It is safe to say cryptocurrency is still incredibly popular in Japan as of right now. Given the country’s designation of this form of money as legal tender, it is only normal that we will see further growth in the years to come. That is, assuming there are sufficient software engineers to accommodate companies’ needs. Right now, it seems that is still an ongoing struggle for all cryptocurrency firms.

Japanese Software Engineer Shortage

In a way, it’s almost surprising to learn that Japan doesn’t have a sufficient number of software engineers to accommodate the cryptocurrency industry. This mainly pertains to engineers who are well-versed in platform security, which is something every cryptocurrency firm needs right now. Hiring the right people is extremely difficult if they simply aren’t there to hire in the first place.

Moreover, this issue has been present for quite some time now. Coincheck admitted that the hacking of its platform was partially due to not being able to hire enough software engineers to counter potential problems. Even though the company knew all too well it was a matter of time until things went awry, it had no other choice but to keep moving forward, by the look of things.

Finding the right people for such positions is a big struggle in Japan. Even the use of headhunters, agencies, and so forth did not help the company in hiring enough people to keep the platform safe. This is just one exchange we are talking about, mind you, as Japan is home to dozens of cryptocurrency trading platforms. All of these firms suffer from the same problem, unfortunately.

Even though cryptocurrency is one of the most booming industries in Japan as of right now, it seems engineers aren’t too keen on shifting their focus to this new industry. Whether or not that is done purposefully or just highlights a bigger flaw in the security engineer workforce remains unclear at this point. It does appear most companies also struggle to hire cybersecurity experts, blockchain specialists, and so forth.

A lot of jobs have been created by the cryptocurrency industry, yet filling them is a bit problematic, for obvious reasons. With regulators forcing exchanges to tighten security, something will have to change. If there aren’t people suited to do the job, a very big problem will materialize sooner rather than later. How this situation will play out remains anybody’s guess.

It is worth noting that these shortages are nothing new in Japan. Back in 2016, the country had a shortage of over 15,000 workers for big data and AI, which has close ties to software engineers. It seems this discrepancy will only continue to grow and is expected to hit 50,000 by 2020. This could spell a big problem for Japanese cryptocurrency firms, unless they decide to look abroad to hire new talent. That may very well be their only remaining course of action.