Case Studies
A declining population, hiring difficulties, and labor shortages… Across all industries, Japan continues to face a severe shortage of workers. Naturally, this also applies to the food service industry, including Excelsior Caffé. What became the driving force to overcome this situation was a bold shift in thinking. In this article, we introduce the strengths, insights, and steady efforts of the employees who found a breakthrough in addressing these challenges.
When do you feel like having a cup of coffee?
Maybe when you want to relax or refresh yourself.
It could be when you want to concentrate alone or spend a peaceful moment with someone else.
Sometimes, just one delicious cup of coffee can give you the energy to say, “Alright, I can keep going.”
A café is a place that offers those moments, a place that provides value.
And at the heart of that value are the staff who welcome each customer with genuine hospitality.
However, standing in the way of that ideal was a major obstacle: a chronic shortage of staff at the store level. This is a challenge that Muneo Nishida, a supervisor (SV) at Excelsior Caffé, is also working to address.
Nishida: “At our company, people from a wide range of backgrounds, including students and homemakers, work as “partners” (part-time or casual staff, hereafter referred to as “partners”). They are a reliable part of store operations, but the reality is that during exam periods or around the New Year holidays, large gaps can appear in the shift schedule.”
Some locations also face tough hiring conditions due to where they are situated.
Nishida: “Most partners prefer to work at stores close to their school or home. Because of that, it’s extremely difficult to recruit in business districts in Tokyo, and many stores are forced to operate with very few staff even during peak hours.”
Stores in business areas tend to have many regular customers who come before work, during breaks, or at lunchtime. A persistent shortage of staff risks affecting service quality, as well as the appeal of the store and the brand itself.
For staff working on the ground, the days feel like walking a tightrope, with no clear way to ease their growing sense of crisis.
At this rate, staff shortages might make it impossible to keep store operations going.
A fundamental solution was urgently needed to address the situation these stores were facing.
In recent years, alongside the rise in foreign tourists visiting Japan, around 300,000 foreigners have also been coming to Japan each year as international students.
That number grows even larger when including working holiday visa holders.
This reality brought new meaning and opportunity to Excelsior Caffé.
In 2018, Nishida had a pivotal encounter with a new team member, Kim Yongil, the first foreign store manager at Excelsior Caffé. Since Kim was a store manager in the area supervised by Nishida, the two began to communicate closely.
Nishida: “Through working with Yongil, I saw firsthand the high potential of foreign staff. Seeing his dedication changed my mindset. I began to truly hope that more foreign staff could thrive in our stores.”
Originally from South Korea, Kim graduated from a university in Japan, returned to fulfill his mandatory military service, and then came back to Japan. In April 2018, he joined Doutor Coffee.
Kim: “I wanted to test my potential and grow more, so I decided to return to Japan. I did feel uncertain about job hunting as a foreigner, but my father encouraged me by saying, ‘Go out and gain experience in the wider world.’ I had always thought that if I were to work, I’d want to be in customer service. Even as a student, I worked part-time in restaurants and really enjoyed speaking directly with customers and seeing their joy. I also knew that Doutor Coffee had been actively hiring foreign workers for a few years, so I thought, ‘This is the place I want to give it my best.’ That’s why I joined.”
The meeting between Nishida and Kim brought new hope to Excelsior Caffé: the potential of hiring foreign staff.
Of course, this was also the beginning of a new challenge.
Since most part-time staff at Excelsior Caffé are Japanese students, it is often difficult to fill shifts during exam periods or New Year holidays. If foreign staff could cover those times, the stores could maintain operations without being affected by Japan’s seasonal events.
Nishida: “These individuals chose to come to Japan on their own, are actively studying Japanese, and are eager to experience Japanese culture. Their strong motivation naturally shows in their work as well.”
That said, there were certainly hurdles to overcome.
Nishida: “First, international students are limited to working 28 hours per week. Also, once they begin working, they need to understand Japan’s cultural values, which are often difficult to explain in words. In that sense, it is even more difficult for them to ‘settle in’ compared to Japanese part-time staff.”
The idea of hiring foreign workers shined as a promising path for Excelsior Caffé.
To move this hopeful but challenging initiative forward, another new teammate stepped in.
To promote hiring foreign workers, Nishida and Kim focused on recruiting working holiday visa holders by leveraging connections within the Korean community.
Kim: “Hiring is a major challenge not only at Excelsior Caffé but at every store. Especially seeing my fellow peers struggling with recruitment made me feel that this was a problem we absolutely had to solve, so I took it very personally.”
