further growth in this trend going forward.

If passage of the Integrated Resorts Promotion Act (the “casino bill”) results in the future development of IR and neighbouring 27 28 commercial facilities, there may eventually be an increase in the demand for bilingual staff that can assist overseas customers.

Highly qualified candidates are typically presented with salary offers that are 10-15% more than their current salaries. Although many companies have been conducting steady expansion/store openings within Japan, they have also been experiencing sluggish results in other countries. Therefore, while the job market in Japan has been a sellers’ market, the average salary rate in retail sales has remained flat since 2017. Women’s participation in retail sales has also been evolving. There has been an increase in companies advocating a proper work-life balance. This is something that has become an important factor candidates consider when deciding to change jobs.

There were many job openings in 2018 for luxury brand sales staff. However, the severely tight supply and demand balance for bilingual professionals in Osaka left many companies short on personnel. We expect that demand will remain high in 2019 and hiring will continue to be difficult.

HOSPITALITY

As the 2020 Olympics approach, inbound tourism is on the rise and more hotels are opening, accelerating business expansion within Japan’s hospitality industry.

The enactment of the law allows integrated resorts and the advancements in development plans for casinos, entertainment facilities, surrounding lodging, MICE and commercial facilities. We expect large-scale recruitment of bilingual hospitality staff. Furthermore, human resource needs for sales, marketing and general manager positions will grow. Due to the coincidence of the recruitment season for new companies, fierce competition for talent is expected in these areas.

One characteristic of the hospitality industry is that there are many cases where professionals working in businesses such as hotels or airlines change jobs to work at competitors in the same field. In the hotel business, there are many hotel groups undergoing significant business expansion in preparation for the Olympics, leading to intense competition for a scarce pool of talent. As the supply and demand for bilingual talent with experience become ever more stringent, world fair invitations and the opening of IR facilities will result in companies facing difficulties in securing human resources. Companies will need to become more flexible in accepting talent from other industries, including professionals from outside of Japan.

Early in 2018, we began seeing more flexibility in hiring conditions. For sales and upper management roles, professionals who changed jobs tended to do so within the same industry. However, for those in junior- or mid-level sales positions, there were many cases where people with B2B sales experience in other industries were hired. In the marketing profession, we have seen many people change jobs from other industries, including fashion, cosmetics and jewellery. The hiring of professionals from outside of Japan, which was once usually reserved for upper-level management, has started to expand to a wider range of positions.

As is typically the case, professionals seeking positions in the hospitality industry look for high pay and brand recognition. Salaries presented as hiring offers start at an average of about 10-15% higher than the annual salary of a candidate’s current position. The imbalance between the supply and demand will likely continue. We expect the further advancement of the sellers’ market that favours candidates will lead to an increase in pay scales.

Inbound travel in Kansai has also shown favourable trends. There is an increasing demand for professionals in a wide range of occupations for the hotel, entertainment and airline industries. In the Kansai region, the tight supply and demand balance for Japanese-English bilinguals in the hospitality field is especially severe. Furthermore, there are significant staffing shortages for HR positions that are tasked with hiring. This is impacting the speed of the hiring process for professionals that need to be deployed to the front lines. In 2018, these circumstances led to many cases in which companies missed the chance to hire highly skilled talent during the review and screening processes. Job openings are expected to continue increasing in 2019. So we anticipate a growing need for training hiring managers to help secure talented professionals. 

ONLINE & DIGITAL

Demand is growing for professionals in the digital area. Many existing companies are trying to expand their digital businesses. Hence, the presence of many new market entrants has resulted in high demand for such professionals and a constant shortage of talent. As competition over experienced professionals intensified, many companies in 2018 secured such professionals by raising pay standards. Additionally, they hire candidates whose experience did not meet requirements and then training them on-the-job and through training programmes.

In the retail and consumer goods sectors, many companies have hired more personnel in conjunction with the development of e-commerce business and proceeded with enhancing digital marketing capabilities throughout 2018. This resulted in companies making strong bids for candidates with experience in this area, and demand for professionals with expertise and experience far exceed supply. Until 2017, the recruitment of digital marketing personnel was focused on filling a certain number of positions, and the majority of such personnel were assigned to junior-level roles. In 2018, more companies hired senior-level digital marketers in order to strengthen both structures and strategies, a trend we expect to continue in 2019.

There is also a large digital advertising market in Japan and the demand for candidates is high among adtech companies. More digital advertisements utilise user information with advanced technologies such as AI are becoming more popular. An increasing number of adtech companies are developing and offering new optimisation related advertisement products. This creates greater demand for sales representatives and consultants that are well versed in the latest digital advertising techniques.

