Bangladesh eyes Japan as a new labour export destination

[Destranator]

Bangladesh eyes Japan as a new labour export destination​

The government is eyeing higher training of labour to cater to industrialized markets.

Tribune Report
May 29, 2022 9:35 PM

As Covid-19 situation has improved and the economy started picking up, Bangladesh has started exporting labour to Japan, a member of the Group of Seven (G7).
Bangladesh has sent a total of 84 skilled workers to Japan, specially trained and groomed by Training Operation at the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), sources said.
Mir Khairul Alam, additional director general of BMET, said that some 3,000 Bangladeshis have been trained in Japanese with requisite technical training.
The government is eyeing higher training of labour to cater to industrialized markets, he also said

“To tap the Japanese labour market, some 30 technical training centres [TTCs] across the country under the BMET are offering necessary training and a six-month course in Japanese language and culture,” said Engr Md Salah Uddin, director of training operation at the BMET.

Bangladesh is eyeing to tap the Japanese labour market by next year, and in this regard, has already begun grooming a good number of Bangladeshi youths with the necessary skills, he also said.

However, a leading labour exporter of the country was not as optimistic, saying instead that the training and teaching methods need improvement and the duration of courses should be extended up to a year.

Covid-19 had slowed the recruitment of Bangladeshis into the Japanese market in 2020 and 2021, he added.

Bangladesh only exported three and 142 workers in 2020 and 2021 respectively, to Japanese markets.

Bangladesh has sent a total of 2,232 workers to Japan from 1999 to 2021 — just 0.02% of its total labour exports.

The government is now conducting six-month-long training sessions on spoken Japanese language at 30 TTCs.

Engr Md Lutfor Rahman, principal of the Bangladesh-Korea TTC at Darussalam, Mirpur, said trained teachers are conducting the courses.

The courses started back in 2017. The duration of the course is six months. Every batch has 70 students and the course fee is only Tk1,000, he said.

In a significant shift for a country long closed to immigrants, Japan was looking to allow foreigners in certain blue-collar jobs to stay indefinitely, starting as early as 2022, an official from the Ministry of Justice said last year.

Under a law that took effect in 2019, a category of “specified skilled workers” in 14 sectors, such as farming, construction, and sanitation have been allowed to stay for up to five years, but without their family members.

The government had been looking to ease those restrictions, which had been cited by companies as among the reasons that they were hesitant to hire such help.

Immigration has long been a taboo in Japan as many prize ethnic homogeneity. But pressure has mounted to open up its borders due to an acute labour shortage given its dwindling and aging population.

As the shrinking population becomes a more serious problem and if Japan wants to be seen as a good option for overseas workers, it needs to communicate that it has the proper structure in place to welcome them, Toshihiro Menju, managing director of think-tank Japan Centre for International Exchange, told Reuters.

The 2019 law was meant to attract some 345,000 “specified skilled workers” over five years, but the intake hovered at about 3,000 per month before the Covid-19 pandemic sealed the borders, according to government data.

As of late 2020, Japan hosted 1.72 million foreign workers out of a total population of 125.8 million, about 2.5% of its working population.

Deal signed

Meanwhile, Tokyo on August 27, 2019 signed a memorandum of cooperation (MoC) with Dhaka to recruit skilled Bangladeshi workers.

Under the MoC, Japan would recruit skilled workers for its 14 sectors including care-giving, building cleaning management, machine-parts industries, electronics, construction, shipbuilding, automobile and agriculture.

Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune recently, Japanese Ambassador in Dhaka Ito Naoki said that Japan had a shortage of workers in some industries due to the declining birthrate and aging population, and the Japanese government believed that securing sufficient human resources is necessary for future industrial growth.

Japan had revised the law and set up a new framework to accept foreign citizens equipped with a certain level of work expertise and skills. The new framework, “Specified Skilled Worker” aimed to ensure foreign workers a legal status and good working and living conditions, he added.

Bangladesh eyes Japan as a new labour export destination

The government is eyeing higher training of labour to cater to industrialized markets

www.dhakatribune.com

 

[bluesky]

Immigration has long been a taboo in Japan as many prize ethnic homogeneity. But pressure has mounted to open up its borders due to an acute labour shortage given its dwindling and aging population.

I can see quite a few BD citizens in and around Tokyo. But, they are coming with the usual language student visa. It is probably a two year course after which many students take admission to the trade schools.

If BD trainee are here, I have not met any. However, I have met a few from Indonesia and Vietnam. They are quite good in the Japanese language. They learn it before coming here. So, they learn more Japanese when they work with the Japanese.

The GoJ tells it training, but in reality these foreigners work at wages lower than the Japanese. They are workers and their Japanese language skills are good.

People who intend to work as full-fledged labors have to pass an exam and then go back to their native countries where they apply for job visa. Many are coming back.

I understand that the GoJ would prefer people with Mongoloid facial features. Even people from the Central Asia are also coming. I have met three or four. Nepalese, Vietnamese and Indonesians can be seen everywhere.

The GoJ prefers those who can be easily assimilated in the Japanese society. Bangladesh people with different facial features and dark skin are not that welcome. However, quite a few from BD can be seen also. But, they are not trainee, but language students who get working visa.