The most important items regarding recruiting in Japan
Posted by: admin, October 31, 2018
There are few hiring challenges to a company that can be more difficult than recruiting and staffing in Japan. Here, we’ll point out some of the main concerns that can be encountered when a company has decided to expand to the Japanese market for any number of business reasons.
The talent pool is rather limited
One of the main problems with professional training in Japan is the lack of a good system of English language education. This is in addition to some of their unfamiliar (to the West) cultural traits, as well as a low birth rate.
These are some of the reasons why the Japanese government has reported that, currently, about 42.5 million employees work in Japanese corporations, but only .5 million work for foreign companies. Additionally, if a company is looking to enter into the Japanese hiring field, it needs to understand that recruitment systems in Japan differ from other developed nations.
Companies should also understand the current state of Japanese economics. For example, at this time, Japan has a very healthy economy. In addition, their employment market is booming. Also, the Paralympics and Tokyo Olympics will be held there in 2020 – which tends to support a certain amount of hubris. When you add this to the 2019 Rugby World Cup being held in Japan and the devaluing of the yen, you have a recipe for attracting foreign companies at a relatively fast pace.
Unfortunately, the idea of Japan as a focused and energetic country of entrepreneurs is far out-of-date. That was true back when Japan was feeling the effects of World War 2 and trying to rebuild the country. The Japanese workers, today, are the children of those entrepreneurs. The primary focus of today’s Japanese worker is finding a company that can offer dependability, a good work-life ratio, reliability and a strong company brand name.
Salaries, of course, need to be extremely competitive. But empty promises of rapid growth and future niche dominance are pretty meaningless, unless the company is already well-established and can provide the cash in order to prove it.
These are some of the most important items to consider when attempting to enter the Japanese market and establish recruiting efforts.