Working Holiday Tokyo: Kevyn, mechanical engineer at Amplitude Laser, 1 year in Japan.

Kevyn, 26, is a mechanical engineer. His client: Amplitude Laser, a French company that develops and manufactures high-energy, high-power laser solutions for scientific research. He was already working there on a permanent contract before leaving. He's been in Japan for just over a year, first on a PVT (working holiday visa), then on a work visa for the past month. Here's his story.

Why Japan

Japan sparked his curiosity from childhood. Culture, industry, automotive. The desire to go abroad was already there during his studies, but Covid broke everything. After 2 and a half years of work, the context aligned: enough savings, plus the security of his French job, and the urge to go see for himself.

"If I'm going to leave, I might as well go to the other side of the world to discover Japan."

At first: no job on the Japan side, just his savings. With the option in mind of either starting his own company or bouncing with various clients if the experience took. It did.

Setup: full-time for Amplitude Laser, from Tokyo

Kevyn works as before, but 8 time zones away. No major change in organization — just sometimes a later start to the day to get more overlap with the France teams. Tools: Microsoft Teams for daily exchanges and video calls. Weekly follow-up meetings, project check-ins on video as needed. Meetings are in his afternoon, France's morning.

How he convinced Amplitude

Two levers, and a third that appeared after the fact.

• Lever 1: domain expertise. Kevyn already knew the laser field and the internal processes. No remote training of a newcomer to organize
• Lever 2: trust relationship. Having already worked with Amplitude, he could lean on the fact that distance wouldn't be a brake on productivity — quite the opposite
• Lever 3 (which appeared after the first weeks): work continuity. The time difference becomes an asset

What this model brings

A forced step up in autonomy. When France sleeps, you have to decide on your own. Being proactive isn't an option anymore, it's the operating condition. Kevyn says he's gained autonomy these past months: more solution proposals, less dependence on technical referents. Even when the solutions aren't perfect, the reflex of moving forward rather than waiting makes all the difference.

The challenges he faced

The main one: connection to the France servers. Kevyn works with heavy 3D files. Japan → France server access was too slow, despite several IT tests. The final solution: remote control a computer located on the client site, which has direct network access. Not glorious, but it works.

His advice

"Don't hesitate to use and reach out to your network. But the most important thing is to provoke and chase opportunities by talking about your project to people around you. The fact of not being shy about your project and being able to talk about it makes things concrete. On one hand, you start believing in your project, becoming convincing. On the other, the people you talk to take you seriously."

An anecdote

— Kevyn, mechanical engineer for Amplitude Laser, in Tokyo for 1 year.