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Friday March 29, 2024

Jobs in Japan

By Dr Naazir Mahmood
February 02, 2020

The writer holds a PhD from the University of Birmingham, UK and works in Islamabad.

In response to my two columns on Nakasone and Nakamura, many readers have written to me asking if there are job opportunities in Japan. Some readers have done one better by requesting me to help them get a Japanese visa.

Let it be clear that I have no influence on any foreign embassy – Japan included – to ask them for a visa. Nor do I have any clout in any job-offering company in Japan, or in any other country. Japan and most other foreign embassies have their own systems of visa issuance, and tinkering with the system jeopardizes the chances further. My family members and I have had to go through cumbersome processes whenever we planned to visit a foreign country. But at least I can do one thing, and that is to give some guidance, especially to our youth.

Japan is now welcoming foreign human resources, and the information I share now is no secret; all you need to do is research online. Japan has created a new specified-skilled-worker (SSW) category to hire foreign workers. For this purpose, Japan has a new status-of-residence (SoR) system that will address serious labour shortages in Japan, but that will be done by accepting only experienced human resources with specific expertise and skills. If you have been reading newspapers regularly you may recall that last year there were multiple news stories about Japan’s new policy of accepting foreign human resources.

After the amended Immigration Control Act, Japan has taken comprehensive measures for foreign workers residing in Japan. One of the measures is an initiative to improve infrastructure, such as provision of multilingual information by public institutions. Similarly, the infrastructure in daily life to welcome the rapidly increasing number of foreigners as residents in Japan is also improving. So, what are the SSW and SoR? This is a status of residence (SoR) applicable to foreigners who work in jobs that require considerable knowledge of, or experience in, specified industry fields. You must be wondering about the period of stay, and thinking about staying there forever.

But wait, if you end up there, your SoR may be extended annually or semiannually for a maximum stay of up to five years in total. At least that’s what they are planning to do now, but I wonder how they will let go of the SSWs who in five years’ time become proficient in their language and become culturally more adaptable. But for now, anyone who plans to go there must be ready to leave Japan after five years. Many of my young readers often ask me about skills standards that are applicable in other countries.

For this particular purpose, I can say for sure that the Japanese will confirm your skills standards by exams. Only those who manage to complete technical intern training will be exempt from the exam. Is there any Japanese language requirement? And what is the minimum level needed? Well, proficiency in Japanese language used in daily life, and at the workplace, is a minimum. How will they measure it? Your proficiency level will be confirmed by tests to measure it. Again, those who manage to complete the technical intern training beforehand, will be exempt from the tests.

Interestingly, and surprisingly, accompaniment by family members is not allowed. This is perhaps because they are targeting the unmarried youth; but even if SSWs are married, millions of our workers live and work in Gulf countries without their families. This is not an ideal choice, but those seeking jobs from Pakistan hardly have choices. And lastly, the prospective employees must have an accepting organization or registered supporting organization that can vouch on their behalf and issue a supporting letter. If all this sounds problematic, perhaps some more research and seriousness is required.

So anyone interested in going to Japan for work must first prepare for two exams: one, your skills exam; and two, the Japanese language test. What skills? And where do I learn this difficult Japanese language? Skills: there are at least 14 industry fields and job categories to engage in. For example, being a care worker requires some training in nursing. When I was pursuing his doctoral studies in England without a scholarship, one of the jobs I did was as a care worker. I did some training courses and then there was no shortage of shifts in hospitals with their National Health Service (NHS).

What the government of Pakistan should do now is to open more good quality nursing schools rather than more medical colleges. Especially for our young girl students, training in nursing will open up venues for employment the world over, including Japan. Then there is building cleaning and management field. Again this was one of the areas where I worked as a caregiver in England, and I never felt any shame in it. Our misplaced Pakistani perception of shame associated with cleaning jobs that has hampered our growth and maturity to a great extent. The earlier we get rid of it the better it is for us.

Then there are ever-in-demand skills in machine parts and tooling industries: casting, metal press, and finishing, welding, forging, sheet metal work, and machine inspection. Related to this is the industrial machinery industry including electric equipment assembling, ironwork, industrial packaging and die casting. There are electrical, electronics, and information industry jobs, construction jobs, shipbuilding and ship machinery industry, automobile repair and maintenance, aviation industry, accommodation industry, agriculture and fishery, coupled with the food and beverages industry. All these offer a wide range of jobs that are up for grabs. What you need is language and skills. So, how about the language?

If you just do a quick search on the net, you will come across free courses for the Japanese language that are helpful and self-explanatory, with all exercises and practice samples. All you need is a 3D approach – desire, decision and dedication. If you possess a desire to learn, you need to make a decision to devote your time to it; and then don’t backtrack. You need a dedicated few months with at least a couple of hours daily to learn the basics of a language. Once you are at it seriously, you can do it quickly.

The best aspect of all this is that you don’t need a degree in anything; there is simply no minimum educational background required: not even a primary or secondary school certificate. You just need to be at least 18 years of age, and be skilled in one of the required fields mentioned above; and of course, you should be able to pass both the language exam and the skills test. Once you are in Japan, you are allowed to change workplaces in the same job category; you are even permitted to work in a different job category in the same field, provided the skill level meets the requirement through exams.

But be careful, there may be some unscrupulous elements claiming to be agents or brokers, offering you jobs if you pay them ‘guarantee deposit’ or ‘monetary penalties’. This is absolutely prohibited and nobody is allowed to pay or receive any deposits or penalties to gain SoR in Japan. Now, the ball is in Pakistan’s court, both officially and unofficially. At the government level, new centres of training must be established for imparting the required skills. Our technical colleges and institutes are mostly theory oriented and award certificates to students who are hardly able to handle the technical challenges of their fields.

We need a move from spirituality to technicality, without which the hereafter may be secure – but the here and now is not.

Email: mnazir1964@yahoo.co.uk