How to find an innovative job opportunity in Japan (even with limited Japanese) — interview with Nathan Paterson (ex-Disney, ex-IDEO) Part 1/3

Born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand, Nathan Paterson has built an adventurous and innovation-forward career in Japan. After working as a designer in London, he came to Tokyo as an English teacher with basic textbook Japanese — then worked his way through a variety of traditional and progressive companies and founded his own companies. He spent nearly 10 years at Disney across Tokyo and Los Angeles, where he led research and design of digital platforms including the precursor to Disney+. He later became Director of Learning Programs at IDEO, a global design consultancy transforming Japan’s largest corporations.

Very few people — foreign or Japanese — have navigated such a successful 20+ year career across Japan’s business landscape. If you’re considering working in Japan, Nathan’s journey reveals what it actually takes to build a cross-cultural career here.

What you’ll learn in this article:

• Why some companies hire foreigners despite language barriers

• What they’re actually evaluating

• How to position yourself to stand out

  
  

Nathan Paterson’s first interview at a traditional Japanese ad agency was, in his words, “one of the most painful hours I’ve ever had in Japan.” Three senior leaders — all in their 50s or older, dressed in formal business suits — grilled the 20-something New Zealander entirely in Japanese. His language skills weren’t terrible, but they weren’t great either. When Nathan walked out, he was certain he’d failed.

A few days later, his phone rang. The hiring manager was calling to follow up — still speaking only Japanese. Nathan’s honest response: “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand what you just said.” The manager laughed, then delivered news Nathan did understand: “We want to work with you.”

The Problem You’re Actually Solving

What Nathan didn’t realize at the time was that the agency wasn’t evaluating him the way he thought they were. This traditional, family-run company had a problem: their team was 100% Japanese, they’d been working with the same domestic clients for 20 years or more, and those clients were getting frustrated. “Yeah, we saw this last year,” clients would say. “What have you got that’s actually new?”

The agency needed fresh perspectives — someone who would look at their problems and see them differently, not because they were smarter or more creative, but because they literally couldn’t help but think differently.

“You can’t help yourself if you’re coming from outside. You can only bring something new. You can’t bring the Japanese perspective, you can only bring your foreign perspective. Which is important and valuable in Japan. A lot of these companies, their biggest market is the US. So you might already know their biggest market. That gives you an advantage over all of those thousands of people working in those companies who’ve never been to the US.”

Nathan’s limited Japanese wasn’t the liability he thought it was. His foreign perspective was exactly what they were paying for.

How Opportunities Actually Happen in Japan

That ad agency job taught Nathan how to navigate traditional Japanese corporate culture. A year and a half later, he left to start his own boutique design studio, seeking more creative freedom. A few years into running the studio, he got a call that would redirect his career.

A friend who was a lawyer at Disney Japan offered to introduce Nathan to his colleague, then VP of Creative at Disney Interactive Media Group. “You’re both foreigners in Japan, both designers — you should totally meet.” So Nathan and the VP of Creative went for drinks and hit it off.

A few months later, the phone rang again. “Have you ever thought about working at a company like Disney?”

Nathan hadn’t, to be honest. But he thought about what he could learn from a company like Disney — the scale, the quality of creative work, the opportunity to understand what “great” looks like. After a few interviews, he made the leap. He ended up staying at Disney for nearly 10 years — nearly four in Tokyo, then a transfer to LA headquarters.

The lesson isn’t “get lucky with connections.” The lesson is about how opportunities arise in Japan: through relationships, conversations, and people who see connections others might miss.

Seek the Team, Not Just the Brand

What made Nathan’s decade at Disney possible wasn’t the company name — it was the teams he found. “In a big company, seek out the team and the people you want to work with more so than the company,” Nathan advises. “I stayed at Disney for almost 10 years because I moved around and worked with really great teams on innovative projects.”

His first team in Tokyo was amazing. Then, while reading an internal email one day, he scrolled to the bottom and saw a note about a new team being founded in California: “Disney Innovation Group.” The words caught his attention. Disney had opened a new team called Disney Innovation Group in the US, working on exciting projects. They were looking for designers, engineers, and product people.

Nathan reached out. Many months of interviews and visa conversations later, he was transferring to the US. But he’d done his homework first: the team had been a startup that Disney acquired, specializing in social media and viral video campaigns. “They had done amazing work,” Nathan recalls. “I thought, these are smart, creative people. I would love to work with them.”

For students considering Japanese companies, Nathan’s advice is clear: don’t just look at the brand name. Look at the specific team, who you’d be working with, what projects they’re doing. That’s what will determine your experience.

Where to Look for Innovation Roles

Most large Japanese companies have innovation groups — though some are doing better than others, and some are more authentic. If you know what industries interest you, Nathan suggests seeking out leading companies in those industries and finding their innovation groups, whether they’re innovating in sustainability, operations, HR, or the products and services they build.

After Disney, Nathan joined IDEO, a global design consultancy. One of their projects involved helping Mitsui — one of Japan’s largest trading companies — launch an innovation lab with studios in both Silicon Valley and Tokyo. The goal was to build “a mini IDEO inside Mitsui” that would help incubate new business ideas from current employees. “They believed their employees had talent and great ideas, as well as experience working in various industries around the world,” Nathan explains. “They just needed the time, platform, and support to invest in those ideas.”

These innovation groups exist, and some have locations in Palo Alto, Tel Aviv, London, or New York, depending on the industry. Nathan’s advice: Find those groups and reach out.

“I have no problem with cold emailing people. The worst thing that can happen is they don’t reply. So you wasted a few minutes of your time to send an email. But the best thing that could happen is that they fly you across the world and you land in a role that will be the stepping stone to your future.”

What Companies Actually Value

When it comes to hiring, Nathan has learned that a lot of it is based on attitude, not skills. “You can teach skills. You can’t teach attitude,” he explains. Someone who walks in with a brilliant portfolio but a bad attitude — unwilling to collaborate, closed to feedback, convinced they already know the answers — is an automatic no. But someone with a great attitude and genuine willingness to learn? That’s a strong signal, even if their skills aren’t perfectly aligned with the role yet.

This is especially true at Japanese companies, which are traditionally set up to train people in the skills they need. What they’re actually evaluating:

• Are you willing to take risks and try things that might fail?

• Are you willing to experiment and work in uncertainty?

• Do you care about their success beyond the pay check?

• Are you curious about their industry?

  
  

Notice what’s not on that list: perfect Japanese, years of experience, specific technical skills, or traditional corporate polish.

Key Takeaways

If you only remember three things from Nathan’s experience:

1. You’re not competing with Japanese candidates. You’re solving a different problem — bringing global market knowledge, unique perspectives, and international ways of thinking they can’t get internally. Your foreign background is a feature, not a bug.

2. Attitude matters more than skills. Japanese companies traditionally expect to train new employees. What they can’t train is curiosity, adaptability, resilience, willingness to experiment and take risks, and genuine interest in their mission.

3. You have more value than you think. Four years in their target market equals expertise. Your life experience counts. Your willingness to reach out and make connections counts. Stop waiting for opportunities to come to you.

What’s Next - Nathan Paterson

You now understand how to get hired. But once you’re in, a whole different skill set is required: navigating Japanese corporate culture as a permanent outsider.

Next article: The tactical guide to being a foreigner in Japanese companies — when your outsider status helps, when it hurts, how to protect yourself while respecting the culture, and the story of why Nathan left work at 6pm every day while his colleagues stayed until the boss went home.

This is Article 1 in a 3-part series on launching your career in Japan as a foreigner.

(Editor: Jelper Club Operations Team)