FWIW. Learning the language (and popular culture) makes a huge difference in the people you’ll meet and how people react to you. I worked in a Japanese company

FWIW. Learning the language (and popular culture) makes a huge difference in the people you’ll meet and how people react to you. I worked in a Japanese company for years and made a number of good friends (of the same gender) who I’m still in contact with, and see whenever I go back. Also the more you learn the language the more chance you’ll have of reaching a role of importance. That’s the same pretty much everywhere though. If people have trouble communicating with you or you cannot express a complex concept then you’ll be bypassed.