The Fastest Path From Japan to Malaysia

Agensi Pekerjaan Language Talent Solutions Sdn. Bhd.
Japan Talent Acquisition Team (From left to right: Senny Sendy, Moeko Takahashi, Yu Takamatsu, Yui Hamano)

Many recruitment agencies approach the Japanese talent market with a straightforward question: how do we reach Japanese talent?

Through its experience working with Japanese candidates and multinational companies, Language Talent Solutions (LTS) found that reaching the right talent is only part of the equation. The equally important question is: how do you successfully connect that talent with the right opportunities, while understanding the language, cultural expectations, and hiring needs of both sides?

LTS is a multilingual recruitment company that has spent seven years building a strong presence across Vietnam, India, Thailand and Taiwan, connecting businesses with candidates who bring language skills in Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian and more. Yet despite its extensive regional network, the Japanese market remained challenging to penetrate. The issue was not a lack of qualified candidates, but where those candidates were already located and how to effectively reach them.

We spoke with Senny Sendy and Yu Takamatsu from LTS’s Japan Talent Acquisition Team about how their recruitment strategy evolved after they began using Daijob.com, and how some of their most valuable candidates came from beyond Malaysia’s borders.

Interviewer: Kyoungjoon Jung, Daijob.com Media Sales Division
Produced by: Daijob.com Editorial Team

Senny: Our company is Language Talent Solutions, or LTS for short. We are a multilingual recruitment company headquartered in Malaysia, supporting global and multinational companies with their talent needs across Asia.

We specialise in connecting businesses with candidates who have the language skills and experience needed to work in diverse, multinational environments. Our expertise covers a wide range of Asian languages, including Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Thai, Vietnamese and Indonesian, as well as selected European languages such as Spanish, Italian and German, depending on our clients’ requirements.

Photo: Jinder Kaur (center), Managing Partner of Language Talent Solutions, with the Gold award for Best New Recruitment Firm in Malaysia at the HR Vendors of the Year 2024.

LTS was established in 2018, and over the past seven years we have grown our presence across the region. Our first international expansion was in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, followed by offices in India, with a strong focus on IT recruitment, as well as Thailand, Indonesia and Taiwan.

Our Kuala Lumpur office serves as our regional headquarters and remains our largest operation. We work with global and multinational companies across a range of industries, helping them access specialised talent and build teams across different markets.

What sets us apart is our ability to connect global and multinational businesses with the right talent across Asia, particularly when they need specific language capabilities, regional market knowledge and a recruitment partner that understands the complexities of hiring across borders.

Jung (Daijob.com): That’s a very impressive scope, with a presence across so many markets in Asia.

Senny: What sets us apart from other recruitment companies in Malaysia is our level of specialisation. We focus on four core industries when supporting our clients: BPO, finance, HR and IT.

Our largest area is BPO, particularly customer service roles across contact centres, content moderation and IT support. These positions often require strong language capabilities, which is where our expertise really comes into play.

The second area is finance, where we recruit for roles such as accounts receivable and general ledger. The third is HR, including positions such as HR business partners, and the fourth is IT, where we support clients with specialised technology talent.

Our mission is to connect talented people with global opportunities through the power of language. We help businesses overcome language barriers, work effectively across cultures and build teams that can succeed in the global market.

For example, we recently partnered with a global logistics company that was expanding its operations in Malaysia and needed to build a new department with strong Japanese language capabilities. LTS was appointed as their exclusive recruitment partner for the expansion. Because the roles required both strong Japanese language skills and the right professional experience, they needed a recruitment partner with access to specialised Japanese talent. We were able to leverage our Japanese talent network to identify and recruit the right professionals for the team.

Senny: Before we came across Daijob, one of the challenges we faced was our limited presence in the Japanese market. We could find native Japanese speakers who were already working in Malaysia, but moving them to a new employer often meant going through a visa cancellation and transfer process that could take several months. Many of our clients simply could not afford to wait that long.

When we started using Daijob, we saw an opportunity to reach the Japanese market directly and connect with candidates who were still based in Japan and already open to working overseas.

