Looking to step up your recruitment in Japan? AP Global Talent founder Rob Hughes discusses Tokyo’s slow transformation and offers some useful pointers for hiring in the Japan market.

What’s your story? How did you end up as a recruiter in Japan?

I worked in marketing in London for around five years, which I was happy with, but then I suddenly got itchy feet. I quit my job and went to live in Shanghai for six months after my friend told me how amazing it was. When I got back to London, I was looking for another opportunity to work in Asia. I had a friend who lived in Tokyo doing recruitment who recommended it, so I thought why not!

I ended up working for a mid-sized British recruitment company in Tokyo, then got headhunted to work in a big recruitment company in London, before starting AP Global Talent in 2008. Having my own business gave me the chance to use my marketing experience in a recruitment setting and, of course, the ability to work in the Japan market again. So being an advertising and marketing recruiter in Japan has allowed me to combine several passions in life.

How has Japan changed since you arrived?

When I first worked in Tokyo in 2005, it was a huge culture shock for me because I’d come from London, which was so diverse. Recently I can see that Tokyo is changing, and it reminds me of when I first moved to London in the late 1990s. The start of the change is a very exciting time because suddenly you have a huge influx of different cultures that can enhance life in a personal and business context at a rapid rate.

When I first arrived, it was almost impossible for foreign companies to operate in Japan on their own. Almost every client I worked with had merged with a Japanese partner or was using a Japanese distributor to survive. If they didn’t, they would make a swift exit out of Japan. Very recently this has started to change and we are now seeing foreign companies survive as their own entities. This is potentially a huge leap forward in the internationalisation of Japan.

What are the current challenges of recruiting in Japan?

The market is very candidate driven and therefore candidates get multiple options and job offers. Good candidates don’t stay on the market very long. As a boutique recruitment agency, we invest a lot of time in each candidate to fully understand their needs and match them with the needs of our clients. This gives us an advantage over the big recruitment agencies that focus more on volume sourcing.

Another challenge is that companies need to hire people who understand both the Japanese market and the global market. The Japanese market remains very different to the global market, which is quite unusual in the modern world. So we spend a lot of time targeting candidates who have worked in both a global and Japanese environment, including a lot of native Japanese speakers overseas.

Lastly, Japanese companies have stepped up their efforts to hire bilingual talent and this has put even more pressure on the market. What we’re seeing recently is that even small companies in Japan – the ones that would previously have used job boards and personal networks to hire people – are starting to come to us for help because there’s simply too much competition these days for candidates.

What advice would you give to global companies entering Japan?

Although Japan is changing, it is still very unique. Global companies tend to expand and roll out globally with a similar process and pattern, but that needs to be carefully adapted to Japan, which almost needs its own process. I would say patience is the key as things move more slowly in Japan. Companies need to plan for results in around 3-4 years instead of the 1-2 years they expect in other countries.

I also think companies need to understand the labour market is different and, as mentioned before, very candidate driven. So employee branding and making candidates understand the benefits of the company is crucial. There are way fewer bilingual candidates in Japan than in other countries, so companies should also consider if they can be flexible on language for certain positions.

What makes AP Global Talent different from other recruiters in Japan?

Recruiters in Japan haven’t always had the best reputation, so I deliberately set out to do things differently with AP Global Talent. First of all, we don’t use old-school recruitment tactics that only serve to annoy candidates. Things like cold-calling people at work and misrepresenting a role, which are unfortunately still part of the industry. The benefit of going about it the right way is that you build trust, which leads to more network referrals.

We also hire very selectively, which allows us to stay small and focused. All our employees have previous experience in marketing, so that gives us an advantage in understanding the needs of clients and candidates. Our specialist knowledge means we can provide genuine consultation, not just sourcing. And because we don’t work across every sector, we can stay abreast of trends and changes in the advertising and marketing industry in particular.

What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever witnessed as a recruiter?

I once did a candidate meeting in a hospital in Japan. He was in for an operation and said he had a spare hour during the day. So we met at a cafe in the hospital and did the meeting with his hospital gown on. This just shows that good candidates are hard to find in Japan, so a recruiter will go to any lengths to work with them!

What are your interests away from recruitment?

I’ve lived in several countries and spent a good amount of my life in Japan, but at heart I’m still a typical English guy who loves football, music and beer. I am so happy I can now drink ale in Japan because when I first came lager was the only option! I still don’t get why people want to drink ice-cold lager in winter…

I was also an avid skater from the age of 14 for around 20 years. Skating was great in creating a good network of friends in both Japan and England. Skaters form a kind of community and welcome you in any country in the world. Also many skaters end up working in the creative industries. It’s cool to hang down the skatepark with your clients and candidates!

Finally, what’s the best way for people to contact you?

I’m on LinkedIn of course, I have to be. Or contact me via our website as I personally check every single message we receive.