How to successfully hire human resources with Japanese skills

A recent survey on Japanese-language education

According to the results of the Survey on Japanese-Language Education Abroad 2015 (1*) by the Japan Foundation, the Japanese language is currently taught at 16,167 institutions in 137 countries and regions. There are 64,041 teachers and 3,651,715 learners. This was a slight increase in both the number of institutions and teachers compared to the previous survey in 2012, but the number of learners fell by 8.4%—the first decrease since the survey was started.
Does this mean that fewer people across the world want to learn Japanese? If so, competition will intensify to acquire talented human resources with Japanese skills, which may pose problems for Japanese corporations.

Different trends in different regions

The Japan Foundation analyzed these results and concluded that there were significant changes in region-specific trends related to the study of Japanese. To summarize, there were significant decreases in the number of people learning Japanese at educational institutions in the top three countries (China, Indonesia, and South Korea) due to falling birthrates, curriculum reform, and other reasons. In particular, the number of learners fell by just under 300,000 (33.8%) in South Korea. However, if these three countries are excluded, the number of learners increased by 170,000 with major growth in countries such as Australia (20.5%), Thailand (34.1%), Vietnam (38.7%), and the Philippines (54.4%).

The specific reasons for the declining number of learners also differ by country. For instance, one major factor in South Korea is that a second foreign language is no longer a required subject, and the overall smaller number of students caused by the declining birthrate also had impacts. In Indonesia, there was an overall decrease partially due to curriculum reform in secondary education (a second foreign language is now an elective or was abolished altogether), but the number of learners increased by more than 25% for higher education.

Successfully hiring human resources with Japanese skills

To successfully hire human resources with Japanese skills, corporations must determine optimum strategies after analyzing and understanding the trends related to Japanese-language learners in their own markets. If increasingly intense competition is expected, the corporation must consider revising its hiring budget and conditions. If it looks like the number of exemplary human resources with Japanese skills is increasing, proactive PR activities will likely be more effective.

The next article will take a more detailed look at the Japanese-language education currently offered in various countries.

Reference material
1. Japan Foundation: Survey on Japanese-Language Education Abroad Results (P reliminary Report)
http://www.jpf.go.jp/j/about/press/2016/057.html

Read more about Japanese recruitment information, see Japanese-Jobs.com ( https://jp.japanese-jobs.com/en).