TOKYO - AI specialist and IT critic Kazuhiro Ohara, who once transferred to a foreign company despite not being good at English, says that with the right use of AI it is now possible to base one’s career overseas even without strong language skills.
In the second part of the series ‘A Career From 47 for Troubled Adults,’ Ohara introduced his recommended methods for using AI more effectively at work.
He explained that even people who are not particularly interested in AI can benefit from it, starting with building their own “newspaper” on a favorite topic that few others know. Combining facts and opinions makes one’s expertise more persuasive. Discussing services such as ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini, he noted that while their training data is based mainly on English, efforts are made to minimize bias by including Japanese and emerging-market perspectives available in English sources like Wikipedia. Nevertheless, he said, responses still tend to reflect Western values such as self-realization and individual choice, which can feel culturally distant to Japanese users.
Ohara pointed out that in Japan social expectations and lifetime employment norms make major career changes after the late forties psychologically and socially harder than in the United States, where rebuilding from scratch is often admired. In Japan, lowering one’s salary or starting over is still seen as shameful, whereas in America changing jobs is often congratulated.
However, he stressed that AI can smooth such transitions. He cited friends in programming and marketing who, while living in Japan and speaking no English, work for companies in high-salary markets such as the United States and Singapore. Because most tasks in those fields are digital, they can use AI to translate emails and other written communication, initially spending more time on translation but earning higher pay, then gradually improving efficiency as their English improves.
Working remotely from places like Karuizawa, these Japanese professionals offer meticulous service and fine-tuned marketing adjustments that overseas clients value. Ohara argued that for some people lowering their domestic salary to take on overseas remote work with AI translation may actually be a strategic move. He advised alternating between changing industry and changing role, as he himself did in moving from consulting at McKinsey to projects at NTT DoCoMo and later to launching online media at Recruit, thereby accumulating both sectoral and functional expertise step by step.
Many of his own career moves began with long-term relationships built through past job searches, referrals from business partners or friends, and encounters that blossomed years later—such as when a former contact at Google invited him to join despite his weak English. “What is obvious to us may seem novel to them,” he said, urging readers to maintain ties even after turning down opportunities because “you never know when a connection will open a door.”
He concluded that while AI is set to become an essential partner, the real starting point for career change remains people and the curiosity they bring.
Source: テレ東BIZ
