How to Write Strengths on a Japanese Resume: Examples and Tips
"I have no idea what to write in the strengths section of my resume..."—In Japanese job hunting for those in their 20s and second new graduates, the strengths section is often where applicants get stuck at the very end. Many people are not used to putting their own strengths into words, so they finish with one-liners like "I have good cooperation skills" or "I am responsible," which leave a generic, forgettable impression.
This article walks through how to write the strengths section of a Japanese resume, tailored for 20-somethings and second new graduates. We cover how to identify strengths that resonate with hiring managers, the structural patterns that score well, 10 job-specific examples, how to keep strengths and weaknesses consistent, and NG expressions to avoid—so by the end you'll be able to write a sentence that conveys your real strengths with precision.
Before thinking about how to write your strengths, it helps to understand what hiring managers are actually judging in this section—that alone makes it much easier to decide what to include. The strengths section isn't just self-introduction; it's used as material to gauge "will this person thrive at our company?"
The first thing hiring managers look for is whether you can describe yourself objectively. Applicants who talk about their strengths only in vague abstractions tend to be judged as having shallow self-analysis. By contrast, applicants who tie their strengths to concrete episodes are seen as having deep self-understanding and are evaluated as people who will be able to apply their strengths on the job after joining.
Another important point is whether the reader can picture how your strength will translate to actual work. "I have good cooperation skills" alone doesn't connect to the job. "I leveraged my cooperation skills as the team's coordinator and prevented a delivery delay" makes your way of working far easier to imagine. Aim for wording that paints a picture of your contribution, not just the strength in isolation.
Strengths and weaknesses are read as a pair. If your strength is "acts cautiously" and your weakness is "slow to make decisions," the two cohere and the answer feels credible. On the other hand, if your strength and weakness contradict each other or both end up reading as strengths, your self-analysis is judged as superficial. When thinking about your strength, also consider how it connects to your weakness section.
Whether you've chosen a strength that's relevant to the role is another lens. If you apply for a sales role and only list "the focus to work quietly on solo tasks," your understanding of the job will be questioned. Pick out the overlap between the qualities the role demands and the strengths you actually have. Read the "ideal candidate" section of the job posting carefully and prioritize the strengths most likely to land with this employer.
Before getting into specific examples, lock in three basic rules that apply to every case. Following these alone will sharply reduce the risk of being read as "generic" or "thin on substance."
Open with "My strength is XX" in the very first sentence. Hiring managers read dozens of resumes a day, and if the main point isn't clear from the first line, your application risks being skimmed. A simple subject-verb opening like "My strength is persistence" is the cleanest way in.
Once you've stated your conclusion, always back it up with a concrete episode. "I have good cooperation skills" by itself has zero credibility, but adding "In my university club I led 30 members and built a training plan everyone could agree on" makes the basis of the strength clear. For 20-somethings and second new graduates, a student-era episode or a work episode are both fine. Pick one situation where the strength was on display and write it as situation, action, and result.
After the strength and the episode, ideally close with one line on how you'll use it after joining. Wrapping up with something like "In your XX work as well, I'd like to apply this persistence to deliver results" leaves the impression that your strength translates into business contribution. If the strengths field is small you can drop this line, but make sure you have a version ready for the self-PR section or the interview.
Plenty of 20-somethings say "I can't think of a strength." Strengths aren't generated from nothing—they're found in your past behavior. Try four angles, and at least one will turn something up.
Think back to times family, friends, colleagues, bosses, or teachers praised you. Comments like "You're so thorough," "You really pay attention," or "You don't give up" carry the seeds of a strength. What you treat as obvious is often a real strength in someone else's eyes. Listing recent compliments from three to five people will surface common threads.
Write out, in chronological order, experiences where you felt you really pushed hard—student clubs, part-time jobs, seminars, circles, work after starting your career. For each, look back at how you actually behaved, and recurring patterns will emerge. Behaviors that show up again and again—"didn't give up until the end," "drew out the opinions of those around me," "proposed efficiency improvements"—are the core of your strength.
If weaknesses come to mind more easily, flip them into strengths. "Anxious" → "moves forward carefully," "indecisive" → "considers things from many angles before deciding," "stubborn" → "has the persistence to see things through." Recasting a weakness in positive terms turns it into a perfectly serviceable strength. The strength-and-weakness alignment also falls into place naturally, which lifts the credibility of the whole resume.
