I don't speak Japanese — can I still come?

Yes, and that's the case for most Mobbeal engineers landing in Tokyo. Missions at Money Forward, Le Monde or Cartier run in English, and so do our internal teams. That said, we pay for private Japanese lessons from day one because we know that quality of life over 3 years depends heavily on being able to interact at the izakaya, at the doctor's, or at your kids' school. Many engineers target JLPT N4 at 18 months and N3 at 3 years.

What salary can I expect in Tokyo?

You stay on the European Abbeal grid, indexed to your experience and stack. No local discount, no downward adjustment because you live in Tokyo. On top of that you get the Mobbeal housing allowance for the first 3 to 6 weeks, full relocation cost coverage, and the cost-of-living advantage of Tokyo (which on daily expenses remains more accessible than Paris or Geneva). We give you the precise numbers from the second call.

How does it work for my family (partner, kids, school)?

Mobbeal is a family programme before it's an engineer programme. We handle your partner's dependent visa and help them find remote work or a Japanese language school if they want to pivot. For the kids, we have direct contacts at the Lycee Francais International de Tokyo, British School and ASIJ. We help with admissions files, flag the deadlines, and connect you with other Mobbeal families already on the ground.

How long between the offer and arrival in Tokyo?

Roughly 3 months on average. The Engineer / Specialist in Humanities visa takes 6 to 10 weeks depending on file completeness. In parallel we secure your temporary housing in Higashi-Azabu, kids' school enrolment if needed, and coordinate with your client. If you have a hard constraint (school year, lease end), we try to accelerate or delay accordingly.

What if after 1 year I want to go home?

No drama. The Mobbeal programme is not a 5-year lock-in with a penalty clause. If after a year you want to head back to Paris, Montreal or elsewhere, we reposition you on an Abbeal mission in the geography of your choice. It's happened a couple of times, and we've always found a next chapter. The only ask is that you give us 3 months' notice so we can organise a clean transition with the client.

Can I visit Tokyo before signing?

Yes, and we strongly encourage it. We organise discovery weeks for profiles at the end of the process: you come for 5 to 7 days, meet the team at the PMC Building in Higashi-Azabu, visit neighbourhoods where you could live, and meet the client in person. Abbeal covers flights and accommodation. It's the single best investment we make to ensure the decision is taken with eyes wide open.

// MOBBEAL TOKYO

Engineering Jobs in Tokyo — Keep your job, change your life. The Mobbeal programme.

Tokyo calling? Abbeal has already relocated 50+ engineers to Tokyo via Mobbeal. We handle visa, housing, family, schools — and we staff you at Money Forward, Le Monde, Cartier or other clients. You code, you live your Japanese life, we handle the rest.

Tokyo on your mind? You're wondering if the Japan move is doable without burning your career, losing your family along the way, or drowning in six months of opaque paperwork? Good news: that's exactly the question we've been answering since 2018 with the Mobbeal programme. Our Tokyo hub sits at PMC Building, 1-23-5 Higashi-Azabu, Minato-ku, and we've already relocated 50+ international engineers to Tokyo, Montreal and beyond. The point is not to sell you a glossy Japan dream. The point is to keep you on your Abbeal team, on serious tech missions, but drop you off at Narita with a visa, an apartment, a school for the kids, and an onboarding that actually works.

Why Tokyo in 2026, and why Abbeal

Tokyo in 2026 is no longer the story it was ten years ago. The yen remains accessible for engineers paid in euros, dollars, or Swiss francs. The local tech scene has opened up to foreign engineers: Money Forward, Rakuten, Mercari, LINE, plus the major French and European groups building their tech offices in Tokyo. The talent market is tight, and traditional Japanese ESNs struggle to deliver. That's exactly where Abbeal plays.

Quality of life: the safest large city in the world, public transport that just works, food beyond compare, real nature 40 minutes from Shibuya.
Mature tech scene: Databricks, AWS Tokyo, GCP Tokyo region, very active Python, Go and Rust communities.
Salaries aligned with European levels for our engineers — you stay on the Abbeal grid, no local Japanese discount.
Market reality: our Tokyo clients want bilingual English engineers who ship, not tourists chasing cherry blossoms.

Mobbeal: what we actually take care of

Mobbeal is not a marketing promise. It's an operational programme refined over years, with JETRO, Business France and La French Tech Tokyo as partners. Here's what we cover when you sign.

Engineer / Specialist in Humanities visa: we build the file, we work with a specialised immigration lawyer, average lead time 6 to 10 weeks.
Temporary housing on arrival (3 to 6 weeks), then long-term lease — we sign in our name and handle the hosho-nin (guarantor), which blocks 90% of foreigners trying to rent in Tokyo.
Family allowance: if your partner follows, we handle the dependent visa and help them find work or a language school.
International schools for kids: Lycee Francais International de Tokyo, British School, ASIJ — we have direct contacts and help you with admissions.
JETRO and Business France integration: networking, tax masterclasses, French and English-speaking community in Tokyo.

The missions you can actually land on

We don't drop you on a random client just because we have an empty seat. Here are three real examples of missions currently staffed by Abbeal engineers in Tokyo.

Money Forward: Data Engineering on their greenfield digital bank. Stack Databricks, AWS Tokyo, dbt. Hybrid mode with their Tamachi office. Ideal if you love building a data warehouse from scratch in a scaling fintech.
Le Monde: engineer embedded with the Insights team from Tokyo, fully remote on Paris. Stack vanilla JS, Go, PHP, and Codex for AI-assisted code reviews. Two-week sprints, daily Paris-Tokyo in mid-afternoon JST.
Cartier: private LLM in-house for the watchmaker. GCP, Python, mixed team between Cartier Switzerland and the Japan team. Heavy stakes around confidentiality and data pipeline quality.
And other clients depending on your profile: we regularly staff SRE, Go/Rust backend, React/Next frontend and applied AI roles.

