Japan's IT firms open doors to overseas tech workers

The dozens of young Chinese engineers looked nervous, but eager, as they presented their work in English during a hack-athon in September at the high-rise Roppongi Hills complex in Tokyo, reports The Japan Times.
But while the event hosted by Mercari Inc., maker of a popular flea market app, appeared to be a mere tech competition, it was actually far more.
The hack-athon was, in reality, a part of a four-day, all-expenses-paid recruitment visit to Japan by top-notch Chinese engineers. It featured 33 participants - all college students from China's most prestigious schools, including Tsinghua and Peking Universities.
As Japan slowly begins to lower its drawbridges to less-skilled foreign workers, the job situation for high-tech foreign engineers stands somewhat different.
Amid a dire shortage of IT-related engineers, major technology firms are increasingly venturing outside Japan's borders to feed their unyielding hunger for talented tech workers.
"I don't think there will ever be a day when we can say we have enough engineers," said Takaya Ishiguro, manager of human resources at Mercari.
In an effort to appeal to prospective candidates, Japanese firms are hosting events, providing more options for office locations outside of the capital and offering more perks for foreign workers, including language lessons and support to make settling in a faraway country easier.
"Basically, we need engineers in all sectors," Ishiguro said. "Our management comes up with many new ideas," but existing services need to be improved continuously.
Because Mercari is aiming to increase the number of engineers to 1,000 from the current 350 in the future, "we think it's necessary to reach out to the global workforce," Ishiguro said, adding that the firm has been heavily promoting recruitment in India and China, including via events such as the hack-athon.
This approach appears to be working.
Zhou Bowei, a student at Tsinghua University and the eventual hack-athon winner, said Mercari seemed an attractive place to work despite the fact that joining the company, which doesn't have an office in China, would mean he must move to Japan.
"I want to work at Mercari in the future" said Zhou, adding that the company's corporate culture, working environment - as well as the pay - were among the most enticing features.
Mercari did not disclose the number, but some Chinese students from the hack-athon are expected to join the company.
Having its stocks listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mother's section in June, Mercari is likely to grow even further, with overseas engineers likely to play significant roles in the company.
Last month, Mercari held a ceremony for new employees that included 42 foreign workers from nine countries. Mericari has about 750 workers in Japan, 10 percent of whom are foreign.
Banthia, a native of India who used to work at different Japanese firm, joined Mercari in March, hoping to see firsthand how a rising startup expands.
He believes foreign engineers are essential for tech firms because they bring diverse perspectives necessary for the job.
In hopes of luring skilled workers both at home and form abroad with a chance to reside in Japan's ancient capital of Kyoto, Line Corp., a popular messaging app service, opened a new development base in the heart of the city in June.
The firm plans to raise the number of engineers to 3,000, from around 2,100, in the near future. At present, the Kyoto office has 19 engineers of which 10 are from overseas.