When Japanese entrepreneur Moe Kasugai was a student at Seoul’s Yonsei University, she was struck by how some of the prestigious South Korean college’s brightest graduates struggled to land a job.
So in 2019, she launched a service to connect Korean job seekers with Japanese employers.
“I was surprised that they couldn’t find a job because they were so smart,” the 35-year-old said in Seoul at a two-day job fair organised by Korec, her startup, last month.
“Many could speak Japanese, so I thought it might be better for them to go to Japan. I wanted to help.”
South Korean youth face a chronic shortage of desirable entry-level jobs, as big name employers such as Samsung prefer to hire experienced workers and many older people remain in their jobs.
In ageing Japan, meanwhile, companies are struggling to fill positions in large graduate schemes offering structured training to those taking the first step in their careers.
In a sign of the growing demand – and despite average salaries now being slightly higher in South Korea than in Japan – South Korean and Japanese tech talent placement firms this year launched similar services to Korec.
The South Korean capital has also hosted at least three Japan-focused job fairs this year, with hiring companies such as Canon Imaging Systems and industrial automation group Azbil.
According to the latest monthly data for June, South Korea’s youth unemployment rate was 7.0% while Japan’s overall rate was 2.5%.
While the vast majority of foreigners with work visas in Japan hold blue-collar jobs, the 80,000-plus Koreans working in the country commonly fill professional roles in sectors such as retail, IT and game development.
The Human Resources Development Service of Korea recorded 2,257 young Koreans taking jobs in Japan last year through government-backed programmes, marking a 47% jump from 2024 and making Japan their top destination for working overseas. — Reuters