Initially, however, we were using a package where we paid a flat annual fee of around RM20,000 to post our vacancies. At that stage, the partnership was not delivering the results we had hoped for. We were not seeing enough return from the investment, and we started questioning whether we should continue.

Thankfully, with Jung’s guidance and the support of my consultant at the time, we found a much more effective way to use the platform. Our focus shifted beyond simply posting vacancies. We wanted to build LTS’s brand presence and credibility among Japanese candidates in Japan, so that when they considered an opportunity in Malaysia, they would see LTS as a reliable recruitment partner.

Jung: Looking at the services you provide, you offer quite comprehensive support, especially for Japanese candidates who may not be familiar with the culture and working environment in Malaysia. That is also where Takamatsu-san plays an important role, helping candidates navigate the cultural and procedural aspects of moving and working here.

Senny: Exactly. Another challenge for us as a Malaysian recruitment company is that, without a registered entity in Japan, our access to many local recruitment platforms is limited. So when we found a platform that was willing to work with us despite not having a Japanese entity, it made a real difference. We really appreciated Daijob’s willingness to collaborate with us and help us reach Japanese candidates directly.

Senny: We discovered Daijob through our own market research. We wanted to strengthen our access to the Japanese talent market, and demand from our clients was growing quickly. In a single week, we could receive requests for several Japanese speaking candidates, so we knew we needed to find a more effective way to reach talent in Japan.

When our team researched Daijob, two things really stood out.

First, many people using the platform are already interested in working overseas. That is exactly the type of candidate we are looking for because our goal is to connect Japanese talent with opportunities in Malaysia.

Second, the candidate pool is highly relevant to the type of talent our clients need. Many candidates have bilingual capabilities and an international outlook, which is important because most of our clients are global and multinational companies. English is often a key requirement alongside the target language. For many of our roles, intermediate English is sufficient, while more senior positions may require stronger English skills because they involve communication with regional or global management teams.

Photo: The LTS team at the company's Kuala Lumpur office.

Jung: It sounds like you really looked closely at what your clients need and what makes a candidate successful in that environment, rather than simply looking for someone who speaks the language.

Senny: Exactly. Language ability is only one part of it. We are looking for people with a global mindset who are genuinely interested in building a career overseas and working in a multicultural environment. That is what makes the candidates on Daijob particularly relevant to us.

Senny: Daijob is not the only platform we use. We also work with other Japan focused recruitment platforms, alongside our own Malaysia based recruitment channels. Each channel plays a different role, but Daijob has consistently given us access to fresher candidates who are more open to considering opportunities in Malaysia.

Our approach is to use every relevant channel available because the demand from our clients can move very quickly. A client might need 30 Japanese speaking candidates this month and come back with another requirement for 30 more just a few weeks later. To respond to that kind of demand, we need to maintain multiple talent pipelines and continuously build our candidate pool.

Using different platforms also helps us strengthen our visibility among Japanese jobseekers. The more consistently candidates see LTS and the opportunities we represent, the more familiar they become with our brand and the opportunities available in Malaysia.

Beyond recruitment platforms, we also invest in building relationships directly with the Japanese talent community. We work with universities through career fairs, career talks and other engagement activities to introduce students and graduates to career opportunities in Malaysia.

Not every approach delivers the same results, but each initiative plays a role in building LTS’s presence and credibility in the Japanese market. For us, it is about creating a long term talent strategy rather than relying on a single source of candidates.

Senny: When it comes to recruiting Japanese speaking talent, the most important thing for us is building trust with the candidate. We want them to see LTS as a reliable partner who can help them find the right opportunity and make a successful transition to working in Malaysia.

That starts with being transparent. We make sure candidates understand the role, the company, the expectations and the recruitment process from the beginning. Japanese candidates are often well informed about the job market, so building trust and being clear about what we can offer is extremely important.

Our pre screening process is also very detailed. We want to make sure that every candidate we put forward genuinely matches what our client is looking for. We work closely with hiring managers, and when we receive feedback after an interview, we take that feedback seriously and use it to refine our sourcing strategy. Sometimes, we adjust our approach on a daily basis depending on what the client is telling us.

