With the decrease in Japan's working population and the increase in international students, we have been accepting more foreign staff, especially part-time student workers, over the past several years. Government guidelines state that these staff should be treated not just as labor but as residents who co-exist with Japanese people. We, therefore, established a registered support organization within our group in conjunction with a specified skills system. The organization provides comprehensive support from recruitment through to entry, career development training, and lifestyle.

Currently, we are mainly hiring international students for our specified skills quota, and many of the applicants have worked part-time at Sukiya. We are happy to see that many part-time international students who were planning to change their visa status to a Technical/Humanities/International Work visa or go on to higher education have chosen to join Sukiya as specified skill workers.

As store staff, foreign employees serve customers, cook, and manage cleanliness. Their duties are no different from those of Japanese employees. The support organization helps match workers with stores, ensuring individual wishes are respected.

We would like specified skill workers to become store managers between their third and fourth years after they have mastered store operations and improved their Japanese communication skills. After the specified skill period ends, we will consider making these staff area managers or assigning them to the head office, depending on their motivation and ability. Work instructions change every day at stores, but the support organization has received lots of positive feedback from employees who want more training. I feel that our specified skill workers have a strong desire to improve themselves.