With the aim to overcome the massive shortage of IT professionals, Japan is luring Asian skilled IT engineers to join their workforce. Recently, the country announced its policy to increase the number of foreign workers with technical skills to fill the whopping gap of 600,000 which it may have by 2030. Now, the Executive Vice President at Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), Shigeki Maeda told a gathering in Bangalore that Japan plans to recruit around two lakh IT professionals from India to support the IT infrastructure.

“Japan will open up its doors to about two lakh IT professionals from India, and issue green cards to settle down in Japan and support the country's rapidly expanding IT infrastructure,” Maeda said while delivering his keynote address at a conference. He emphasised that Japan also has a target of roping-in eight lakh of India's IT engineers to live and settle in the country by 2030.

Japan is already running a project called “Project Indian Institutes of Technology (PIITs)”, which invites students from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) to intern at Japanese firms. The programme provides IIT students with a two-month internship in Japan with aim to create future full-time employment for them at Japanese companies.

Toyoaki Machida of Webstaff told The Japan Times last year that the hurdle is still high for Japanese firms wanting to employ foreign workers due to high standards required of potential applicants, specially good command of Japanese language. “The whole country is looking to boost recruitment from overseas, but this hurdle remains,” Machida said.

According to report, currently there are around 9,20,000 IT professionals in Japan and there is an immediate demand for more than 2,00,000 IT professionals from India which is likely to further swell to 8,00,000 professionals by 2030.

Japan had last year initiated a move to expedite permanent residency for highly skilled foreign professionals as they can apply for a green card as soon as after a year.