Interview with Bijaya Prasad Kuikel of Mercari, Japan, about His Japan Work Experience

The 7th interview in the series of “interviews with foreign Engineers in Japan. “ EJable.com’s Ryoko Nagai talks to Bijaya Prasad Kuikel of Mercari, Japan.

Mercari, Inc. is a Japanese e-commerce company founded in 2013 with the main product, the Mercari marketplace app, and has since grown to become Japan’s largest community-powered marketplace.

Video Interview

Transcript of The Video

Ryoko: Hi, Bijya. Thank you for joining us today at EJable. I am really excited to have this opportunity to talk to you and get to know you and your experience working in the IT field in Japan.

Bijaya: Thank you so much for having me here. I am Bijay, pronounced as Vijay, a software engineer from Nepal. I graduated from Kathmandu University, located in Dhulikhel, a town nearby Kathmandu. I have been working as a software engineer since 2015. And yeah, I came to Japan last year in August.

Ryoko: Thank you so much. And what was your first encounter with Japan, and why did you decide to move here and work as a software engineer?

Bijaya: Many of us in Nepal know about Japan from early childhood. Mainly because Japan has helped Nepal a lot in its development, like with the building of roads, building some big hospitals, and things like that, so many of us know that it’s a well-developed country and a good friend of our country, Nepal. Japan also has been one of the destinations for students for higher education.

Back in 2020, I was working with a Japanese company as a remote employee. It was a part-time job. I was a software engineer with a couple more Nepalese people.

I liked the people, the Japanese people, the way they behaved. They were very disciplined; they were very loyal. I was really attracted by their kind behavior. And so, I thought to apply to some companies in Japan. So yeah, I was very much excited about the people and their behavior.

Ryoko: OK, cool. And do you have any knowledge of the Japanese language? Like, do you speak Japanese a little bit?

Bijaya: Actually, I do not speak Japanese. I am learning it, though. But because of my busy schedule, I do not have sufficient time to study. But I am trying to learn. It’s going on. I know very basic conversational Japanese. Even my company supports us by teaching Japanese. So, I’m slowly and gradually learning, but still, my level is very basic.

Ryoko: OK, do you face any difficulty in working with Mercari without knowing Japanese or not at all?

Bijaya: In my company, we have no difficulties working without knowing Japanese. This is because we have many international developers worldwide, and even my team is very diverse.

We have people from many countries, so most of the communication is in English. That is helpful for us, and it’s pretty easy. So, in terms of work, there is no problem. But in my personal life, there are some difficulties. For example, if you have to go to the ward office and you do not speak Japanese, then it is a little problematic.

Ryoko: Yeah, I see. Especially because Japan has so much paperwork to do at the City Hall.

By the way, you moved last summer basically; how was the process of moving here?

Bijaya: The process was really smooth. My company applied and provided me with the COE. After that, I went to the Japanese embassy and submitted the COE and the visa application form to get my visa. After that, I simply prepared to come over here. It was pretty easy. It was quite easy to move to Japan.

Ryoko: OK. That’s nice to hear. Then maybe something a bit more specific about your current position! What do you like or what do you enjoy doing about your current position as a senior software engineer at Mercari?

Bijaya: So yeah, I like many things about my current position. One of the things is that being able to be a part of such a huge company is great. I basically enjoy it. The app, the number of users, and the traffic, everything is huge.

Everything is quite high compared to what I was experiencing in my country before I moved here. Things are pretty much amazing over here. The first thing I like is the company and the project I am working on.

Ryoko: OK.

Bijaya: Apart from that, another benefit I have seen over there is that I can interact with many people from different parts of the world. It’s like a global village. You can talk to so many different people from different countries. It’s very amazing.

And the next thing is that there are plenty of learning opportunities to expand ourselves. We can learn so many things. In the past eight months, I have learned so many new technologies. All these things have helped me a lot and still helping me to grow as a software engineer. And another thing is that the company itself pushes us to take some bold challenges and enhance ourselves to be good developers. That is something that I like the most. Yeah, these are the few basic things that I like so much about my work.

Ryoko: Oh, nice. So, I see that the working environment has been quite different from back in Nepal since there are so many international people.

By the way, did you have to bring some change within yourself to kind of fit into this working environment and working in Japan? Or was it smooth to kind of just get to know everybody and work together smoothly?

Bijaya: When I was in Nepal, I worked with outsourcing companies. Most of the companies over there are IT outsourcing companies. And I worked with such outsourcing companies for most of my career. We mostly had to deal with clients or developers in different countries.