The profile we're looking for

We're looking for serious engineers, not adventurers. Tokyo is not a two-year city break. The profiles who thrive with us share a few common traits.

5+ years of solid tech experience on your main stack (data, backend, frontend, SRE, ML).
Fluent English, written and spoken — it's your daily working language with clients and teammates.
Genuine Japan motivation: you've travelled there, you read about the culture, you know it's not Paris with a temple bonus.
JLPT N5 or N4 welcome but not required at the start. We help you level up once you're on the ground.
Ability to work autonomously: we run on Adaptive Follow-the-Sun, your manager may sit in Paris or Montreal.

The process: from first call to landing at Narita

30-minute screening call with the Mobbeal team to validate motivation and stack.
Tech interview with one of our staff engineers — pair coding or system design depending on your profile.
Client presentation: we prep you, brief you on the team, you meet the client manager.
Abbeal Tokyo offer signed — package, arrival date, family contingencies all aligned.
Visa filing and relocation prep (6 to 10 weeks).
Arrival at Narita, welcome by the Tokyo team, settlement and first steps at the PMC Building in Higashi-Azabu, around 3 months after the offer.

Living in Tokyo: what we wish we'd told you before you packed

A few field truths we share with every Mobbeal arrival. Not Lonely Planet — just the lived experience of engineers who actually live there.

Housing: Higashi-Azabu for a 5-minute walk to the office. Setagaya for quiet family life. Shibuya/Ebisu for English-speaking social life. Nakameguro for the aesthetic.
Transport: forget the JR Pass (tourists only). Get a Suica card and a monthly pass on your main line. The metro stops around midnight — budget for an Uber or taxi for late nights.
Food: you'll eat better for 1200 yen in a neighbourhood teishoku than in 90% of French restaurants. Learn 'osusume wa nan desu ka' and let the chef guide you.
Social life: the French and English-speaking tech community is dense. Python Tokyo meetups, Tokyo Dev, French Tech, expat aperos. You will never be alone.
Family: Tokyo is incredibly kid-friendly. Parks everywhere, safe metros, solid international schools. The partners who thrive are the ones who build their own project — language school, remote freelance, community work.

« You live in Tokyo, you code for Le Monde Paris, you see your family in Geneva every 6 weeks. That's the future of remote, and Abbeal just handed me the keys. »

— Mobbeal Tokyo engineer, Le Monde mission

How to apply

If you recognise yourself in any of this, what comes next is simple. Take 30 minutes on the Mobbeal team Calendly for a first call, or write to us directly with your CV and a few lines on your Japan project. We reply within 48 working hours, no copy-paste, by an actual human who read your message.

Mobbeal Tokyo Calendly: https://calendly.com/d/csr7-3vm-vhw/meeting-abbeal
Recruitment email: recrutement@abbeal.com
Tokyo office: PMC Building, 1-23-5 Higashi-Azabu, Minato-ku 106-0044

Frequently asked questions

I don't speak Japanese — can I still come?
Yes, and that's the case for most Mobbeal engineers landing in Tokyo. Missions at Money Forward, Le Monde or Cartier run in English, and so do our internal teams. That said, we pay for private Japanese lessons from day one because we know that quality of life over 3 years depends heavily on being able to interact at the izakaya, at the doctor's, or at your kids' school. Many engineers target JLPT N4 at 18 months and N3 at 3 years.
What salary can I expect in Tokyo?
You stay on the European Abbeal grid, indexed to your experience and stack. No local discount, no downward adjustment because you live in Tokyo. On top of that you get the Mobbeal housing allowance for the first 3 to 6 weeks, full relocation cost coverage, and the cost-of-living advantage of Tokyo (which on daily expenses remains more accessible than Paris or Geneva). We give you the precise numbers from the second call.
How does it work for my family (partner, kids, school)?
Mobbeal is a family programme before it's an engineer programme. We handle your partner's dependent visa and help them find remote work or a Japanese language school if they want to pivot. For the kids, we have direct contacts at the Lycee Francais International de Tokyo, British School and ASIJ. We help with admissions files, flag the deadlines, and connect you with other Mobbeal families already on the ground.
How long between the offer and arrival in Tokyo?
Roughly 3 months on average. The Engineer / Specialist in Humanities visa takes 6 to 10 weeks depending on file completeness. In parallel we secure your temporary housing in Higashi-Azabu, kids' school enrolment if needed, and coordinate with your client. If you have a hard constraint (school year, lease end), we try to accelerate or delay accordingly.
What if after 1 year I want to go home?
No drama. The Mobbeal programme is not a 5-year lock-in with a penalty clause. If after a year you want to head back to Paris, Montreal or elsewhere, we reposition you on an Abbeal mission in the geography of your choice. It's happened a couple of times, and we've always found a next chapter. The only ask is that you give us 3 months' notice so we can organise a clean transition with the client.
Can I visit Tokyo before signing?
Yes, and we strongly encourage it. We organise discovery weeks for profiles at the end of the process: you come for 5 to 7 days, meet the team at the PMC Building in Higashi-Azabu, visit neighbourhoods where you could live, and meet the client in person. Abbeal covers flights and accommodation. It's the single best investment we make to ensure the decision is taken with eyes wide open.

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