Building contractors are increasingly looking to foreign workers to cover labor shortages plaguing the industry amid the reconstruction demand to rebuild the Tohoku region from the 2011 quake-tsunami disaster and ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Traditionally, many general contractors and subcontractors were reluctant to employ foreign nationals. "It's not easy for them to acquire technical skills, owing in part to the language barrier," a field work supervisor with a major construction company said of foreign workers.
Under immigration laws, construction companies and dozens of other related industries can hire foreigners as "technical trainees" for up to three years as part of human resources development and transferring skills and technology to developing countries.