Hotels work to retain foreign staff to tackle labor shortage

Hotel operators are therefore enhancing their efforts to train and retain foreign staff to secure workers.

On June 17, a reception was held at a hall in Haneda Airport for Vietnamese technical intern trainees working at a hotel owned by Sumitomo Realty and Development Co.

A video of the event will be shown to their families in Vietnam later.

The group hired its first 80 Vietnamese trainees in 2019, and in 2024, it increased the number to 400.

They are all Vietnamese women and, between them, oversee about 3,500 rooms out of the group’s total of about 5,350 hotel rooms.

Tomoyuki Komori, president of Villa Fontaine Hotel, which is operated by the company, said, “They are extremely talented. They greet guests with a smile, so they have a great reputation with the guests.”

Komori said the hotel plans to hire more staff in the future.

The labor shortage in the industry is serious.

According to a labor force survey by the internal affairs ministry, the number of employees in the hospitality industry stood at 580,000 as of 2024 and has not recovered to its pre-pandemic level of 650,000 in 2019.

The employment vacancy rate in the accommodation and food services industry was 4.4 percent, higher than the 2.9 percent rate for all industries, according to a survey conducted by the labor ministry on employment trends for the first half of 2024.

For this reason, hotel operators are turning to foreign staff as the human resources needed to support on-site operations, and are working to retain them by providing detailed support.

Sumitomo Realty and Development promotes foreign staff to on-site supervisor positions, or other positions with salary increases, after three or five years of service as incentives to stay with the company.

Particular attention is paid to the families of foreign workers.

Since 2019, the company has held a total of eight company information sessions and get-togethers for families in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, showing videos of their children at work and enjoying barbecues.

Nguyen Thi Thuy, 23, is a staff member who joined the company in 2023.

“I want to make use of what I have learned when I return home after gaining experience,” she said.

Another employee, Nguyen Thi Nhung, 25, who joined the company in 2022, said, “I want to study more so that I can contribute to the company and support my family financially.”

Daiwa House Industry Co. manages 56 hotels nationwide, where 777 Indonesian women work as of May.

The company hires 200 people a year who have studied at Japanese language schools in Indonesia.

Once they join the company, they are evaluated once every three months on their ability, motivation and Japanese language level.

Their performance is then reflected in their grade, salary increase and promotion opportunities.

Kazuhisa Yamamoto, who heads the hotel support department at Daiwa Lifenext Co., said, “We give back through raises and promotions so that their motivation continues.”

Mori Trust Hotels and Resorts Co. had 99 foreign employees as of the end of fiscal 2024, accounting for 9.7 percent of its total workforce.

Since February, the company has been working to enable a diverse workplace to play an active role by holding a trial Japanese language course focusing on “omotenashi” hospitality with university lecturers.

It has also held competitions and other events for foreign staff and Japanese employees to work together to come up with company-wide initiatives.

Miwako Date, the company president who is also the vice chair of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai), said that the central government has set a target of attracting 60 million annual visitors to Japan by 2030.

“There is increasing concern about a labor shortage in the hospitality industry,” she said. “We would like to build a system to accommodate travelers with a high-quality experience so that there will be no opportunities lost in one of the few growth industries in Japan.”

By TAKESHI OWADA/ Staff Writer