With jobs outnumbering applicants in an economy recovering from two decades of stagnation against quickly thinning working population has sent Japan look for young talents from South Korea.

Job-to-application ratio hovers at 25-year high and 97.3 percent of graduates find jobs fresh out of college in Japan. There are more than two jobs per applicant in Tokyo and smaller companies have tougher time in recruitment, making the traditionally inward Japan Inc. turn overseas for hiring.

Koreans with high work ethics and educational standards as well as being familiar to rigid working conditions fit the perfect candidate. Moreover, jobs are scarce in Korea with youth unemployment rate hovering at historic highs since last year due to protracted slowdown.

Last year, 84 Japanese enterprises joined a global job fair in Seoul hosted by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) , compared with 21 in 2013. For this year’s event in May, over 100 have applied.

Japanese companies are highly satisfied with their recruitment of Koreans so they come back. The word gets around, bringing in more companies every year,¡± said Kang Min-jung, a KOTRA Tokyo official.

As result, the number of Koreans who found jobs in Japan with support from the Korean government nearly tripled from 339 persons in 2014 to 1,103 in 2016. Most of them are working at companies in the areas of information and telecommunication, trade and tourism services. A total of 48,121 Koreans are working in Japan including those on working holiday visas as of January.

Among them, 43.5 percent or 20,937 are occupied with technology and engineering jobs, according to Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. That is higher than that of China (24.4 percent) and Vietnam (7.2 percent), suggesting Koreans are preferred in the field demanding high intelligence and skill.

For instance, 27 Korean workers are employed at Japan’s financial giant Orix Group. And three more Koreans are due to join the company this month.

Japanese companies have been in rigorous competition to draw elite college graduates over the past three years, said Mayumi Waki, HR team head of Orix. Korean college graduates are superior in foreign language skills and work in passionate manner, she added. Orix is considering increasing recruitment of Koreans next year.

By Hwang Hyung-gyu and Na Hyun-joon

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]