The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) recently said Japan was looking to recruit four lakh Indian professionals. According to consultants, more than 10 lakh different jobs are available for Indians in Japan. Media reports have quoted Japanese trade bodies as saying they were actively looking at India as a source of employees.
Recently, students at the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad were selected on the spot for internships at Japanese companies. The Japanese are looking for engineers in roles for setting up automation in companies specialising in semiconductor electronics.
Ever since Japan opened its doors to tourism once again after the pandemic in late 2022, the tourism industry is seeking new hires and is now opening its arms to foreigners serving in these roles.
Language challenge
Unlike other countries that attract Indian talent, Japan offers a unique challenge. Almost all communication, including in high-end professional organisations, in Japan is in Japanese. Foreigners were a rare sight until recently in Japan.
However, there has been a spurt in foreigner population in recent years that today stands at a little less than 3% of the total population. Yet, Indians, or people of any nationality for that matter, will have to go through a prolonged period of acclimatisation in Japan.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said the government was mulling over the inclusion of Japanese language training for Indian youth to facilitate their employment in Japan. But is learning Japanese imperative?
Navigating Japanese culture
Anusuya*, who is a young biotechnologist working in a company in Japan, pointed out that the Japanese used their mother tongue for all forms of communication – in meetings, regular conversations, messaging, and even emails. She said that learning Japanese was imperative to adjust to life in the country – it was a necessity to survive, even in major cities. But surprisingly, the recruiters were not keen on the prospective recruits knowing Japanese – they provided training for it. What they looked for was competency in technical skills, she added.
When asked to elaborate on the social aspect of being a foreigner working in Japan, Anusuya said the Japanese were not eagerly conversational. They chartered their thoughts, but were not disapproving of foreigners. They were reserved, while being open to our culture, without prejudice. Many Indian movie stars and songs are popular there too.
However, there are times when a non-native citizen feels like an outsider when it comes to adapting to the nuances of being in Japan. The extremely disciplined queue system, avoiding taking phone calls in public spaces, operating elevators if you are the first to enter, and many more such practices tend to intimidate immigrants. The act of not conforming to these customs elicits unfavourable reactions. However, the people are slowly becoming open to immigrants, even eager to help them acclimatise themselves to their culture.
S. Saravanan, founder and CEO of Gateway to Japan, a company that trains and places Indians in Japan, has many appreciative memories from the 15 years he spent in Japan as a young research engineer. He noted that the Japanese were highly disciplined, polite, and very punctual. They were not verbose, but shared their thoughts transparently. Companies have strict policies on working hours, including payments for overtime. Major expenses like housing, insurance, and conveyance are borne by the firms, making saving money easier.
Mr. Saravanan said he decided to set up Gateway to Japan to help more people experience what he did in his time there. His company teaches the language at five levels – N5, N4, N3, N2, and N1, with N5 being the most basic level, and N1 denoting the most advanced level. It takes about three months to complete one level, post which the candidates can write one of the two exams conducted by Japan Foundation (the body manages relations between Japan and other countries, and conducts language tests) – Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) or Nihongo Achievement Test (NAT). The tests are conducted twice a year and help people prepare better for their roles when placed in Japan.
Mr. Saravanan’s firm trains candidates in the language first, followed by hand-holding in applications to jobs and mock interviews. Once roles are finalised, they make arrangements for tickets and visa, along with applications for health insurance policies. Following this, they have ‘Pre-Landing Training’, where they are trained in the culture of the country, along with confirmation of accommodation. Once the applicants reach Japan, they are provided ‘Post-Landing Training’, where they are eased into life in Japan, along with expected work etiquette and ethics.
Mr. Saravanan said that while it was generous of companies to not expect candidates to know Japanese before moving to the country, it posed a significant challenge for immigrants. But the country has a solution to that – there are specific members of staff called ‘Bridge Engineers’, recruits who are familiar with both Japanese and English and who help new employees adjust to the language. Eventually, though, immigrants will have to learn the language.
Language similarities
Another reason why Japanese recruiters are looking for Indians specifically is apparently due to the similar syntax between Japanese and many Indian languages, including the rules for grammar. While parallels have been drawn between Korean and Tamil, the dichotomy between Japanese and Indian languages is not discussed in a widespread manner. For example, the word for me or I in both Korean and Tamil is ‘naan’ and the word for day is ‘naal’. In the case of Japanese, the vocabulary does not seem to have similarities or parallels, but sentence structure appears to have been conserved.
Kaushik Saravanan, director of Gateway to Japan, and Mr. Saravanan’s son, concurs with his father regarding the sentence structure and grammar following a similar pattern. Having finished his engineering studies in Chennai and then getting trained in Japanese, he now works as a Japanese interpreter at Mitsubishi in Chennai.
He added that the reason why MNCs might be agreeing to absorb talent without a background in Japanese was due to the severe manpower shortage brought on by Japan’s declining working-age population. Initially, they concentrated on East Asian countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia due to similarities in facial and body features. But they have now widened their search perimeter to include many more Asian countries since the language syntax would be similar, making adapting to the language a lot easier than for people from people with European and other Western roots.
Mr. Kaushik observed that learning Japanese would become imperative at some point in time – sooner or later. It was better to learn the language before entering the country to make the transition to life in Japan smoother, he added.
(* name changed on request)
Published - September 13, 2024 12:33 pm IST
