Hello, I'm Paul Roberts...
I’ve been a tech recruiter in Tokyo since 1999. Over the years, I’ve helped hundreds of IT people find the next step in their careers and partnered with dozens of companies (including some of the biggest global names in technology, banking, insurance, and more) in their hiring of talent.
If you’re looking for a tech job in Tokyo or hiring for your team in Japan, you’ve come to the right place. Search my job board for IT jobs in Japan that I’m working on as an agent and for direct IT job listings from selected partners, or contact me for advice anytime.
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1-2 emails per month with my Japan IT job news, articles I’ve written, cool articles I’ve found on the web on tech, productivity, life in Japan, and more. 100% non-corporate and non-boring!
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I’m one of the few Tokyo IT recruiters with a hands-on technical background, making it easier for both my clients and candidates to get the results they are looking for. But mine is a human business at heart, and I pride myself on a reputation for taking care of the people I’m working with, on both the candidate and client sides.
This is my personal site – a space to write about topics that interest me, such as recruitment, tech, living & working in Japan, the stories of some of the fascinating people I’ve met, and anything else that piques my curiosity.
Latest Articles
Profile #17: Raymond Murphy, Tokyo-based creator & marketing creative and now founder of the Irish apparel brand ‘Cnota Gaelach’
Paul: Raymond Murphy is a creator and marketing creative who first arrived in Japan in 2004. He launched ‘Cnota Gaelach’, a Tokyo-based Irish apparel brand in 2021. Raymond and I
Profile #16: John Rajeski, Silicon Valley veteran, educator, mentor, data analyst
Paul: John Rajeski is an aspiring people / data analyst, a recent global educator, and a former Silicon Valley start-up co-founder. John and I spoke about his early career in
Profile #15: Arnout Hemel, Product Management leader, new Tokyo resident, adventurer
Paul: With 15+ years experience in Product Management, Arnout Hemel’s team at Grab in Singapore grew GrabInsure into one of the largest InsureTechs in South East Asia. Arnout relocated to
Profile #14: Lawrie Cate, software developer at Tokyo travel tech startup KabuK Style
Paul: Originally from the UK, Lawrie moved to Tokyo in 2018 to work as a software engineer at Mercari, the Japanese marketplace unicorn. Lawrie is now at travel tech startup
Profile #13: Sushant Pandey, IoT entrepreneur & future Tokyo resident
Paul: Sushant Pandey is the founder of Scurid, a distributed digital identity platform bringing scalable security to the world of IoT. A Shibuya Startup Visa holder, Sushant will be relocating
Profile #12: Jatin Kumar, software developer, HR specialist & curry enthusiast
Paul: I first learned about Jatin Kumar after stumbling upon an online post about his GoCurry community last year. I was fascinated to learn more about Jatin’s background as a
Profile #11: Tanmay Goel, product manager and community organiser
Paul: Tanmay Goel is a Tokyo-based product manager and organiser in the product management community here, with a background as an international student & entrepreneur, and interests including tech, the
Learning to code (again) at 49 – part 1
A few months ago I got an itch. It started gradually, arriving unannounced, so quietly at first I barely noticed it. But then, over time, it became more noticeable. This
Flexibility key for Japan IT job movers
In early May I posted a poll on LinkedIn asking those thinking about changing their Japan IT jobs this year what was most important to them in looking for a
Featured Articles
How to Write an IT Resume for Japan – A Guide
I’m often asked how to write an IT resume for the Japan market. Over the past 20 years, I’ve read thousands of resumes written by IT people from all over
Profile #2: Gerard Noakes – In-house Recruiter at Indeed
Paul: Gerard Noakes is an in-house recruiter at Indeed’s Tokyo office. We met in the summer of 2016 when Gerard joined the recruiting agency I was working at. His first
Profile #3: Asumi Saito, co-founder of Waffle.org
Paul: Asumi Saito is a young data scientist turned non-profit organisation founder from Tokyo. We met over Skype in 2017 when Asumi had just finished her master’s degree at the
Profile #4: Ji Youn Yoo, In-house recruiter at Google
Paul: Ji Youn Yoo is an in-house recruiter at Google’s Tokyo office in Shibuya Stream. We worked together a few years ago in the IT team of a recruiting agency
Profile #6: Misha Yurchenko, Author, Blogger and Entrepreneur
Paul: I met Misha Yurchenko for the first time a couple of years ago after coming across his excellent newsletter (you can find it and more of his writing at
Profile #10: Miho Tanaka, supporting entrepreneurship in Shibuya
Paul: A recent introduction to Miho Tanaka from Sasha at Le Wagon Tokyo was a case of perfect timing, as I’d just been reading about Miho’s work at Startup Welcome