本音 (honne) — what people really think, as opposed to tatemae (建前), what they say in public.
Why this site exists
Most guides to working in Japan as an engineer are written by foreigners who made the move. They’re valuable — but they only show one side of the table.
I’m on the other side. I’m a Japanese freelance engineer who works inside Japanese client teams — currently at a product company. I give input on what kind of engineers the team should hire, and I see what separates the people who are trusted on site from the people who aren’t.
Honne Dev is where I write down what Japanese engineers and hiring teams actually think — the things nobody says in the interview.
Who I am
I go by MARU here.
- Freelance infrastructure / cloud engineer in Japan, 5 years of experience
- Work day-to-day with AWS, Terraform, CI/CD and on-call operations
- Give input on hiring: what skills and attitudes the team needs
To be clear about my limits: I’ve never worked in Japan as a foreigner, so I won’t pretend to know what that feels like. What I can tell you is how things look from the Japanese side of the desk — and that’s the part most guides are missing.
I write under a pen name so I can be honest about the industry — including the parts companies would rather not talk about. I never name my clients or share anything confidential.
What you’ll find here
- Get Hired — how Japanese companies screen resumes and run interviews
- Companies & Pay — salary reality, and how to tell a good company from an SES body-shop
- Work Culture — evaluations, ringi, overtime, and how much Japanese you really need
- Visa & Moving — general guides to work visas and your first 30 days
What this site is not
- Not a recruitment agency. I don’t place candidates or charge you for job introductions.
- Not legal or immigration advice. For your specific visa case, talk to a gyoseishoshi (行政書士, a licensed administrative scrivener who handles immigration applications) or your employer.