Forem: Aaron Li

The One Thing I Learned After a Year in Japan: ベタやり(All In, All the Way)

Aaron Li — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 02:08:29 +0000

One interesting thing about learning a new language is that sometimes a single word unlocks an entire way of thinking about the world. A year and a quarter into living and working in Japan, I stumbled across such a word. ベタやり (pronounced “beta yari”).

I learned this word from our CEO, Tsuji-san, who used it in a Money Forward morning all-hands. It translates loosely to ”all in, all the way,” but that’s just the dictionary definition. It’s deeper than a slogan; it’s an attitude, a mindset, a way of living life, especially when building something that matters.

All In, All The Way

The first person who comes to mind when I think of ベタやり is Shohei Ohtani. If you follow baseball at all, you know his name.

Ohtani is a two-way player in a sport that decided, roughly a century ago, that such a thing shouldn’t exist. Modern baseball is built on specialization. You pitch or you hit. You develop one skill to its absolute limit and ignore everything else. Ohtani looked at this system, but decided to master both.

This isn’t a story where a talented kid follows his dreams and everything works out. This is the story where someone commits to something so difficult that most sensible people would call it impossible, then does it anyway.

When being asked what drove him to challenge the seemingly impossible, Ohtani mentioned something his father taught him as a child: the attitude of “giving your all in everything you do.” That’s ベタやり.

But here’s what matters: Ohtani didn’t do this alone. He had teammates who thought the same way. Take Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Dodgers’ MVP pitcher from Japan. During this year’s World Series, something happened that shouldn’t be possible by conventional baseball wisdom.

In Game 6, Yamamoto pitched 96 pitches with zero days of rest, something that would normally disqualify him from pitching the next game, let alone in high-pressure situations. But Game 7 arrived, and in the 9th inning of a critical game, Yamamoto came out of the bullpen anyway. He pitched through the 9th, into the 10th, and into the 11th inning, and then secured the final eight outs of the World Series.

When asked afterward, Yamamoto admitted he wasn’t sure he could do it. He pushed past both physical and mental limits he didn’t know he could transcend. This is ベタやり in its purest form: a fundamental willingness to exhaust yourself completely in service of something larger than yourself. All in. All the way.

Care About The Details Nobody Else Sees

You might think ベタやり is something you see only in professional sports, but this is where I discovered something unexpected about working in Japan.

I work on Money Forward Cloud Accounting Plus, an accounting software product. The work is about as far from professional baseball as you can get, but the same principle shows up everywhere.

Building accounting software in the cloud creates a fundamentally different problem than the desktop software of decades past. When only one person used your accounting system, on their own machine, offline, the complexity was manageable. Now, multiple people in an accounting department use the same system simultaneously. They work at different speeds, make conflicting changes, use features in ways you never anticipated.

What struck me most about the Japanese engineers I work with is their attention to the edge cases. They’ll think of scenarios I would never have considered. They’ll trace through combinations of inputs that seem absurdly unlikely. They’ll say things like, “What if someone in accounting uses this feature at the exact moment another person deletes this related data?”

They were thinking about what actually happens when you ship something. They were thinking about all the people who depend on the software working correctly, not just the 85% of cases that seem obvious.

That’s ベタやり applied to software engineering: delivering the best possible quality software, all in, all the way to the end user. It’s the difference between software that works and software that inspires trust.

Go Big And Go Home

Here’s where I need to be honest about something. When people hear the word “Japanese work culture,” many think of 過労死 (karoushi, death from overwork). They think of the infamous “996” schedule prevalent in other parts of Asia: 9 AM to 9 PM, six days a week.

They think of the trade-off between success and life, where you pick one and sacrifice the other. ベタやり sometimes gets lumped into this narrative, and I think that’s a fundamental misunderstanding.

At Money Forward, the culture is different. It’s not “go big or go home.” It’s “go big and then go home.”

During work hours, people genuinely commit to the work. They think deeply. They solve hard problems. They care about quality the way Yamamoto cares about pitching. But then the work day ends. People leave the office. They rest. They spend time with family. They have lives outside of work.

There’s something that happens when you rest properly. Your mind consolidates what it learned. You see problems differently the next day. You come back with creativity you didn’t have when you were exhausted. But more importantly, it’s something elite athletes have known forever.

