OSAKA--On a recent day, Guo Ding-xun was seen checking the prices of food items before returning them to the shelves at a discount supermarket in Osaka.

Although examining a "kamaboko" fish cake, gyoza and other items there, the Taiwanese man threw only three things, including "udon" noodles with a price of 19 yen (18 cents), into his shopping basket before heading to the checkout.

Guo, 25, said although his daily food budget is no more than 500 yen a day, he is feeling pressure as his savings are fast disappearing.

Guo is one of many foreign hotel clerks being forced to give up their "Japanese dreams" as the COVID-19 pandemic keeps guests away from accommodation facilities.

The hotel industry in Japan grew rapidly with an influx of tourists from overseas. But many non-Japanese hotel staffers have been dismissed and cast adrift amid the new coronavirus outbreak.

Such former hotel employees have failed to find new jobs and now must live on their savings. They expect to have no choice but to return to their home countries in the very near future.

DREAMS OF LIVING IN JAPAN

Inspired by anime and drama works from Japan since childhood, Guo trained at a kendo dojo during his high school days. He started dreaming of living in Japan and came to the country three years ago.

Guo studied at a Japanese language school in Osaka and began working at a hotel in Shizuoka Prefecture as a permanent employee in January last year.

When he started feeling confident in serving restaurant customers and doing other tasks at his workplace by taking advantage of his language skills a year later, the new coronavirus began spreading.

Reservations were canceled in succession by foreign travelers from mid-February with no guests visiting his hotel at one point. Half his salary was slashed, so Guo received less than 100,000 yen a month after taxes.

Seeing the hotel operator asking for its employees to leave the company voluntarily in March, Guo decided to look for a new job. He used his personal connections built at the Japanese language school to seek employment in Osaka while staying at a small "minpaku" inn.

Guo, however, noted that there are few job offers from hotels and tourism facilities, and that his savings will last only another two months.

"The dream I was looking to fulfill in Japan will be lost," said Guo. "My effort may come to naught."

Zhang Jianyu, 28, a student from China, planned to work at a hotel in Osaka after graduating from a college in Osaka Prefecture.

He decided to start his career as a hotel staffer, because he learned the pleasures of tourism and serving customers while working at a lodging facility part time in his younger student days.

But in late April, immediately before his scheduled day to begin working, Zhang was told by his employer that he would not be able to work there. He is now looking for a new job after receiving 100,000 yen in a government subsidy, combined with his hotel wages for the first month.

"My money may all run out before I can find a place to work," said Zhang. "Should I give up working at a hotel and choose a different kind of occupation?"

Zhang added that he sometimes thinks of returning to his hometown.

GUESTS STAYING AWAY

According to the Japan Tourism Agency, a survey taken of 21,700 accommodation facilities across Japan showed their occupancy rates dropped dramatically from 52.7 percent in February to 16.3 percent in April.

Hotels in urban areas were affected most severely, leading to a 70-percent decrease in the occupancy ratio on a year-on-year basis.

In May, the overall occupancy rate for the lodging industry dropped further to 12.8 percent.

Crobo Co., a staffing agency in Osaka's Kita Ward at (info@crobo.co.jp), which sends fluent Japanese speakers from overseas to tourism and lodging establishments catering to foreign visitors as permanent staff, said 80 percent of its client hotels have dropped their recruitment plans.

Because of that, Crobo staged a campaign from March through June, where hotel operators can find new employees with no commission fee charged, and 901 non-Japanese job seekers applied for the opportunity.

Of the applicants, 499 cited their dismissal, reduced wages, retracted employment offers and other factors linked to the COVID-19 spread as reasons for changing jobs.

As only 11 of them could find new jobs, many of the applicants have returned to their home nations, according to Crobo representatives.

"Many cases where subsidies for business suspension are not provided to non-Japanese workers have been reported everywhere, and temporary employees from abroad have been dismissed in many instances," said Tomohiro Kitauji, 30, CEO of Crobo. "Unless the situation where foreign workers are exploited like a control valve changes, no foreigners will want to work in Japan after the end of the coronavirus pandemic."

GROWING FOREIGN WORKER NUMBERS

Data from the labor ministry showed 1.66 million foreigners, including temporary employees, worked in Japan as of the end of October 2019, meaning the figure doubled over the five years from 2014.

The number of foreign workers increased dramatically in Osaka Prefecture 2.6 times from 40,000 to 105,000.

Of these, 206,000 were engaged in the accommodation and restaurant industries nationwide, which have been greatly impacted by the virus outbreak. The numbers rapidly rose twice and 2.6 times in Tokyo and Osaka Prefecture, respectively, in the past five years.

Non-Japanese who are looking for jobs or considering changing workplaces will be able to seek advice at public employment security offices throughout Japan. Employment service centers for foreigners, staffed with interpreters, are also available in Tokyo as well as Osaka, Fukuoka and Aichi prefectures, allowing foreigners to screen job offers and obtain support based on their visa statuses.