Japan To Boost Training for Digital Workers To Stave Off Shortage (nikkei.com) 24
Japan's government plans to expand opportunities for students and working adults to acquire digital skills, aiming to add about 110,000 people studying in the field through fiscal 2024 as it faces a shortage of talent in areas like artificial intelligence. From a report: There are an estimated 1 million digital workers in Japan. The government projects there will be a shortage of 2.3 million by fiscal 2026. Japan needs more business architects, who can help companies adopt digital technology, as well as data scientists.
The goals were set in June as part of the Kishida government's "new capitalism" action plan, which aims to secure a total of 3.3 million digital workers by the end of fiscal 2026, out of a labor force of 68 million people. "We will work to achieve these goals," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a news conference on July 25. Japan will accredit courses that teach the necessary knowledge and skills. There are concerns about a lack of instructors, so the government will consider ways to allow companies to dispatch specialists with hands-on experience.
The goals were set in June as part of the Kishida government's "new capitalism" action plan, which aims to secure a total of 3.3 million digital workers by the end of fiscal 2026, out of a labor force of 68 million people. "We will work to achieve these goals," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a news conference on July 25. Japan will accredit courses that teach the necessary knowledge and skills. There are concerns about a lack of instructors, so the government will consider ways to allow companies to dispatch specialists with hands-on experience.
will they cut down on japan OT that is common? (Score:1)
will they cut down on japan OT that is common?
Re: will they cut down on japan OT that is common? (Score:1)
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The OT is all about appearance, not about doing more actual work. So no, they won't cut down.
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Soviet Union: We pretend to work and gov't pretends to pay.
Japan: We pretend to do overtime work and company pretends to pay overtime.
Triple the people? (Score:4, Interesting)
To reach their goal, they'll need to triple the people with digital engineering experience in just two years. That isn't going to happen when you're just adding 1/10th that many in a year.
They have a few choices. But I don't think they want to import 2 million workers to make up the difference, if their target is maintaining full (domestic) employment.
Re:Triple the people? (Score:5, Interesting)
To reach their goal, they'll need to triple the people with digital engineering experience in just two years. That isn't going to happen when you're just adding 1/10th that many in a year.
They have a few choices. But I don't think they want to import 2 million workers to make up the difference, if their target is maintaining full (domestic) employment.
Japan society, even today, is wary of outsiders living in their country. Japanese culture seems to politely exclude foreigners from many things.
I watched a few Youtube videos of non-Japanese people who live in Japan. They only found self-employment work, like foreign language teacher. One showed the process of finding and renting an apartment; quite involved compared to renting an apartment in the US. These resident aliens in Japan (not sure what Japanese call them) at least speak and read the language fluently.
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Re:Triple the people? (Score:5, Interesting)
The ones with good jobs aren't making youtube videos about how they can't find a good job or how hard it is to rent an apartment. Their situation is like if a Mexican comes to the US to teach Spanish because that's the only skill they have. They probably have trouble getting a good pay too!
The ones with good jobs that leave the country because it's difficult to live there are also not making youtube videos about it. They just take their skilled labor and go elsewhere.
I was one of them -- I lived in Tokyo from 2017 to 2022 and was within the top ~5% of earners (not hard to do in Japan if you are working for a western company on a western salary -- wages are extremely depressed in Japan).
Visiting Japan is great. Living there is hard, even if you have a good job. Integrating into the culture is extremely difficult, and there are many examples of direct and indirect discrimination against foreigners. The ex-pat community is quite small in Japan. Anecdotally, most people stuck around for 2-3 years before realizing they needed to move on for a variety of reasons.
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> Integrating into the culture is extremely difficult, and there are many examples of direct and indirect discrimination against foreigners.
I'm curious to hear specific anecdotes of those who've tried.
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Happy to provide more details. I've sometimes thought about writing a short book sharing some of the stories of life in Japan (both my own and other ex-pats). So many heartwarming, funny, and fulfilling stories, coupled with just as many stories of anxiety, depression, and frustration.
Tokyo attracts people from all walks of life, from those that are young and single (university students who study abroad in Japan, JET english teachers) to those that are executives, have families, etc. They come from the surr
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I've heard they have a very complicated social rules, a kind of social calculus, that takes a lifetime to master.
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Indeed. Complicated, obscure, and with few feedback loops to help you improve. It takes a lifetime to master even for Japanese, while most foreigners have no hope.
At my old company (a large accounting and technology consulting company), new grads were not allowed to interact with clients for their first year. There were classes on teaching them how to write e-mails and have phone calls in proper "keigo" (polite Japanese).
Most long-term ex-pats that I knew in Japan (those with Japanese wives, kids, etc) even
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My understanding is when you are a foreigner living in Japan, you have to change your first name to Gaijin, because that's all that everybody refers to you as :D
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Hah. I would almost prefer if that had been true. You'll (almost) never be called gaijin to your face -- it's only behind the scenes that you hear it whispered.
However, it's a common joke in the ex-pat community that white foreigners have "gaijin cards" (gaijin ka-do-), Meaning that we could act as stupid foreigners and ask for certain concessions, which would be granted for no other reason than that we were gaijin.
Mixing ain't easy (Score:2)
> wary of outsiders living in their country. Japanese culture seems to politely exclude foreigners from many things.
Part of this is caused by the racial and ethnic tensions they see in other countries. It's hard for cultures to mix smoothly; habits and viewpoints don't easily flex on average. Humans have a tribal groupthink nature that gives them an urge to force their beliefs down others' throats.
I believe even in the US we should have courses on how to get along with cultures that view the world differ
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Part of this is caused by the racial and ethnic tensions they see in other countries. It's hard for cultures to mix smoothly; habits and viewpoints don't easily flex on average. Humans have a tribal groupthink nature that gives them an urge to force their beliefs down others' throats.
I'd argue that's only a tiny portion of it at best, assuming it even plays into it at all. Japan was a hermit kingdom for centuries during the Sakoku policy. To give you an idea of the time span we're talking about, imagine if the US had been isolated ever since it declared independence from England -- that's how long it was. And the circumstances surrounding that are pretty complex. Here's a decent summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: Triple the people? (Score:2)
Not Likely to Work As They Expect (Score:3, Insightful)
Incentivizing more people, sure... hopefully that helps. However, the folks that are already inclined towards these sorts of skills are probably already in tech. Some portion of people in tech that are attracted to the incentives will be capable of becoming highly effective, however this number will be low. We all want to be open to people learning new skills and becoming effective and valuable in their jobs... but not all people are cut out for any job. It is just a fundamental reality. Some of it may be a mindset towards the skills, some of it may be that they just don't end up enjoying the work, some may just not have the aptitude for it. It is okay that this is true and it isn't a judgement on these people, it is just an observation of reality.
Problem is the pay (Score:4, Interesting)
I lived in Japan for 20 years (IT professional, can speak, read write Japanese at a high level), now live in California.
I left because Tech pay in Japan kept falling every year (as the major companies kahoot with each other to 'set' salaries at a low level together), and pay now around a quarter to a fifth what can be made elsewhere.
With WFH, the smart English speaking Japanese are also doing the same thing (working remotely for SF bay area companies..etc or just moving physically outside of the country), which is why Japanese firms are unable to hire good people anymore.
Raise salaries to world levels.. then there will be no problem hiring.. its the same root issue as usual whenever 'shortages' appear like this.. That is really all that needs to be done.