In many ways, Yogendra Puranik is an immigrant success story.Mr. Puranik, 45, joined the initial wave of Indian tech workers who went to Japan in the early 2000s. He became a Japanese citizen and in 2019 won elected office in Tokyo, a first for anyone from India. This year, he was hired as the principal of a public school.Now, though, as Japanese companies scramble to lure more highly educated Indians like Mr. Puranik to fill a yawning shortage of IT engineers, he is under no illusion about the challenges that Japan, and those it attracts, will face.Recruiters call it a crucial test of Japan’s ability to compete with the United States and Europe for increasingly sought-after global talent. But lower pay and steep language and cultural barriers make Japan les …