In one of his interviews, Shohei Ohtani mentioned that the single most important thing he does besides play baseball is sleep. He prioritizes it so heavily that custom sleeping pillows and sleeping masks are on his list of ten essential items. He treats recovery like it’s part of his sport, because it is.

Professional baseball understands something that many software companies haven’t figured out: you can’t give your all if you’re running on empty. The best performance comes not from exhaustion but from the combination of total commitment during the work and genuine rest after.

This is the version of ベタやり I’ve experienced at Money Forward. It’s not “work until you break.” It’s “work with intention, then recover completely.” It’s the understanding that your career and your personal life aren’t a trade-off. They’re complementary. One actually enables the other.

If you’re someone who cares about doing things well. And if you want to do all that while having an actual life outside of work? Then maybe you should consider joining Money Forward.

Check out our career page for openings. We’re looking for people ready to go all in, and then go home ready for tomorrow.

How to Make Your Internship Successful: Lessons from Hosting Interns Over the Years

Aaron Li — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 01:18:32 +0000

Back in 2015, I was a third-year college student stepping into my first internship. It feels like a lifetime ago. Since then, I’ve moved through my career and worked with plenty of interns along the way, some of whom have left an indelible mark with their exceptional performance.

As the season for internship applications approaches, I thought it would be valuable to share some insights on how to make the most of your internship and truly stand out.

What Does “Success” Look Like?

Success in an internship can mean different things depending on who you ask. For some, it’s about learning as much as possible. For others, it’s landing a full-time job offer at the end. Or maybe it’s walking away with a solid recommendation letter. All of these are valid, and I’d say pick what matters most to you.

In this post, though, I’m going to focus on one goal: getting a strong recommendation letter. I’ve written one myself for an intern I mentored—he used it as part of his application to get into a top-10 computer science graduate program in the US.

My letter might have played a small part in his success, but honestly, the experience he gained and put on his resume likely made a bigger difference. That’s the kind of outcome we’re aiming for here: a recommendation letter that supports you, paired with real achievements that stand out after an internship.

To achieve so, you can’t just be good. You have to stand out. You need to exceed expectations—not just meet them. Let’s break down what that looks like.

Exceeding Expectations: What It Really Means

First, let’s talk about the basics. Meeting expectations as an intern means doing what’s asked of you. You’re given a task—like fixing a bug or writing some code—and you get it done on time. It’s straightforward: show up, follow instructions, and don’t mess up. That’s fine. It’s a start.

But exceeding expectations? That’s where things get interesting. It’s about acting like you’re more than an intern. It’s about taking charge, even when no one’s asking you to. For example, don’t just finish a task and call it a day—follow up to make sure it actually makes a difference.

A simple “Hey, I’d like to check in on this!” can go a long way. People are busy. They get swamped with tasks or Slack messages. If you don’t hear back, don’t sit there waiting—ping them again. It shows you care about the impact, not just the checklist.

Then there’s over-delivering. I worked with an intern at Money Forward who was a total standout. He spotted a problem with redundant computation in our CI pipeline—something that was costing us money to run. He didn’t just flag it; he dug in and fixed it, which led to significant cost savings for the company.

That’s not intern-level work. That’s what I’d expect from a senior engineer with years of experience. But he didn’t let his title hold him back. That’s the point: the sky’s the limit if you’re willing to push yourself.

It’s all about how you behave. If you treat yourself like “just an intern,” others will too. But if you behave like a solid engineer—proactively contributing and taking responsibility—people will start to see you as one. In the case of that superstar intern, I stopped thinking of him as an intern after a while. He was simply a valuable member of the team.

Master Your Domain and Tools

Next, let's talk abou two important things at work - domain and tools.

At a basic level, an intern is expected to be familiar with the tools and programming languages relevant to the role. For example, if you’re working in software development, you should know the programming languages used in the project, such as Python or TypeScript. You should be comfortable using the integrated development environment (IDE) and other essential tools, like Git for version control.

This is the foundation. Without it, you’ll struggle to complete your tasks effectively.

But the great interns go further. Take that same standout intern from Money Forward I worked with. Our team builds accounting software, so he didn’t just code—he joined study groups to learn accounting concepts. He sat in on customer interviews to hear their problems firsthand. He even helped resolve customer inquiry issues. This gave him a holistic understanding of the product and its users, allowing him to make more informed decisions and contributions.

