Universal Studios Japan (USJ) in Osaka would be outsourcing its staff from overseas, with the theme park opening around 200 jobs with a start date of 2025.
Nikkei Asia made the exclusive revelation on Wednesday, January 24, saying that the people they would be recruiting would begin in Taiwan and South Korea.
Most of the jobs USJ would be opening involved foreign-language services to prompt more tourists to visit more often. They were also hiring more workers to make up for labor shortages.
USJ would be recruiting foreigners who wish to work in Japan under working holiday visas via local agencies as a way of expanding its current job offers to expatriates living in Japan.
The theme park participated in a job fair held by a Japanese staffing agency in Taipei in mid-December, which attracted about 100 applicants. It accepted 16 people selected by the agency based on their language skills in Japanese, Chinese, and English. USJ also planned to hold a similar job fair in South Korea in the future.
Foreign Workers to be Placed as Customer Service Staff for Foreigners
Staffers from Taiwan would be assigned to work in restaurants and other places in the park where communication skills were particularly important, with some of them with working-holiday visas already working in Japan on a trial basis since September.
According to Nikkei's report, the park's multilingual customer services have been well received by visitors, prompting them to quickly hire more.
Currently, the park approximately has 180 foreign staffers, including students studying in Japan, with most of them working part-time. USJ aimed to increase the number of foreign "crew members" to about 600 by 2025.
USJ currently has an area themed on Nintendo's Super Mario franchise since 2021, with the number of foreign visitors increasing beyond pre-COVID-19 levels. They have also recently ended the Spider-Man-themed ride at the park.
However, accepting foreign crews for the theme park posed such challenges, with Japan Research Institute economist Hajime Inoue indicating that those who come to Japan on a working holiday have just learned Japanese and might still stumble communication-wise.
"Careful support is indispensable to retain foreign personnel and encourage them to play an active role," he added.
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