Over the past few months we have seen a flurry of Japanese companies announce that they are hiring candidates who are from overseas but are now in Japan. Significant numbers of both university students and experienced workers with the right skill set are being sought after.
Companies in Japan are re-aligning. As the population begins to shrink and Japan as a whole downsizes, the power of the domestic market will disappear with it and Japanese companies will struggle to be the international powerhouses that many have become.
On top of that, they are faced with a large number of Japanese graduates who have, to date, shown little or no interest in taking positions that require strong English language ability.
There is still a lack of details about how exactly this will plan out or in what shape this new hiring spree will take place. The following (badly formatted) table shows what big Japanese companies have announced and comes courtesy of a major Japanese newspaper.
|
Expanding recruitment of foreign employees: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sony |
Increase foreign graduates from 14% of the 2011 total to 30% by 2013 |
|||
|
Toshiba |
Increase foreign recruitment from a total of 30 people this year to over 100 per year |
|||
|
Hitachi |
Increase foreign graduate intake from 5% of the 2011 total to 10% by 2013 |
|||
|
Rakuten |
Aims for 30% foreign graduates in 2011 recruitment |
|
|
|
|
Tomy |
New graduate recruitment to be concentrated on China |
|
|
|
|
IHI |
Will begin an annual recruitment drive from inside South Korea |
|||
|
Mitsubishi…. |
Recruitment of Americans and Japanese people from the US. |
|||
Note:
These are only public announcements made by the companies included. However, the general trend seems to be forming in this direction and you can expect to see more such developments in 2011.
Picture credit: Corpse Reviver / Wikimedia
