Demand for Mechanical Engineering?

[snowJT]

I'm Kevin, and I live in Canada, I still have one more year of schooling then I'll have a degree in Mechanical Engineering. My Japanese is not the best right now, I've taken language classes in school, and I plan on taking college courses in Japanese next year before I graduate. What I'm wondering, is how the mechanical engineering field is there, and is there a demand for work in also aerospace technology as well?

Thanks.

[StevenG]

Kevin,
I think you might have some trouble finding an engineering job in Japan if you only have a bachelors degree and no professional experience. The reason I say this is because all of the Japanese engineers I have dealt with professionally have had at least a Masters degree.

I'm a mechanical engineer from the US myself and am considering going to Japan to get my PhD in a few years. As a result, I've been researching several universities in Japan and have often seen statistics saying that around 70% of the graduates from the schools of engineering continue on to get a masters degree.

There certainly is a demend for engineers in Japan, but you will be up against some very tough competition for those jobs. If you are serious about wanting to work as an engineer in Japan I would strongly recommend that you consider getting your masters degree at a Japanese university.

Many Japanese universities have special programs for international engineering students. These programs allow you to attend the university on non-matriculated status for 1 year while assisting with research in the engineering department and taking Japanese language classes. It is common for international students to work in this capacity for their first year before taking the university entrance exam to become matriculated students. Tuition prices appear to be MUCH more reasonable than in the US (about $1500US/semester at University of Tokyo) Also, scholarships are available for self-funded international students.

I think this would be a great opportunity to learn a lot more about the Japanese language and culture while simultaneously improving your engineering skills and making yourself more competitive in the Japanese job market.

Good luck!
-Steve

[snowJT]

Thank you so much, that information is extremely useful. Are master degrees offered only in Japanese, or are there English ones as well. With those tuition prices, it sounds extremely tempting, and I now think that is exactly the route I am going to take now. I would have a good excuse to live in Japan for a while, and it would be fun. Plus Japan is known for its engineering, it would look really good to have a masters degree from there! Do you know about how much residence costs for most universities?

[SteveG]

Hi Kevin,
Whether or not the courses are taught in English is hard to say and most likely depends on the the program. I can tell you that most of the engineering schools require students to take the TOEFL as part of the entrance exam so there is a high probability that at least some english is used in the teaching process.

Residence costs might be a little tricky. From what I can tell most Japanese universities don't have traditional student dormatories like we are used to in North America. I have seen some references to "international student dormitories" at some schools so there may be some dorm rooms available but I'm not sure what the cost may be.

Here's a link for you:
http://www.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/etpage/study/admission.html
This is the University of Tokyo and there are some links here that will tell you more about the international student program. There are similar programs at many other universities so you should look around for them too.

-Steve

[snowJT]

Thank you so much, I've found additional information on this. I am extremely interested.. only thing I can't find are actual tuition costs, I find it very unbelievable, since tuition is at least 5 grand here...

[SteveG]

Hi Kevin,
I think the current tuition rates for the University of Tokyo are listed on this page:
http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/stu04/e03_e.html

Assuming that the tuition hasn't increased since 2000, (and I have to think they would have updated the page if it had) the tuition is about $4500US per year plus a $2400US admission fee at the time of initial enrollment. I'm not sure what you're paying for your undergrad tuition, but this seems like a fantastic rate to me.

My employer has been paying $3100US per CLASS for me to get my masters degree here in the states. If I were studying full time in Japan and taking 3 classes per semester I would only be paying about $750 per class. That is a HUGE difference!

That's one of the reasons for me wanting to do my PhD in Japan aside from wanting to experience the culture firsthand. A low tuition is always nice when you're paying it out of your own pocket.

Take care,
-Steve

[snowJT]

So that page says that every program has the same tuition rates except for law? Thats very nice. I plan on going full time when I go, do you know if it takes about as long as it would for a masters here?

[Outkast]

Don't forget, you'll be picking up a special set of Japanese technical vocabulary that accompanies the engineering field. That's why grad classes taught in Japanese will be useful (providing that you acquire some of the standard language first.)

[Harv]

Hi, I'm currently doing a masters degree in mechanical engineering in the UK. I've got another year and a half to go. Do you think a 2-1 or a 1st masters degree along with maybe a JLPT2 would be good enough to get a job in Japan?
Otherwise, I have been thinking about doing a PhD and to possibly do it in Japan, what are the tuition/accommodation costs like for a good university?

[SteveG]

Hello Harv,
If you have a masters degree in hand and have passed the JLPT level 2 I think you might be able find an engineering job in Japan depending on your specialization and level of professional experience. I would probably depend mostly on what the demand for engineers in your field is in Japan.

If your intention is to work as an engineer I would caution you against getting your PhD right away. A masters degree opens a lot of doors for you in terms of what kind of jobs you are qualified for, but I have generally found that getting a PhD closes a lot of them. The reason for this is that as you acquire more advanced degrees you become increasingly specialized in one field or another.

For example, when you get a bachelors degree you chose to specialize in a certain sector of the engineering profession (i.e mechanical, electrical, chemical, aerospace, civel, etc.). When you continue on to get masters degree you generally pick a specific field within that sector to specialize in (i.e solid mechanics, thermals / fluids, or materials for mechanical engineers). Getting a PhD will typically then require you to further specialize in a specific topic within the field you chose to specialize in when you got your mesters degree (i.e if you specialized in thermals / fluids you would further specialize by studying only convective heat transfer or only compressible fluid flow).

Once you attain this level of specialization, you have effectively limited you potential job opprtunities to those positions that require your specific expertise. Companies will generally not want to hire an expert in a field that their business doesn't require. In my case, I plan to get a PhD because my goal is to become a professor in the future and a PhD will be required for me to attain that goal.

Outkast made a very good point about learning the technical vocabulary. I would also suggest that if you don't plan on taking engineering courses in Japan that you try to find a Japanese penpal who is an engineer. The last time I checked on of the penpal sites there were several Japanese engineers seeking english-speaking penpals. I think this might be another good way to learn some of the technical words. Thankfully, from what I have seen a high percentage of Japanese technical terms are actually katakana words borrowed from the English language so learning them shouldn't be too difficult.

Take care,
Steve