Japanese Companies Join War for Global Talent

Osaka – Monday, 10 January, 2011




Japanese companies are taking actions for globalization of their human resources to survive in globalized economy. This includes hiring Japanese people with global mindset and strategically developing them, and hiring non-Japanese people. The former has been a hot topic discussed by HRM (human resource management) experts and management professionals lately and the author would like to discuss in one of her upcoming article.



The topic of this article is about how Japanese companies have started to proactively hire non-Japanese new graduates.



1. How have human resources of Japanese companies been until today?



Globalization of human resources of Japanese companies are far behind other developed countries and even some emerging countries. It seems to attribute to the mindset of Japanese top executes and the general public; to them abroad is something special for them. Also it might attribute to the fact that Japan market was sufficient for Japanese companies to survive.



Under such a situation, although many Japanese companies such as Toyota and Sony to name a few have been doing business worldwide, their human resources and systems have been domestic. There have been “barriers” between business in Japan market and overseas market thus departments are usually separate and job rotation between the two departments/markets has been not so popular. Executives of sites outside Japan were expatriates from Japan HQ. Local employees were all hired locally and never been rotated to positions in Japan HQ or any other countries and regions outside other than where they were locally hired.



2. Why Japanese companies started to globalize their human resources now?



It is because the situation has changed. Japan is no longer #2 in its GDP. Japan domestic market demand will no longer expand so Japanese companies need to grow their business abroad especially the emerging markets.



However, Japanese companies realized that they lack in human resources that can be competitive in today’s global economy. This is prominent from the survey result implemented by HRM consultant companies.



Therefore, they started to take measure to cope with the drastic change, and one of them is strategically hiring non-Japanese new graduates, especially Chinese, to develop as tomorrow’s leaders.



3. What are some strategies and actions of Japanese companies to hire non-Japanese?



1) In general



Lawson, a leader in convenience store industry (CEO is a MBA holder from a U.S. business school), was one of the first company to strategically some hire none-Japanese new graduates to “bring in new wind in their company”.



Then in late 2010 many Japanese companies, leaders in their industry and operating worldwide such as Mitsubishi Trading and Panasonic, decided to hire so many hundred new graduates from outside Japan, which is 50% or more of their total hiring of new graduates for some companies. They have started contacting top class universities abroad, hosting seminars for new graduates introducing their companies, opening positions and other relevant information.



2) A case of a local retailer



A TV programme that went on air in December 2010 introduced a case in which a local retailer (supermarket) in Kyushu, southern Japan, recruited a female Chinese new graduate. The background of the hiring is their plan of starting business in China in few years and they hired her to develop her as a key person in their business in China.



It is a risk for her to relocate to Japan, away from her family, but she is interested in Japan and she saw the future in working for a Japanese company in Japan, so she made her decision.



The company welcomed her warmly. They provided her with housing and all furniture, which she was satisfied with. They made her start her career in a shop floor so that she would fully understand the business, systems, procedures and company culture from real experience at the shop floor. This approach is often adopted by many Japanese companies. The staff members at her new workplace were all told about her hiring and welcomed her warmly to minimize her culture shock and help her get used to living and working in Japan. It is not long since she started working in Japan so we will have to see her case as a pilot.



4. The author’s final thoughts



Globalization of the organization and human resources was what the author found Japanese companies are far behind their western counterparts when she was working for a Japanese company, and she was convinced it is quite true when she started working for a European company.



To her, it is a little late but she is happy that at least Japanese companies started to join “war for global talent”, a requirement to survive in the global, flat world.



In addition to change in their recruitment, Japanese companies would need to review their total HRM systems to successfully engage, retain and develop new global employees they have managed to hire.