At a job trade fair in Hanoi held in May, a member of the organizing board said European and American technology firms are willing to pay 10 million yen, or $70,500 a year, to qualified workers, while Japanese firms only offer 4-5.8 million yen for new graduates.

Meanwhile, the average salary in Vietnam has been increasing, even though the working environment of the electronics and other industries is declining due to decreased demand for smartphones and computers.

Vietnam represents 70 percent of the workload outsourced by Japanese firms. The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) reported that salaries offered by Japanese companies in Vietnam increased by 5.8 percent in 2022, and are expected to rise by another 5.9 percent in 2023. 

Language skills also pose a barrier to Japanese companies that want foreign workers.

An engineer working for a European technology firm in HCM City, who asked to remain anonymous, said that Japanese firms always offer lower pay than companies in other countries, and require workers to study Japanese. He decided, therefore, not to work for Japanese firms.

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung said in early September that many digital technology engineers are needed in order to speed up national digital transformation, industrialization and modernization, and that digital universities and digital training are the answer to workforce preparation.

It is estimated that Vietnam needs 150,000 digital technology engineers each year, but only 40-50 percent of the demand can be met. The country needs 5,000-10,000 engineers a year for the semiconductor industry, but can only meet 20 percent of demand.

Japan, in an effort to solve the problem, has been working with companies to launch programs to train programmers and software engineers, targeting the workers who are ‘no longer young’.

The country is moving ahead with the plan on recruiting middle-aged workers to ease the labor shortage in the technology field. The trial internship programs for those who want to change their jobs, are expected to be launched by early 2024.

The initiative targets those who are working in non-technology fields. Interns will be arranged to work at technology firms for six months at maximum with a mentor. It is estimated that Japan may lack 800,000 IT workers by 2030.

Trong Dat