If I were 20 years younger, I'd be knocking on your door. Japan is a great place to experience and live. And great food.

I'm from the UK, but have lived in France and Spain. I had a fluent Japanese speaking and reading g/f for a while, and since we spent time in Japan, I studied it at Edinburgh University (evening classes) for a year. It's quite a tricky language, mainly because you have to learn every word, whereas, for obvious reasons, there is a lot of crossover in the broadly Latin-based languages..

However, there are plenty of language schools all over Tokyo, often taught by native English speakers, so you easily get started. And, of course, being in the country makes learning so much easier.

The Japanese are great fun too.

What a great opportunity for some lucky individual.

That sounds like quite an amazing opportunity. I'm sorely tempted. I have the PHP qualification, but I never really cared for Rails. (Ruby is cool, I just never really like Rails much.) And since I'm learning Japanese, it's even more tempting.

I'm not really sure I want to move to another country, though. That'd be quite a change.

Good luck in finding someone!

Thanks! Out of curiosity, how far along are you with your Japanese?

Moving to another country is definitely a challenge, but I think it's something that everybody should do for a year or two, precisely because it's hard and uncomfortable, so few people do it.

If or when you decide to go home, you've got a very distinct bullet-point on your resume that will definitely stick in peoples' minds.

I definitely agree about living overseas for a time. If you ever get the chance and don't take it, you'll only live to regret it. And who knows, you may not want to move back! I got a chance to move from the States to London in late 2006. I expected to be there for about a year, and ended up there for 1.5 years before moving to Oslo. I've been here since, and I have no plans to move back to the States anytime soon.

When you immerse yourself in a different culture, you start finding that you look at a lot of stuff in new ways. Sometimes it's frustrating, but it is a very rewarding experience.

I've been studying on my own for a few years. I haven't been crazy about it, so I would judge myself to be low-intermediate. As long as I know all the words, I can usually understand when people talk a little slower than normal. When I don't, I can often repeat the words I don't understand to ask for explanations.

I have a language partner in Japan and we talk daily. Unfortunately, I have to say "I don't understand" about every other sentence. It's a good thing she's so patient!

Out of curiosity (and apologies to the op for steering off-topic), how did you find your language partner?

Lang-8.com. I started correcting peoples' English and posting my own entries in Japanese. People added me as a friend and I after I mentioned I had Skype, someone asked to be my language partner over Skype.

Since then I've seen a few that I'm certain would do the same, if I asked. It was a lot easier to find a partner than I expected. Also, there are many more Japanese people learning English on Lang-8 than English speakers learning Japanese. It means you get a LOT of attention when you post, especially if you've been correcting others.

Thanks - I'll give that a shot. I've been slowly teaching myself a bit of Japanese for the past few months, but I'm still very much a beginner.

Man, this would be absolutely perfect for me... in about three years. I'm in college (Dutch) and have been doing web development for about five years. Currently applying to do a three-month Bachelor-project at Osaka university. Also recently started studying Japanese.

So yeah, look for me in your inbox around 2013. :)

What's your bachelor's projet? I've got a few friends doing undergrad work in Osaka, and one doing her graduate degree there.

The project itself is still undecided. All I know is that there's an opportunity for me to do my final project in Osaka coming april, so I applied.

Greets work and lived out here for the last 5 years. And work fir a Japanese company. Program in python c and a few other stuff. Have business Japanese. Not looking fir a job at the moment but have friends out here. Any details I can pass around?

Also very curious about the startup process in japan.

All the pocari sweat I can drink? Sold!

Hajimemashite

Too bad I'm not a software hacker, and don't speak Japanese!

I have a lot of experience selling Pocky and Ramune to teenagers, and speak Chinese fairly well, have studied in China... anyhow.

Sounds like great fun. Share stories, whoever joins!

Wow this job makes me want to learn Rails.

Good luck!