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How and why I built Japan Dev

japan-dev.com

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Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#91

Post by stewx »

Morgawr wrote: post #60
stewx wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As of 2019, Tokyo was far cheaper in terms of monthly rent than some major American cities. Rent in Tokyo for a 2BR apartment: $1,903/mo Rent in NYC for a 2BR apartment: $2,909/mo Rent in San Francisco for a 2BR apartment: $3,631/mo Src: Deutsche Bank https://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/RPS_EN-PROD/PROD000000000049...

> Rent in Tokyo for a 2BR apartment: $1,903/mo NOTE: I wouldn't trust most sources of this kind of data you see online (I can't open your link so I can't verify it) because you simply cannot compare rent prices like that "across cultures". And I don't mean just "Japanese apartments are small" (this is mostly a myth, although they are smaller on average), I simply mean that it's pretty much impossible to define what "…

> I wouldn't trust most sources of this kind of data you see online

Same. But this is published by a large global financial institution, not a crowd-sourced low-quality web site.

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#92

Post by etdev »

Rackedup wrote: post #84

japan-dev.com requires javascript to show any text... I guess it makes sense since they want to show us that popup...

The site is a Vue.js single page application.

That's just the front-end stack I knew the best — I realize it's terrible for those who don't want to run javascript. Sorry!

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#93

Post by Morgawr »

stewx wrote: post #91
Morgawr wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Rent in Tokyo for a 2BR apartment: $1,903/mo NOTE: I wouldn't trust most sources of this kind of data you see online (I can't open your link so I can't verify it) because you simply cannot compare rent prices like that "across cultures". And I don't mean just "Japanese apartments are small" (this is mostly a myth, although they are smaller on average), I simply mean that it's pretty much impossible to define what "…

> I wouldn't trust most sources of this kind of data you see online Same. But this is published by a large global financial institution, not a crowd-sourced low-quality web site.

The problem isn't the data itself. The problem is how the data is interpreted, unfortunately. Lifestyles don't map properly between cities, countries, and cultures. In the US you need a car in a lot of cities, you might want/expect a "suburban" lifestyle (large house, garden, etc). Healthcare might be an overlooked cost. Taxes and social contributions (pension, etc) might affect all these numbers. It's incredibly easy to just look at the raw data and go "X is more expensive than Y" but in reality the situation is much more nuanced than that.

Also, as I said, Tokyo really isn't one city, it's a huge gigantic collection of multiple cities with an incredible public transport system that really doesn't make you feel like you're not living in a "city center" even if you aren't in one. I can step out of my house and be in a "downtown" area in less than 10 minutes by just taking one train and there is one train every 2-3 minutes.

If anything, I found https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/ usually has a much more nuanced breakdown of actual living expenses across cities, although their rent metrics also are quite incorrect because the way rent and housing space is measured in Japan doesn't quite fit a western standard unit of measure.

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#94

Post by chadash »

alberth wrote: post #69

Off topic: if you’re a private business owner - why share your revenues? It seems like more negative than good can come from it. (A) if you’re in enterprise software - potential customers might be scared away by how “little” your revenues are (b) you’re inadvertently begging for new competition when another solo developer thinks I can do better and cheaper. Etc.

Well, it sure got me interested in hearing more about the story. As far as competition, as the article makes clear, it wouldn't be that easy to compete. You'd need to be located in Japan, read English (or you are unlikely to have read this article in the first place), and then go through all the hurdles that they went through.

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#95

Post by adventured »

etdev wrote: post #92
Rackedup wrote: post #84

japan-dev.com requires javascript to show any text... I guess it makes sense since they want to show us that popup...

The site is a Vue.js single page application. That's just the front-end stack I knew the best — I realize it's terrible for those who don't want to run javascript. Sorry!

If you don't mind answering, what service are you using to manage the weekly job alerts email (if you're not self-hosting that)?

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#96

Post by arbaal »

foepys wrote: post #11
Grimburger wrote: post #4

This was incredibly well-written and an enjoyable story. Congratulations on pushing through and getting traction. Something that resonated: > We had to put 5 million JPY (~$45k at the time) in our business bank account and leave it there. For... some reason. Living in Asia I've come across this bizarre government obsession with "money in the bank" when dealing with them: "You need $15k in a bank account to apply" "Ok…

In Germany there is a similar thing where you need to deposit at least 25,000 € as collateral to be able to create a GmbH (similar to an LLC). This is meant to pay for debts in case the GmbH goes bankrupt. But the government recognized that this was a problem so the "UG (haftungsbeschränkt)" was made possible where you are only required to deposit 1 € initially and than can deposit more each year until you can conver…

You need to only deposit 12,500 € in the bank account of the GmbH you want to create as capital (Stammkapital). The founder (Gesellschafter) have then an obligation to pay the GmbH the other 12,500 € at a later date. The CEO (Geschäftsführer) can request that the Gesellschafter pay the rest of the capital.

The CEO can use the capital to establish the business. It can be used to pay wages, buy hardware etc.

Of course there are obligations for the CEO to not let the GmbH go bancrupt.

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#97

Post by etdev »

presence1 wrote: post #83

Site looks really good. What tech stack did you use?

Thanks a lot!

Here's the basic stack:

• Rails API

• Vue SPA w/ ViteJS

• MySQL

• K8s on Digital Ocean

• Cloudflare worker + caching

• Bento for emails

• Algolia for search / filters

I wouldn't recommend using a client-side rendered application for a project like this though... that was a mistake. Tons of headaches with SEO, social media sharing etc.

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#98

Post by rtpg »

adventured wrote: post #74
stewx wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As of 2019, Tokyo was far cheaper in terms of monthly rent than some major American cities. Rent in Tokyo for a 2BR apartment: $1,903/mo Rent in NYC for a 2BR apartment: $2,909/mo Rent in San Francisco for a 2BR apartment: $3,631/mo Src: Deutsche Bank https://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/RPS_EN-PROD/PROD000000000049...

Tokyo is routinely ranked among the ~5-10 most expensive cities in the world to live in: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/world-most-expensive-citi... https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonytellez/2022/06/29/these-...

Yeah that’s just a lie. Those measurements tend to consider purchase cost at a fixed square meter, and doesn’t consider changes in lifestyles as well. Every expat in Tokyo from another big city could confirm this

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#99

Post by etdev »

adventured wrote: post #95
etdev wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The site is a Vue.js single page application. That's just the front-end stack I knew the best — I realize it's terrible for those who don't want to run javascript. Sorry!

If you don't mind answering, what service are you using to manage the weekly job alerts email (if you're not self-hosting that)?

Sure! I started out on MailChimp, but recently switched to Bento (https://bentonow.com/)

I really like it.

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#100

Post by rtpg »

stewx wrote: post #52
rtpg wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a huge reason this works is that this site is essentially focused on a small niche: (mostly) Tokyo-based, (mostly) English-heavy IT companies. Everyone knows each other, it’s a high trust environment anyways, and it’s hard to recruit in the first place! And like the article says, recruiting in Tokyo is kind of insanely expensive, mainly cuz it’s scaled to salary and a big chunk. But I think the fact that this…

As of 2019, Tokyo was far cheaper in terms of monthly rent than some major American cities. Rent in Tokyo for a 2BR apartment: $1,903/mo Rent in NYC for a 2BR apartment: $2,909/mo Rent in San Francisco for a 2BR apartment: $3,631/mo Src: Deutsche Bank https://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/RPS_EN-PROD/PROD000000000049...

i was talking about recruiting costs. I know Tokyo is cheap(er than many places)
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