Japan must change its mindset, welcome TITP trainees from India

Sanjeev K Ahuja On Feb 19, 2021

Tsuneya KATAGIRI, Country Manager – India, All Nippon Airways (ANA) meeting TITP Trainees at NAVIS, Bangalore, India

NEW DELHI. With a huge potential of producing and sending TITP trainees to Japan, India needs to change the mindset of the Japanese corporate world to make sure the Japan-based companies prefer India over other ASEAN countries and ask for TITP trainees from here.

For this, the sending organisations (SOs) training TITP trainees under TITP (Technical Intern Training Programme) schemes in India should promote its strength areas in Japan to improve the image of India.

Currently, the majority of the blue-collared TITP trainees’ requirements in Japan in the field of elderly care, construction, agriculture, fisheries, engineering and metalworking, production, etc., are met by the countries like Vietnam, Philippines, Myanmar, Indonesia, and others including Nepal. Vietnam alone meets 50% of the TITP trainee’s demand in Japan.

“I have virtually met some receiving organizations (ROs), the Government Office in Japan, Japan Agricultural Cooperatives and Federations, The owners of SMEs, Farmers, etc. Despite the fact that India has a huge young and hardworking population especially in its north-eastern and southern states, the Japanese companies, and the receiving organizations (ROs) in Japan prefer ASEAN countries over India for accepting TITP trainees. For them, India is good only for Information technology (IT), software, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT), pharmaceuticals but not for manual work,” said Tsuneya KATAGIRI, Country Manager – India, All Nippon Airways Co. Ltd.

Tsuneya KATAGIRI, Country Manager – India, All Nippon Airways Co. Ltd.

Tsuneya KATAGIRI who has been in India for the last eight years and has visited many places of the country and has met many Indian people during this time, says youths in India especially from north-eastern states not only carried similar features, they also are hard and sincere workers.

The same goes with the youths of some of the south Indian states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and others, as they are avid learners as well as sincere in their approach towards acquiring a skill set, he adds.

“Despite all this, the majority of the demand of four lakh TITP trainees in Japan was met by the ASEAN countries till November 2019, and India was able to send 203 TITP trainees only by then.

While talking about the Indian sending organizations (SOs) or TITP partners who are imparting training to youths, Tsuneya KATAGIRI said that they were very professional and apt whether it’s the skill set or the Japanese language skills training.

“I have met more than ten SOs/TITP partners physically or virtually, and found them excellent in their ability to produce skilled workers. But a majority of them have not been able to promote or advertise in Japan. They need to get together and spread the word in Japan about the availability of excellent skilled workers they are producing,” said Tsuneya KATAGIRI.

The skilled workers going to Japan can work there for three years and after that, they need to return to their country of origin. Then follow fresh batches of skilled workers to work in Japan, and hence the cycle continues like this.

But if they want to stay further in Japan and work there for five years more, they are entitled to switch to Specified Skilled Worker (SSW) scheme which was established in 2019 as the new residential status, and to work in Japan for 5 years further.

The Memorandum of Cooperation on SSW between India and Japan was signed on January 18, 2021, in order to facilitate the SSW scheme to be implemented.

Tsuneya KATAGIRI says India has a huge young population of TITP trainees and can ensure a smooth supply of skilled manpower and human resources to Japan, same as ASEAN countries.

He proposes to have promotional activities like seminars in Japan when the Corona pandemic scare is over and people can cross nations.

“National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), SOs, and TITP partners can get together and make concerted efforts to promote the skilled manpower ability in Japan by organizing seminars and roadshows in Japan, and also engage in other promotional activities there to make ROs/the Japanese companies aware of India’s strength and change their mindset towards India,” Tsuneya KATAGIRI added.