Along with the attention being paid to the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), there was a growing awareness in 2018 of compliance with the Personal Information Protection Law and the Copyright Act. We saw many companies decide to hire trainers with expertise in compliance training. In addition, 2018 saw more companies assign project managers to digital marketing departments. They are responsible for establishing business strategies for new services, products and campaigns. They drive the implementation of marketing measures according to the overall business calendar. We expect this trend to continue in 2019, as well.

As demand increases for professionals in the digital area, pay standards are also rising in order to balance supply and demand. The majority of candidates we assisted in 2018 who received job offers were offered 20- 30% higher annual salaries compared to their current earnings.

IT SOFTWARE

The demand for software sales staff remains high due to robust cloud and IoT businesses, along with the actual demand for RPA, big data and AI-related businesses throughout 2018.

There has been an especially strong surge in sales staff capable of handling solutions selling with a focus on cloud technology. There has also been a shift in client requirements, which now call for a certain number of products to be deployed towards detecting business issues and issues caused by current software/ system operations and resolving them with multiple services. Therefore, quality sales professionals with expertise in various products, good consultation skills and the ability to resolve software/ system issues are necessary.

Cutting-edge technology such as cloud computing, IoT, edge computing, and machine learning has been developed and deployed in various sectors. This includes autonomous driving technologies, factory automation and supply chains. These needs have seen a major increase of manpower sought after by both established companies and start-ups. It is particularly in the cloud, RPA, IoT, big data and AI categories, causing an urgent demand for human resources. In this high-demand environment, there is a surprising lack of bilingual talent capable of handling both English and Japanese correspondence with overseas and domestic stakeholders.

Many companies have shown to be flexible towards hiring experienced, skilled professionals, and many candidates are being offered salaries that are 20-30% higher than their current job. When considering a career change, candidates are increasingly focusing not only on salary, but also on company culture and management policies. This is particularly the case in younger age groups. We anticipate that job-seeking will continue to be a sellers’ market after 2019. Hence, shortening and streamlining the recruitment process will become increasingly more important to secure talented professionals.

IT INFRA & SERVICES

In the IT infrastructure services field, there is a growing trend toward relaxing the requirement for IT industry experience. Many positions are now being filled by junior-level talent with strong prospects for growth when given the right training.

Telecommunications companies are planning to expand their services and content businesses in 2019 and 2020. We expect this trend to attract young talent with software experience, leading to advantageous hiring gains. This also signals intensified competition for young sales specialists working in the traditional IT hardware and IT software fields. With the growth of mobile technologies, companies are making stronger bids for sales specialists with experience in the mobile broadband field. Meanwhile, the number of people leaving sales jobs in the telecommunications industry for the software sector is increasing. As a result, telecoms companies are increasing the salary levels offered when hiring in order to retain the best talent.

Employment for sales professionals in the information and market data services field is also growing. Client companies who are data users require increasingly accurate data, and many leading companies and start-ups are investing more in research and development. The demand for data centres and data storage systems that can protect all data from risks are expected to grow in 2019. As a 29 30 result, we expect to see a rise in demand for solution sales specialists in the data centre and data storage fields.

With the enactment of GDPR, there is a heightened awareness of issues surrounding personal information protection, which has led to stronger security requirements for carriers. We therefore expect to see growing demand in 2019 for senior-level sales specialists with experience in security sales and extensive client networks. With regard to leading edge cyber attack protection, the needs are increasing on a daily basis. Strong bids are being made for candidates with sales experience, not just by companies, but also by public institutions. We expect a continuing rise in demand for experienced sales specialists in the telecommunications industry. These people are who can build a market for network solutions for companies in a wide range of industries. The solutions are prepared for the deployment of IoT technology.

Salaries presented as hiring offers start at an average of about 15% higher than candidates’ current salaries. This is because companies across the board try to appeal to young, solutions oriented sales professionals. As a result, young candidates with IT sales experience and business-level English skills tend to receive more offers, regardless of the product they specialise in.

CONTRACT

There has been a trend toward a deeper understanding of flexible work styles among both employers and employees. In 2018, the numbers of offers for temporary and contract employees continued to increase. This was followed by a stronger push to hire women, which led to an increasing need to fill positions vacated due to maternity and childcare leave.

Job offers for project coordinators, in-house interpreters/translators and project assistants in the digital and online fields, are increasing. Many professionals are being hired as temporary or contract employees at the start of new projects or undertakings. Once the project or undertaking is set to continue, they are being promoted to permanent positions.

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