Tools like StrengthsFinder, MBTI, the Enneagram, or the self-analysis features on job-change sites help you organize your strengths objectively. Don't copy results verbatim; use the keywords that come up as hints and tie them back to your own episodes. The younger you are, the less self-analysis practice you've likely had, so external tools that visualize your tendencies have outsized value.
The strengths that resonate on resumes follow a fairly predictable set of patterns. Knowing the seven main types makes it much easier to map your own experiences onto them.
The ability to deliver results by collaborating. Talking about your role on a team—being the in-team coordinator, bridging between conflicting opinions, supporting juniors—adds credibility. It's a classic strength evaluated by many companies, but "I have good cooperation skills" alone is weak, so include a specific scene of you mediating or coordinating.
The ability to see assigned work through to the end. A long-running part-time job, or daily incremental effort toward a target, both work as evidence. Even 20-somethings and second new graduates with short work histories can lean fully on student-era persistence. Quantitative backing like "continued without missing a session for three years" or "didn't give up until the goal was reached" makes it land.
The drive to take on new things proactively. Tackling an unfamiliar field, or making your own proposal, fits here. Especially valued in sales roles, startups, and new-business divisions where change is constant. Pick episodes that show active behavior—"planned an event on a brand-new theme," "proposed a new initiative to my manager and was put in charge of it."
The ability to back-cast from a goal and make efficient progress. Schedule management for a certification, parallel handling of multiple tasks, hitting strict deadlines—these all fit. Highly valued in administrative, planning, and back-office roles where task management matters. Including the result—"built a 3-month study plan and earned the certification," "managed multiple cases in parallel and delivered them all by deadline"—adds weight.
The ability to listen carefully and respond appropriately. Prized in customer-facing roles, customer support, and sales. Scenes where listening drove results—"drew out a customer's request and converted it into a proposal," "handled a complaint by hearing the customer out and turned it into a positive satisfaction score"—make a strong impression.
The ability to organize information, identify problems, and solve them. Episodes around data analysis, process improvement, or problem solving land well. Highly rated in consulting, marketing, planning, and engineering roles. Pair the thinking process with the outcome—"analyzed sales data, identified the root cause, and proposed an improvement" or "spotted a bottleneck in the workflow and reduced labor hours."
The ability to pick up new knowledge and skills quickly. One of the most useful strengths for second new graduates and unrelated-industry switches, and especially effective when targeting potential-based hiring. Real examples of self-study—"learned programming on my own and built a simple web app in three months," "earned a job-relevant certification in six months"—make it land. Combine with related keywords like "growth mindset," "absorption," or "curiosity" as appropriate.
The strengths section on a Japanese resume runs roughly 150–200 characters. Here are 10 patterns showing strengths that tend to score well in different roles. When you actually use them, swap in your own episodes.
My strength is my action orientation. In sales at my previous company, I set a target of 20 new-business appointments per month—double the prior holder's number—and hit it by digging deep into industry research and hypothesis-building. I believe results come from actually moving, not just thinking. In your corporate sales role, I'd like to combine activity volume with hypothesis testing and contribute early.
My strengths are accuracy and a strong sense of preparation. In accounting administration at my previous company, I worked toward a target of closing the monthly books in six business days, building my own progress sheet each month to prevent any task from slipping. I went three years without errors and earned my supervisor's trust. In your administrative work as well, I'd like to support the organization with processing that combines care and speed.
My strength is the listening skill to hear customers out carefully. As an apparel sales associate, I focused on dialogue that drew out customers' concerns and preferences, and I lifted the post-fitting return-visit rate to twice the store average. I won the monthly customer satisfaction top spot three times. In your store operations, I'd like to contribute to sales through customer-driven service.
My strength is a learning drive that lets me pick up new technologies quickly. At my previous company I encountered React for the first time, learned it on my own time over two months, and proactively submitted a refactoring PR for an internal tool. I've made continuous tech catch-up a habit and am still posting on Qiita. At your company, I'd like to adapt quickly to a fast-moving tech environment and contribute to development speed.
