The author, an American software engineer employed at Google, decided to pursue a PhD in computer science at the Tokyo Institute of Technology after completing a master’s degree in Korea and gaining several years of industry experience. He sought a path that would allow him to continue working part‑time while studying, avoid a five‑or‑more‑year absence from the workforce, and live in a dense, walkable city he had enjoyed in Seoul and New York. Japan satisfied these criteria: a research lab matched his interests in on‑device language models, the student visa permits work authorization from the outset, and the doctoral program is structured to encourage completion in about three years.
He highlights several advantages of doing a PhD in Japan. First, the student visa can include work authorization from day one, limited to 28 hours per week during semesters and up to eight hours per day during long breaks, making sustained part‑time industry employment feasible—a rarity in many other countries where international students face stricter limits. Second, the Japanese PhD system’s three‑year target reduces the opportunity cost of leaving the workforce compared to the longer, often open‑ended timelines typical in the United States and Europe. Third, Japan’s tech scene has expanded rapidly, with companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Cohere, Hugging Face, and Sakana establishing offices, creating post‑PhD opportunities that benefit from being locally based and reducing the need to compete with international applicants.
On the downside, the author notes that many Japanese universities, while strong domestically, lack the worldwide name recognition of elite institutions in North America or Europe, which can disadvantage graduates seeking employment outside Japan unless they target globally known brands. He also describes the mandatory course load at Tokyo Tech, where PhD students cannot take specialized technical seminars and must instead complete credits in humanities classes and career‑development offerings such as English presentation courses and alumni talks, which he found of limited value for his research goals. Finally, there is an emphasis on publishing in domestic Japanese journals and conferences—often in Japanese with lighter peer review—meaning that research output may be discounted by international employers who cannot easily verify the venue’s quality or prestige.
He concludes that the decision to undertake a PhD in Japan should hinge on post‑graduation plans, weighing factors such as willingness to live far from family and friends, adapt to a culture where full assimilation can be difficult even after many years, and accept the trade‑offs between local advantages like the flexible visa and growing AI job market and the potential limitations of name recognition and non‑technical coursework.