On the tools side, the intern I worked with at Money Forward was a coding wizard. He didn’t just know programming languages—he knew the shortcuts, the quirks, the whole ecosystem. He could write code fast because he wasn’t hunting for commands. And he leaned hard into AI tools, like coding agents, to boost his work. His productivity wasn’t just intern-level; it was better than some junior engineers I’ve seen. That’s what “exceeding expectation” looks like.

Feedback: Ask for It, Act on It

The last topic I want to cover in this article is asking for feedback and act on it.

Feedback is a gift, especially for interns. It helps you understand your strengths and areas for improvement. In my past experience, I’ve noticed that interns who didn’t eventually receive return offers often had one thing in common: they didn’t ask for feedback. Without feedback, it’s hard to know how you’re doing or how you can improve. Some interns ask for feedback but fail to act on it, which also limits their growth.

To truly excel, you should actively solicit feedback. Don’t wait for your supervisor to give you feedback—ask for it regularly. For example, after completing a task, you might say, “I’d love to hear your thoughts on how I can improve this.” This shows that you’re eager to learn and grow.

More importantly, take the feedback to heart and work on it. Then, show tangible results that reflect the changes you’ve made. For instance, if you receive feedback on improving your code quality, make a conscious effort to write cleaner, more efficient code in your next task. When you submit it, you could say, “I incorporated your feedback on code readability—let me know if this is better.”

As an intern, you’re often evaluated on your potential as much as your current skills. By seeking feedback and showing that you can grow from it, you demonstrate that you have the capacity to continue developing—a key trait that employers and recommenders look for.

Closing Thoughts

To sum up, if you want to have a successful internship—one that culminates in a strong recommendation letter for graduate school or a return offer—you need to exceed expectations. This means:

Being proactive, taking ownership, and over-delivering on your tasks to deliver impact beyond an intern’s typical scope.
Gaining a deep understanding of your domain and mastering the tools at your disposal to operate effectively and efficiently.
Actively seeking and addressing feedback to demonstrate your potential for growth.

However, to achieve all this, you need the right environment—one that encourages interns to go above and beyond, provides the necessary tools, and fosters a culture of feedback and support. If you’re looking for such an environment, I believe Money Forward is a great fit.

We have upcoming internship info sessions in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. Feel free to join us and learn more about the opportunities we offer:

Tokyo Info Session https://moneyforward.connpass.com/event/341079/
Kyoto Info Session https://moneyforward.connpass.com/event/345105/
Osaka Info Session https://moneyforward.connpass.com/event/344596/

Why Glue Work Makes Better Software Product Teams

Aaron Li — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 11:12:02 +0000

It’s been six months since I moved to Japan and joined the Money Forward Cloud Accounting Plus team. Over this time, I’ve noticed something unique about how the team operates—something that makes it both effective and efficient. It’s not just about technical expertise or individual brilliance. It’s about something often overlooked but incredibly important: glue work.

What is Glue Work?

In the software industry, we often talk about archetypes like the "coding machine" or the "architect"—roles that focus heavily on technical skills. But there’s another kind of work that doesn’t get as much attention, even though it’s just as critical. Tanya Reilly, author of The Staff Engineer’s Path, calls this glue work.

In her talk, Technical leadership and glue work, Tanya defines glue work as the often invisible and undervalued tasks that keep a team running smoothly. These tasks aren’t about writing code or designing systems. Instead, they’re about things like mentoring, facilitating communication, and ensuring everyone is aligned. Glue work is the oil that keeps the engine of a team running without friction.

Why Does Glue Work Matter?

Tanya argues that glue work is essential for a team’s success, yet it’s frequently overlooked. This is a problem because, in software development, teamwork is everything. Building large software products requires many engineers to work together effectively. And just like in team sports, having a roster of superstar players doesn’t guarantee success. What matters is how well the team works together.

Being a professional software engineer isn’t just about being technically skilled. It’s about contributing to the team’s overall success. At Money Forward, professionalism is a core part of the culture. But being professional isn’t just about being good at your job—it’s about making the team better. And that’s where glue work comes in.

When a team is chaotic or has internal conflicts, it’s hard to focus on the work. On the other hand, when collaboration is smooth, everyone is more productive. Glue work helps create that smooth collaboration. It ensures that the team isn’t just a group of individuals but a cohesive unit that can achieve great things together.

