Job Prospect? Law Student pursuing LLM

Kind of a Long post since I tell about my whole experience researching for employment scope post-pursuing LLM in Japan, but if you want to skip to the Main Question, just go to the last para.

My LLB will finish next year, and I plan to pursue an LLM (That has always been the plan), but ever since I decided that I want to work in Japan, I decided that I should pursue an LLM there. I am also learning the language right now, side by side, so that is not an issue.

My question is for a Foreign Law Student who is pursuing LLM in Japan, is there any Job Prospectus? Keeping in mind that I do NOT intend to take the Bar Exam in Japan because 1) it is extremely difficult and 2) I have heard that LLB is a requirement, however, I also heard that this requirement was removed, but frankly knowing the difficulty of the paper itself, I don't expect myself to pass it unless I do undergraduate. Besides, I want to work on the Corporate side strictly, that is consultation/negotiation/contract drafting and review etc, and not on the litigation side at all (not even corporate litigation). Of course, I will pass my own country's local bar.

Luckily I did get to work in a Japanese Law firm as an Intern, but I was only dealing with foreign-related matters, since of course I didn't have experience in Japanese law. I asked my Internship Mentor, since he too was a foreigner who I think became a registered foreign lawyer and started working in a law firm there. So he gave me a few options.

1: Work in a Japanese Company which is based in my domestic country as an in-house corporation and continue learning Japanese. Many companies often send you to HQ (which would be in Japan) for training, and if you are well-versed in Japanese, they might keep you there only. LLM is not important in this route as per him.

2: Passing the bar, Working in your country for a few years, and then of course try and get yourself registered as a Registered Foreign Attorney (Gaikokuho Jimu Bengoshi) and then practice your specific jurisdiction.

Then I told him that I planned to go for a master's anyway since that was my plan even before I settled on the idea of working in Japan. Then I asked him if I should pursue an LLM in Japan (My mom and my brother who is working in Japan himself suggested this) or an LLM in the US (My father and my aunt suggested this plus some of my cousins are there too).

My Mentor said that pursuing an LLM in Japan, considering I am not planning to give Bar there, will be very pointless. He said, "Because why would a company hire you who only have specialization in one field and has not passed a bar, over a local who has pursued undergraduate which means the local has legal knowledge in variety of subjects, and must have also gone to some internship in Japanese firms during their law school." I think he thought I wanted to pursue Domestic Law because I told him I wanted to specialize in commercial contracts/patents, and he told me to pursue international. Then I told him that pursuing international commercial law/patents was my aim anyway. And then he told me to choose something broader since the Patent would be very narrow, and I should try to specialize in some better niche. He told me to pick something like international investment law because that has a better scope regardless of where I pursue my LLM.

As for WEHRE to pursue an LLM from, he told me that between the US and Japan, it's better if I pursue an LLM from the US because I would be eligible for the bar exam after one year of law school and the Bar itself is comparatively much easier. Then I would get dual qualification since I would have a bar license in 2 jurisdictions, my local and a foreign one in the US. Then I can work in any international Law firm in the US or do the same thing as I mentioned Route ONE, that works in a Japanese corporation in the US and see if I get the chance to go to Japan, given that you know the language.

Then the MAIN Question I asked him was: What is the scope of working in an INTERNATIONAL/FOREIGN-LAW specializing Firm in Japan, as a Legal Consultant/Paralegal I suppose considering I pursue my Specialization/LLM in Japan (and not take the Bar)? He answered that Paralegal financial salary is very low, and not much scope of growth, and so I also wanted to ask here the same question.

The reason I ask is because when I google searched this (To get an idea), one answer I got from Quora was this:

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Two realistic options for the foreign lawyer

The education and licensing requirements for a foreigner to become a Japanese lawyer is practically insurmountable. So the vast majority of foreign lawyers in Japan avoid doing the impossible and instead do one of these two things:—

EITHER obtain a gaiben licence (外国法事務弁護士)

OR get affiliated with a licensed multinational law firm (弁護士法人)

Option A — Attorney at foreign law (gaiben)

Many foreign lawyers in Japan can attest to the general truth of the below.

