Japan to show leadership in Asia, boost cooperation with Bangladesh, hopes CA Yunus

Expressing his expectations for deeper bilateral cooperation with Japan, Chief Adviser Muhammad has expressed optimism that Japan will assume leadership in Asia and take the initiative in building a system to support young entrepreneurs.

In an exclusive interview with NHK during his stay in Tokyo, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Yunus has expressed hope that Japan will show leadership in Asia and boost cooperation with his country, especially in supporting youth entrepreneurship.

He told NHK that he hopes to carry out as many reforms as possible before the national election.

Yunus said the government does not want to "go back to the same structure, same policies, same judiciary, etc., which were used as tool of oppression, tool of taking away people's rights."

He said everything that now exists will be examined and anything deemed unsafe will be changed.

Yunus said they hope to hold an election sometime between December and June next year, as announced earlier.

Japan is looking to recruit up to 100,000 workers from Bangladesh by 2030 to mitigate its labour shortage.

Watami, a restaurant group based in Japan, has announced plans to open a training centre in Dhaka, Nikkei Asia reported.

The centre will train locals in farming, customer service, factory skills and food service, to send 3,000 people annually to Japan on specified skilled worker visas, as reported by Nikkei Asia.

The Japan Training Center, set to launch in October 2025, will be situated at the facilities of a Bangladeshi government agency.

Around 1,500 people will initially undergo a two-month training programme in skills such as customer service and factory work.

Watami will leverage personnel from a Japanese language school operated by a group company to assist in the training.

The development comes after Japan expanded its entry visa in 2023 to cover 11 industries, including the food service sector.

The expansion allows foreign workers to engage in more complex roles such as store operations and management.

Watami chairman and President Miki Watanabe said, "Securing human resources is an obstacle to growth in the restaurant business. Being able to develop human resources in-house will be strength."

Established in 2020, Watami Agent, the human resources development unit of Watami, had welcomed 900 foreign workers by the end of March 2025.

This included technical intern trainees and specified skilled workers, with 400 introduced to 107 companies.