Having worked for two years at a tech company in Japan and picked up the language, Qiu Zhaohua has decided to return to China, lured by a job in the eastern tech hub of Dalian that pays as much as 200,000 yuan (about $29,000) a year — a handsome starting salary by China's standards.
Chinese media have dubbed returnees like Qiu as "sea turtles" — Chinese-born graduates of top global universities and veterans of major companies that Beijing is eager to lure back as it tries to move its huge but poor economy beyond low-skill manufacturing.
Hoping to reverse a "brain drain," the government and companies are scouring the globe for talent. Job fairs like the one Qiu attended — at the posh Prince Hotel in central Tokyo — are one of their tools, with dozens being organized around the world.