Photo: Collected-
Md Mizanur Rahman Himadri-
With a gradual drop in the population of Japan, Bangladesh should develop mid- and long- term strategies to tap the labour market of G-7 country as the Asian economic power requires increased foreign to maintain momentum of the economy of the G-7 country, said economists, Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) leaders and top policy makers.
Japan’s immigration authorities on Monday proposed expanding the scope of a blue-collar skilled workers visa that effectively allows holders to stay in the country indefinitely in a possible major shift in its foreign labor policy.
The move comes in response to calls from the business community seeking to secure human resources amid an ongoing labor shortage and will increase the number of sectors that can be upgraded to the Specified Skilled Worker No. 2 status from two to 11, according to KYODO NEWS, a leading Japanese newspaper.
If the proposal at a meeting with the Liberal Democratic Party is approved by the ruling coalition, the Cabinet could give the green light as early as June, according to sources close to the matter.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will visit Japan at the invitation of her counterpart Fumio Kishida during April 25-28, 2023 and is likely to raise the issue with Japanese policy-makers, business leaders and industrialists to give priority to the recruitment of Bangladeshi blue-collar skilled workers..
The Bangladesh delegation will hold a business summitt with top business leaders and industrialists of Japan at a hotel in Tokyo on April 27, 2023.
Saudi Arabia was the top destination of Bangladeshi workers with 612,418 workers (over 53.92 per cent of the market share), followed by Oman with 179,612 workers (15.81%), UAE with 101,775 workers (8.96 per cent), Singapore with 59,131 (5.75%), Jordan with 12,110 workers (1.18 %), Qatar with 24,447 (2.15 %), Kuwait with 20,422 workers (1.73%), Italy with 7594 workers (0.67%), Japan 508 (0.04 % ) and the UK with 942 workers (0.08%), according to BMET data.
Japan has traditionally taken a cautious stance toward foreign labor resulting in strict immigration policies. But a turning point could be on the horizon as the government is also considering overhauling the country’s controversial trainee program.
A meeting on policies for foreign workers was held at the Liberal Democratic Party’s headquarters in Tokyo on April 24, 2023. (Kyodo).
The current system was introduced in April 2019 to attract foreign workers and address the country’s severe labor shortage.
It allows foreigners with certain Japanese language and vocational skills to apply for a resident status called Specified Skilled Worker No. 1, which grants working rights in 12 sectors, including construction, farming and nursing, for up to five years.
Currently, proficient laborers in construction and shipbuilding can extend their stays by earning the No. 2 status, but the government is considering expanding it to nine more sectors.
The No. 2 status allows holders to bring in family members and has no limit on how many times the visa can be renewed.
The government was initially cautious about allowing workers in a wide range of sectors under the No. 1 status to upgrade to a status that effectively leads to permanent residency.
But the government has received calls to do so from firms in various industries that wish to continue the employment of their foreign workers.
Care workers will be exempted from No. 2 status eligibility as a long-term visa path for foreigners with national qualifications already exists.
The number of foreigners staying in Japan under the No. 1 visa totaled around 146,000 as of the end of February, but only 10 held the No. 2 resident status, according to the Immigration Services Agency..
According to Xinhua, Japan’s total population shrank by 0.43 percent or about 538,000 in 2022, official estimates showed, amid the government’s pledge to address the demographic challenge.
According to provisional figures released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the country’s total population stood at 124.77 million as of Jan. 1, compared with 125.31 million on the same day in 2022.
The rate of decrease eased slightly from 2021, when the population dropped 0.6 percent.
In the latest count, people aged 65 or over totaled about 36.21 million, accounting for 29 percent, while the ratio of those under the age of 15 came to 14.45 million, making up for 11.6 percent of the population.
With a declining birthrate and an aging population, a shrinking workforce and a greater financial burden on the medical and social security systems are posing challenges to the country.
Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida is set to pledge to secure funds for policies to combat Japan’s declining birthrate in his speech at the opening of a regular parliamentary session next week.
In a new year’s news conference earlier this month, Kishida promised to focus on policies related to children this year, vowing to tackle the low birthrate through “unprecedented” steps. ■
Meanwhile, Bangladesh has exported a total of 2,740 workers to Japan (just 0.02% of its total labour exports) during 1999-2022 period as the country sent a total of 508 workers to the G-7 country, the highest the number in one calendar year.
Bangladesh exported only three workers in 2021, 142 workers in 2020, 229 workers in 2019, 163 workers in 2018, 145 workers in 2017, 165 workers in 2016, 95 workers in 2015, 55 workers in 2014, 41 workers in 2013 and 420 workers in 2012, according to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET).
A top BAIRA leader while talking to this correspondent said that Bangladesh government should devise mid and long- term strategies to tap labour markets in Japan and China as both countries have witnessed negative growth last calendar year.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has repeatedly called on firms to increase pay in line with surging inflation as part of his goal to achieve growth and wealth distribution through his “new form of capitalism.”
