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Business Recorder
03-05-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
Pakistan-Japan Human Resources Stakeholders meeting held
ISLAMABAD: Akamatsu Shuichi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Pakistan, hosted the 'Pakistan-Japan Human Resources Stakeholders Meeting' at the Ambassador's Residence in Islamabad. The high-level gathering brought together approximately 70 key stakeholders actively engaged in developing and facilitating Pakistani human resources for employment opportunities in Japan. The event witnessed the presence of distinguished figures including Chaudhry Salik Hussain, Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development; Shaza Fatima, Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications; Mohammad Aaun Saqlain, Minister of State for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, and representatives from leading Japanese and Pakistani organisations. Participants included representatives from PlusW, Proud Partners, Japan Pakistan Innovation Institute (JPII) and Japan Station. Also, representatives from key institutions such as Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) were present. The forum centered on the growing demands for skilled Pakistani labour in Japan and explored strategies to build stronger linkages that enable the smooth deployment of qualified professionals across multiple sectors, including IT, healthcare, construction, agriculture, and manufacturing. Ambassador Akamatsu, in his welcome remarks, stated: 'I am confident that the success of Pakistani professionals in Japan is becoming one of the key pillars of the bilateral relations. Both Japanese and Pakistani embassies remains committed to making contributions in this area. The evaluation of Pakistani talents in Japan is becoming higher and higher. Therefore, I expect that the demands for skilled Pakistani professionals will be expanding in the future. Japan seeks high-quality human resources, and by engaging with Japan, young Pakistani talents will contribute significantly to strengthening the Japan-Pakistan relations. For Pakistan, remittances are one of the major economic pillars, and the skills and knowledge Pakistani workers acquire in Japan will help to foster industrial development after returning to their home country. Please allow me to touch upon the Osaka-Kansai Expo, which has opened as of 13th of April until 13th of October, half a year. More than 160 countries participate in this Expo. Among them, Pakistan Pavilion, which is consist of pink salts, is so popular among the visitors.' Minister Salik Hussain emphasised the need for enhanced cooperation between Pakistan and Japan to help Pakistani professionals access opportunities in the Japanese corporate sector. He commended the partnership between the Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC) and PlusW, noting that its recent expansion under the Specified Skilled Workers (SSW) program now covers sectors beyond IT, including healthcare, construction, agriculture, and manufacturing. Minister Shaza Fatima highlighted the success of Pakistani IT companies at Japan IT Week in Tokyo (April 2025), where 15 companies secured contracts exceeding $600,000. She called for more roadshows to showcase Pakistani tech talent in Japan and urged the development of a demand-supply matching platform to better align Pakistan's workforce development with Japan's needs. She also advocated for the inclusion of IT and telecommunication fields in Japan's Project for Human Resource Development Scholarship (JDS) programme. Speakers from JICA, JETRO, PlusW (celebrating its 5th anniversary), Pakistani university student (with fluent Japanese and English) and OEC Pakistan also shared updates on their respective initiatives to expand workforce collaboration and strengthen the people-to-people ties. The meeting concluded with a reaffirmation of mutual commitment to promoting sustainable, long-term collaboration among stakeholders of Japan and Pakistan through human capital development and cross-border workforce mobility. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Express Tribune
03-05-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
Pakistan seeks to diversify opportunities
Listen to article With shrinking employment opportunities in the Gulf, particularly in the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan has started looking towards Japan to export human resources. The move aims to partially offset the adverse impacts on remittances, despite challenges to adopt Japanese culture by Pakistanis. Japan has long sought skilled Pakistani workers, but the local authorities were not able to meet the demand due to cultural and language barriers. Though this trend is slowly reversing, it benefits Pakistan through increased remittances and allowing workers to contribute to industrial development upon return to their home country, with the skills and knowledge acquired in Japan, stated Japan's ambassador to Islamabad, Akamatsu Shuichi on Friday. He said that the upcoming Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) in July this year has already seen more than 1,000 applicants, reflecting the growing interest in learning Japanese among young Pakistanis. The foreign remittances sent by Pakistani workers and professionals are now the single largest source of avoiding default, even higher than the highly subsidised exports. Pakistan is expected to receive $38 billion in foreign remittances this fiscal year compared to an estimated about $32 billion in exports. But in March alone, Pakistan received $4.1 billion remittances with total remittances increasing to $28 billion. In the year 2023, about 863,000 Pakistanis went abroad, including 230,000 going to the UAE alone. However, the trend saw a downward spiral after the UAE government placed restrictions on Pakistani workers due to their illegal activities, including begging. As a result, only 64,130 workers went to the UAE in 2024, a reduction of 72% within a year. This pulled the overall number of people going abroad in search of jobs to 727,400 in 2024. The trend continued in 2025, with only 172,000 people going abroad during January-March period, including just 8,331 to the UAE. Japan's plan to welcome 340,000 foreign workers through the SSF framework offers a great opportunity for Pakistani skilled professionals, said Chaudhry Salik Hussain, the Minister for Human Resource Development and Overseas Pakistanis. Highlighting challenges, Ambassador Akamatsu said that to live and work in Japan, foreign workers' need a certain level of Japanese language proficiency and an understanding of Japanese customs in business and daily life. He said that institutions like PlusW, Ecoscience, NUML, NUTECH, and HANA have already initiated Japanese language education courses tailored to employment in Japan. More than the skill set, it is the lack of respect for Japanese culture that is the biggest hurdle in exporting human resources to Japan, said a Pakistani official who, till recently served in Tokyo and worked for expanding cooperation in the human resource field. He said that Pakistan has the potential to increase remittance from Japan from $20 million per annum to $500 million, subject to adopting Japanese culture and learning their language. In the year 2023, about 1,184 Pakistanis went to Japan for jobs, which jumped to 1,518 in 2024 and showing an upward trajectory. During three months of this year, 708 Pakistanis went to Japan and the authorities expect that the figure will cross 3,000 this year. According to the recorded data, only 6,272 Pakistanis work in Japan. The Japanese ambassador emphasised that simplifying procedures on both sides is key to boosting cooperation and increasing the number of workers for smoother engagement. For Japanese companies, improvements in Pakistan's business environment are also essential. A better business climate would attract more Japanese investments, leading to larger employment opportunities for Pakistani professionals and the development of future-prominent talents, he added. Since the signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) on Technical Intern Training in 2019, more than 100 trainees have come to Japan due to the efforts of the Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC) and other stakeholders. Although this number is not yet satisfactory, this fact shows a tangible progress, said the ambassador. The JICA chief in Pakistan said that four years ago, JICA conducted two studies to assess Pakistan's ICT sector potential.
