The increase is aimed for the “Global Leader Employees,” staff who have the potential for excellent performance in international business. Fast Retailing will increase the starting salary from 210,000 to 255,000 yen for the Global Leader Employees starting Spring 2020.

In recent years, UNIQLO has been expanding its business mainly in Southeast Asian countries. In September 2016, it opened a store in Orchard Central Mall in Singapore, and it opened a flagship store in Makati city in Manila, the Philippines in October 2018. Additionally, they plan to open their first store in Delhi, India in Fall 2019.

This salary increase for their first-year employees would act as an effective strategy to attract young global employees to be recruited to lead the business expansion.

[Website] Group Outlets | FAST RETAILING CO., LTD.

The food service industry has been struggling with a chronic lack of workers and increases in hourly wages as a result. The number of foreign workers is expected to grow due to the amended Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law, which took effect on April 1, 2019.

However, study support services for the skill tests have been lacking despite the difficulty of the tests for many foreign persons.

The aim of providing study support services is to help benefit both workers and employers, resolving the issues confronting each group.

[Reference] Free online learning service for Food Service Skills Measurement Test started –study support service to accept more foreign workers in the food service industry

The “FJS school” to be opened on April, 1 at Minato ward conducts courses for practical Japanese at work, customer service, literacy, manners, and cultural knowledge besides the regular Japanese language training for foreign staff working on specified skills visa.

The foreign students who have enrolled in the school and who are in search of a job have an “Employment guarantee” and besides creating a curriculum to have industry-ready recruits, features of each industry, job hunting schedule, interview manners would be taught thereby having a total backup of employment.

In addition, a service whereby the instructors can make business trips as per the industry-type to companies and stores across the country as per the company requirements is also made available so that the working foreign staff can undergo the “FJS school” training.

Foreigners who want a know-how on working in Japan, and those willing to gain skills as immediate work force can opt for the “FJS school” training program.

[Web site] Foreigners Job-hunting Support Center “FJS”

soeasy Company Limited that operates a video SNS sharing service in alliance with Promotion of International Relationship Association(PIRA) has made an announcement of delivering contents in an easy-to-understand manner by sharing videos on day-to-day living in Japan and rules and manners to be followed at workplace for foreigners living in Japan. Initially they plan to start with 4 languages namely Vietnamese, Chinese, Indonesian, and English. [Example: Indonesian version]

soeasy company operates a 15 second video community “soeasy” and training video SNS “soeasy buddy”. As of March 2019, “soeasy” already has 5000 plus videos on wits, manners, and rules on Japanese life.

Posts sharing Japan’s day-to-day lifestyle hacks like know-how on using automatic vending machines or bidets etc., are gaining popularity among foreigners and are watched by users of total 120 countries/regions.

To work in Japan, besides learning the language, it is equally important to understand the rules and manners unique to Japan. Besides watching videos posted by other people, how about posting and sharing your own experience?

[Website] 15 seconds video when in trouble soeasy
[Web page] Tool to strengthen organizational skills using AI and videos | soeasy buddy

Ranking of Best Industries for Full Time Workers

The industries that came in 1st place were the electric and gas and pharmaceutical industries. As these industries are partly responsible for society’s infrastructure, new companies are entering them due to the retail liberalization of energy. Among companies in these industries, Tokyo Gas was rated especially highly. The company prohibits overtime work past 8 P.M., and they have introduced flex-time and remote work for their employees. They also provide employee benefits such as single and family dorms, which help relieve employee’s burden for housing expenses. Benefits like these helped raise their ranking.

Pharmaceutical was one industry where employees were very satisfied with their salary. Both foreign and Japanese companies are making an effort to improve work-life balance for their workers. At Astellas Pharma, they’ve introduced systems for flex-time depends on tasks, as well as discretionary work programs. They’re also implementing childbirth support, and are providing assistance for childcare expenses and opportunities to work from home. Astellas was also chosen as a “Nadeshiko Brand” in 2016, for its superior efforts as a company to provide a good working environment for female employees.

The glass and stone and clay industries came in 3rd place. These are industries that mainly develop and manufacture the glass used in architecture and automobiles, as well as the circuit boards used in LCDs, cement and clay products for architecture, ceramics, and other such materials. Since 2015, the company TOTO has introduced its “Papa and Mama System,” which encourages employees to take consecutive days off for child raising, as well as taking care of their children (up to 6 years old) when they are sick or injured. Also, they’re incorporating employee development systems to improve motivation, such as job requests and internal job postings, as well as systems for trying overseas work.

Coming in 4th place was the electrical appliances industry. The transport equipment and chemical industries were in 5th place, and the lease, consumer finance, credit card, and mail-order industries were in 7th place. The petroleum and coal industry was in 8th place. 9th place was the non-ferrous metals industry, and 10th place was the banking industry.