How Glue Work Empowers My Team

My team at Money Forward is a great example of how glue work can make a difference. Our team lead embodies this mindset. He’s proactive in communication, makes the barrier to entry low for new members, and has a bias toward action when it comes to improving how the team works together.

One recent example is how our company has been encouraging engineers to use AI tools to boost productivity. To push this initiative forward, our team lead proactively established an AI guild. This is a space where team members gather to exchange thoughts on how to leverage AI in our day-to-day work.

In these discussions, he didn’t just push for adoption, he listened. He wanted to understand what prevent more engineers from using AI at work. By being empathetic and proactive in listening, he identified barriers.

This bottom-up approach gathered momentum and made the initiative more effective. It wasn’t about top-down mandates but about creating an environment where everyone felt comfortable experimenting and learning. This is glue work in action—making sure the team moves forward together, not just as individuals.

The Importance of Facilitation

One last thing I'd like to touch upon is the role of facilitation in teamwork. Facilitation comes from the Latin word facilis, which means "easy." In essence, facilitation is about making things easier for the team.

At Money Forward, facilitation is taken seriously. During onboarding, there’s even a session on how to run meetings and facilitate discussions effectively. Through proper facilitation, meetings and discussions can be both more effective and efficient.

For example, when we run an online meeting with members from different offices and locations, there's always an assigned facilitator. The facilitator guides the discussion, ensuring everyone has a chance to express their opinions and asks probing questions to deepen the discussion.

This kind of structure makes meetings more effective and efficient, which is another way glue work contributes to the team’s success.

Closing Thoughts

Glue work might not be as glamorous as writing elegant code or designing complex systems, but it’s just as important. It’s what turns a group of talented individuals into a high-performing team. At Money Forward, I’ve seen firsthand how glue work, whether it’s proactive communication, thoughtful facilitation, or simply making sure everyone feels included, can make a team more effective and enjoyable to work with.

If you’re a software engineer, I encourage you to think about how you can contribute to the glue work on your team. It might not always be recognized, but it’s the kind of work that makes a real difference.

And if you would like to work in an environment that values this kind of collaboration, Money Forward is a right fit for you. You can find more details about opportunities at Money Forward at https://recruit.moneyforward.com/en/

Scaling Development Speed: How Our Team Stays Fast as We Grow at Money Forward Cloud Accounting Plus

Aaron Li — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 00:47:55 +0000

This is the Day 9 article of Money Forward Engineers Advent Calendar 2024 🎄

Before joining Money Forward, I've had the privilege of experiencing both ends of the tech company spectrum. Early in my engineering career, I joined a startup with less than 30 people, and grew with the company from seed funding to Series A. Everything was fast - we made decisions quickly and built things even faster. Later, I switched to a big tech company and built products that used by billions of users. There, things moved slower with more hierarchy and processes.

Money Forward sits at an interesting sweet spot between these two worlds. With over 2,000 employees, it's well past the startup phase, but it's still growing fast and expanding with global ambitions. Earlier this year, the company hit a significant milestone: ¥30 billion in annual recurring revenue (ARR). But what's more interesting is where we're headed – our CEO Tsuji-san has set an ambitious target of ¥100 billion ARR within the next five years.

But here's the challenge: when companies get bigger, they usually get slower. Anyone who's been through organizational scaling knows that growth often comes with a speed tax. As teams expand, decision-making gets more complex, processes pile up, and that startup-like agility starts to fade.

However, at Money Forward, speed isn't just a metric – it's baked into our culture. One of our core principles literally translates to "accelerate decision-making, move to action fastest, and achieve results fastest (意思決定のスピードを上げ、最速で行動に移し、最速でやり遂げよう。)."

In this article, I'll share how our Accounting Plus team at Money Forward maintains this high-velocity culture while scaling up. It's a practical look at keeping the speed high even as the organization grows.

Split the Team to Move Fast

Amazon's Jeff Bezos famously championed the "two-pizza team" rule: if you can't feed a team with two pizzas, it's too big. It's a simple idea that's worked well for us in practice.

