Rikkyo University to ask Japan government to take Bangladeshi workers before Olympics

Some researchers from the Rikkyo University who are carrying out a project in Bangladesh will recommend the Japanese government to take workers from here ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 4 Sept 2018, 05:41 PM
Updated : 4 Sept 2018, 05:56 PM

As part of the requirements for the postgraduate course of the College of Sociology, one of the oldest universities of Japan has been carrying out the project with support from the Asian People’s Friendship Society (APFS) since 2014.

A delegation on Tuesday met reporters in Dhaka to update the media on their project titled ‘Global Migration and Transnational Networks’.

Masud Karim, who is the Bangladesh coordinator of the project, said Japan needs people for its labour market with their growing aged population and youths reluctant to work. Before the 2020 Olympics, they need a huge workforce.

“The researchers based on their research among the Bangladeshis who worked in Japan even three decades ago think that they should recommend Bangladeshis because of their honesty and ability to work hard,” said Karim, who is also one of the founder of APFS.

Yoshinari Katsuo, adviser to the APFS, said through this research, “We can develop meaningful understanding that will then be mutually beneficial for the two countries as many Bangladeshis who have experienced the Japanese way of life, whether in Japan’s workplaces or local communities, have knowledge of Japanese conventions, customs, and lifestyles, and had communication with local Japanese properly.”

With this research, he said: “We would like to contribute not only to academic fields, but also more broadly to make our contribution to further develop the existing valuable relations between Bangladesh and Japan.”

For them, this is the third visit to Bangladesh since the beginning of the project.

They first visited in Sep 2014 when they conducted interviews with migrants who had returned from Japan. In 2015, they conducted both interviews and questionnaire surveys. At that time, they visited Bikrampur from where many people had gone to Japan.

In 2016, they postponed their visit due to the terrorist attack in the Holey Artisan cafe in which seven Japanese were also killed. In that year, they conducted interview through Skype.

Prof Yoshiaki Edwin Noro of the Rikkyo University said apart from conducting research on migrant workers, they would also look into the areas of bilateral relations between organisations such as local government or business relations between Dhaka and Tokyo.

“The aim is to understand the characteristics and current situation of Japan- Bangladesh grassroots relationships,” he said.

“We have sought answers to some questions. For example, how does a Bangladeshi resident of Japan maintain the social ties that have been made in Japan upon return to Bangladesh?

“Our data confirmed that migration from Bangladesh to Japan has significantly developed the character of personal relationships between Bangladeshis and Japanese, and some returnees have still kept their personal ties.”

Prof Noro said the style of relationships that have developed between Bangladeshis and Japanese would be “very important” for social policy in future.

“And thus, our project seeks data about the actual grassroots relationships to develop a broader understanding of Bangladesh-Japan relationship,” he said.