There are a lot of companies in this ranking that have high salaries and future prospects. There are also many companies that provide benefits to properly take care of their employees. There are various standards for choosing a company based on your individual needs for work-life balance, including things like flex time, child raising support, and employee development. When you’re interested in a company, you should check beforehand to see if they offer these benefits.

This survey was conducted from April 1st, 2015 to March 31st, 2018. It was aimed at Career Connection members who designated their workplaces as companies to be evaluated in this survey.

68.4% of companies are not planning to hold any recruitment briefings or selection meetings for 2020 graduates during the extended Golden Week, which is from April 27 (Saturday) to May 6 (Monday). A low 12.5% said they were planning to hold such meetings, whilst 19.1% said they were yet to decide whether they would.

Divided by industry, 85.7% of media companies, 82.5% of software and communication, and 79.3% of government agencies, public corporations and organizations responded that they would not hold any meetings about recruitment. At the lower end, 45.5% of the retail industry, whilst 63.2% of the service industry also responded they would not.

Although nearly 70% of companies answered that they have no plans to do any recruitment related work during the holidays, retail and service industry corporations usually stay open during holiday periods due to customer demand, thus providing one explanation why companies in these industries may well conduct some recruitment work over these dates.

This survey was conducted from February 13 to March 6, 2019 with 1,192 companies taking part.

According to the survey, companies considering the employment of foreigners with primary objective of securing global human resources, and foreigners considering employment in Japan expecting good human relations, are looking out for a comfortable work environment.

In a “Survey on companies considering employment of foreigners”, about 90% of companies that have hired foreigners in the past are considering recruitment of foreigners again. Therefore, 54.4% of companies intend to “Secure human resources who can speak languages other than Japanese”, and 50.6% said that they want to secure resources to “Reduce the problem of labor shortage”.

In the next question, when asked about “What companies seek from foreign employees?”, “Diligence” was highest with 73.4% and “Have humor” was lowest with 22.8%. Also, when asked “What attributes do you seek in foreigners?”, 80% and above said that they seek “Sincere and honest people” and 19.0% said that they seek “Optimism”. When asked about “Payment of monthly salary”, most of them replied “200000 yen and above” accounting for 19.7%.

On the contrary, in a “Survey on foreigners considering employment in Japan”, a trend different from the companies was observed. When asked about “The type of job one seeks in Japan”, “Restaurant” was at number one place with 47.2%, followed by “Language teacher” with 46.1%, “Hotel line” with 45.0%. It is estimated that industries where one can use English or native language are popular.

When enquired about “What are you looking for primarily in work environment?”, “Good interpersonal relationships” was on top with 72.1% and “No overtime” was 29.8%. Among them, the ratio of Europeans asking for “No overtime” was high with 46.9% which was highest as compared to other nationals.

When enquired about the “Expected monthly income”, almost 22.1% said that they expect “200000 yen or more” which was the highest followed by “180000~200000 yen” which was 11.7%. Regarding the monthly income, it was observed that there was not much difference in the expected payment as compared to the payment mentioned by companies considering foreign recruitment.

Also, regarding the “Desired working hours”, more than 40% said that they are willing to work for “8 hours” which was on top. Thus, it is speculated that foreigners in Japan are willing to work for fulltime and earn a stable income.
This survey was conducted on 79 executives of companies using “JobBoard” which is a job posting site for foreigners operated on home page of the same association (JAWHM) and on 436 foreigners.

Regarding how they gathered information about employing foreign staff, most participants answered “From television, newspapers, or other regular media,” (29.7%) and “We don’t gather that information at all” (23.4%). The survey results show clearly that employers in the dining industry have yet to gather all the specific information for this situation.

Survey participants were also asked if they have employed any foreign staff within the past year. 33.5% answered that they “employed foreign staff for both full and part time positions,” 27.9% answered that they “only employed foreign staff for part time positions,” 3.1% answered that they “only hired foreign staff for full time positions,” and 35.4% answered that they “didn’t hire any foreign staff at all.” Though 60% of participants overall answered that they only hired foreigners part time, more than half of the less than 5 small businesses that responded hired foreigners. This shows a large gap in the employment situations for companies depending on their size.

As for the reasons why they don’t hire foreign staff, most participants answered “We never had a reason to.” Other reasons included “We wouldn’t be able to communicate due to language and other problems,” and “We don’t have any talent to manage and train foreign staff.”

Dining companies that currently employ foreigners, or have done so within the past year were asked “What issues did you face when you hired foreign staff?” An overwhelming 50% answered that “It was difficult to communicate due to language and other problems.” Companies also answered that “We couldn’t manage or train them properly,” and “Employment processes such as applying for a visa were harder than expected.” Both of these answers were tied at 24.1%. Also, 15.7% of participants answered that “Foreign staff quit more easily than Japanese,” and 13% answered t hat “It was harder than expected to prepare to take them in, for example offering manuals in foreign languages.” The majority of answers were about communication difficulties.

