Our company operates many restaurants nationwide, including Gusto, and among these, specified skilled foreign workers are working at restaurants in the Tokyo metropolitan area and the three surrounding prefectures. The specified skilled workers mainly handle customer service in the serving areas and work in the kitchen areas. They also engage in restaurant management work, including serving as trainers, inventory management, and personnel management.
The hardworking specified skilled foreign workers are highly evaluated by restaurant managers and employees on site. Currently, our headquarters is receiving many requests from restaurants asking us to deploy specified skilled foreign workers. Therefore, in addition to hiring through referrals from domestic and international institutions, we also focus on direct hiring and actively support foreign temporary workers in changing their status to specified skilled workers.

We place particular emphasis on sharing long-term career paths. As a company, we actively support employees in obtaining the Specified Skilled Worker (ii) qualification. After obtaining the qualification, we provide a career path where employees can aim to become assistant managers and managers through our full-time employee hiring examination. In addition to creating such systems, we also hold regular consultations with HR every three months to discuss each employee’s envisioned career path and its progress, as well as check their Japanese language ability and whether they have gained experiences as a manager. Also, managers hold personal consultations once a week to listen to their concerns about work and life. We strive to create an atmosphere where employees feel comfortable discussing any concerns, and provide careful guidance while checking their work progress using training notes, etc.
On the other hand, no matter how much HR envisions support systems and career paths for specified skilled foreign workers, they will be meaningless if they do not reach the worksite. We share career-related information not only with our HR team and the foreign talent themselves, but also with on-site managers, building a system that supports long-term growth together with the workplace.
In addition, we regularly hold joint training sessions for dozens of specified skilled foreign workers from each restaurant to provide education on job skills and career paths. This gives participants the chance to inspire each other and build horizontal connections, which has been well received by the participants themselves.

A key pillar of our support for specified skilled foreign workers is the presence of Mr. Nguyen, a manager with the Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services status of residence. There was also a case where a specified skilled foreign worker who was thinking of quitting his/her job changed his/her mind and became more positive about his/her work after being transferred to the restaurant where Mr. Nguyen worked. There are many specified skilled foreign workers who admire and are inspired by Mr. Nguyen, and there is an increasing number of international students working temporarily who wish to change their status to Specified Skilled Worker.

As a manager at Gusto, I manage and operate the entire restaurant, while also working hard to support the career paths and provide training for specified skilled foreign workers who work at restaurants in the Shinjuku area.
At the current store, 20 of the staff, roughly half, are foreign workers. One of them, a specified skilled foreign worker, Mr. Ha, was originally working at another restaurant when he told us he planned to quit, and was transferred to the current restaurant. He initially thought that his specified skilled foreign worker status would end in five years, so we had a thorough talk about his future, including where he wanted to be in five and ten years, and what he thought about marriage and children. By discussing his career path together and clarifying his goals and future plans, he has been able to focus steadily on his work. He is now working very hard to achieve his goal of obtaining the Specified Skilled Worker (ii) qualification. He is positive about his growth, so his career path is progressing quickly, and in his personal life, he has decided to get married. When he had to temporarily return to his home country for a few weeks for a wedding, he worried about his shifts, asking, “Will the shifts be okay if I take time off?” Upon hearing this, his coworkers at the restaurant said, “I’ll work more shifts than usual for Mr. Ha.” There was no need to worry.

Accepting specified skilled foreign workers has brought about wonderful changes within the company. Solving the lunch-time staffing shortage was a major achievement, and it also stabilized the shifts. What impressed me was that they acted on their dreams and goals and continued to study. Furthermore, this has a positive impact on the entire workplace, as it inspires and motivates the international students.
When I served as an instructor at a training session for specified skilled foreign workers, I was deeply impressed by their eagerness to learn. Many foreign workers struggle to adapt to Japanese work styles and business customs, but at one training session, all 50 participants, who are motivated foreign talent, were seated on time and engaged seriously in the training. Moreover, the training sessions got really lively as they taught each other, and I truly felt their high level of commitment to learning from each other.

When I was a student, I was also a temporary worker at Gusto in Tokyo. There, I was impressed by the work environment where everyone worked hard, and thought, “This is the Japanese way of working,” which is what led me to join the company. I still remember those feelings, and even now I tell all of the specified skilled foreign workers, “It might feel tough at times, but let’s work hard together here for the future.”
The specified skilled foreign workers act with dreams and goals in mind. While initial training may be challenging, by making career paths visible and encouraging their growth through regular consultations and setting goals, they will become major assets who will work steadily for the long term. We, as managers and employees, believe it is important to establish a solid training plan and set goals so that we can confidently say, “Let’s meet again at the managers’ meeting in five years.”