I've seen this play out firsthand. Earlier, my team grew to a size that created real friction in practice. Our daily standups stretched long, and even simple decisions required some lengthy discussions to get everyone aligned. Before a new Epic started, we split the team into several independent teams. Each new team is autonomous, with its own Product Owner, Team Leader, and engineers, capable of building full-stack solutions end-to-end.

The impact was immediate: standups became focused and short again, alignment became easier, and decision-making accelerated.

These small teams run their own weekly sprints and retrospectives, unburdened by cross-team dependencies or coordination meetings. Alignment comes naturally when everyone sits at the same (small) table, and code ships quickly because the feedback loop is tight and the communication overhead is minimal.

Highly Aligned, Loosely Coupled

Small teams are fast, but they can create their own problems. The most obvious risk is teams accidentally duplicating work – imagine three different teams building nearly identical components because they didn't know about each other's work. This isn't just inefficient; it creates a maintenance nightmare and a inconsistent user experience.

What I've observed at Money Forward Accounting Plus is an interesting balance. We're experimenting with a guild structure, starting with our frontend guild where developers across different teams regularly collaborate to maintain consistency and share knowledge. While we're still in the early stages, our setup naturally evolved into "highly aligned, loosely coupled", an idea proposed by Netflix's founder Reed Hastings.

Above is an example of a guild structure. Developers from each team regularly collaborate to maintain consistency and share knowledge. Note that this is for illustration purposes, the guild structure may be different in different organizations.

Our frontend guild has already shown some promising results. It breaks down silos by bringing together developers from each team to discuss common challenges, share best practices, and standardize our frontend approach. Instead of following top-down rules, guild members collaboratively shape our technical direction in frontend development.

This initial setup gives us the best of both worlds. Teams maintain their autonomy and speed – they can build and ship features without waiting for other teams. Through the frontend guild structure, we're seeing improved consistency and knowledge sharing without bureaucracy, allowing teams to benefit from collective expertise while maintaining their independence.

Impact Beyond Team Boundaries

Small, decoupled teams help us move fast. But here's the counterintuitive part: keeping teams small doesn't mean limiting the impact.

At Money Forward Accounting Plus, our guilds demonstrate this perfectly. For example, recently, the frontend guild took on the challenge of standardizing our approach development and testing – an initiative that impacts every team working on the frontend. These improvements spread across all Accounting Plus teams, raising our collective code quality and product stability.

But the impact can reach even further. Take our recent company-wide adoption of AI development tools (such as GitHub Copilot) as an example. When Money Forward introduced these AI-powered tools to boost development speed, one team from Money Forward i took the initiative to create a central repository for sharing AI prompts and best practices. This repository helps every developer across Money Forward easily find and reuse language-specific and framework-specific prompts. A single team's contribution is now accelerating development across our entire engineering organization.

At Money Forward, we're building products at scale without sacrificing speed or quality. Our teams maintain the agility to ship quickly while upholding the rigor needed. If you're interested in working in an environment that balances speed with engineering excellence, you can find more details about opportunities at Money Forward at https://recruit.moneyforward.com/en/

The Truth About Being an Expat Developer in Japan: It's More Doable Than You Think

Aaron Li — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 00:26:22 +0000

This article is Day 3 post for the Money Forward Kansai Advent Calendar 2024 🎄

When I first considered moving to Japan as a software engineer, I shared the same concerns that probably keep you up at night. I spent a lot of time hesitating, worried about the language barrier, cultural differences, and the sheer magnitude of relocating to a country seven hours away by flight.

I'm a software engineer who moved to Japan from Singapore in August this year. After months of living and working here, I've discovered something surprising: the path to building a tech career in Japan is far more accessible than most people imagine.

This isn't just another "Living in Japan" story. Instead, I want to share practical insights about what it's really like to work as a foreign developer in Japan, addressing the concerns that might be holding you back. And here's a bonus: I'll share the most important question you need to prepare before interviewing with Japanese companies.

The Language Might Not Be A Barrier

One of the most common questions expat developers ask before moving to Japan is "How good does my Japanese need to be?"

Here's the thing: in major cities like Tokyo and Osaka, this hasn't been a problem for both life and work. Many Japanese companies are actively hiring international developers with no Japanese language requirements. Popular job boards like Japan Dev and TokyoDev even have "No Japanese Required" filters.

