The public and private sectors are making efforts to secure workers from India, targeting not only students and highly skilled information technology engineers but also workers for industries such as manufacturing that are suffering labor shortages.
"Many Japanese universities are keen to attract the best and smartest students and researchers," Kiyohiro Hokin, president of Hokkaido University in Hokkaido, said at a forum of Japanese and Indian universities held in New Delhi in mid-October.
Leaders of over 70 universities and research institutions from the two countries attended the forum, with some of them also holding individual talks on expanding cooperation. The event, the third of its kind, was held in India for the first time.
The Indian Institutes of Technology, a national body, is "not the only excellent university" in India, said an official from the Japan Science and Technology Agency, which hosted the forum. "There are (outstanding institutions) in the private sector and regional areas as well," they noted.
"There was a need to come (to India) to expand our scope," they added.
Yukio Miyashita, professor at the Nagaoka University of Technology who attended the event, said that many local businesses in Niigata Prefecture are seeking Indian graduates. The university is located in Nagaoka, the second-most populous city in the prefecture.
Miyashita said that most foreign students who opt to stay in Japan find employment in Tokyo and other metropolises.
"We want to attract (Indian) graduates" to the prefecture, he said, noting, "Some Niigata companies cover the flight and accommodation costs for interns." His university already has exchange agreements with five Indian universities.
The number of technical trainees and what are known as specified skilled workers coming from India to Japan has been on the rise in recent years.
The Indian unit of Arms, the first-ever Japanese organization to dispatch Indian technical trainees to Japan, sent about 340 such trainees in and after 2019, with about 70% of them joining the manufacturing sector. Of the total, some 200 were sent in the past year.
"Indian workers are highly educated and can quickly learn Japanese," said Nagatoshi Shibata, vice president of the unit. "Among firms that accept Indian workers, 90% are repeat clients."
"India is becoming powerful internationally, and the number of Japanese companies accepting human resources from the nation will likely rise," Shibata continued, adding that many Japanese local governments facing labor shortages have approached Arms as well.
Among major Japanese companies, All Nippon Airways is stepping up efforts to boost the number of Indian workers in Japan. Tsuneya Katagiri, head of the airline's Indian operations, is traveling around Japan urging companies to employ Indian people.
Increasing Indian technical trainees and specified skilled workers in Japan would boost demand for travel between the two countries by their families and relatives, thus helping expand ANA's business, he indicated.
Katagiri noted that Japan is struggling with a low birthrate and an aging population, especially outside major cities, while many young people in India are finding it difficult to secure jobs as the country's population exceeds 1.4 billion. "From the perspective of local revitalization, having high-quality foreign workers would energize regional areas."
House of Representatives Speaker Fukushiro Nukaga met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the South Asian country in August.
They agreed on a human resources exchange of over 50,000 people, mainly IT engineers, in the next five years. The figure is roughly on par with around 49,000 Indians who lived in Japan as of the end of last year.
The initiative is expected to be one of the topics at a Japan-India summit that may take place in the near future.
Still, an official in the human resources business sector said that the target figure is too high, noting, "Japan is not the most preferred choice for finding employment because salaries (in the country) are too low."
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.