More than 80 Japanese employers want to hire more skilled Filipino workers, Department of Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople said in Osaka, Japan on Thursday.
“The general sentiment among Japanese employers is that Filipino workers brighten up their workplaces and are highly reliable and trainable,” she said, following a meeting with representatives of Japanese companies.
Ople is among the Cabinet members who joined President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s official working visit to Japan from 8 to 13 February.
As of last year, 403,000 Filipinos were working in Japan, including 188 permanent migrants and 84,000 contract workers, according to DMW data.
Ople also met with migrant Filipino beneficiaries of Japan’s Technical Internship Training Program or TITP and Special Skilled Worker Program, who told her of the infectious positive work vibes Filipinos are known for.
Both programs have been providing Filipinos training and employment in Japan in such fields as engineering, manufacturing, transportation, fisheries, agriculture, food service, medicine, and the accommodations industry.
Entry-level TITP workers are being paid 130,000 yen or P54,548 per month. Specialized workers, on the other hand, receive up to 900,000 yen or P377,640 a month.
Ople said the DMW will set up a “Japan desk” to facilitate the hiring of more Filipinos by Japanese employers. Likewise, the DMW will push for a six-month preparatory Japanese language training program.
On Wednesday, Marcos was feted with a welcome dinner by Mitsui & Company, one of the biggest general trading firms in Japan.
Mitsui’s chief executive officer Kenichi Hori hosted Marcos’s delegation shortly after they arrived in Tokyo at 5:35 p.m. yesterday.
Marcos cited various ways to revitalize the trade relationship between the Philippines and Japan after the Covid-19 pandemic sidetracked it for nearly two years.
The President cited the big role played by the different funding agencies of Japan in backstopping “government-to-government and commercial arrangements” that have benefitted both countries.
“The partnerships, I think, that we have developed with our friends here in Japan, with Mitsui, in particular, we will have to revitalize them as they have been dormant to a degree, during the lockdowns of the pandemic,” Marcos said.
Joining the President at the dinner were First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, and members of the Cabinet.
San Miguel Corp.’s Ramon Ang and Ayala Corp.’s Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala are among the members of the Philippine business delegation who joined the President’s trip.
Mitsui & Co. is engaged in product sales, logistics, financing, infrastructure projects, iron and steel products, information technology, and communications, among other businesses. It currently operates in 128 offices in 63 countries, including the Philippines.
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