Visakhapatnam: Japan, which is facing the dual challenges of a shrinking workforce and an aging society, is now looking towards India to alleviate the looming crisis. For the first time, three Japanese IT majors conducted a placement drive in Visakhapatnam to recruit candidates to work in Japan.About 300 hand-picked students from top-rated engineering colleges and varsities of coastal Andhra Pradesh participated in the placement drive conducted at Gitam Deemed to be University on February 4 and 5. The recruiters, included AI Tokyo Lab & Co, Denso, En-Japan Inc. with positions available in artificial intelligence engineering, software development and UI/UX developers with salaries ranging from Rs 12-Rs 15 lakhs per annum. The Global Asset Community, a leading Japanese real estate consultation company, which was supposed to participate as an observer to understand the students with future plans for recruitment, also conducted interviews after finding the needed enthusiasm in the students.Speaking to TOI, Koji Murata, chief executive officer, New Era (an EnWorld group company and En-Japan is one of the recruiters of the drive), said the combination of super-aging Japan and fast-developing India can complement each other.“We were recruiting people from Vietnam for Japan and from 2017, we have been replicating the same idea in India. The majority of the Indian job aspirants want to go to USA. But that is gradually changing. Indian students may know something about Japan, but not about the technological advancements or companies in Japan. We want to tell them that there are a lot of interesting companies in Japan. All the businesses are suffering due to the super-ageing society of Japan and the average age of Japanese people is now 47,” said Murata.A similar vision was shared by Naho Shigeta, managing director, Infobridge. Shigeta told TOI they, too, want to promote Japanese companies apart from recruiting candidates for Japan. “We want to focus on presenting who are these Japanese companies, what benefits they provide to the young talents and what the students can do for Japan. We want to take at least 10,000 Indian students to Japan down the line. We want to expand Indian community in Japan over the next five years,” said Shigeta.Speaking to TOI, the students who attended the interviews on Tuesday, said that the companies briefed them about the work style, culture and traditions of Japan. “The HR interview and the questions sounded more like a personality test,” the students said.The Leap (Look for Employees in Andhra Pradesh), an initiative launched by Andhra Pradesh government, has joined hands with the Gitam directorate of training and placements in organising the first ever recruitment drive for recruiters abroad. The Leap collaborated with the New Era India and Infobridge to provide employment opportunities for AP students by leveraging the talent requirement in Japan .

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