Meanwhile, Mir Khairul Alam, additional director general of BMET, said that some 3,000 Bangladeshis have been trained in Japanese with requisite technical training.
The government is eyeing higher training of labour to cater to industrialized markets, he also said
“To tap the Japanese labour market, some 30 technical training centres [TTCs] across the country under the BMET are offering necessary training and a six-month course in Japanese language and culture,” said Engr Md Salah Uddin, director of training operation at the BMET.
Bangladesh is eyeing to tap the Japanese labour market by next year, and in this regard, has already begun grooming a good number of Bangladeshi youths with the necessary skills, he also said.
However, a leading labour exporter of the country was not as optimistic, saying instead that the training and teaching methods need improvement and the duration of courses should be extended up to a year.
The government is now conducting six-month-long training sessions on spoken Japanese language at 30 TTCs.
Engr Md Lutfor Rahman, principal of the Bangladesh-Korea TTC at Darussalam, Mirpur, said trained teachers are conducting the courses.
The courses started back in 2017. The duration of the course is six months. Every batch has 70 students and the course fee is only Tk1,000, he said.
In a significant shift for a country long closed to immigrants, Japan was looking to allow foreigners in certain blue-collar jobs to stay indefinitely, starting as early as 2022, an official from the Ministry of Justice said last year.
Under a law that took effect in 2019, a category of “specified skilled workers” in 14 sectors, such as farming, construction, and sanitation have been allowed to stay for up to five years, but without their family members.
The government had been looking to ease those restrictions, which had been cited by companies as among the reasons that they were hesitant to hire such help.
Immigration has long been a taboo in Japan as many prize ethnic homogeneity. But pressure has mounted to open up its borders due to an acute labour shortage given its dwindling and aging population.
As the shrinking population becomes a more serious problem and if Japan wants to be seen as a good option for overseas workers, it needs to communicate that it has the proper structure in place to welcome them, Toshihiro Menju, managing director of think-tank Japan Centre for International Exchange, told Reuters.
The 2019 law was meant to attract some 345,000 “specified skilled workers” over five years, but the intake hovered at about 3,000 per month before the Covid-19 pandemic sealed the borders, according to government data.
As of late 2020, Japan hosted 1.72 million foreign workers out of a total population of 125.8 million, about 2.5% of its working population.
Meanwhile, Tokyo on August 27, 2019 signed a memorandum of cooperation (MoC) with Dhaka to recruit skilled Bangladeshi workers.
Under the MoC, Japan would recruit skilled workers for its 14 sectors including care-giving, building cleaning management, machine-parts industries, electronics, construction, shipbuilding, automobile and agriculture.
Speaking to this correspondent recently, former Japanese Ambassador in Dhaka Ito Naoki said that Japan had a shortage of workers in some industries due to the declining birthrate and aging population, and the Japanese government believed that securing sufficient human resources is necessary for future industrial growth.
Japan had revised the law and set up a new framework to accept foreign citizens equipped with a certain level of work expertise and skills. The new framework, “Specified Skilled Worker” aimed to ensure foreign workers a legal status and good working and living conditions, he added
Japan’s population drops 0.43 pct in 2022
The Japanese government will introduce a new, simplified system for granting highly skilled professional visas to foreign workers next Friday to attract overseas talent, the Immigration Services Agency said Friday.
Under the new measure, the government will grant the visa to foreign applicants and introduce preferential treatment for those who meet certain conditions, such as having an annual income of 20 million yen ($151,000) and a master’s degree, , according to KYODO NEWS, a leading Japanese newspaper.
Under the government’s current points-based system, points are allocated according to categories that include academic and employment backgrounds, as well as annual income. But the move has been seen as overly complicated as the global race to acquire skilled workers heats up.
Currently, applicants with points exceeding a certain level will be granted a five-year highly skilled professional visa and can acquire a visa with an indefinite period of stay after three years.
Highly skilled professional visas are granted for three types of activity — advanced academic research, advanced specialized/technical activities and advanced business and management activities.
While retaining the points-based system, the new measure will enable applicants conducting advanced academic research or advanced specialized/technical activities to obtain a five-year visa if they have a master’s degree or higher and an annual income upwards of 20 million yen, or an employment record of 10 years or more and an annual income upwards of 20 million yen.
For those applying for advanced business and management activities, five-year visas will be granted if they have an employment record of five years or over and an annual income of 40 million yen or more.
Those being granted five-year visas under the simplified requirements will also qualify for a permanent visa after residing in Japan for one year, compared with three years for current holders.
The introduction of the new measure was decided in February after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last year instructed relevant ministries to consider reforms to attract highly skilled human resources to Japan, including the establishment of a new system that “ranks among the best in the world.”
Md Mizanur Rahman Himadri is a senior journalist, translator and content creator. He can be reached at h2rehman@gmail.com