At Money Forward, where I currently work, English is our working language. Our team members are from across the continents, with developers from Spain, the US, Hong Kong, and beyond. In our Kansai office, you'll also meet people from Switzerland, India, Canada, and Australia. We've found our rhythm working in English, and it works perfectly fine.

So if you're worried that your Japanese isn't good enough, don't be.

Setting Up Your New Life Is Not That Hard

The next big worry on your mind is probably the relocation process.

The visa process, which often looks like a nightmare in online discussions, turned out to be surprisingly straightforward. Most companies handle the heavy lifting through professional agents. In my case, all I had to do was provide the necessary documents. The agents even took care of my wife's dependent visa. This isn't just my company being nice - it's becoming standard practice for Japanese tech firms serious about hiring international talent.

Moving across countries is never simple, but having a solid support structure makes all the difference. Many companies, including Money Forward, covered the flights and provided temporary housing for the first month. They even arranged airport pickup - a small touch that meant the world when we arrived, jet-lagged and overwhelmed in a new country.

After landing in Japan, your next challenge is setting up your life here - from registering your address to finding an apartment. Browse through Reddit and you'll find plenty of horror stories. But my experience? It was actually pretty smooth.

Money Forward hired relocation agents who helped me tackle all the essential things - from address registration to bank account setup and apartment hunting. I found a suitable place within two weeks. Money Forward also provided allowances for home office equipment like a new laptop, monitor, and keyboard, helping me set up a comfortable workspace.

When Japanese becomes necessary outside of work - and it definitely does - modern technology comes to the rescue. Google Translate and ChatGPT have become my trusty sidekicks. They're not perfect, but they're enough to get by while I work on improving my Japanese skills.

I won't paint an unrealistically rosy picture here - there are still moments of confusion, cultural misunderstandings, and times when the language barrier gets frustrating. But these challenges are manageable, not insurmountable.

The Changing Face of Japanese Tech

If you've spent time reading online forums, you might have this image of Japan as an impenetrable fortress for foreign workers.

But from my experience, that picture is pretty outdated. Japan's tech sector has not only recognized the need for international talent - it's warmly embracing it. Companies like Money Forward aren't just opening their doors to foreign developers; they're building bridges to help newcomers thrive.

Now, I'm not suggesting everyone should drop everything and hop on the next flight to Japan. It's still a big life decision that deserves careful thought. But if you're a developer who's been considering working in Japan and holding back because of worries about language or logistics, I've got good news: the path is much clearer than you might think. The support systems are robust, and the tech community here is more international and welcoming than ever.

Think About Your "Why Japan" Answer

I hope I've shown you that moving to Japan isn't as daunting as it might seem. But there's one crucial question you should ask yourself before taking the leap: "Why Japan?"

This isn't just another checkbox on your to-do list - it's a question you really need to sit with. If you don't think this through, you might find yourself in Japan wondering why you came here in the first place.

In addition, here's something interesting: every Japanese company I interviewed with, including Money Forward, asked me this exact question: "Why Japan?" And it's not just casual conversation – it's a key part of their evaluation. They want to know if you're genuinely interested in building a life here, not just looking for a cool adventure.

Here is the thing: answering "Why Japan?" with "I love anime" or "Japanese culture is amazing" just won't cut it. These answers are too generic, and trust me, interviewers have heard them countless times before.

What works better is sharing specific stories and experiences that show your genuine interests to Japan. Think of it this way: if you're trying to convince someone you love cooking, saying "I think food is great" is much less convincing than "I spend every Sunday morning at farmers' markets picking fresh ingredients and have been perfecting my ramen recipe for the past three years."

The key is to demonstrate that your interest in Japan goes beyond the surface level that any tourist might have. Show that you understand and appreciate the deeper aspects of the culture, the small details that make Japan unique. Your answer should make it clear that moving to Japan is a natural next step in your journey, not just a random choice.

Keep in mind: Japanese companies are looking for people who'll stick around, adapt to the culture, and contribute long-term. Your "Why Japan?" answer needs to show them you're that person.

So before you start sending out job applications, sit down and really think about your connection to Japan. What specific experiences drew you here? What aspects of the culture resonate with you personally? The more concrete and personal your answer, the more convincing it will be.

This isn't just about passing an interview question – it's about being honest with yourself about why you want to make such a significant life change. Because living and working in Japan is very different from visiting as a tourist, and being clear about your "why" will help you navigate the challenges ahead.

