Language similarities and commercial mindsets are among the reasons almost half of foreign workers are from the mainland Chinese professionals who can speak Japanese and English in addition to their mother tongue have become increasingly sought after in Japan in recent years, according to headhunters. Statistics released by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare indicated that there were 338,813 foreign workers, excluding Korean or Chinese nationals born in Japan, working in the country as of June. Of this number, Chinese nationals - those hailing from the mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and others of Chinese descent born elsewhere - made up the largest portion, with 44.2 per cent of the total, or 149,876 people. The skill sets of Chinese white collar executives were in fairly high demand, particularly in technical areas, according to David Leithead, managing director for recruitment firm Michael Page International in Japan - which recruits candidates for multinational corporations in Japan. This is despite low business confidence among domestic and foreign companies in Japan amid political and economic uncertainties. Part of the reason Chinese executives have become so popular is due to the relentless pace of growth in the Chinese economy. Mr Leithead said that Japanese companies with a presence in China, such as suppliers or customers, naturally valued the services of bilingual executives who could bridge the two cultures. But the lion's share of the demand for Chinese executives was from multinational companies doing business in Japan, according to Mr Leithead. He said that such companies typically sought executives who could deal with the Japanese market because they could speak the language, in addition to being able to report back to the company's regional or global headquarters fluently in English. Mr Leithead said Chinese candidates, who usually also spoke English, were typically highly sought after for a number of reasons. Firstly, the relative scarcity of native Japanese executives who spoke fluent English meant that any professional with a strong grasp of English and Japanese would be highly valued in most businesses. But what sets Chinese professionals apart from other non-Japanese executives is that they tend to be able to at least read Japanese, because of the similarity of the two languages compared to English. In addition, when comparing a Chinese professional who can speak both English and Japanese to a native Japanese person, many multinational companies favour Chinese executives because they find them able to communicate in a more direct fashion - something they would be more familiar with than the typical Japanese. 'Foreign companies, in hiring a person who speaks fluent Japanese, are not only getting someone who speaks fluent Japanese and English but also [someone] who is probably a more direct communicator and has a slightly more commercial mindset,' Mr Leithead said, adding that many companies found Chinese candidates to be more business minded. 'That can be a character set that is very useful and sought after by multinationals.' While many Chinese candidates who worked in Japan were trilingual - they speak Japanese, English and Chinese - instances where their native tongue came into play in the work setting were rarer than many expect, Mr Leithead said. He said his company had placed Chinese nationals in a wide variety of roles in Japan, including designers, engineers, programme managers and project managers in the automotive industry. In the IT sector, he said demand was strong for developers, project managers and application support staff. In the semiconductor industry, there had been placements in specialist and product marketing roles. Demand was particularly strong for such technical industries because many university students in Japan considered it unfashionable to study engineering and science subjects, opting instead for degrees in business, Mr Leithead said. Demand also tended to be across the board in terms of seniority, with annual salaries ranging from US$50,000 to US$250,000, he added. 'The majority of foreigners or Gaijin, as the Japanese like to term people who are not Japanese, are Chinese,' said Bernie Schiemer, managing director of Hays, another recruitment firm in Japan. 'Between the Japanese and the Chinese there is a lot of history, and a lot of it hasn't been as positive as we would like,' he said. 'There is a little animosity towards the Japanese in China at times. But a lot of Chinese that travel here [to Japan] have normally come here to study in university, and then they decide to start their careers here.' Mr Schiemer said that historically it was Chinese blue-collar workers that had made the trip to work in Japan due to wage disparities up to as recently as 20 years ago. Many would be paid more for their services in Japan than they would at home, and would repatriate their earnings. However, as the Chinese economy had grown considerably in the past decade the trend had moved towards an increasing number of management positions being taken up by Chinese executives. Mr Schiemer said that while many Chinese executives who worked in Japan had probably studied there before and were unlikely to experience culture shock, the main mistake that first-time visitors tended to make was to be too aggressive when dealing with staff they managed.He said that Japanese colleagues were unlikely to be offended if foreigners, including Chinese, did not understand the subtleties of Japanese culture - as they did not expect foreigners to know. Problems arose when dealing with suppliers and customers who worked in traditional domestic companies, who might be offended if a foreigner did not seem to have taken the time to learn Japanese business customs. Mr Schiemer added that one of the mistakes that managers who worked in Japan tended to make was to try to close deals in the first meeting. 'The Japanese will have 10 meetings and you walk out of each wondering if you have got the deal or not,' he said. 'The Japanese are very good at playing their cards close to their chest; they don't give much away in terms of visuals. The thing that they should learn is to be patient and don't be too aggressive to begin with.' Comparing the work environment of a traditional Japanese company with a multinational corporate based in Japan, Mr Schiemer said that Japanese companies tended to offer better job security at the expense of lower salaries, and with an emphasis on career growth opportunities. Promotion tended to be based on age, he said, adding that it was: 'Like you would get if you went back to America 30 or 40 years ago.' While Japan was well known for having a culture of lifetime employment, David Jones, Asia-Pacific managing director for Robert Half International, noted that the job-for-life mentality had been eroded over the past 10 years. 'If you are twenty- or thirtysomething your outlook is going to be very different from a fiftysomething just because you have grown up knowing that people move jobs,' he said, adding that as a nation, Japanese workers tended to be more risk averse then most western countries. He noted that Japan was facing the same talent shortages as the rest of the world, and many companies were realising that they had to compete with other countries for skill sets that were in demand. There was also a tendency for companies which were in the technology and the banking and finance sectors to retain less of a lifetime employment mentality, when compared to more protected sectors such as construction. Mr Jones said there tended to be a shortage of companies which added value to the job recruitment process. Recruitment firms matched clients with job candidates but shied away from adding value by thoroughly interviewing, referencing and evaluating candidates. Emphasis was also usually placed on servicing the client, at the expense of the candidate. Considering whether to change jobs or not was a bigger decision than in most other countries. People who did make the move were more likely to have given the decision considerable thought. The coaching process for people switching jobs tended to be done face-to-face rather than on the telephone, as would be the norm in the United States, he said. Since Japanese executives tended to work long hours, much of this was usually also in the evenings, Mr Price added. When people finally made up their minds to change jobs they were comparatively unlikely to go back on their decision, according to David Price, managing director for Robert Half Japan. 'Getting someone to resign in Japan is a big deal. If they go home and tell their family they are changing jobs, the first reaction they are likely to get is: 'Are you sure?'. But once someone gives you their word that they are going to change and leave their company and join another one, they stick to that. They wouldn't even take calls from other companies which might have an offer for them. Culturally that's [something] quite different between Hong Kong and Tokyo. 'Within Hong Kong there is more of an emphasis on money as a primary driver for a job, and money is very important in Japan but perhaps it's not as high up the food chain,' he said, adding that people tended to view loyalty and the organisational culture as being more important. Employers, on the other hand, rarely make counter-offers because they understand that if a person has decided to quit they are unlikely to change their minds. What they are more likely to do is to appeal to the employee's sense of guilt in leaving the organisation by emphasising the metaphor of the organisation as a family.