2025-05-28

The “Specified Skills” program is a system for accepting foreigners with a certain level of expertise in industrial fields where there is a shortage of human resources. How do companies accepting foreign nationals introduce and secure human resources?

What is “Specified Technical Skills”?

Specified Skills is a system that allows foreign nationals with a certain level of expertise and skills to be accepted in industrial fields where it is difficult to secure human resources. The “Revised Immigration Control Act” (enacted in 2018) established the “specified skills” status of residence, and foreign workers have been able to be accepted since April of the following year.

There are two types of “Specified Technical Skills” residence statuses: “Specified Technical Skill No. 1” and “Specified Technical Skill No. 2.
Specified Technical Skill No. 1 is a status of residence for foreign nationals who have acquired skills that require a considerable degree of knowledge and experience in a specific industrial field. Specified Technical Skill II is a status of residence for foreign nationals who have acquired skilled skills in a specified industrial field.

The specific specified industrial fields are as follows: (1)～ (16).

(1) Nursing care, (2) Building cleaning, (3) Industrial product manufacturing, (4) Construction, (5) Shipbuilding/marine industry, (6) Automobile maintenance, (7) Aviation, (8) Accommodation, (9) Automobile transportation, (10) Railway, (11) Agriculture, (12) Fishing, (13) Food and drink manufacturing, (14) Food service, (15) Forestry, (16) Lumber industry

Specified Technical Skills No. 2 can be accepted in 11 fields other than (1), (9), (10), (15), and (16). However, (3) industrial product manufacturing industry is applicable to some business categories.

Acceptable Human Resource Criteria

The human resource standards for foreign nationals that can be accepted differ depending on the industry.

For example, the human resource criteria for nursing care workers are: passing the “Nursing Care Skills Evaluation Test” in the skills test, passing the “Japan Foundation Japanese Language Proficiency Test” or “Japanese Language Proficiency Test” in the Japanese language test, and passing the “Nursing Care Japanese Language Evaluation Test” in the Japanese language test.

The criteria for food service personnel is passing the “Food Service Specific Skills No. 1 Proficiency Test” in the skills test, and passing the “Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Proficiency Test” or “Japanese Language Proficiency Test” in the Japanese-language test.

Furthermore, the human resource criteria for construction is passing the “Construction Field Specific Skills No. 1 Evaluation Test” in the skills test, and passing the “Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Proficiency Test” or “Japanese Language Proficiency Test” in the Japanese-language test.

As described above, “human resource standards” differ for each field. For details, please refer to the document “Key Points for Accepting Foreign Nationals with Specified Skills” issued by the Immigration and Residence Management Agency.

Recruitment

For industrial sectors in need of manpower, what is of most interest is how to secure foreign nationals with specified skills, or in other words, where to get them introduced to human resources.

Currently, there are a number of companies that introduce people with specific skills, which can be found on the Internet. However, each company has its own specialties, specializes in a particular region of Japan, or has deep ties to a particular country.

It is necessary to select a recruiting firm by thoroughly checking the websites provided by each firm and, if necessary, making direct inquiries.

Summary

For companies accepting foreign nationals with specific skills, the most important issue is how to secure good human resources. Many companies are currently offering recruitment services, but it is necessary to select the right company after thoroughly examining the information provided by each company.