And, if you've got a solid answer to "Why Japan," I can personally recommend checking out Money Forward, where I work.

You can find more details about opportunities at Money Forward here: https://recruit.moneyforward.com/en/

Why I Chose Money Forward's Kansai Office?

Aaron Li — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 14:35:03 +0000

This post was originally published on my newsletter, Life of An Engineer in Japan. You can see the original post here

Recently, I've been asked why I chose Money Forward's Kansai office. It's an interesting question, partly because the obvious choice for most foreign developers in Japan is Tokyo, and partly because choosing where to work is always more complex than it first appears.

I moved to Osaka in August to join Money Forward's Kansai office. Before that, I worked in Singapore, comfortable but restless. The decision wasn't a quick one though - it came after months of internal debate with myself. Now, three months in, I think it's enough time to see if this decision was right or wrong. Here's my reflection.

MVVC is More Than Nice Sounding Slogans

If you're thinking about joining Money Forward, you've probably already explored the culture deck and MVVC (Mission, Vision, Values, and Culture).

The thing about corporate culture is that everyone talks about it, but it's hard to know what's real until you're inside. Coming from Singapore's corporate world, I was unsure about working in Japan. The usual Japanese way of working - coming to office every day, strict boss-worker relationships - wasn't what I wanted.

But Money Forward was different. During my interviews with Money Forward, I read CEO Tsuji-san's book, and I was truly impressed. What I found in the book was genuine passion and humility that you can't fake.

Every company has nice-sounding values. But there's a big difference between values written on office walls and values you can actually feel when you meet people. The best part? After I joined Money Forward, the people who interviewed me became my coworkers, and everything I read about turned out to be true in the day-to-day work life.

The team doesn't just talk about teamwork - we actually do it. You can see it in everyday things: how we have meetings, how we make technical decisions, how we fix bugs together. It's not just nice words in a presentation - it's how we really work every day.

Building Things That Matter

Mary Oliver once asked, "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" in her poem, The Summer Day. It's the kind of question that makes me ponder hard.

But it's worth thinking about. In tech, we often confuse interesting problems with important ones. What caught my attention at Money Forward was something our CEO Tsuji-san shared in Forward Map 2024. It wasn't about shiny new tech. It was about time.

Tsuji-san shared that when we save a company an hour a day with Money Forward Cloud, that's 20 hours a month they can spend on their actual business. Multiply that across 150 thousand companies use Money Forward Cloud, meaning, by a rough estimate, we would have redirected approximately 3 million hours from paperwork to productivity.

It's not world-changing, perhaps, but it's meaningful in a quiet way. At the Kansai development base, we're building cloud accounting tools for Money Forward Cloud. It’s practical software that lets businesses stop wrestling with paperworks and start focusing on what actually matters. It's not the kind of thing that makes headlines, but it's the kind of thing that makes a difference.

The Why Kansai Question

But, why Kansai, not Tokyo? Money Forward's headquarters sits in Tokyo, and one of our sister teams in Accounting Plus locates in Tokyo. Yet, I chose the Kansai office deliberately.

Most discussions about tech in Japan center on Tokyo, which makes sense – it's where most of the action is. But Kansai offers something different. After multiple visits to Japan over the past few years, I found myself drawn to this region's unique charm.

The Kansai region works precisely because it isn't Tokyo. Kyoto mixes centuries-old history with modernness. Kobe carries its international heritage with a lot of good food. And Osaka? Well, Osaka just gets on with being Osaka – genuine, welcoming, and warm.

The people here don't wear the polite mask that Tokyo is famous for. They're more likely to tell you exactly what they think, help you without being asked, or share their food recommendations with passionate detail. It's not better than Tokyo – it's just different.

Three Months Later

Moving to Kansai to join Money Forward was exciting, but like any big change, I had my worries. Would everything work out the way I hoped?

Now, three months into this journey, I can happily say yes. At work, we're making a real difference - helping businesses spend less time on paperwork and more time on what matters. And living in Kansai? It's been wonderful, so much better than I expected. Looking back, I only wish I had made this move earlier.

