Accordingly, with effect from 1st April, 2019, Japan decided to issue two sets of visa to the foreign workers – Technical Intern Class 1 and Class 2 in 14 designated industries, such as agriculture, construction, healthcare, hotels, restaurants, food and beverages, fisheries, industrial machinery, electronics, ship building, vehicle maintenance, airport maintenance etc.

Technical -1 refers to marginal skilled workers, who meet the basic criteria. They will be given 5 years visa, but they will not be allowed to bring their families. Technical -2 are directed to higher level of skilled workers with experiences in the designated fields, with 10 year initial visa for working. They will be allowed to bring their families, along with benefits of making them entitle for permanent residency. To this end, Japan went a step ahead of other countries. It is the first time that a nation welcomed marginal workers for jobs in its country.

Juxtaposed by deceleration in birth rate and high growth in aging population, Japan is facing serious problem of labour shortages. With working age shrinking, many jobs remained unfilled. According to an estimate by Japan’s Institute of Labour Policy and Training, if the ratio of Japanese workers’ participation remained at 2006 level, only 55.84 million workforces will be available by 2030, against 66.57 million in 2006. Currently, only 1 percent of population in Japan is foreigners.

Across Japan, hotels, farms and construction sites are feeling extreme labour crunch as the workers pool shrinks and demand rises ahead of 2020 Olympics. Shinichiro Tsukada says his small plastering company would not have survived without 22 Chinese and Vietnamese workforces, who make half of his workforce.

Japan is in dire need of foreign workers in IT industry. Currently, it faces a short of 170,000 IT professionals and the number will have a big leap to 600,000 by 2030. Given the impending crisis for Indian IT workers after Trump’s “America First” backlash and India having high reputation in IT sector, Japan’s easing of migration law will be a timely succor for Indian IT workforce.

The case of Fujifilm Software Company, a subsidiary of Fujifilm Corporation, is a case in point to pitch for IT professional crunch. More than half of its sales comes from overseas. It says it is indispensable to raise completion by employing superior workforce across the global. USA is the source of new technology. Indian IT professionals have an edge over Japanese as they have good command over the language. To this end, the company has high expectation from Indian IT professionals, besides the low cost advantages.

Influx of semi-skilled and migrant workers will be another area of opportunity for India workers to seek jobs in Japan. This will open a new opportunity for non-IT semi and skilled Indian workers to seize in foreign workers pool in Japan. For example, ample opportunities will arise for Indian semi-skilled and marginal workers in construction, agriculture, healthcare and other service sectors with the attraction of low labour cost.

Foreign workers will be of great help to aging population in Japan. Aging population is creating more jobs in Japan. But, few Japanese are available for such jobs as careers. According to The Economist, there are more than 60 percent jobs vacant than people are looking for work. Industries, such as agriculture, construction and nursing are increasingly dependent on foreign workers.

Indian nurses have global reputation. They have already replaced Philippines in UK and Ireland. According to a survey, three quarters of the employers surveyed in these countries, advocate India as primary source country for registered nurses.

“Invest Japan” is a prime scheme of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to revitalize the economy. Manufacturing is the main boost for Japanese economy, which made it second biggest economy in the world, before China outplaced it to third rank. Despite this, foreign investment in Japan is moving at slow pace. One of the major obstacles is “finding human resources”. This is because Japanese workers, bogged down by cultural taboo, are reluctant to work for foreign firms. According to a survey for “Invest Japan in 2015’, over 68 percent foreign investors attributed” finding Japanese workers” a major problem in Japan.

The reasons cited for their unwillingness to work in foreign companies in Japan were reluctance to aberrate from the traditional values of working. Japanese work culture is dominated by factors like lifelong employment system, loyalty to workplace and reluctance to adopt seniority by performance rather than seniority by age. Performance and productivity have little weight in determining the position and salary of the job seekers. Dismissal is a rare event in Japanese corporate.

Given this close human resource management system, which has deeply been instilled among the Japanese workers, it has become uphill task for foreign investors to find Japanese workforce for their plants. This leaves foreign investors with option open for bringing workers, either from their home countries or from other countries where they have their plants.

Hitherto, restrictive immigration debarred foreign investors to employ expatriates, excepting in high skilled jobs. With the liberalization in immigration, the obstacles for finding workforce in multiple categories for their plants in Japan will be eased. This will be boon to foreign investment in Japan. Eventually, foreign investment in 14 sectors will find some hey days. To this end, the demand for foreign workers will rise in Japan.

Language is a barrier, but not a major impediment. With the growing Japanese investment in India, a number of short and medium course for Japanese languages were established in the country. (IPA Service)