Recruiting skilled workers: Japan's restaurant group to open training centre in Dhaka
Watami aims to send 500 trained workers to Japan by Mar 2026
Japan-based restaurant group Watami is set to open a training centre in Dhaka this October to prepare Bangladeshi workers for employment in Japan under the country's expanding "Specified Skilled Worker" visa programme.
The Japan Training Centre will be established at facilities of a Bangladeshi government agency and will offer training in farming, food services, customer care, and factory work, reports Nikkei Asia.
The centre targets sending around 3,000 workers to Japan annually, with at least 100 expected to join Watami's own restaurant operations.
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Each training cycle will last around two months, covering practical skills and Japanese language instruction, supported by staff from a nearby language school run by a Watami group company. The company plans to send its first batch of 500 trained workers to Japan by March 2026.
"Securing human resources is an obstacle to growth in the restaurant business," said Miki Watanabe, chairman and president of Watami. "Being able to develop human resources in-house will be a strength."
The move follows Japan's 2023 expansion of the "Specified Skilled Worker (ii)" visa to include 11 industries, including food service. The revised framework allows foreign workers to take on higher-level roles such as store management and operations.
Watami launched its human resources arm, Watami Agent, in 2020 to support foreign labour recruitment. As of March 2025, the company had placed around 900 foreign workers – 400 of them through skilled and technical internship pathways – with 107 different companies.
