- Low wages, conservative language and cultural barriers, however, make Japan less attractive to many.
- Rigid corporate structures can discourage newcomers
Japanese companies are trying to attract highly educated Indians to fill the huge shortage of IT engineers, reported globeecho.com.
However, there are challenges. The report pointed out that recruiters have said it was a critical test of Japan’s ability to compete with the United States and Europe for increasingly sought-after global talent. Low wages and conservative language and cultural barriers make Japan less attractive to many. Rigid corporate structures can discourage newcomers. Japan, long ambivalent about the presence of foreigners, lacks a solid system for integrating them into Japanese life.
With its citizens aging rapidly, Japan desperately needs more workers to fuel the world’s third-largest economy, filling gaps in everything from farming and factory work to elderly care and nursing. In line with this reality, the country has eased strict immigration restrictions, hoping to attract hundreds of thousands of foreign workers, notably through the historic changes to work visa rules adopted in 2018.
- “Most Indian IT workers arrive in Japan without much knowledge of the language or culture.”
- “This can hinder their careers while their peers are making strides in India, the US or Europe.”
- “They soon start exploring their options, and they often end up moving elsewhere. In the United States, median salaries for technology workers are, by some estimates, more than double those in Japan.”
— Megha Wadhwa, Migration researcher and expert on Japanese and South Asian studies at the Free University of Berlin
The need for international talent is high in the tech sector, with the government estimating the worker shortage will reach nearly 800,000 in the coming years, as the country pursues its long-awaited national digitization effort.
Japanese companies, especially small ones, have struggled to wean themselves off paperwork and adopt digital tools. Government reports show that Japanese companies’ adoption of cloud technologies lags nearly a decade behind their US counterparts.
Worker shortage will reach nearly 800,000 in the coming years
“Most Indian IT workers arrive in Japan without much knowledge of the language or culture,” said Megha Wadhwa, a migration researcher and expert on Japanese and South Asian studies at the Free University of Berlin and author of the 2021 book “Indian Migrants in Tokyo.” This can hinder their careers while their peers are making strides in India, the US or Europe.” “They soon start exploring their options, and they often end up moving elsewhere. In the United States, median salaries for technology workers are, by some estimates, more than double those in Japan.
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