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February 2, 2025 | 04:52 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The number of foreign workers in Japan has hit a record high, surpassing 2.3 million, local media reported over the weekend, Anadolu reported, underscoring Japan’s growing reliance on foreigners to address a chronic labor crunch.
Data from Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare showed that as of October, Japan had 2.3 million foreign workers, up 12.4%, according to Kyodo News.
By nationality, Vietnamese were the largest group with 570,708 workers, followed by Chinese with 408,805 and Filipinos with 245,565.
A labor ministry official said Japan remains a popular destination for foreign workers despite the yen’s depreciation.
“Many people, especially from Southeast Asia, are still choosing Japan,” the official was quoted as saying by the news agency.
The foreign worker population has been at consecutive annual highs since 2013. Specified Skilled Worker visa holders—which allow foreigners to work in labor-shortage industries such as nursing and construction—rose 49.4 percent in the last reporting year to 206,995, according to Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
The increase in foreign workers to 2,302,587 came as the number of jobs employing foreign nationals also hit a record 342,087, up 7.3 percent from the previous year. Small businesses with fewer than 30 employees accounted for 62.4 percent of the total.
As reported by The Japan Times, the steady increase highlights Japan’s growing reliance on foreign workers as the country grapples with a shrinking workforce, a trend that has continued since its working-age population peaked in 1995.
Japan’s unemployment rate has been below 3 percent for nearly four years, and remains among the lowest in developed countries. The aging nation will need 6.88 million foreign workers by 2040 to meet its growth targets, according to estimates by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
“The results reflect the need for Japan to accept foreign workers to some extent to fill the labor force shortage,” said Shungo Akimoto, an economist at Mizuho Securities.
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