Without foreign staff, restaurants could not stay open, says exec

Asahi Shimbun

2 days ago

Yasuhiro Inoue, center, a vice chairman of the Osaka Restaurant Management Association (ORA), with foreign staff at the ORA Gaishoku Pavilion Utage at the Osaka Kansai Expo (Koichiro Ishida)
The status of foreigners in Japanese society has emerged as a central issue in the Upper House election to be held on July 20.
Yasuhiro Inoue, 60, a vice chairman of the Osaka Restaurant Management Association (ORA), has worked with non-Japanese both in the association as well as in his own company. The ORA has 560 member companies.
The Asahi Shimbun interviewed Inoue for his views on foreigners in Japan.
Excerpts of the interview follow:
Question: You have led study sessions for close to 10 years at the ORA regarding the hiring practices of foreign workers. You also manage several restaurants. What presence do foreign nationals have in the restaurant industry as a whole?
Inoue: I have been involved in the restaurant business for the past 40 years or so and now manage about a dozen restaurants, including Chinese and Japanese ones, on a franchise basis. Based on that experience, I can state that the industry is labor intensive. It can hardly be described as a popular industry since wages are lower in comparison to other sectors. It is not easy to secure adequate personnel due to the need to stay open during periods when most people have the day off.
In the last few years, the restaurant industry has faced a difficult situation of not being able to remain open without foreign staff.
In my company, we have many foreigners working part-time. Almost all our regular company employees are foreign nationals. There is no difference in the pay scale between Japanese and foreign employees.
Q: What has been your experience with hiring foreigners?
A: They provide us with ideas that Japanese would never come up with. For example, they have provided ideas regarding the use of the skin from peeled fruit based on cooking methods from their home nations. Those ideas have led to a reduction in food loss and lower company expenses.
Because of differences in cultural backgrounds, there are also times when I come up with new business ideas after talking with them.
Q: Can you talk about leading ORA activities since 2016 with regard to foreign workers and hiring practices?
A: The catalyst was a Vietnamese woman who was the first foreigner we hired as a regular company employee. We found out she had accumulated loans of about 1 million yen ($6,700) as a fee she paid to the local broker who made the arrangements for her to come to Japan.
I realized there was a lack of transparency in the system under which foreigners can work in Japan. For the next two and a half years, I backpacked around Asia about once a month to investigate local organizations that were dispatching foreign workers as well as observe local customs.
During my research, the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) helped out and so did part-time foreign workers at my restaurants. But I came to realize there were limits to what I could do by myself, so I asked the ORA for its help.
The cooperation of foreigners will be indispensable to further growth of our restaurant sector. To accomplish that, Japan needs to develop appropriate hiring practices. We have held study sessions by asking college professors, lawyers and judicial scriveners to give talks.
We have also lobbied the government to establish a better system.
Q: Ahead of the Upper House election, posts have emerged on social media with baseless arguments such as foreigners are taking advantage of the social welfare system set up for Japanese. What are your thoughts on that?
A: Our foreign employees naturally pay the same taxes and social insurance premiums as our Japanese employees. If there is a loophole in some specific system, it should be corrected when it is discovered. But there are likely foreigners as well as Japanese who will abuse such loopholes.
It is wrong to criticize only foreigners.
Q: What do you think about politicians who call for changes in policy regarding foreigners on grounds they are being given special privileges?
A: While I believe it is a good thing to finally have a spotlight on policies concerning foreigners that many people had no interest in for a long time, I find the discussion to be less than refined. I want candidates to conduct discussions based on the actual circumstances that the restaurant industry faces rather than make criticisms about foreigners receiving special privileges while not giving specific examples.
Q: How do your foreign employees feel about the current social atmosphere?
A: Recently after a high-ranking foreign employee who is fluent in Japanese read social media posts, I was asked, 'Are foreigners hated in Japan?' They appear to have become more worried about the change in the social atmosphere.
Q: Can you tell us about the use of foreigners as staff at the ORA pavilion at the Osaka Kansai Expo?
A: Twenty-four foreigners are working at the ORA Gaishoku Pavilion Utage. While 18 of them are not very fluent in Japanese, we are trying to demonstrate that they can carry out their duties with the help of a small number of Japanese staff as well as foreigners who are fluent in Japanese.
We have already welcomed close to 1 million visitors to our pavilion, and there have been no major problems. The staff appear to enjoy working there and I want visitors to feel the benefits and strengths of diversity.