My strength is the analytical thinking to surface problems from data. While running an e-commerce site, I analyzed purchase data weekly, identified the steps with the highest drop-off, and improved the user flow to lift the conversion rate by 1.4x. I focus on raising the quality of decision-making by going back and forth between numbers and hypotheses. In your marketing work, I'd like to contribute to results through data-driven improvement proposals.
My strength is the empathy to stay close to customers' feelings. At my previous call center, I focused on picking up the anxiety and confusion behind customers' words and aimed for explanations that delivered reassurance, not just solutions. I held the top in-house response-quality rating for six consecutive months. In your customer support team, I'd like to contribute to improving the customer experience.
My strength is the ability to keep going at unglamorous work. On my previous manufacturing line, I kept up a daily routine of reviewing and recording the quality-check procedure for two years straight, cutting the defect rate of my own process by 30% versus baseline. I bring a perspective that finds room for improvement even in repetitive work. On your floor as well, I'd like to contribute to balancing quality and efficiency through sustained, incremental improvement.
My strength is the sense of responsibility to see assigned work through to the end. At my previous care facility, I made a discipline of recording care notes carefully each day for every resident I was responsible for, and sharing them with the whole team during handover. I've earned the trust of residents' families as well. At your facility too, I'd like to contribute through care that lets residents and their families feel reassured.
My strength is the ability to adapt quickly to new environments. At my previous company I was reassigned three months after joining, and within a month I was handling the unfamiliar work on my own. I've built my own framework for catching up in short timeframes. In your XX role, which would be a new field for me, I'd like to ramp up quickly and become a contributor early.
My strength is the openness to learn. As a new graduate at my previous company, I observed how my seniors worked from day one of my assignment, took notes, and was given the support role for new-hire training within six months. I value taking feedback on board and adjusting my behavior. At your company, I'd like to first absorb on-site know-how openly and become a contributor early.
On a Japanese resume, strengths and weaknesses typically go in separate fields. They're read as a pair, so building consistent content makes the message far more credible.
Writing strengths and weaknesses as two sides of the same trait reads as deeper self-analysis. If your strength is "moves forward carefully," the weakness can be "sometimes takes time to decide." If the strength is "action-oriented," the weakness can be "can run ahead and miss small details." The trick is to frame them as different facets of the same underlying tendency.
Ideally a weakness is presented as something you're "working on" or "have a coping strategy for." Adding a line like "I tend to take time to decide, but I've made it a habit to set my own decision deadlines and reach a conclusion within them" communicates self-awareness and a growth mindset. Leaving a weakness untreated, as if you've simply accepted it, is counterproductive.
It's safer to avoid weaknesses that hit the core competency of the role you're applying for. Writing "I'm bad at talking with people" for a sales role, or "I'm bad at detailed work" for an admin role, calls your suitability itself into question. Be honest with weaknesses, but choose ones that aren't fatal to actually doing the job.
Before submitting, run through this checklist of five NG expressions. They're common pitfalls for 20-somethings and second new graduates.
Ending with "I have good cooperation skills" or "I have a strong sense of responsibility" is the classic mistake. Without an episode, it's a hollow self-introduction that fits any applicant. Always include a concrete situation, action, and result. Even in a small field, find a way to slot in one or two sentences of supporting evidence.
Stacking up "I have cooperation skills, responsibility, and action orientation" is counterproductive. Without narrowing to one, each episode thins out and nothing sticks. Pick one strength and go deep on the episode and the application to your future work.
Strengths like "I'm good at cooking" or "I'm good at drawing" don't fit the resume—the connection to work isn't visible. Stick to strengths that translate to the job. Hobbies and special skills belong in the dedicated "hobbies and skills" field or in interview chitchat, not in the strengths section.
"Action orientation second to none," "endurance that absolutely never gives up"—these overheated phrases backfire. If you can't back them up when probed in the interview, your credibility evaporates. Stay life-size and write strengths you can actually demonstrate. Fact-based wording also keeps your interview answers consistent.
Strength: "snap-decision action orientation," Weakness: "can't make up my mind, indecisive"—that kind of contradiction exposes shallow self-analysis. Read your strengths and weaknesses as a pair and confirm they form a coherent story. Contradictions tend to creep in when you reuse templates, so include a final pre-submission check.
Almost without fail, the strength on your resume gets probed in the interview. Preparing for likely questions in advance lets 20-somethings and second new graduates answer calmly.
