site.btaBulgarian-Japanese Tech Job Fair & Forum Takes Place in Sofia

The Career Days: IT, Communications and Outsourcing forum took place the capital's Marinela Hotel on Saturday, with a special focus on Japanese economy, said event's organizer, human resources company and career site Job Tiger.

This year, the career forum hosted 11 Japanese companies looking for IT talent. Most of the companies were employers who do not have representation in Bulgaria and are not present on the Bulgarian market. The initiative was organized jointly with the Mynavi Corporation and the Ministry of Economy of Japan.

The Bulgarian-Japanese Tech Job Fair & Forum, which is part of the event, focused on the presentation of Japanese companies, their core business, company culture and values, as well as development opportunities and application process. 

The conference also included a panel discussion on the labour market in Japan, with topics such as "Specifics of Japanese work culture" and "How to start working for a Japanese company?". The panelists in the discussion were representatives of education and business, including Boyan Zhekov, lecturer in the Department of Computer Sciences at UniBIT and head of the master's programmes Software Engineering, Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics and Data Analysis and Management/Data Science. Zhekov is also Chair of the Nihon Tomono-kai Club of Friends of Japan in Bulgaria - a community of over 40 Bulgarian educational, cultural, and sports organizations and Bulgarians connected to Japan. Other panelists included Iulian Bajan, director of development at SEGA, Adriana Bailey,  manager for Bulgaria at Hitachi Solutions Europe, and Yuta Arai, founder of the Japanese company simpleeasy Inc., which will also be among the exhibitors. 

The finale of the conference featured a 15-minute programming competition. The winner won as a prize a round-trip ticket to Japan provided by JobTiger.

Japanese Ambassador Hiroshi Narahira and Tokiwa Mitsuo, Deputy Director-General for Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, will attend the conference.