We also spend time preparing candidates before their interviews. We provide guidance, share interview tips and make sure they understand what to expect. We want candidates to feel supported throughout the process, rather than feeling like they are simply being passed from one stage to another.

Jung: That is a real added value. In Japan, trust and credibility are particularly important when choosing a company to work with. And it works both ways here. LTS is building trust with candidates, while also building trust with the companies that rely on you to find the right talent.

Senny: Exactly. For us, recruitment is not just about making a placement. It is about building relationships that last, with both our candidates and our clients. When both sides trust us, we can create a much better outcome for everyone involved.

Senny: I don’t have the exact figures with me, but roughly speaking, when we first started using Daijob in 2022 and through 2024, we were not seeing many placements. To be honest, we were not quite sure why.

Things started to change in 2025 when my team and I began working much more closely with the Daijob team. They gave us practical advice on things like keywords, how to structure our job advertisements and how to keep our postings visible to the right candidates. Once we started applying those recommendations, we began to see a real difference.

In 2025, we had around two to three placements through Daijob. This year, we have already reached around seven to eight placements, so the improvement has been quite significant.

I think one of the biggest differences has been the guidance we have received from Kyoungjoon Jung. Since last year, we have been in close contact, and he often gives us detailed, data based advice on how to improve our advertisements, reach the right candidates and make our scout messages more effective.

We take his advice seriously and apply it to our recruitment activities, and we have seen the results in our numbers. I really appreciate that relationship. Whenever we face an issue or are unsure about how to improve our results, we can reach out to him and get practical advice. For us, that level of support has made a real difference.

Senny: Right now, we are seeing a lot of traction from candidates who apply directly to our job postings on Daijob. That is currently the channel giving us the strongest results.

If we can further improve the Scout feature, I think it could help us reach even more candidates. The more relevant candidates we can bring into our pipeline, the more opportunities we have to make successful placements. We are not necessarily looking at one candidate for one position. Every candidate we speak to could potentially be matched with several different openings, because each of our clients has different requirements and expectations.

Jung: We have already introduced improvements on the matching side, and we are continuing to work on making Scout emails and recruiter recommendations more effective.

At the same time, I do not think technology or AI can replace the human side of recruitment. Having people who genuinely understand the client, know what they are looking for and can interpret the data in the right context is still extremely important. The technology can help us identify better matches and improve efficiency, but the relationship and the understanding behind the recruitment process remain essential.

That is the balance we are working towards, using better technology and data while keeping the human connection at the centre of the process.

Senny: We see ourselves as a global recruitment company, and I think that comes naturally from the diversity within our own team. We have Japanese and Korean teams, Indonesian colleagues and people from many other backgrounds working together.

Being based in Malaysia also gives us the opportunity to experience and celebrate many different cultures. We celebrate the major festivals throughout the year, and these celebrations have become an important part of life at LTS.

You will often see a lot of activity happening around the office during these occasions. For us, it is more than just celebrating a festival. It is about bringing people together, learning about each other’s cultures and creating an environment where everyone feels included. That multicultural environment is also a big part of who we are as a company.

Photo: The LTS team celebrating one of Malaysia's many cultural festivals together.

Senny: Looking ahead, our focus is not just on growing our business, but on building stronger partnerships and continuing to deepen the relationships we already have. We want to remain the preferred recruitment partner for our existing clients, while also supporting more companies that are looking to set up or expand their operations in Malaysia.

At the same time, we want to become the recruitment company that candidates think of when they are looking for international career opportunities. We are continuing to expand the range of services we offer so that we can support both clients and candidates at different stages of their journey.

Our opportunities are also becoming increasingly regional. As LTS continues to grow across Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Thailand and Taiwan, we are now able to support international placements across the countries where we operate. This means Japanese candidates are no longer limited to opportunities in Malaysia. They can also explore career opportunities in markets such as Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam.

For us, the long term goal is to build a stronger regional talent network and create more opportunities for people who want to develop their careers internationally. We want to connect the right candidates with the right companies, wherever those opportunities may be across Asia.

Daijob is an important part of that strategy. It has helped us strengthen our access to Japanese talent in Japan, and as our regional opportunities continue to grow, we see even more potential to connect Japanese candidates with companies and career opportunities across Asia.

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