Tight labor market for young workers: “Youth Yell” simplifies immigration
Labor market for young workers in Japan has become very tight especially for small medium enterprises (SMEs). Such companies have started looking more at world talents graduating from universities in Japan as another source of resources to address the hiring challenge. Japanese government, for its target of raising the current 30% up to 50% in ratio of foreign students getting jobs in Japan after graduation, has recently implemented the following changes in immigration.
- Adding a new status, Designated Activity No. 64, to facilitate employment of graduates from universities in Japan
- Simplifying application documents when a SME hires a world talent in Japan
As the former has been already discussed in my previous post, this post talks about the latter. Details of the simplification can be found in a MOJ’s note publicized in April 2019, which are summarized as follows:
- Qualification: SMEs certified by Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) as a “Youth Yell” company
- Simplification: Types of visa application documents are reduced as few as for a large listed company: e.g. only two types of documents are required to submit for the type of “Engineer, Specialist in Humanities and International Services”, reduced from seven types of documents to submit for a regular SME.
- Scope: The simplification is applied for a “type change application ” or an “initial application (COE)” of a Student visa holder to change it to a work permit type of visa.
To enjoy this simplification benefit, your company has to be certified in the “Youth Yell” program. There are other benefits of the certification as follows:
- Promoted in recruiting services run by MHLW
- Extra subsidy provided by MHLW for hiring and training young workers
- Lower interest rate for business loans provided by Japan Finance Corporation
- Extra points added at bidder evaluation for public procurement
Anshin Immigration and Social Security, licensed also as a labor and social security attorney, supports SMEs to apply for MHLW led programs including the Youth Yell and the subsidies. Please feel free to contact for details.
- Link: Ministry of Justice (MOJ) – Simplifying application documents when a SME hires a foreign graduate (Japanese)
- Link: Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) – Youth Yell program (Japanese)