Gaijinpot

Site's statement

Jobboard Finder’s opinion

Summary: Launched in 1999, GaijinPot is a website designed to help foreigners settle down in Japan. Be it for studies, work or even travel, GaijinPot demystifies Japan. Founded by two foreigners teaching in Nagoya, the site has since become a part of GPlus Media, established in 2001. It is in turn a member of the Fujisankei Communications Group. Even if the website is available in three languages, most of the offers are written in English for the 6million online users, most of which are international jobseekers. The main site has an impressive number of views a month (1.51 million) and the job section alone attracts 518 080 views. Most of the visitors are from the United States, followed by Japan, the UK, Canada and Brazil. In fact, the job section is the second most visited part of the site, after the blog. The social media, however, isn’t just for the job section: there are 609 121 followers on Facebook, 22 800 on Twitter, 1 084 on LinkedIn, 30 800 on Instagram and 9 685 on YouTube.

Design: The logo changes colour depending on where you are on the site. The job section is blue. There aren’t any images, but the information is clear. The search engine (keywords, the industry, the location) is at the top of the page, above a variety of different categories (including direct hires and jobs for jobseekers who don’t speak Japanese) and a list of industries. The featured companies really are hiring. Speaking of companies, they have profiles, which appear in a grid and display the industry, the logo and a sentence about the employer (only for the top ones). You can look for specific companies thanks to the search engine (keywords and the industry). The page layout has useful information at the top and job offers at the bottom. The rest of the page is the “About us” section and “Why work for us” section. As for the job listing, the filters appear as an advanced search at the top of the page: English proficiency, Japanese proficiency, other languages, the function, the career level, contract type, employer type. There is also a box to tick to make sure overseas applications are accepted. The sorting is either default or the latest to the oldest. Highlighted offers appear on the right-hand side of the job listing and all the offers are visible for 30 days, which means the offers are updated.

The job board objective: The GaijinPot, i.e. the foreigner (melting) pot, simplifies the job search and recruitment process for foreigners in Japan.

Recruiter observations: Recruiters must contact the site to create an account. It’s possible to add compulsory boxes to tick before applying (like, “must love children” for a teaching job).

Jobseeker observations: You can create an account with your Facebook or LinkedIn profile or an e-mail address. However, you must complete your online profile (or resume) before you can apply to job offers.

The job offers: Most of the job offers are in education and teaching. There are currently 516 offers on the site.

Reactivity: --

Special features: The YouTube videos; the detailed and informative “About Us” section; the interesting blog (which doesn’t just discuss jobs in Japan); the classifieds; the store; the travel section; the study section; the apartment section; the newsletter; the user profile information (in “Advertise on GaijinPot”).

Verdict: The site attracts users from all over the world, partially for the interesting blog, but also for the job offers. A very useful site for anyone hiring foreigners in Japan. As for jobseekers, most of the offers are in education and filling out the online profile can be tedious. We would still recommend this site to anyone moving to Japan.

Written by Ali Neill

As the job board tester and blog editor for the Jobboard Finder, Ali works on job boards from all around the world and keeps a close eye on the recruitment trends thanks to a number of sources, including the website's social media pages.