Opportunities in Japanese IT industry
View(s):The tendency to recruit foreign people for professional jobs in Japan has come out just recently. We foresee that the demand for foreign professionals, especially in the IT sector, will grow up rapidly in the coming years due to increasing demand for such skills and decreasing youth population. It is the right time for Sri Lankan youth to consider Japan as a “new destination” for IT jobs. But, don’t forget! IT skill is not the only skill you need to develop a successful career in Japan. Go something beyond that, and grab Japanese language skills, plus a good understanding about the Japanese business practices. Key to a successful international career will be in your hand soon!
Specially the graduates from countries like Vietnam, China and India are getting the benefits of high demand in the country. Following table compares Japan with Europe’s largest economy and with Australia. In terms of safety, quality of life and in economic benefits Japan can be positioned as one of the best places to work. Therefore, professionals can expect a very safe working and living environment while enjoying a highly competitive salary. In average 7.5 million Yen per year.
Appreciating quality of work
In most of the ways Japan is one of the best destinations to start a professional career for a graduate. Working on time and being extra careful on quality of your work are basic qualities society expects from you all the time. This is not limited to the job you do, disposing garbage is also a skill you should improve gradually. But, once you get use to them, it will be a gift from Japan to have a better future.
Many Japanese companies still have the concept of life-time employment. Therefore, companies invest a lot on employee training. Initial training goes for many months for fresh graduates. If you are lucky to join a Japanese company as a fresh graduate, then you will be able to get this training. This training based on actual working experience is very effective, which you cannot find in any paid course programme. Even after this training, company gradually introduces the working culture and technology to the new employees during the first few years. Therefore, in few years, you will easily become a master in that domain of work and obtain a very good practical knowledge also. You cannot see the same practice in other countries, yet in Japan and in Japanese companies.
But, unfortunately, the language and cultural barriers have made entering to this job-market a painful challenge. Specially in a field like software engineering both language and cultural knowledge matter very much. Proper software development practices and extreme testing are essential parts in this environment. That does not mean opportunities are limited to a unique set of people. There is a large population of foreign IT professionals working in Japan. Once they get used to this working culture, it will be a good foundation to work anywhere in the world with confidence and discipline.
Japan has a well-shaped modern economy which has evolved for centuries. While protecting the ancient roots, country has been able to hold a leading place in global market. Following table shows how economy has changed over the last century.
Even though Japan is famous for its highly sophisticated manufacturing industry, that has never been the main contributor of their economy. Currently service-industry, where Information Technology plays a major part, accounts for 72%.
Within IT industry there is a big demand for experts in areas like Information Security, Big data, Artificial Intelligence in parallel to Japan’s “Society 5.0” concept, “A human-centered society that balances economic advancement with the resolution of social problems by a system that highly integrates cyberspace and physical space”.
Japan expects to achieve a smarter and human friendly society through better utilization of computer science and cyber space. Lots of improvements and innovations are required in coming decades to achieve this goal. Therefore, even with the challenges of Covid-19, top Japanese companies plan to invest more in IT related projects.
Decrease of population
Population-decrease in Japan is a well-studied aspect in Japanese society. Lots of contemporary socioeconomic factors have contributed to this situation. But people tend to see many pros and cons of it. One of the main disadvantages to the country is the lack of work force to drive the country’s industry. This has become one of the biggest challenges to economic growth. Specially the booming IT industry suffers severely from this, creating a good demand for foreign experts.
Government of Japan has already taken many steps for this. One major step is to attract highly skilled foreign professionals from potential nations. For that they are also making bilateral agreements to make a conducive environment for the professionals to come inside the country.
Nearly 300,000 foreign software engineers were needed in year 2020 to fill the vacancies in Japanese IT industry. In year 2030 this number will pass 500,000.
Author: Mr. Koga Michio is the Chairman of Lanka Nippon BizTech Institute (LNBTI). He is also a founding member of the Metatechno Inc Japan a main software provider for many multinational companies in Japan including Canon Corporation. Metatechno Inc has a subsidiary in Sri Lanka since 2001, through which many Sri Lankan engineers joined with Japanese projects.
Source
https://ecodb.net/ranking/
https://www.globalnote.jp/post-1697.html
https://www.thelancet.com/action/showFullTextImages?pii=S0140-6736%2817%2930818-8
https://chikouken.org/report/9225/
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/Japan-s-biggest-companies-plot-16-jump-in-tech-investment
https://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/english/society5_0/index.html