The government has taken an initiative to secure the Japanese employment market as Asia's economic powerhouse needs increased workers to rebuild its economy tattered by natural disasters, officials said.
Japan needs about 75,000 foreign workers within next five years following rise of its ageing population, rehabilitation programme for tsunami-affected areas and Olympics and Paralympics 2020 to be held in Tokyo.
Officials said the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment (MEWOE) has drawn up a workplan to tap a sizable chunk of jobs in the Japanese market. The plan includes, among other issues, is amendment to the existing guideline of sending technical interns to Japan Bangladesh.
They said that the amendment to the guideline was already under process of the ministry.
It has also planned to arrange some official tours by Association of International Manpower Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (IM) of Japan to Bangladesh, visits for Bangladeshi manpower sending organisations or recruitment agencies to Japan in order to gather better knowledge about the procedure of sending technical interns.
It will also take initiative to arrange a tour of prospective Japanese employers to Bangladesh to get a better understanding about manpower sending procedure of Bangladesh.
In July, a delegation headed by the MEWOE secretary Khondaker Showkat Hossain visited Japan. During the official visit they discussed manpower deployment issues with Japan International Training Cooperation (JITCO), Overseas Construction Association of Japan International (OCAJI), IM and Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan.
Mr Hossain said during his visit the Japanese authorities expressed their willingness to hire Bangladeshi workers to meet its present demand. And the Bangladesh government has also taken several initiatives to tap the opportunities.
He said Japan needs thousands of workers to meet its growing demand and for this the country is considering amending its existing law.
By December the law can be amended and after that it will be easier for Bangladeshi workers to get jobs in Japan, the secretary said.
Under the existing law Japan can recruit workers mostly from China, he added.
"By January we will be able to send workers to Japan," the top ministry official expressed hope.
Earlier, Bangladesh ambassador to Japan Masud Bin Momen sent a letter to the MEWOE in which he said Japan is facing an acute crisis of labour in recent times.
The letter said that at present, there are two mechanisms through which skilled persons/trainees come to Japan. One is the points-based preferential immigration treatment which started in May 2012. However the bar in the mechanism is too high for Bangladeshis to take advantage of the system.
The other is Technical Intern Training Programme (TITP) which started in 1993. Right now the only available avenue to cover young people is to bring technical interns (euphemistically used for short-term or seasonal workers) under TITP.
The ambassador also noted, in his letter, that "Unfortunately for Bangladesh, we could not utilise this avenue effectively for some unscrupulous private sector entities (including middlemen) and lack of their preparedness and understanding of the stringent procedure covering TITP. The rejection rate of TITP visa seekers remained extremely high at the embassy of Japan in Dhaka."
An increasing number of Japanese universities and language schools are also trying to attract foreign students. A large number of these students can also seek employment after completion of course.
"We should also encourage young students to come to Japan for undergraduate studies and for language schools so that after they graduate they can find work more easily," the senior diplomat said.
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