Japan Foreign Worker Population: Updated April 18, 2024.

 

Japan's foreign worker population tops 2 million for first time

Article Source:  https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240126/p2g/00m/0na/068000c

Ideas:

Japan, for the most part is an attractive place to live and and work and hopefully will get more foreigner friendly in the future.

Of course Japan, again for the most part, has some strict immigration controls and might be challenging for some individuals to enter and work in Japan.

Japan might never be an open immigration society, like the US, but it can go long way to improve some things.

All countries want the perfect model educated type worker, but that is not reality, and the same in Japan, as are looking for specific workers, and unfortunately, not everyone.

Labor shortages in Japan seem to be a reality now, but the challenge is will companies actually use and hire foreign workers or will they be content with labor shortages due the fact that some companies just don't want to hire foreign workers.

Japan needs to expand its use of foreign workers into many different sectors and areas of the country. But there is certain element in Japan that really don't want too many foreigners.

Some have suggested, and it was from an article many years ago, that Japan, or some in Japan, is going to be content to be like Switzerland, which means a lower places in the global order and not worry about economic growth or its spot globally.

But it seems that reality has not taken place, as Japan is now trying to figure out how to fix is labor shortage and how to increase foreign workers in Japan.

Many of the jobs available to foreign workers, actually, jobs that many young Japanese workers have refused to take.

For example, many young Japanese workers, and understandably so, don't want to work construction jobs, and so workers from other countries, who are looking for a better way of life are willing to take construction jobs in Japan.

The same maybe with medical and the welfare sectors, which the jobs might be high stress and or low pay and again, foreign workers are willing to do the jobs that younger Japanese workers don't want to do.

The challenge will be, will Japan immigration, in the future allow these foreign workers to get permanent visas and stay in Japan or will they only be allowed to work in Japan for a few years only.

Some of these workers might be trying to improve their lives with better pay and better work conditions, and some might be wanting to actually live and work in Japan, as its close to their home country.

Despite all of these so-called workers, Japan might still be experiencing labor shortages, and some sectors might not want to decrease their labor shortage and maybe they might not want to deal with foreigners.

And maybe some province in Japan, just can't attract foreign workers such as rural areas, as maybe most foreign workers want to live and work in the major metropolitan areas of Japan.

Tokyo, Osaka, and other metro areas in Japan are always going to get more foreign workers, and the challenge is for companies in the rural areas or not in the metro areas, is to pay higher wages to attract foreign workers to come and work in rural areas in Japan.

But some companies maybe can't increase wages or increase wages enough to get some foreign workers to come to their rural company site.

Many rural areas are now dying out, losing a lot of young Japanese workers who want to live in the metro areas, and as such the rural areas of Japan in a few years or decades, are not going to have any young workers in them.

Have a nice day and be safe!