“The key to success in Japan – being able to communicate in Japanese!” a post on Uzbekistan’s Migration Agency Telegram channel proclaimed, in Uzbek, on June 2.
The post announced a cooperation agreement between Uzbekistan’s Migration Agency and a Japanese educational institution, the Japan-China-Asia Medical Educational Cultural Exchange General Incorporated Association (JCAEMCE), with the lofty aim of attracting 10,000 Uzbek specialists to Japan.
The JCAEMCE agreement provides for the offering of Japanese language courses in Tashkent, Samarkand, and Namangan. The “Yapon Mahorat Nuri” courses will prepare Uzbeks for qualification exams and teach “the necessary skills for job placement.”
The announcement also said that job opportunities in Japan will be listed on an online platform – “WiseBridge” – starting in June 2025, which will enable job-seekers to directly contact potential employers.
“Uzbekistan, with its rapidly growing youth population and strong potential in the labor market, is becoming one of Japan’s trusted partners in labor migration,” the head of JCAEMCE, Hatoyama Yukio, reportedly said at the signing. Hatoyama served as Japan’s prime minister in 2009-2010.
The announcement came alongside a productive trip to East Asia by an Uzbek delegation, which traveled to South Korea and Japan, meeting with government officials and businesses to explore further opportunities for Uzbek workers to head east.
Under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Uzbekistan has updated its perspective in regard to Uzbek citizens who migrate abroad in search of work. As Niginakhon Saida recounted in an April 2024 article about changing patterns of migration from Uzbekistan:
Labor migration patterns have been impacted by both internal and external developments. Inside the country, the formal attitude toward labor migrants changed with the ruling regime in 2016.
In an infamous rant in 2013, then-President Islam Karimov was recorded calling labor migrants “lazy.”
“Who do I call ‘lazy’ — those who go to Moscow and sweep streets and squares,” he yapped. “One gets disgusted that people from the Uzbek nation go there just to earn bread. No one is starving in Uzbekistan… [They] go there to quickly earn a lot of money, but bring shame upon us all.”
Unlike his predecessor, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev does not characterize labor migration as shameful, instead recognizing the value it brings.
Uzbekistan has in recent years looked to East Asia as a potential area of expanded migration, given increased challenges (and risks) associated with migrating to Russia. Tashkent’s efforts at first focused on South Korea, which has a long and interesting historical connection to Central Asia, but have expanded to include Japan, as the recent trip illustrated.
As I recounted in a 2024 article about growing opportunities for Uzbek workers in South Korea, there are distinct synergies between what South Korea (and Japan) lack and what Uzbekistan has in abundance: youth.
South Korea has one of the world’s lowest total fertility rates at 0.9 births per woman and a quickly aging population. According to the United Nations Population Fund, in 2024 19 percent of the South Korea population is over the age of 65. Only 8 percent of Uzbekistan’s population is. Uzbekistan also has a strong fertility rate of 2.7 per woman, and a large younger population. The 10-24 age category makes up 24 percent of the Uzbek population; in South Korea only 14 percent of the population is in the 10-24 age category.
“There is more to labor migration than merely matching one side’s deficits to another’s surpluses,” I wrote. “Uzbek citizens have to compete against other pools of migrant workers, some with more established networks in the country… Language, in particular, poses a barrier for Uzbeks aiming for skilled or semi-skilled work in South Korea.”
The recent delegation visit to South Korea and Japan underscored continued efforts to tackle these difficulties and forge a pathway for Uzbek workers to head to East Asia, including identifying interested business and arranging training and language education.
In Japan, the Uzbek Embassy in Japan, in partnership with the Migration Agency, organized an employers’ forum in Kanagawa Prefecture. According to the agency, 80 representatives of large Japanese companies participated and agreements were signed on targeted training initiatives and the placement of specialists in production, transport and logistics, services, and agriculture.
The delegation also met with Japanese Minister of Justice Suzuki Keisuke to discuss migration, simplified visa processing, and reductions in timelines to acquired entry permits. The two sides also agreed to work on preventing illegal migration and, according to the Migration Agency’s Telegram post about the meeting, “It was specifically noted that our citizens working in Japan must not be in an illegal status, have sufficient language skills, and comply with the law.”
“The technical internship program implemented in Japan and the simplified visa system for specialists with special qualifications create new opportunities for Uzbeks to conduct legal and safe labor activities in our country, gain experience in a highly cultural work environment, and demonstrate their potential,” Suzuki said.
Earlier, in South Korea, the delegation’s head, Deputy Head of the Migration Agency Matlab Kuranov met with Kim Du-gyom, the mayor of Ulsan. Ulsan, located along South Korea’s southeastern edge, is the country’s eighth-largest city, but it is a noted industrial hub. Ulsan is home to what’s been said to be the world’s largest automobile assembly plant – the Hyundai Motor Company Ulsan Factory – and the world’s largest shipyard – the HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) shipyard.
According to the Uzbek Migration Agency, Kim confirmed that 105 Uzbek citizens who have been studying at the Ulsan Vocational Training Center in Fergana since March will be employed by Hyundai after their graduation in July. While in Ulsan, the Uzbek delegation also met with representatives of Hyundai.
“Now, the Ulsan city government can directly issue E-7 visas to Uzbeks,” Kim said. “Within the framework of the authority granted to us by the Korean government, we welcome your citizens as qualified specialists in the most industrialized province of our country. Our only requirement is that they comply with our legislation, and then they can come with their families and work with E-7 visas.”
Importantly, in both Japan and South Korea, there appears to be a heavy emphasis on specialists – that is, workers with specific (usually industrial) skills and experience. This, in addition to the language issue, presents a hurdle for many Uzbek citizens, particularly those who previously migrated to Russia for agricultural or construction work. East Asia, in this sense, does not represent a viable alternative for many migrant workers. That said, these efforts do underscore Tashkent’s interest in broadening the roster of options for Uzbeks who look abroad for employment.