Vietnamese talent is now one of the largest nationality groups among foreign workers in Japan. Yet accepting organizations continually report issues such as “We hired them, but instructions do not get through,” “The same mistakes keep happening no matter how many times we explain,” and “They suddenly resigned for no clear reason.” In many cases the root cause is not Japanese proficiency alone, but cultural differences in communication style.

This article systematically explains the challenges hiring managers and frontline supervisors face in workplace communication with Vietnamese talent, from cultural background through practical countermeasures. The structure prioritizes know-how you can use on the ground over institutional theory. For the overall picture of hiring foreign nationals, also see “Fundamentals of Hiring Foreign Nationals: Points to Know Before You Recruit.”

Why Vietnamese Talent Is Growing Rapidly in Japan, and the Current State of Language Learning

Immigration Services Agency of Japan statistics on foreign residents show that, as of the end of 2023, the number of Vietnamese nationals residing in Japan exceeded 560,000, ranking third after China and South Korea. They work under multiple statuses of residence, including Technical Intern Training, Specified Skilled Worker, and Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services, and are distributed across a wide range of industries such as manufacturing, construction, agriculture, nursing care, IT, and food service.

Vietnamese differs substantially in pronunciation and intonation between the north and the south. When people from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City work in the same workplace, subtle gaps in mutual understanding can arise even in their mother tongue. This fact underscores how important Japanese is as a “shared language,” while also meaning that even among people who have passed the same “JLPT N3,” the balance of vocabulary, listening, and reading/writing skill varies widely by individual.

The Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) primarily measures written ability in reading comprehension, grammar, and vocabulary, and does not link directly to oral communication ability at work. Even with N3, there are large individual differences in business keigo, workplace-specific technical terms, and contextual understanding of instructional language. That is why cases frequently arise in which candidates answer fluently in hiring interviews, yet frontline instructions do not get through.

Furthermore, the Japanese learned in language school is different from the Japanese used on actual factory floors, in nursing care settings, and in offices. Schools teach polite language and written-style expressions, while workplaces are full of dialect, abbreviations, and shortened imperative forms. This “gap between the learning environment and the workplace” is one of the main factors that create communication confusion in the first few months after joining.

Workplace Communication Gaps Rooted in Cultural Background

Vietnamese social culture is strongly influenced by Confucianism, and hierarchy, group harmony, and the preservation of face form the foundation of behavioral norms. While this overlaps in part with Japanese workplace culture, it often appears in subtly different forms.

“I understand” is not proof of understanding

The most typical example is the response “I understand” or “Yes.” When a native Japanese speaker says this, it usually indicates that they have understood the content. For Vietnamese talent, however, there is a cultural norm that saying “I don’t understand” to an instruction from a superior is rude or disrespectful. As a result, they tend to answer “I understand” even when they have not understood. This is not lying; it is a culturally coded response that shows respect for the supervisor. One of the most common frontline complaints—“They said they understood, but they couldn’t do it at all”—has this cultural code in the background.

Reactions to negative feedback

In Japanese workplaces it is not unusual for supervisors to point out issues or reprimand subordinates in public, but in Vietnamese culture resistance to having one’s face damaged in front of others tends to be very strong. Public reprimand carries the risk of resignation or isolation within the workplace. As a rule, feedback should be given one-on-one.

Suppressed speech due to excessive deference to age and rank

Vietnamese society has a strong culture of respect for elders. Actively offering opinions or proposals to much older senior colleagues or supervisors may be seen as overstepping. Even when the Japanese side expects people to “speak up more proactively,” Vietnamese talent may judge that “it is more polite not to say anything unnecessary.”

Indirect communication and the gap with ho-ren-so

Even when problems arise, there is a tendency not to report them directly and instead to consult senior colleagues or friends of the same nationality. This creates a large gap with Japanese workplaces that treat “ho-ren-so” (report, contact, consult) as a given culture. As a result, problem discovery is delayed, and issues often surface only after trouble has already escalated.

Failure Patterns and How to Avoid Them: Mistakes Accepting Companies Repeat

In recruitment support settings, the same failure patterns are often repeated. Here we organize representative failure patterns and how to avoid them.

Failure pattern 1: Hiring based only on Japanese language certificates

Cases frequently occur in which companies use only JLPT level as the hiring criterion and hire without confirming actual workplace communication ability. The way to avoid this is to build a “work-instruction listening test” and “role-play” into the hiring interview. Specifically, practical scenarios are effective—for example, reading aloud text modeled on real frontline instructions and having the candidate repeat the key points or explain the steps orally.

Failure pattern 2: OJT designed on Japanese-language and cultural assumptions

In many companies, OJT is designed, often implicitly, on the assumption of native Japanese speakers. When manuals are vertical text, heavy with kanji, and full of technical terms, Vietnamese talent may appear to follow instructions while proceeding without truly understanding. The way to avoid this is to prepare visual manuals that use illustrations, photos, and video, and to add Vietnamese annotations to key sections.

