The Embassy of Japan in Vietnam held a workshop in Hanoi on July 23 to provide information on the country’s new specified skills residency status for Vietnamese workers who want to work in Japan.

Vietnamese nurses working in Japan

Ambassador Umeda Kunio said Japan set up the status from April 2019 to address the serious labour shortage in the country.

On July 1, the two countries completed negotiations and announced a Memorandum of Understanding in this field.

This new mechanism aims to receive foreign workers with high skills and being able to work immediately, according to the diplomat.

Employees working in Japan will be entitled to remuneration policies equivalent to those of Japanese workers or even more.

The ambassador added that the Japanese government wants to receive cooperation and assistance from Vietnam to help Vietnamese youngsters who aspire to work in Japan have an insight into the new specified skills programme.

Hiroko Shimizu, Second Secretary, Political Department at the Embassy of Japan in Vietnam, said the appraisal and selection of Vietnamese enterprises to send workers to Japan is the responsibility of the Vietnamese Government, ministries and departments.

If any issue arises during the sending, the embassy will collect information and send it to Vietnamese relevant agencies for quick addressing, she said.

The new specified skills programme is divided into two categories that require foreign workers to have specific skills in 14 jobs.

According to Vu Truong Giang, head of office for Japan and Southeast Asia at the Department of Overseas Labour Management of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Japan aims to receive 345,150 workers within five years in the aforesaid jobs.