With Japanese Government coming forward to hire thousands of engineers from India’s Silicon Valley, a plan has been mooted to offer Japanese language course in universities.

Representatives of Silver Peak, a Japanese firm, have already visited Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Belagavi, and a few other engineering colleges in different parts of the State to assess the quality of engineering candidates. They called on Minister for Higher Education T.B. Jayachandra on Saturday and held discussions about the massive drive undertaken by the Japanese government to hire engineers.

Representatives said Japan wanted to recruit 40,000 engineers from India and Vietnam. But fluency in Japanese language was important criteria for candidates to get jobs. “Since several reputed engineering colleges are located in Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka, we are keen on hiring engineers from here,” said a member from the delegation that met the Minister. A 30-membee Japanese delegation will visit Bengaluru soon to work out modalities for hiring engineering and professional, they added.

The issue of teaching Japanese would be placed before the Higher Education Council meeting on May 3 and modalities would be worked out on design and content of the course to be imparted, Mr. Jayachandra said.

He said universities would be asked to impart Japanese language since Japan was keen recruiting engineers from the State. The issue will be discussed with the Vice-Chancellors and officials, who will attend the meeting next month.

The company officials said the Japan will also hire abut four lakh nurses to take care of aging people in the country. There was a plenty of demand for plumbers, electricians, welders, and mechanics in Japan, the representative said.