Japanese inn relies on foreign talent

As Japan grapples with an aging population and a declining workforce, the country finds itself increasingly reliant on foreign workers to fill the gaps in its labor market, from convenience store cashiers to nursing home caregivers, these workers have become a vital part of Japan's economy.

Foreign employees have become increasingly prominent in Japan. However, policies designed for short-term stays could disadvantage the country in the global competition for labor, Caliber.Az reports citing the foreign media.

Ngu Thazin aspired to leave her war-torn country for a better future, with Japan as her destination. In Myanmar, she studied Japanese and earned a chemistry degree from one of the nation’s top universities. Despite her qualifications, she gladly accepted a job in Japan changing diapers and bathing residents at a nursing home in a midsize city.

"To be honest, I want to live in Japan because it is safe," said Ms. Thazin, who hopes to eventually pass an exam to become a licensed caregiver. "And I want to send money to my family."

Japan desperately needs people like Ms. Thazin to fill jobs left vacant by its declining and aging population. Since 2007, the number of foreign workers has quadrupled to over two million in a country of 125 million people. Many of these workers have fled low wages, political repression, or armed conflict in their home countries.

Despite the growing visibility of foreign employees in Japan, working as convenience store cashiers, hotel clerks, and restaurant servers, they are often met with ambivalence. Politicians remain hesitant to create pathways for foreign workers, especially those in low-skill jobs, to stay indefinitely. This reluctance may eventually hurt Japan in its competition with neighboring countries like South Korea and Taiwan, or even farther afield like Australia and Europe, which are also vying for labor.

The political resistance to immigration in historically insular Japan, coupled with a public sometimes wary of integrating newcomers, has resulted in a nebulous legal and support system. This system makes it difficult for foreigners to establish roots. According to government data, foreign-born workers are paid, on average, about 30 percent less than their Japanese counterparts. Fearing the loss of their right to stay in Japan, these workers often have precarious relationships with their employers, and career advancement can be elusive.

Japan’s policies are designed for “people to work in Japan for preferably a short period of time,” said Yang Liu, a fellow at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry in Tokyo. “If the system continues as it is, the probability that foreign workers will stop coming becomes very high.”

In 2018, the government passed a law authorizing a sharp increase in the number of low-skilled “guest laborers” allowed into the country. Earlier this year, the government committed to more than doubling the number of such workers over the next five years, to 820,000. It also revised a technical internship program that employers had used as a source of cheap labor and that workers and labor activists had criticized for fostering abuses.

Still, politicians are far from flinging open the country’s borders. Japan has yet to experience the significant migration that has impacted Europe or the United States. The total number of foreign-born residents in Japan — including nonworking spouses and children — is 3.4 million, less than 3 percent of the population. By comparison, the percentage in Germany and the United States is close to five times that.

Japan has tightened some rules even as it has loosened others. This spring, the governing Liberal Democratic Party pushed through a revision to Japan’s immigration law that would allow permanent residency to be revoked if a person fails to pay taxes. Critics warned that the policy could make it easier to withdraw residency status for more minor infractions, such as failing to show a police officer an identification card upon request.

Such a threat “robs permanent residents of their sense of security” and “will undoubtedly encourage discrimination and prejudice,” Michihiro Ishibashi, a member of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said during a parliamentary discussion.

In a separate parliamentary committee, Ryuji Koizumi, the justice minister, said the revision was intended to “realize a society where we can coexist with foreigners,” by making sure they “abide by the minimum rules necessary for living in Japan.”

Long before foreigners can obtain permanent residency, they must navigate labyrinthine visa requirements, including language and skills tests. Unlike in Germany, where the government offers new foreign residents up to 400 hours of language courses at a subsidized rate of just over $2 per lesson, Japan has no organized language training for foreign workers.

While politicians acknowledge the need for better Japanese language education, “they are not yet ready to go as far as pouring money into this from taxes,” said Toshinori Kawaguchi, director of the foreign workers affairs division at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

This leaves individual municipalities and employers to decide whether and how often to provide language training. The nursing home operator employing Ms. Thazin in Maebashi, the capital of Gunma Prefecture in central Japan, offers some caregivers one day of group Japanese lessons and an additional 45-minute lesson each month. Workers who prepare meals receive just one 45-minute lesson a month.

Akira Higuchi, president of the company Hotaka Kai, said he incentivizes workers to study Japanese independently. Those who pass the second-highest level of a government Japanese language proficiency test, he said, “will be treated the same as Japanese people, with the same salary and bonuses.”

Particularly outside the largest cities, foreigners who don’t speak Japanese can struggle to communicate with local governments or schools. In health emergencies, few hospital workers speak languages other than Japanese.

Hotaka Kai has taken additional measures to support its staff, including housing newcomers in subsidized corporate apartments and offering skills training.

A dormitory kitchen shared by 33 women, ranging in age from 18 to 31, offers a glimpse of the diverse heritages mingling together. Peeking out from plastic bins labeled with residents’ names were sachets of Indonesian white pepper powder (Ladaku merica bubuk) and packets of seasoning for Vietnamese braised pork with eggs (thit kho).

Across Gunma Prefecture, the reliance on foreign workers is unmistakable. In Oigami Onsen, a rundown mountainside village where many restaurants, shops, and hotels are shuttered, half of the 20 full-time workers at Ginshotei Awashima, a traditional Japanese hot springs inn, are originally from Myanmar, Nepal, or Vietnam.

Given the inn's remote rural location, "there are no more Japanese people who want to work here," said Wataru Tsutani, the owner.

Many of the inn's foreign workers possess educational backgrounds that would typically qualify them for more skilled positions. A 32-year-old with a physics degree from a university in Myanmar serves food in the inn’s dining rooms. A 27-year-old who studied Japanese culture at a university in Vietnam is stationed at the reception desk. A 27-year-old Nepali who was studying agricultural history at a university in Ukraine before the Russian invasion now washes dishes and lays out futon bedding in guest rooms.

Most of the customers at Ginshotei Awashima are Japanese. Sakae Yoshizawa, 58, who had come for an overnight stay with her husband and was enjoying a cup of tea in the lobby before checking out, said she was impressed by the service. "Their Japanese is very good, and I have a good feeling about them," she said. Ms. Yoshizawa mentioned that she works with foreign-born colleagues at a newspaper delivery service.

Ngun Nei Par, the inn’s general manager, graduated from a university in Myanmar with a degree in geography. She hopes the Japanese government will ease the path to citizenship, allowing her to bring the rest of her family to Japan someday.

Mr. Tsutani, the owner, noted that public perception has not yet caught up with the reality of the labor market, and there might be objections if too many foreigners obtained citizenship. "I hear a lot that Japan is a 'unique country,'" Mr. Tsutani said. Ultimately, "there is no need to make it that difficult for foreigners to stay in Japan. We want workers."