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Posted by: Margie Banin (Kochi, 2005-2007), a former CIR with a love of the written word. Currently she connects others to Japan through translating, writing, and editing texts on Japan. Margie also manages the JETwit Bluesky account, serves as the JETwit Volunteer Coordinator and a JETwit jobs-list welcomer, and engages in various other JETwit outreach activities.
Yan Sen Lu set off to Japan as a JET in 2006 and has been there ever since. After completing two years in Tokyo on the JET program, Yan Sen transitioned into the local workforce, finding employment in the executive search field.
Now, 18 years later, he has established his own search firm, Makana Partners, and has authored a work he describes as a guide for those looking to hire top talent in Japan.
As he puts it:
“If Japan is breaking your hiring process—this is your field manual.
‘We can open a new market in Southeast Asia faster than we can fill a single Director-level role in Tokyo.’ — Every HR Director in Japan, eventually.
Japan rewards preparation above all else. This book names the mechanisms — the cultural codes, the structural realities, and the exact frameworks that the best executive search firms use to close in this market.”
Yan Sen’s book sounds like a must-read for those supporting foreign companies in Japan by recruiting and building teams for them!
The Hardest Market in the World will be released this summer, in June 2026. Learn more at https://hardestmarket.com/.
Discover more JET alum authors in the JETwit Library.
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