If you are interested in joining Money Forward, you can find more information on the following site https://recruit.moneyforward.com/en/

My First Month and Impressions of Money Forward

Aaron Li — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 14:31:22 +0000

This post was originally published on my newsletter, Life of An Engineer in Japan. You can see the original post here

A month ago, I made the jump from Singapore to Japan, starting my new role at Money Forward. It’s been a short time, but I’ve already seen enough to know this place is different.

I’ve always loved Japan—visited many times as a tourist—but working here was a different story. Before I moved, I had my doubts. Japan’s work culture has a reputation: rigid, long hours, and not very flexible. It was enough to make me hesitate. But when I interviewed with Money Forward, it didn’t feel like the typical Japanese company. Something about it stood out. That’s why, with other offers on the table, I chose this one.

Now that I’ve been here a month, what I felt during the interview has only been confirmed. The culture at Money Forward isn’t just something being talked about. It’s something you see in how people act every day. It’s not about big, flashy values—it’s in the small things. People are supportive, open, and always looking to improve. It’s a place that’s always evolving.

Embracing a Culture of Evolution

As a software engineer, one of the first things that struck me about Money Forward is how deeply our culture of evolution is embedded in everything we do, especially our approach to AI. This isn’t about jumping on the latest trend or making flashy tech investments for the sake of headlines. It’s a thoughtful, deliberate effort to see if AI can genuinely enhance productivity. We experiment with small-scale trials, not just to chase innovation, but to really understand what works and what doesn’t.

For example, the engineering org had already integrated GitHub Copilot to the engineering workflow and were pretty happy with the results. But we didn’t stop there—we kept exploring, looking for what might be even better. I got involved in a trial for a new AI tool, and the productivity boost was immediate.

It’s this constant push to not settle for “good enough” that makes this place stand out. It’s not just about being cutting-edge; it's about staying open to new possibilities, while always weighing the risks, especially around data security. If there’s even a slight chance that our internal code or data could be compromised, the answer is a firm no. It’s a balancing act—progress without recklessness—and it makes me feel like we are serious about both innovation and responsibility.

Open Communication and Transparency

From my first few weeks here, it became clear that even the smallest questions can reveal a lot about a company’s culture. It started with a simple question. I had a minor issue, so I DMed my team lead on Slack. He replied right away, but then added, "Next time, let’s keep it in the team channel if possible, even for small things." The idea was to keep everything visible, so the whole team could learn from even the small questions.

It was a seemingly insignificant moment, but it carried a big message about transparency and trust. I realized that here, communication isn't just about getting answers—it's about ensuring everyone has access to the same knowledge and no one is left behind. It’s a simple principle, but it goes a long way in building a culture where everyone feels informed and included.

The Power of Emotip

At Money Forward, there are deliberate mechanisms designed to subtly shape our culture. Emotip is one of them. Emotip is a system where we get points every week to give to colleagues as a way to say thank you. Sure, those points can be converted into cash bonus, but that’s not the point. What matters is the act of giving them. It’s a way to publicly recognize the small acts of kindness, the quick helps, and the moments of support that often go unnoticed.

Our team uses Emotip a lot—far more than I expected. And it’s not just for big wins. It’s for the little things: someone helping you debug a problem, someone staying late to help prep for a presentation, or even just making the team laugh during a stressful week. It’s an easy way to show appreciation, and it’s amazing how much it lifts the mood. It turns out, those small gestures go a long way in building team spirit and reminding everyone that their work—and their kindness—matters.

Not Perfect, But Striving for Better

Reflecting on my first month, I would say Money Forward isn’t perfect—no company is—but what I’ve come to appreciate most is that we know it, and we’re always trying to do better. There’s an honesty here that I haven’t seen everywhere. People aren’t afraid to admit when something isn’t working, and that openness makes it easy to speak up and offer suggestions. It’s the kind of place where feedback is not only welcomed, but expected.

This past month, I’ve seen how those small, consistent actions add up. Whether it’s adopting a new tool, shifting a communication practice, or simply acknowledging someone’s effort, there’s a constant sense of movement towards something better. It’s not about big, dramatic changes. It’s about showing up every day, looking for ways to improve, and doing it together. That’s what makes me excited to be here—the sense that we’re all in this, genuinely trying to grow, both as individuals and as a team. And in that, I see a lot of promise for the future.

If you are interested in joining Money Forward, you can find more information on the following site https://recruit.moneyforward.com/en/