Japanese have terrible English, even relative to other Asians. Even managers often struggle with it. If you’re working in product development from overseas, you will often need to talk to those managers because the product people don’t speak English at all. Being able to speak Japanese allows you to break this barrier and dramatically increase efficiency.
As a Japanese speaking programmer I basically don’t have any competition in the job market.
Recruiters don’t think that non-Japanese people who know how to program AND speak the language well exist.
So I basically show up for positions that ask for a native Japanese that’s willing to work abroad. I then promote myself based on technical and cultural skills.
I’ve legitimately unstuck projects that were stuck for years and getting nowhere within few months because I improved communication and information retrieval.
In Germany we have many companies that have a large amount of Japanese customers, but they get nowhere with English. Meanwhile Japanese send some engineers over as sales support instead of establishing a proper local subsidiary that is not just a proxy for sales.
They'll never accept your Japanese though unless you get the Keigo perfect. You might not notice it but foreigners who speak Japanese too well are thought of as losers by most Japanese ("why does he have to work in another country?"), and people who aren't perfect but pretty good will still be seen as lesser, and treated like children.
Of course your mileage might differ if you're in a pure tech environment full of younger freak types, but Japanese at any level in any other industry (like trade) is a boon more than anything. It's actually a better life in Japan to pretend you're a bumbling gaijin than an expert in all things Japanese. The women interested in real foreigners are also way more fun than those who want a weeaboo foreigner.
1. I do know how to speak Keigo. I'd say most Japanese struggle more with it than I do (it's not something every Japanese person actually learns properly)
2. The worst reaction I get is that my intonation and pronunciation is off-putting, because it sounds too native and doesn't fit my white face. People just aren't used to it.
3. Nobody thinks of me as a loser for having invested years into Japanese and gained proficiency in it. The reaction is usually more like "why did you learn Japanese although you don't need it? It's only spoken on this little island in the sea". Since I have engineering skills people know that I would not be a loser even without this language skill. People are also very humbled to know that I have a sincere interest in their culture. It seems your acquaintances suffer from severe self-loathing to consider somebody who has interest in their culture a loser.
4. Calling people (in the tech sector) who are interested in Japan/Japanese freaks is downright racist. Imagine you were talking about "younger freak types" who move to Spain and learn Spanish.
5. if you think being a bumbling gaijin will make you happy I don't think you should stay in Japan. Of course you will be treated as a baby and not treated seriously. You'll be one of those losers at the local HUB pub that spout racist remarks about the Japanese.
6. "Real foreigners" vs "weeaboo foreigners" - do you listen to yourself? Because somebody doesn't act like a bumbling gaijin and actually learns how to be a functioning adult speaking, reading and writing the language they're a weeaboo?
Either you've never been to Japan and don't know the language, or you hung out with the wrong crowd, or most likely, the wrong attitude and blamed others for the self-fulfilling prophecy you found yourself in.
As a Japanese speaking programmer I basically don’t have any competition in the job market.