Failure pattern 3: Leaving daily-life isolation unaddressed

Job performance is directly tied to stability in daily life. Cases have occurred in which people struggled right after arriving in Japan with finding housing, opening bank accounts, government procedures, and access to medical care, yet companies left this as “a personal matter outside work,” resulting in mental strain and sudden disappearance or resignation. Positioning post-hire settlement support for daily life as a prerequisite for communication settlement is important.

Failure pattern 4: Underestimating reputation in the Vietnamese community

Vietnamese talent communities have strong networks, and reputation about workplace treatment and the communication environment spreads rapidly via Facebook, Zalo, and similar channels. A single departing employee writing “That company is not good” can stop applications. The way to avoid this is regular mentor meetings and proactive relationship-building before problems arise.

Similar challenges also arise in workplace communication with Myanmar talent. Differences in communication style by nationality are explained in more detail in “Workplace Communication with Myanmar Talent: Basics of Names, Culture, and How to Engage.”

Points Hiring Managers Often Overlook, and Decision Criteria

In supporting the hiring and retention of Vietnamese talent on the ground, points that hiring managers often overlook repeatedly come to the surface.

Confusing the “entry” and “exit” of Japanese ability

JLPT level or Japanese language school enrollment history at the time of hiring is an “entry” indicator and is different from the “exit” Japanese ability needed at work. On a manufacturing floor, listening to safety instructions, reading equipment operation manuals, and orally reporting abnormalities are required. In nursing care, communication with care recipients and writing care records are needed. It is important to define in advance, by industry and job type, the “quality of Japanese required,” and to document it as a hiring decision criterion.

The feedback loop during the probationary period is not working

Vietnamese talent tend not to self-report even when they sense problems during the probationary period. Meanwhile, Japanese supervisors often assume “there seems to be no problem, so it’s fine” and skip formal feedback meetings. Setting mandatory meetings at the one-, two-, and three-month milestones of the probationary period, with an interpreter or a staff member who can handle multiple languages present, is the strongest countermeasure to points hiring managers often overlook.

Are you deliberately creating an environment where people can say “I can’t”?

In Vietnamese culture, the psychological barrier to telling a superior “I can’t” or “I don’t understand” tends to be high. Simply saying “Please ask anything” is not enough. It is important to ask concrete confirmation questions in daily practice (“What is the name of this machine?” “Try explaining the next step”) and to put in place a system that actively checks understanding.

Consideration for religion, food, and the calendar

Vietnamese Buddhism differs in character from Japanese Buddhism. In addition, the desire to return home around Lunar New Year (Tet) is very strong, and unreasonable demands to work during this period lead directly to lower motivation and turnover. Regarding food, pork is part of the mainstream food culture, so major dietary constraints are often limited, but depth of faith varies by individual, and some people observe monthly periods of vegetarian practice. We recommend standardizing, as a decision criterion for accepting organizations, the inclusion of confirmation about cultural and religious background in onboarding orientation. For cases in which periodic interviews are required by status of residence, such as Specified Skilled Worker, see “Explaining Statuses of Residence for Highly Skilled Foreign Professionals.”

Practical Design of Workplace Communication to Raise Retention

For Vietnamese talent to settle into the workplace, it is necessary not only to improve language ability but also to redesign the structure of communication itself.

Using a buddy system (senior mentors)

Assigning a buddy from day one—either a colleague of the same nationality or a senior employee fluent in Japanese—allows workplace unwritten rules to be conveyed while complementing Japanese. Ideally the buddy is not a manager but a senior of similar age and job type. However, to avoid overburdening the buddy, make clear how much work time can be allocated to mentoring and evaluate it appropriately with allowances or similar measures; that supports retention.

Visualized and structured communication

Work instructions are more effective when not given orally alone but combined across multiple media. Inserting photos and illustrations into procedure manuals, leaving important instructions as text in chat tools (such as LINE WORKS or Slack), and adding furigana to difficult kanji compounds all support settlement on the ground. Companies that share a weekly “vocabulary to learn this week” in text have also reported clear differences in vocabulary comprehension after six months.

Systematizing workplace Japanese learning support

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare promotes Japanese language education support for foreign workers and recommends providing information on local Japanese classes and using e-learning materials. For hiring companies, setting aside roughly once-a-week Japanese study time during working hours and subsidizing Japanese learning app costs contribute significantly to long-term retention.

Regular multilingual meetings and making satisfaction visible

e-Gov publishes multilingual explanations of statuses of residence and labor-related laws and regulations, which can be used to promote understanding of working conditions. By running a roughly monthly “workplace satisfaction check sheet” that can be answered in Vietnamese, then holding follow-up meetings in Japanese based on the results, early problem detection becomes possible.

Building systems for Tet (Lunar New Year) and return-home support

Tet, Vietnam’s largest holiday, falls from late January to early February. Many Vietnamese talent strongly wish to return home during this period. Companies that build Tet into annual paid-leave planning and provide early support for flight bookings and cost subsidies are achieving results in higher retention. Treating Tet not merely as a “leave request” but recognizing it as a cultural event across the workplace has major significance for building trust.

