The number of forcibly displaced people due to conflict, violence, etc. has surpassed 100 million worldwide, and the number of refugees among them has reached 32.5 million. Under such circumstances, the importance of enabling refugees to live independent lives, and developing refugee human resources who can contribute to refugee-hosting countries and societies, are emphasized.

This paper aims to clarify the motivations of private companies to hire refugees, including asylum seekers, in Japan and the processes that realize the workforce integration of refugees from the perspective of private companies.

We implemented semi-structured interviews with 21 people of 15 companies that hire, have hired, or have intention to hire refugees in Japan. A Grounded Theory Approach (GTA) was used for data analysis. In addition, we conducted supplementary interviews with 4 refugee supporting organizatitons in Japan to understand the overall picture and challenges of refugee employment in Japan.

Japanese private companies “consider hiring foreign workers” when there is necessity, such as business expansion and/or transactions overseas, internationalization within the company, or responsing to the shortage of human resources. And/or there “is a strong commitment to refugee issues” from management. Through contacts with refugee supporting organizations, some of these Japanese private companies led to “conducting trial and error for accepting refugee workers” or “preparing the necessary environment for hiring refugee workers.”

In “conducting trial and error for accepting refugee workers,” if there are multiple trial and error menus for accepting refugee workers, some comapnies arrive at the stage of “preparing the necessary environment for hiring refugee workers.” If the stance of the Japanese private companies that accept refugee workers is positive and there are various devices and/or systems in place to accept them, some result in creating “a refugee-friendly working environment.”

To increase more Japanese companies that hire refugee workers, the role of refugee supporting organizations, approaching group leaders or section heads of the companies cosidering hiring foreign workers and widely introducing various processes and cases of acceptance of refugee workers are indispensable.