So, basically, I was also exposed to working with some foreigners at that time.

Before coming to Japan, my full-time job was with a Netherlands-based company. Our company provided some services, and I also worked for one Germany-based client. So, we used to, we used to communicate with the developers in Germany, and we used to have direct communication during sprints.

We used to communicate during different scrum ceremonies. That was a pretty amazing experience over there as well. And when I came to Japan, since I already had some sort of exposure working with some foreign foreigners or some foreign nationals, it was not a big deal for me. And it was not a big difference for me.

However, there are a few different changes that I have experienced. Since I was working for outsourcing companies, the project was not owned by us, but now we work in a company where we are building something for our own company, and we own the projects. So this is something different, and there are many benefits when you own. In that case, the culture is different from outsourcing companies.

Apart from that, I worked with some particular nations, like some developers from Germany, but here I can communicate and work with developers worldwide. All of them have different mindsets and different cultures. And mainly as we are working in Japan, we also have some sort of Japanese culture which is known as one of the strict work cultures. People here are so much dedicated to their jobs. So coming over here, one of the big advantages is that everyone is dedicated. Everyone is very knowledgeable, and they are so passionate about the job. It feels like everyone loves their jobs, so by watching them and learning them, I can see that I can have so much enthusiasm. I also feel like I need to be more dedicated to the job and love it. So, those are the things I find different from what I had over there.

Ryoko: Oh, OK, Whoa. I have not heard anybody say that you could learn enthusiasm about your work by being in Japan, especially being Japanese; I feel that a lot of people are kind of forcing themselves to work more in Japan, and when they don’t want to. You know, a lot of Tatemae and all those Japanese cultural things. So, hearing that is very comforting and nice to know that. And, yeah, I do wish it makes me want to do so.

Well, how it’s like to actually work in Japan because I haven’t worked here? This is my internship. So yeah, it’s nice to hear that.

Bijaya: I hope you will experience it and you’ll love it as well.

Ryoko: Yeah, for sure, I agree. I hope so. Then, moving on from working in Japan, I would like to know what you do outside of work and what you like or do not like about Japanese culture. What aspects of Japan or the Japanese culture do you like outside of work or within work?

Bijaya: Right. So regarding work, as I previously mentioned, I have interacted with Japanese developers and Japanese friends in our company. I have worked closely with some of them. What I have found and seen is that they are very helpful. And very dedicated to their job.

So, if you seek help or want any advice from them, if you are in an emergency or need anything related to work, they will always be there for you. That is one of the very good things that I have seen. They are very much dedicated, and they want to provide their best. There is a kind of selflessness that they have. That is something that I love.

And I think this is also one of the Japanese cultural aspects to give their best. They want everything to be perfect.

Outside of work, what I like is the cleanliness. Everything is well managed. You might not have experienced how it is in my country or some of the underdeveloped countries. The environment is not as clean. We are in one of the very beautiful cities of the world. It is one of the most beautiful cities of the world. It is not polluted.

When I first came to Japan, I found that I could not see any kind of smoke or any kind of dust on the roads. That was something that I was so much amazed at. So how I just tried to figure out how that is possible. When I started living over here, I found that it was because of the Japanese culture.

People here are so disciplined. They are so dedicated, and they want to keep their environment clean. They want to have everything clean and perfect, so they take these things as their responsibility. They do not think that this is not my duty and that I will not do this. I will not clean this. They do not run away and take charge of things. This is something that is completely different in my country. People try to run away from their duty. But over here, this is something that I found very different. So, this is the main reason the country has progressed so fast. It is one of the top destinations for people who love dedication and discipline. The most important thing I love about Japanese culture is that they are so disciplined. They are helpful, always eager to prove themselves and try their best in that.

Ryoko: OK. Well, that’s nice to hear. Then, are there any things that you might not necessarily like about Japan or working in Japan?

Bijaya: So far, there is nothing that I do not like about the Japanese working culture because I love my job so much.

It’s amazing to be part of such a big company where you are given so much exposure that you can expand your horizons and do something challenging. And at the same time, you do not have any sort of pressure that you previously used to hear that in Japanese companies, there is so much pressure. That is something that I have not faced.

We have full freedom. They only ask that you please expand yourselves and your horizon and knowledge. Apart from that, there is no other kind of pressure or something like that. Our company culture is great. So, there is nothing that I do not like about it.