Be ready to explain the episode in more detail than you wrote on the resume, organized as situation, task, action, and result. The STAR framework (Situation, Task, Action, Result) is convenient—prepare one or two sentences for each element so you can flex the level of detail to whatever's asked.
Tie the strength to the actual job content. Read the job description carefully and pre-think about three scenes where your strength could fit. Then say something like "In your XX work, I'd like to apply my strength of XX to contribute to XX," giving a concrete picture of post-join contribution.
Have one or two backup strengths besides the one on the resume. Pick something related to or complementary to your main strength so the story stays consistent. "My main strength is XX, and supporting that I also have XX" is a clean way to connect it back.
It's a tough question, but it's about the depth of your self-awareness. Prepare one episode where the strength was overdone, plus what you learned and how you adjust now. "My action orientation went too far and slowed alignment with the team, so now I'm strict about up-front sharing" is the kind of shape that lands well.
As a rule, write consistent content. If the strength differs between resume and CV, the applicant's profile fails to lock in and credibility drops. Use the CV to go deeper on concrete work episodes, and the resume to give a summarized version. The CV writing guide "Complete Manual on How to Write a Japanese CV (Shokumukeirekisho): Templates and Job-Specific Examples" is also useful.
Avoid making them identical. Treat the strengths section as a concise statement of your character and qualities, and the self-PR section as the place to sell the value you can deliver to the company—deliberately reduce overlap. A structure where the strength acts as the base and the self-PR expands it into a story of work contribution reads cleanly. The self-PR creation guide "How to Write a Self-PR for Japanese Job Changes: Finding Your Strength and Job-Specific Example Templates" is also a useful reference.
When the field is small, condense to a conclusion plus one or two sentences of episode. "My strength is persistence. In sales at my previous company, I kept up daily improvements for six months until I hit the target." The detail can come in the self-PR section or interview, so trim to the essentials based on field size.
No problem. Second new graduates are expected to have short work histories, so part-time, club, seminar, or circle experience is fine. That said, where possible, slipping in even one short post-graduation work episode helps convey reproducibility in a business setting. If you have multiple episodes, prioritize the one closest to the role you're applying for.
The strength itself is fine to reuse. But always rewrite the closing line on "how I'll use it after joining" for each company. Tailoring the scene where the strength applies to the job description and ideal-candidate text shows depth of company research. Full copy-paste of templates also risks leaving the wrong company name in place, so be careful.
It's actually recommended. Behaviors you treat as obvious are often strengths in others' eyes. Ask family, friends, former colleagues, or former managers "What do you think my strength is?" and gather their keywords as the starting point of self-analysis. If multiple people give you the same keyword, that's a high-confidence strength.
Submitting it blank is to be avoided at all costs. The strengths section is a key field for assessing the candidate's profile, so a blank one reads as "hasn't done self-analysis" or "not motivated" and is a major disadvantage in screening. Even a short answer is fine—always fill it in, and prepare on the assumption it will be probed in the interview.
The strengths section is a sticky one for 20-somethings and second new graduates, but with the right template it's straightforward. Three takeaways from this article.
First, write it as a three-part set: conclusion-first + episode + post-join application. Open with "My strength is XX," back it up with a concrete scene, and close with a contribution image specific to this employer—that's the standard structure.
Second, when a strength doesn't come to mind, use the four angles: praise from others, episodes of hard work, flipping a weakness, and diagnostic tools. Your strength is in there. Narrowing to one and going deep is the rule for a memorable strengths section.
Third, stay consistent with your weaknesses. Write strengths and weaknesses as two sides of the same trait, and add how you're addressing the weakness. Just doing this conveys depth of self-analysis and meaningfully lifts the credibility of the whole resume.
For overall resume writing, see "Complete Guide to Writing a Japanese Resume: Manners and Field-by-Field Answers [For 20s and Second New Graduates]." For self-PR creation, see "How to Write a Self-PR for Japanese Job Changes: Finding Your Strength and Job-Specific Example Templates." For CV writing, see "Complete Manual on How to Write a Japanese CV (Shokumukeirekisho): Templates and Job-Specific Examples." Use the example templates here to put your strengths into words and ship a one-pager that gets you through screening.
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