Law change creates new recruitment ground

Thanks to a recent law change, some of Japan's biggest employers are now targeting Southeast Asia labour markets for new recruits.
By: | July 17, 2019

A revised immigration law has given rise to a surge of Japanese companies seeking new employees from across Southeast Asia. Restaurants and hospitality organisations in particular are setting up recruitment operations in Singapore, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

Local private operators are also getting in on the act. A boarding school in Phenom Penh now offers students free tuition in Japanese – with language skills still an important criterion for employment visa applications. Japanese employers are paying the school retainers and have first access to the recruits who are eager to find work in the high-wage country.

Albert Okamura said, CEO of One Visa which has opened the school, says the demand from both sides of the equation has been encouraging. “As competition for foreign recruits is intensifying in Japan, we will promptly establish an overseas source of workers who can be sent to Japanese companies,” he said.