Japan must offer incentives to FGs

[Taro Toporific]

POINT OF VIEW /Hiroshi Tachibana: We must offer incentives to foreign workers
Asahi News / June 19 ---Tokyo:
.... In a survey of Chinese workers employed by Japanese companies operating in China who wanted to change jobs, only 7 percent of the respondents said they wanted to work for a Japanese firm again. ....
When a company in Japan wants to employ highly qualified professionals from the United States or Europe, shortages of international schools and jobs for their spouses often pose a huge obstacle since workers from these countries seldom agree to live apart from their families for a job.
... This situation puts Japanese companies at a serious disadvantage in international competition. Simply opening the door to foreign workers doesn't amount to a real solution. It is important to provide foreign workers with incentives for career development, such as internship programs with actual employment and permanent residency for highly talented workers. Unless action is taken now, Japan will soon lose

[Cubed]

Umm, a proper framework recognising foreigners' rights in Japan might help. Just for the little things like err ... enforcement of anti-discrimination laws in legal courts and workplaces ...

[Taro Toporific]

We must offer incentives to foreign workers
Asahi News / June 19

----details from 21 June 2004

[Socratesabroad]

It's not gonna happen. The article mentioned Chinese workers disdaining Japanese firms because they can't develop their careers.

I used to work for one of Japan's largest and more profitable manufacturers; of their tens of thousands of employees, guess how many were foreigners...

500...No.
250...No.
33....You got it! (this is based on numbers they submitted for my visa renewal listing all foreign employees)

Yep, a grand total of 33 foreign employees in all of their operations in Japan. How many Western firms can boast such paltry numbers? Pathetic.

Put simply, there is no career for a foreign employee of a Japanese firm, at least not one leading to management. At least not in firms without a major foreign financial stake. The Chinese are right - why would any self-respecting FG hang around for years in a Japanese company with no safety net and no future? I sure as hell didn't.

So until the companies change, there's little the gov't can do - increasing the lengths of visas is great, but again why stay longer for no possibility of a reward?