The number of 345.000 is only Japan's planning number but they have not managed their labor market requirements, so both should have been deferred.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia is awaiting the details of quota as well as job requirements needed by the Japanese government through their Specified Skilled Worker (SSW) program, an official of the Ministry of Manpower stated here Friday. In late 2018, Japan launched this SSW program in eight Asian countries, including Indonesia, Vietnam and China, with more than 345.000 slots for labor in 14 sectors such as care worker, construction industry, aviation industry and production of food and beverage.

"The number of 345.000 is only Japan's planning number but they have not managed their labor market requirements, so both should have been deferred. From the 14 sectors, the Indonesian government has asked the Japanese government to break down the job requirements," Director of the Labor Market Development of the ministry, Roostiawati said.

For instance, Japan has claimed that it needs some 40.000 laborers for the construction industry, but there are no further details of the vacancies. Indonesia's job seekers should have clearly known first about the jobs they could apply for.

Furthermore, the Japanese government has been responding in this matter by contacting associations that need a workforce, but associations were not ready with the details, she said.

"We also provide ayokitakerja.kemnaker.go.id site so that Japanese users may directly access it and share what they need, while Indonesian job seekers could access and apply. But to this day, the user count remains low," she noted.

According to the ministry, only 222 Indonesian workers have managed to find jobs in Japan in several sectors that meet the users through the system.

Aside from this, Kazushige Ashida, Labour Attaché of the Embassy of Japan in Indonesia, said that especially in the care worker sector, Indonesian job seekers who previously engaged in a program under the scheme of Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), may occupy the job slots without any tests on technical skills or knowledge of the Japanese language.

This EPA program began in 2008 with two initial professions provided that of nurse and caregiver. By attending this program, nursing candidates would travel to Japan for skills training and the Japanese language program, as well as to take the certification test.

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Reporter: Suwanti
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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