Watami, a restaurant group based in Japan, has announced plans to open a training centre in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, as reported by Nikkei Asia.
The centre will train locals in farming, customer service, factory skills and food service, to send 3,000 individuals annually to Japan on specified skilled worker visas.
Go deeper with GlobalData
The Japan Training Center, set to launch in October 2025, will be situated at the facilities of a Bangladeshi government agency.
1500 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.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataThe expansion allows foreign workers to engage in more complex roles such as store operations and management.
Watami chairman and president Miki Watanabe stated: “Securing human resources is an obstacle to growth in the restaurant business. Being able to develop human resources in-house will be a 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.
Japan is looking to recruit up to 100,000 workers from Bangladesh by 2030 to mitigate its labour shortage.
Bangladesh’s chief adviser Muhammad Yunus from the Bangladesh Seminar on Human Resources emphasised the interim government’s commitment to facilitating employment opportunities for Bangladeshis in Japan.
