In Japan, the shortage of IT engineers who drive economic growth is a serious problem. The reality is that the percentage of students studying IT-related STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields is low in Japan. The number of graduates in STEM fields is also on the decline, and it is said that there will be a shortage of 790,000 IT personnel by 2030. To make up for this shortage, Indians are the third most common IT professional engineers working in Japan after the British and Americans. Indians are dispatched to Japan for each project. They work for financial companies in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. A distinctive thing happening in Japan is the increase in the hiring of foreign highly skilled IT personnel. The recruitment of IT personnel is not only in the IT industry, but also in a wide range of industries. Securing IT personnel is becoming a lifeline for companies.
A country that is attracting attention for its abundance of IT personnel is India. The excellence of the Indian Institute of Technology, which is considered the pinnacle of science and technology in India, is attracting attention from the world. Adarsh (23) grew up at such a university and learned programming. Although wage increases in Japan are smaller than in other developed countries, incomes are still higher than in India. Adarsh started working as a new graduate at Kishu Giken Kogyo (Wakayama City) in 2022. Most domestic science students choose large companies. The shortage of IT engineers is more serious in local companies and small and medium-sized enterprises. The president of Kishu Giken Kogyo says, “As the number of Japanese applicants decreases, they are valuable highly skilled human resources.” If more people like Adarsh were to appear, it would be a blessing for small and medium-sized enterprises in Japan.
Currently, a situation is emerging in which Japan and Korea need each other. There is the possibility of cooperation and interdependence between Japan and Korea. Japan has an environment in which young people can find employment and work. In Korea, employment for new university graduates is an issue. The employment rate for new graduates attending four-year universities in Korea has fluctuated between 60% and 65% for the past five years. This is 30% lower than the employment rate of new university graduates in Japan, which is 90%. According to statistics from the Korean Ministry of Employment and Labor, the average length of time spent at university is 7 years for men and 5 years for women. In a sense, this seems to be a waste of young people’s abilities. We are now in an age that people are expected to graduate from university, quickly integrate into the real world, engage in intellectual productive activities, and improve their abilities from a young age. In order not to waste young talent, human resource exchanges between Japan and Korea will be meaningful.
