Nasu Highland Park (Nasu Town, Tochigi Prefecture) is recruiting 10 “platinum part-time workers” with an hourly wage of 2,500 yen to work from August 10th to 18th. Approximately 100 people, 10 times as many, applied for jobs such as selling food from kitchen trucks and selling beer.

The job posting states, “Only those who are confident should apply,” which suggests that they are specifically looking for people with experience. When we interviewed the park, they said that the main focus was not on countering labor shortages, but on increasing demand for so-called double work, such as multiple jobs. At Japanese companies, where salaries tend to be uniform with little difference between employees and part-time workers, Nasu Highland Park’s efforts may serve as a leader in promoting merit-based pay.

Inbound ratio is only less than 1%

Nasu Highland Park is located in the northern part of Nasu Town, Tochigi Prefecture. The park opened in 1979 and is about 3 hours away from Tokyo. Its symbol is a large Ferris wheel and multiple roller coasters, making it a standard amusement park in a good way. In addition to the dog run, there are other attractions that you can enjoy with your dog, making it very popular among pet lovers.

According to the park, its customers are mainly families, who sometimes use it for school field trips. Although they do not have a complete count of the total number, the inbound ratio is said to be less than 1%. Recently, many foreign tourists have been seen outside the three major metropolitan areas, but the fact that it takes more than an hour to get there from Nasu-Shiobara Station may be a bottleneck.

Multiplier is 10x Human resources who contribute to sales are gathered together

As I wrote at the beginning, the park was recruiting platinum part-time workers with an hourly wage of 2,500 yen for the period from August 10th to 18th. Working hours are approximately 6 hours from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The requirement is to work for at least 7 days. They recruited people to sell food from kitchen trucks and sell beer, and those hired were responsible for tasks such as attracting customers, serving customers, cooking, and selling.

This was the first time that a platinum part-time job was being offered, and the high hourly wage became a hot topic in the media. Approximately 100 people applied for the 10 positions. According to park officials, those hired who pass the 10x ratio have a high quality of work, such as “talking to customers with a smile and proactively promoting products” (according to a park representative), and overall It is said that this contributed to a 1.2 to 1.5 times increase in sales.

After all, if the ratio is 10x, it will be possible to secure high-spec human resources who can contribute to increased sales. Although it was not possible to obtain details of the recruits, such as whether they had work experience at a certain theme park in Chiba Prefecture, it was said that applications were received from people with a variety of careers, not just those with sales experience or customer service/sales experience. .

When recruiting platinum part-time jobs, some reports cited a labor shortage. However, according to the park, the main purpose of the recruitment is surprisingly not due to a labor shortage.

“Although the hiring market changes depending on the year and season, we have been able to secure the required number of people for regular part-time jobs every year.Therefore, this time’s Platinum Part-time job is for those who are working as adults and others who are taking time off. As the demand for double-work that utilizes the park is increasing, our aim was to secure special human resources who can make the park and ancillary businesses more exciting than ever before.” (Park official)

It is said that the reason for the hiring was to secure excellent human resources, and it seems that the aim was also to maintain a continuous connection with them. By the way, the normal part-time job that Nasu Highland Park is currently recruiting for is 1,200 yen per hour. Platinum part-time jobs have an hourly wage that is more than double that, so you can see how special the treatment is.

Perhaps because the benefits were so great, Nasu Highland Park announced the recruitment of the second platinum part-time job on September 24th (the recruitment period is year-round). This is a part-time job that takes place on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, and the hourly wage is 2,500 yen.

Will “double wages,” not double prices, spread?

It can be assumed that the recruitment of platinum part-time jobs was not only for finding human resources, but also for advertising effects.

In terms of finding talent, theme parks are a special environment, and there is not a solid talent market like in manufacturing or IT. Rather than relying on external agents, it would probably be faster to recruit candidates at double the market price and select them in-house. The effectiveness of advertising is clear from the reporting by each company. It appears that the aim was to get coverage just before the Obon holiday to increase awareness. To be honest, I also became aware of the park again for the first time in 10 years through the coverage of Platinum Byte.

There is a possibility that such platinum part-time jobs will be recruited elsewhere in the future. Dual pricing systems, which separate prices for Japanese and foreign customers, are now commonplace, but differences in wages within each company are still small, and the concept of merit pay has not yet taken hold. In Japan, wages are determined by seniority, and wage differences between part-time workers are generally small. Especially in the case of part-time jobs, there may be a difference of several tens of yen at the same location, but it is rare for there to be a difference of several hundred yen.

However, as the labor shortage accelerates in the future, there will be an increasing need to double or triple the difference depending on the situation and situation. As the park claims to “meet the demand for dual-work,” when hiring people to work as full-time employees at other companies, the company will not be a preferred workplace unless it pays the same wages as full-time employees, even for part-time workers. In the future, dual pricing systems where wages are based on performance may become commonplace.

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Shin Yamaguchi

Writer in the fields of economics, technology, and real estate. Writes articles on corporate analysis and urban development. Her qualifications include bookkeeping and financial planning. My hobbies are reading economics-related books and financial statements. X: @shin_yamaguchi_