I believe foreign engineers are good at many different programming languages. It is said that there are over 200 programming languages that are changing rapidly and attracting attention as new languages appear one after another. If you work as an IT engineer in Japan, you’ll be less likely to get the job you want to do if you don’t master the programming languages that are often used in Japan.

This article summarizes the rankings and trends of popular programming languages in Japan for foreign engineers who want to work in Japan, as well as languages that can be targeted for high income.

Ranking of programming languages in Japan

“Programming Language Survey 2018 (Nikkei xTECH)” presents the survey results of programming languages that are actually used in Japanese system software development sites. The survey was conducted in a way that allowed IT engineers to answer up to three programming languages. The results are as follows.

Popularity ranking 1st place, C/C ++! What is attractive?

C is a programming language developed in the United States in 1972. Many programming languages in use today have been developed under the influence of the C language and can be said to be the source of programming languages. It is characterized by excellent versatility and is widely used in everything, from OS development to systems that control machines, desktop applications, and embedded systems.

C / C ++ is an object-oriented programming language developed in 1993 as an extension of the C language. Like C, it is highly versatile and widely used in familiar systems such as OS, games, browsers, and robots. Because it can effectuate high-speed processing, it is a language useful for system development that requires image analysis.

Popularity ranking 2nd place, JavaScript! What is attractive?

JavaScript is a script-type programming language developed in the United States in the mid-90s. It is an indispensable language for web system development and is widely used from website creation to web application development. The feature is that it runs on the browser without depending on the OS, and it is possible to express more interactivity by incorporating it into the web page.

Popularity ranking 3rd place, C #! What is attractive?

C # is a programming language developed by Microsoft and runs on Microsoft’s own .NET Framework. It is widely adopted in Windows system application development, and it is also used for game programming. Using Visual Studio, an integrated development environment (IDE) provided by Microsoft, enables a more powerful and efficient development.

Popularity ranking 4th place, Java! What is attractive?

Java is an object-oriented programming language developed in the United States in the early 90s. Java, which has the concept of “Write once, run anywhere”, can run on a virtual machine called “JVM”. It runs on any computer. Besides being good at developing enterprise systems and embedded systems, it is widely used for Web application and Android application development.

Popularity ranking 5th place, Python! What is attractive?

Python is a programming language born in the Netherlands in 1991. It has been a popular language overseas, but in recent years it has become increasingly popular in Japan. The main features of Python are that it has a simple grammar, is easy to write and read, and has an extensive library. Although it is a language used for web application development, it is increasingly used in fields such as AI, big data, and IoT.

Japanese programming language trends by Industry!

Trending languages in the game development industry are C++ and C #

As mentioned above, C ++ is a programming language that has been extended to further enhance the C language. C ++ has a high processing speed because it is easy to understand for computers, is suitable for game programming, and has abundant libraries for developing games.

C # is also a programming language suitable for game development and can be used to create games efficiently. The game application development environment “Unity” that can use C # has spread worldwide, and there are a lot of game engineers who program in C #.

The trend language of the Android application development industry is from “Java” to “Kotlin”

As mentioned above, Java is a programming language that has been adopted in a wide range of development sites because of its excellent versatility. Suitable for Android app development, but also used for web app and desktop app development. Kotlin, which will be described later, is also gaining popularity, but Java still accounts for the largest number of projects and jobs.

Kotlin is a programming language developed in 2011 and became a hot topic as Google added it to the official language for Android application development. Some advantages include the ability to write simpler code than Java and the ease of ensuring safety in development, and an increasing number of companies are adopting Kotlin for Android application development.

Trend language of iOS application development industry is from “Objective-C” to “Swift”

Objective-C is a programming language developed by Apple and is known as the iOS application development language. An object-oriented language based on the C language. There are many iOS apps written in Objective-C, but in recent years, the role of Swift, which will be described later, is being transferred to the main role.

Swift is a programming language announced by Apple in 2014. More and more companies are moving iOS app development to Swift because of the benefits of easy-to-read and write code.

Annual income ranking by programming language in Japan

“Annual Income Ranking by Programming Language 2018” is a ranking announced by “Standby”, a job search site operated by Bizreach. This ranking is based on job postings for full-time employees posted on standby. This is the total of the median annual salary of job information that includes each programming language name. The results are as follows.

Source: Annual Income Ranking 2018 by Programming Language [Research on Job Search Engine “Standby”]

Best 3 programming languages ranking with high salary

1st place “Go”

Go is a programming language for open source projects developed by Google in 2009. All major operating systems such as Linux, Windows, MacOS X, Android, and iOS are supported, and the number of companies that use Go as their development language is increasing due to their simple specifications.

In Japan, companies like LINE, Mercari, Hatena and Gunosy have introduced Go, and in the last few years, the attention has been rising rapidly. If you want to learn a new programming language for high income, Go will be your best choice.

2nd place “Scala”

Scala is a programming language published in 2003 that combines the characteristics of object-oriented and functional languages. It is highly compatible with Java and can write code that is shorter and smarter than Java.

Worldwide, Scala is used on Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., and in Japan, it is also used on Chatwork and Bizreach. While more and more companies are using Scala, there are not enough engineers to handle Scala, so it’s a programming language worth learning in the future.

3rd place “Python”

Python is a programming language that has been used in recent years in fields such as AI, big data, and IoT. Python has a rich library for machine learning and deep learning.

Famously, Youtube, Dropbox, Instagram, etc. are also built with Python. Analysis and transactions using AI and big data continue to increase, and companies seeking Python engineers are increasing.

Conclusion

Japanese language skills are important for foreign engineers to work in Japan, but programming skills and development achievements are indispensable. Those who are highly motivated to grow as IT engineers, such as improving the programming language skills that Japanese companies need, or acquiring new programming languages, should be able to find a favorable job in Japan.