Getting the gaiben licence is a saga in most cases, but it’s the closest to being an independent lawyer in Japan as one could get.

The biggest problem with the gaiben licence is its requirement of prior practice — and it’s prior law-firm practice to avoid any ambiguity.

If memory serves, the Japanese Ministry of Justice ‘prefers’ (read: requires) the gaiben applicant to have PQE 4+ in his/her home jurisdiction prior to the application — at least four years post-qualification experience. If you don’t have the home PQE, then you simply won’t ever qualify for gaiben.

That means law firms of any kind in Japan just won’t hire anyone who hasn’t already met the gaiben requirements from day one.

So many foreign lawyers wanting to get the gaiben licence kick off by working as an in-house lawyer for some Japanese company for a few years. But there are horror stories. The worst-case scenario I’ve heard most often is the foreign lawyer is stuck in some stupid company with the wrong kind of corporate culture or bureaucracy, hitting the glass ceiling, doing too much translation work and not enough ‘law,’ and nothing to broaden the skills.

Option B — Affiliate with ‘BigLaw’

To cut a long story short, your chances are conditional on two things to attract entry into Big Law:—

done well both in law school and in practice to be an attractive candidate

demonstrating a commitment to Japan — in short, simply being in Japan at your own expense (more usual) or through some kind of overseas law study programme (if you’re still in law school).

The scenario I’ve heard fairly regularly enough is a law degree plus a master’s degree in Japanese (with a focus on Japanese law) with in-situ Japan time for one or two summers. In short, the in-situ Japan time (usually in Tokyo) often gets transformed into an actual job opportunity (perhaps as a summer intern position).

Option C — the ‘standard’ legal qualification pathway

This is how to become a Japanese lawyer the Japanese way:—

Do a Japanese law degree at a Japanese university — graduate degree, ca. 3 years, entry requires an undergraduate degree

Pass the Japanese national Bar exam (shiho shiken 司法試験)

Complete a one-year internship — supervised by the Japanese Supreme Court via its Shiho Kenshujo 司法研修所 (Legal Training and Research Institute)

Japanese citizenship is not required to qualify as an attorney.

The Japanese law degree

As is the case in the USA, law in Japan can only be studied at the graduate level.

Let’s not exaggerate. The law programmes in Japan are meant to produce politically dependable personnel to fill various government administrative positions as high-level civil servants, judges and prosecutors.

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So this is the Answer I got. As you can see the answer talks about the 3 Ways which Ieven I discussed A) Registered Foreign Lawyer B) LLM then work in an International Law Firm C) Taking the Bar

So what I want to ask is If I were to study International Law at Japanese LLM University only (Not planning to take the Japanese bar exam) what is then the scope of employment/job prospects in Foreign/International specializing Firms in Japan? Because if I am understanding it correctly, that would also allow me to advise clients on My Local Law matters as part of an International Law firm in Japan, as well as on international matters I would learn as part of my specialization in Japan BASICALLY OPTION B. However, I am assuming in this specific case that my Job would be limited to as a Lawyer Consultant/Paralegal, and not a Lawyer right?

Given no other responses, have you bothered to even look at job listings? That will tell you what kind of demand there might be. Essentially (if I have read your post correctly) is that you are intending to do non-Japanese law, and the stuff you intend to do doesn't actually require a degree in law anyway, neither an LLB or LLM. Therefore, why are you going to spend time doing something that is of no real value?
(I did lots of legal work in the past without having a law degree, mainly contracts/corporate stuff - didn't need it, and for proper lawyering stuff, that's what I paid them for.)

The work I am intending to do does require specialization. Since its not just contract drafting but also international trade/investment law as well. In terms of pursuing LLM this is what my Mentor has suggested. He said not to pursue it in niche fields like Patent because scope of job is less or Contracts since no one hire a contract-specializing Lawyer nowadays.

You seemed to have missed the point of my reply, but you have clarified further.
1: Have you looked at job listings?
2: Your clarification suggests that you might not be working in Japan or necessarily for a Japanese company (in the Japanese language). And if that was/is your goal your options are much wider than just Japan work.