Japanese Recruiters Flock to Korea

The Busan Exhibition and Convention Center was packed on Monday with 112 Japanese companies recruiting workers. Around 1,000 young Koreans in sharp business attire flocked to the job fair organized by the Korean government in a bid to provide more employment opportunities for young Koreans.

The fair comes to Seoul on Wednesday.

Japanese businesses aim to hire around 700 workers here. They have already received applications from 6,200 people and whittled them down to 2,500 shortlisted candidates.

Jobseekers read a bulletin board at a job fair at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center in the southern port city on Monday.

It was a stark reminder of the vastly different economic climates in the neighboring countries. Even big businesses in Korea are cutting down on new hires, but Japanese conglomerates like SoftBank, Nissan and All Nippon Airways came all the way here to look for staff. Nippon Electric Glass, which produces 20 percent of the world's LCD glass, and Japan's third-largest theme park, Huis Ten Bosch, were also there.

Chung Hyuk at the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency said, "Until last year, we invited businesses from around the world to attend the fair. But this year, we decided to hold the fair with Japanese companies only due to the large number of high-quality jobs they offer."

Since emerging from a drawn-out recession, Japan has revived its economy and is even looking for workers overseas.

Korea-Japan relations remain chilly at the government level, the latest spat being over a Supreme Court ruling ordering Japanese businesses to compensate Korean forced labor victims, but that did not deter the companies.

One 24-year-old university student from Daejeon was interviewed by a Japanese tech company. "I came here to apply for jobs, because there seems to be room for new hires at Japanese companies while it has become difficult to find work in Korea," he said. "I enjoyed the atmosphere when I worked as an intern for a Japanese trading company."

The most popular Japanese businesses among jobseekers are tech companies, who made up about one-third of recruiters at the fair.