As they began to see a way forward, two key elements emerged: existing successful cases of foreign hiring and the presence of a Japanese store manager fluent in Korean.
Yuki Hara, manager of the Excelsior Caffé Kojimachi Sanchome store, had been systematically promoting active foreign recruitment, retention, and building a welcoming store environment.
Hara: “To secure workers, we started grassroots efforts like reaching out to language schools and encouraging referrals from existing partners. Because of the store’s location, we jokingly called this the ‘Kojimachi Method.’ Those efforts paid off, and now the percentage of foreign partners has surpassed that of Japanese partners. It’s not just about hiring, but about the essence of store operations. More important than methods is creating a store where people want to work. Even something as simple as thorough cleaning helps create an atmosphere where people, regardless of nationality, feel, ‘I want to work here.’ I believe that kind of store appeal also reaches our customers.”
However, even if applications increase and new staff are hired, true labor shortage relief cannot be achieved if those staff cannot become effective members of the team.
“Recruitment” and “retention” go hand in hand.
At that point, Nishida came up with an idea to seek the expertise of Yusuke Uchida, who is fluent in Korean.
Nishida thought, “He could play a key role in helping Korean partners settle in!”
Despite Uchida’s study and business experience in Korea, he had few opportunities to utilize his language skills in his usual store manager duties.
Uchida: “Honestly, as a store manager, I often struggled and felt stuck. Then Nishida-san approached me with this project, and when I heard about it, I finally felt like I found my place.”
Uchida became the instructor for an orientation conducted entirely in Korean, aimed at the new Korean partners recruited by Kim, Hara, and others.
Uchida: “The new hires live in Japan and have a certain level of Japanese proficiency, so communication itself is not a big problem. But it felt like such a waste if cultural differences and different assumptions about what is ‘normal’ caused misunderstandings and limited their success. For example, I carefully explained cultural values like Japanese punctuality and the custom of handing things with both hands. By doing so, I hoped to deepen their understanding of operations and rules and take the first step toward retention.”
After the orientation, new staff went to register for training at the Excelsior Caffé Kojimachi Sanchome store.
By doing on-the-job training at a store with many foreign partners, they created a system where staff could smoothly and practically learn the operations.
The bonds among these colleagues, each using their unique traits and strengths to tackle challenges, grew stronger.
The potential unlocked by supervisors and the company supporting on-the-ground creativity became a real driving force to change the future of the workplace.
In Japan, the working holiday visa is valid for one year.
Usually, the expectation is that the person returns home one year after arriving—meaning “fixed-term employment” is assumed.
Nishida: “This was a concern from the moment we narrowed down our hiring targets. However, since the timing of their return is clear, we realized it’s easier to prepare the next partner. It’s best to set it up like a ‘working holiday slot’ and operate with smooth handovers. Also, depending on the individual’s wishes, they can obtain a specified skilled worker visa and work longer. There are opportunities for promotion to full-time employee and broader career paths. In fact, some partners have already transitioned from working holiday visas to work visas and joined as employees.”
Hara: “If we provide solid support from recruitment through retention, there are broad opportunities regardless of nationality. We want to promote that possibility from the workplace.”
This initiative steadily progressed, and as of February 2020, about 40 Korean working holiday visa holders were working across all Excelsior Caffé stores. Additionally, 568 foreign workers from 28 countries were employed at Doutor Group’s directly managed stores, and they have begun to make a significant impact.
Nishida: “The time required for initial training is actually not much different from that for Japanese staff. Within about a month, they can work at the store without problems. In a few months, some even become trainers themselves.”
Nishida says he wants to further expand this initiative, which started from the desires of the staff on the ground, and eventually roll it out company-wide.
His expression, as he talks about working with other departments to broaden the scope of support, reveals a passion to look beyond his immediate role and aim for a better future for the entire company.
On the other hand, Kim has a dream of opening an Excelsior Caffé store in South Korea someday.
Kim: “Doutor Coffee already has name recognition in Korea. If people who worked at Excelsior Caffé during their study or working holiday periods return home and share a good image, it should further strengthen the brand. I truly believe my dream will come true one day.”
Securing staff, a major challenge in store operations, has become more manageable.
The light of possibility revealed by trial and error in solving this issue continues to be pursued by everyone in their own roles moving forward.
Translated into English from the original article:
https://www.doutor.co.jp/recruitsite/special/015/index.html
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