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Je travaille au Japon.

Je travaille au Japon.
I work in Japan.
From Lesson 34:Prepositions for cities and countries (à, en, au, aux)·French

Questions & Answers about Je travaille au Japon.

Why do we use au before Japon instead of en?
In French, countries have a gender. Japon is masculine (le Japon). For masculine countries that start with a consonant, we use au to say "in". If it were a feminine country, like France, you would use en (en France).
Is there an easy way to know that Japon is masculine?
Yes! As a general rule, if a country's name ends in the letter -e, it is feminine. Since Japon ends in a consonant (-n), it is masculine. There are a few exceptions (like le Mexique), but this trick works almost every time!
Does au Japon mean both "in Japan" and "to Japan"?
Exactly! French uses the same preposition whether you are located somewhere or traveling there. Je travaille au Japon means "I work in Japan", and Je vais au Japon means "I am going to Japan".
Why does travaille end in -e? Shouldn't verbs end in -s?
Travailler (to work) is a regular -er verb. For regular -er verbs paired with je (I), the ending is just -e. You usually see the -s ending used with tu (you), as in tu travailles.

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