I have not been fully exposed to the Japanese culture and all, but the only thing that I feel at times is that language is a barrier in some places because I have very limited knowledge of Japanese, I know only a few sentences, so if I go to the supermarket or some other such place, I cannot express myself. and that is the little problem. So, if I can overcome this barrier of language, I definitely think that this will be a very good thing for me.

Ryoko: OK. Do you currently wish to stay quite a long time here in Japan if you could continue this position?

Bijaya: Yes, actually, yes. As I mentioned, I pretty much love Japan. I loved Japan before coming to Japan while working with that Japanese company. And then I started researching it more, and I was so much excited about coming here.

Ryoko: Right.

Bijaya: There were COVID-related lockdowns and travel bans. But then the situation was getting better, and people were able to travel again to other countries. The situation was getting better. However, I only thought of Japan at that time, and I was applying to different companies. I wanted to get into Japan in any way at that time.

I did not know that one requires Japanese knowledge. Most companies need the Japanese language as a requirement to hire someone. If you do not have a Japanese language, they will not even proceed with your job application. I did not know about that, so at that time, I was applying to many random companies on LinkedIn. And I got rejected without any reason. Later on, I came to know that it was because they had language as a requirement that I could not fulfill. So yeah, luckily, I got a chance to apply to a company that accepts English-speaking people from around the world. And I got lucky to be here in Japan.

Ryoko: OK, nice.

Bijaya: So yeah, I would love to continue being here in Japan as long as I can because I love everything here.

Ryoko: OK. Well, happy to hear that. Then, maybe one of the last questions. What do you do in your free time?

Bijaya: It depends on the time. I am usually free during the weekends. So, sometimes I write some technical articles on medium. I also have my YouTube channel, which is my part-time hobby.

Ryoko: OK.

Bijaya: Though I do not have many videos, just a few. All these are related to technical tutorials. I tried to work on them on some weekends. One and a half months back, I released one video. It was five or five to six hours long, so I worked on that for a couple of weekends to complete it. So yeah, when I get time, I try to spend my time investing in that thing so that I can help some other developers as well. I started it back in 2017 and still do.

Ryoko: Oh, wow.

Bijaya: I used to get good comments from people from around the world on my medium article that they liked, and then they wanted other topics. So, I was happy to hear that. So sometimes I do the requested things. And apart from that, sometimes I try to visit some places with friends and family, such as I went to Hama Rikyu Garden. Last time I went to Tokyo Skytree. I have not visited that many places, but sometimes I love to visit.

Ryoko: OK. Wow, that’s wow. That’s really cool. I’ve always thought about YouTube channels. I like video editing and stuff like that, but I’ve never had the courage to have one, so that’s really cool that you have one. So, you started the YouTube channel in 2017?

Bijaya: Regarding the YouTube channel, I started that in 2020 so. Before that, I used to write articles on medium, and I started that in 2017.

Ryoko: OK, wow, that’s very cool. Then my last question for you would be, do you have any tips or advice for anybody who’s looking to work in Japan?

Bijaya: Regarding tips or advice for someone who would like to work in Japan, the first thing is that the mindset of the people over here is comparatively different than what we can find in some other parts of the world. This is because Japanese people are very dedicated and serious about their work. They try to give their best. So, the first thing is that we show the same.

When coming to Japan, in the initial phase, we might feel it a little difficult or different because the mindset of people and the working culture might be a little different than what we might have been experiencing. So, in that case, yeah, I would like to advise everyone to be prepared. And be prepared wholeheartedly and accept that thing.

The next thing is that technically compared to what I was doing before and what I’m doing at the moment, some things are similar, but some things are not very different. This is because there are many opportunities here, like tools and technologies. So, I got to work with so many new technologies here. Also, the amount of knowledge you can have over here is abundant, so you need to be prepared for that.

If possible, you could go through the websites to see what sort of tools and technologies they are using, and you can also prepare yourselves for that. It’s not required that you need to know everything, but you can simply have some basic ideas of those things, and then you can be comfortable with it.

The next thing is that even though I do not have Japanese skills, I would request someone planning to come to Japan to have some basic knowledge of Japanese. Some friends suggested the same to me, but I did not take that seriously. If you have that knowledge, it helps a lot.

Ryoko: OK, great. Those are great tips to hear, for sure. Well, thank you so much for your time today. I’m really happy I got to know you and about your work experience. Thank you so much for being here.

Bijaya: Thank you so much for having me.

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