I’m a front end developer interested in working in Japan. There are a few positions in companies that I am interested in applying to, but some of the posts are fully in Japanese (others are sometimes in English and sometimes both). I can read through most of the form but I am not skilled enough yet to answer the questions in Japanese. Does anybody have any experience as to whether it is looked down upon to fill an application out in English? I know it might be silly not to just give it a shot but I’d rather not hurt my chances with these companies if that is a possibility.
If the job post has an English version, than applying in English is perfectly reasonable. However, if they’re only posting in Japanese, I’d assume they aren’t explicitly looking for international developers, and you’ll be fighting an uphill battle to get a job there. Rather than just sending an application to them out of the blue, I’d first contact them (in Japanese), explaining your situation and ask if they’d be open to working with you. If possible, I’d try to make a connection with a developer working at the company, and talk to them first, rather than just sending it to an anonymous hiring email, as you’re less likely to be ignored that way. I’ve had the best luck using twitter to contact random Japanese developers, so try and find someone on it if you can.