On a recent early morning, trainer Kazuhito Fujigasaki shouted instructions at Argenis Antonio Castro Lopez, who was heading to a training course at the Yatomi Training Center in Yatomi, Aichi Prefecture, on horseback: "Lento, lento."

With the word meaning "slow" in Spanish, the horse trainer was telling him not to force the pace but ride slowly.

Posted on the wall at the stable are pieces of paper reading "caminar" (to walk), "suave" (soft) and other Spanish words related to horse training, with the words written in katakana.

"He rides well. He is skilled," Fujigasaki, 55, said of Castro.

Born in the Dominican Republic, Castro, 32, said he came to Japan two years ago to earn a higher salary than he could in his home country. In the summer of 2019, he moved from a racing horse farm in the Kanto region to the Fujigasaki stable where his fellow countryman Joel Castro de Leon, 31, has been working.

They were both jockeys back home.

"The work is not easy, but I can work with my friend, and I haven't had any trouble. To be honest, I'd like to be a jockey in Japan, too," Castro said.

FOREIGN INFLUENCE IN HORSE RACING CIRCLES

It has become common to see Central and South American staff members working at the Yatomi Training Center, where there is a hub of stables for horses competing in races hosted by Nagoya authorities.

According to a public relations representative for the Nagoya race authorities, 18, or nearly 20 percent, of all stable workers were from Venezuela and other countries as of May 31 this year.

Many non-Japanese have long been central figures in the Japanese horse racing community.

Christophe Lemaire from France and Mirco Demuro from Italy have gone on to become star jockeys for races hosted by the Japan Racing Association (JRA) at major racecourses.

Meanwhile, at local levels, the number of foreign stable workers, including those from India and Central and South America, has been rapidly increasing.

Bringing their expertise in horse riding and training from back home into Japan, they hit the ground running to play essential roles in races operated by local governments.

One day in early June, two foreign men were working at the Kasamatsu Racecourse in Gifu Prefecture, each pulling the reins of a runner in the forthcoming race to parade around the paddock.

When the horses were mounted by jockeys, the men led the horses to the dirt course one by one and saw them off going to the starting gate.

Laxman Arun Bharati, 36, and Mohammad Shahraza, 32, came to Japan between November and December last year under the "skilled worker" residency status after being highly evaluated for their work experience in their home country of India, which is passionate about horse racing, and elsewhere.

With permission from the racecourse operator, they are employed by trainer Masaharu Fujita, 62.

In addition to cleaning stalls at the stable, feeding horses and doing other chores, they ride the horses to train them. The English-speaking Bharati said he relays Fujita's instructions to Shahraza in Hindi.

Bharati had worked at stables in India and Britain, the home of horse racing, for a total of 17 years.

He said he likes Japan and wants to work in this country for a long time. He lives in an apartment building for stable hands managed by the racecourse, sending most of his monthly earnings to his wife and children in India, he added.

SHORTAGE OF LABOR

According to the National Association of Racing (NAR), the Tokyo-based organization for horse racing operated by local governments, and other organizations, the number of non-Japanese stable workers has been increasing across the country after the Hokkaido horse race organizer, based in Hidaka, Hokkaido, recruited them in May 2018 due to a labor shortage.

The Fujita stable in Kasamatsu employs five Japanese male and female workers in addition to the two Indian staffers. But they are barely enough staff to take care of at least 40 horses stabled there.

Fujita has been posting job openings at a local job-placement office for many years, but he hardly receives applications even though no experience in stable work is required.

"I receive even fewer applications from Japanese people who can ride horses. I don't need to teach the Indian staff members like Bharati because they can handle horses and they hit the ground running," Fujita said.

Such foreign stable workers, in many cases, are placed by staffing agencies.
Giri Vishunu, 38, a Nepal native who lives in Tomakomai, Hokkaido, cooperates with an organization in India that dispatches workers, making arrangements for their visits to Japan.

He refers Indian people who want to work in Japan at race horse stables and farms, sending at least 60 workers to authorities operating the Hokkaido horse race, the Banei draft horse race in Obihiro, Hokkaido, and other organizations.

"Stable work is painstaking, and only a few young Japanese would want to do it," Vishunu said. "I think foreigners are essential to horse races operated by local governments. I want to refer skilled workers to stables in need."

He serves as a mediator between Indian workers and Japanese trainers after their arrival, helping them send money to India and teaching them social customs to follow in Japan. He also acts as an interpreter when smartphone apps and handheld translator devices are not enough to meet the communication needs, he added.

It was Vishunu who brought the two Indian workers to Fujita's stable in Kasamatsu.

Although entry restrictions remain in place due to the global spread of the novel coronavirus, another dozen or so workers from India and elsewhere are waiting to depart to work in Kasamatsu, he said.

In Japan, workers at race horse stables are employed by trainers who own stables. In addition to salaries provided by trainers, stable workers also receive part of the prize money won at races.

Local associations and governments that operate NAR races screen applicants through interviews and other means at the request of trainers.

For horse races organized by the JRA, new recruits are required to have completed the course for stable employees at its Horse Racing School. There are no foreign nationals working at stables associated with the JRA, it said.

According to the NAR and other organizations, there were 37 staff members from India working at stables for NAR races in Hokkaido; five from India for Banei draft horse races in Hokkaido; three from Uzbekistan in Iwate Prefecture; two from India in Kasamatsu; seven from Venezuela, Dominican Republic and Indonesia in Kochi Prefecture; two from India in Saga Prefecture as of April 1; and 18 from Venezuela, Dominican Republic and India in Nagoya as of May 31.