Practical Checklist: Confirmation Items Before and After Accepting Vietnamese Talent

By using the practical checklist below, hiring managers and frontline supervisors can prevent many communication challenges in advance.

Pre-hire phase

  • Documented the “quality of Japanese” required by industry and job type
  • Built oral communication checks (listening tests and role-play) into hiring interviews
  • Japanese manuals for the hiring position are already adapted for visualization
  • Selected buddy candidate employees and agreed on roles, time, and compensation
  • Confirmed Tet return-home wishes and religious considerations in a pre-hire meeting

Immediate post-hire phase (weeks 1–4)

  • Prepared guidance on housing, banks, government offices, and medical institutions in both Japanese and Vietnamese
  • Documented workplace rules (lateness, absence reporting, dress code, meal areas, etc.) with Vietnamese side-by-side text
  • Set the date for the first meeting with the buddy
  • Clearly stated emergency contacts and consultation channels in Vietnamese
  • For hires via Hello Work, properly completed the Notification of the Employment Status of Foreign Nationals (required by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare)

Probationary period phase (months 1–3)

  • Conducted formal feedback meetings at the one-, two-, and three-month milestones
  • Established a system to confirm job understanding orally and through practical skills
  • Individually confirmed matters requiring religious, dietary, or cultural consideration
  • Administered a workplace satisfaction check sheet

Retention phase (from six months after joining)

  • Regularly confirming that Japanese learning support systems are functioning
  • Paid leave and return-home support plans around Tet are built into the annual schedule
  • Individual meetings on next career steps are being conducted

Diagram: Pre-Hire Confirmation Flow

The following is a flow showing the confirmation items that should be carried out before hiring. It is provided as a reference for visual design and can be reused in internal materials.

Step 1: Define Japanese language requirements by industry and job type List the required vocabulary, expressions, and communication situations, and document them as hiring criteria. Workplace-specific Japanese requirements differ across manufacturing, nursing care, IT, food service, and other fields.

Step 2: Document screening plus Japanese communication interview While referring to JLPT level, conduct simulated instruction listening and oral explanation tests. A recommended structure is having an interpreter present or a two-stage interview (document screening → practical interview).

Step 3: Confirm daily-life and cultural background Confirm Tet return-home wishes, religious considerations, whether family members live together, and past workplace communication experience.

Step 4: Final confirmation of the acceptance framework Confirm that buddy selection, visualized manuals, and multilingual guidance materials are ready before issuing an offer. Reversing this order leads to confusion after joining.

Step 5: Lock in post-hire regular checkpoints on the calendar Finalize meeting dates for one, two, three, and six months before joining and register them on the calendar. Saying “we’ll set them later” almost always leads to postponement.

If you need expert advice on your acceptance framework, please consult us via “Foreign Talent Insights Inquiry.”

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1. What Japanese language level should we set as the hiring standard for Vietnamese talent?

It depends on the industry. For manufacturing sites, set a minimum of about N4 to N3 so workers can understand safety instructions, and confirm actual work scenarios through oral role-play. For office and IT roles, N3 to N2, including reading and writing, is a realistic benchmark. However, because the JLPT does not measure oral communication ability, practical confirmation in the interview is an essential decision criterion.

Q2. What should we do when someone says “I understand” but then performs the work incorrectly?

This is a cultural phenomenon. The most effective approach is to make it a habit to request repetition or demonstration after “I understand,” for example by saying, “Please explain the next steps.” The key is to embed this in daily practice as a confirmation process, not as reprimand.

Q3. How should we respond if absences and requests to return home suddenly concentrate before Tet (Lunar New Year)?

Tet is the most important occasion for many Vietnamese talent. The strongest preventive measure is to confirm before joining whether they hope to make a long-term return home that includes Tet, and to build that into annual paid leave planning. We also recommend establishing shift cooperation arrangements in advance with staff of other nationalities and Japanese staff in case sudden returns home overlap.

Q4. Whom should we ask to handle Vietnamese translation and multilingual manual creation?

If you do not have interpreting staff in-house, outsourcing to an external translation service or an organization specializing in foreign employment support is realistic. Some recruitment support agents also provide translation assistance and multilingual manual creation as part of acceptance support.

Q5. If Vietnamese talent resigns suddenly, how can we apply that experience to future hiring?

Many sudden resignations follow a pattern of “accumulated dissatisfaction → communication breakdown → obtaining job-change information through co-national communities.” Early detection through regular one-on-ones and checklists is a more fundamental solution than after-the-fact response. When a resignation does occur, it is important to conduct the exit interview in Vietnamese as well, draw out the true reasons, and use them to improve decision criteria for the next round of hiring and acceptance.

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Challenges in workplace communication with Vietnamese talent are less about the language barrier alone and more about cultural understanding and workplace design. Building systematic communication design in from before hiring is the foundation of a long-term hiring strategy for retention and performance after joining. If you need more detailed support on hiring international talent and building an acceptance framework, please feel free to contact us via “Foreign Talent Insights Inquiry.”

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