The survey also asked about what preparations they made in their work environments for foreign staff. 47.6% answered that “We didn’t do anything especially.” There were a lot of cases where the companies felt some problems but didn’t know what they should actually do to address them.

Finally, the survey asked companies what they expect from their foreign staff in the future. 73.4% of them answered that “securing enough manpower amongst labor shortages” was important. On the other hand, 50% answered “Serving inbound customers,” and 23.4% answered “Product development for inbound customers and looking into ways to attract more customers.” This shows that expectations are high for dealing with inbound customers.

The survey targeted 158 dining establishments across Japan. It was conducted on the internet from February 25th to March 2nd, 2019.

The “Job offer rate” for college students graduating in 2020 was 5.8% as of February 1, showing an increase of 1.3% than the 2019 graduates the same month. The “Job hunting rate” of college students graduating in 2020 is 87.5% as of February 1, showing an increase of 1.9% as compared to 2019 graduates the same month.

Moreover, there is an increase in respondents saying that “They have not yet decided” the “Industry type”, “Job type” and “Employee size” etc. for “Job seeking preferences”. The “Industry type” stands at 12.4% with 1.2% increase, “Job type” at 17.7% with 1.4% increase, and “Employee size” at 46.6% with 5.1% increase as compared to previous year.

Among them, the “Most preferred industry” is “Information and service industry” on top with 64.6% showing a decrease of 1.7% as compared to last year, followed by “Manufacturing industry” on 45.9% showing a decrease of 4.7% as compared to previous year, and “Distribution operations” on 20.4% showing a decrease of 4.6% as compared to previous year.

Among the “Most preferred jobs”, “Clerical staff related jobs” was on top with 37.6% showing an increase of 0.9% as compared to previous year, followed by “Product planning/ Marketing related jobs” on 33.9% showing a decrease of 5.3% as compared to previous year, and “Sales related jobs” on 32.7% with a decrease of 1.4% as compared to previous year.

Moreover, regarding the preferred “Employee size”, there is a tremendous decrease in the percentage of applicants aspiring for large companies with “1000~4999 people” or “5000 plus people” with decrease of 6.8% and 3.6% respectively as compared to previous year.
In an aggregate data for “Preferences for participation in internship till end of January”, almost 80% of the students said that they do participate in internship. The participation period was mostly “one day” and after participating in internship they were motivated to join the company.

If we see the “Job offer rate” and “Job hunting rate” for 2020 graduate collage students as per the field of specialization, the “Job offer rate” for Arts students was 6.5% with increase of 2.0% as compared to previous year and “Job hunting rate” was 90.0% with increase of 0.5% as compared to previous year. However, the “Job offer rate” for Science students was 4.2% with a decrease of 0.5% as compared to previous year and “Job hunting rate” was 82.1% with a decrease of 4.8% as compared to previous year.
If categorized according to gender, the “Job offer rate” for men was 5.9% with an increase of 0.6% than the previous year and “Job hunting rate” was 88.3% with an increase of 2.8%. On the other hand, the “Job offer rate” for women was 5.5% with an increase of 2.0% than the previous year and “Job hunting rate” was 86.6% with an increase of 0.9%.

Region-wise, “Job offer rate” for Kanto was 7.4% with 0.7% increase than the previous year and “Job hunting rate” was 92.5% with 1.5% increase. Chubu accounted for 6.6% in “Job offer rate” with increase of 5.8% than the previous year and “Job hunting rate” was 79.2% with a decrease of 0.3%. Kinki’s “Job offer rate” was 3.9% with decrease of 0.5% than the previous year and “Job hunting rate” was 87.8% with increase of 4.4% than the previous year. In other areas, the “Job offer rate” was 4.3% with increase of 0.6% than the previous year and “Job hunting rate” was at 84.5% with an increase of 1.2%.

［Reference］ “Unofficial list as of February 1, 2019” Survey on job hunting process (2020 graduates) /Press release /Recruit Career

The courses are free and can be viewed on JAPI’s website OSHIGOTO.COM, a media site for foreign students in Japan, as well as Japan Online School’s Youtube channel.

The course starts with “Knowing about Job Hunting in Japan,” and it has four scenarios that viewers can learn from – “Orientations,” “Group Interviews and Discussions,” “Individual Interview (Regular),” and “Individual Interview (For Foreigners).”

The course specializes in the kind of language used for job hunting in Japan. Starting with the basics, it teaches foreign students the skills needed to succeed in their job search. It also comes with English subtitles, so it’s easy to understand words that you can’t catch in the videos. The course is supervised by Ms. Keiko Kawase, who serves as coordinator for job hunting support for foreign students at Yokohama City University.

For those who want to learn the specific terms used in Japanese while interviewing and job hunting, these videos could be quite useful.

[Movie Page] Video Job Hunting Course (Video Lecture) – Oshigoto.com
[Movie Page] Japanese for Job Hunting (Job Hunting Japanese Course for Foreign Students) – Introduction (Youtube)