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Foreign Workers

At present, laws concerning the acceptance of foreign workers are being developed in Japan. Behind this is the concern that the labor force will decline due to the declining birthrate and aging population.

First of all, in order for a foreigner to work in Japan, he or she must have a resident status to prove that he or she is permitted to work in Japan. There are a total of 33 statuses of residence, and depending on the status of the spouse, the length of stay and the activities permitted vary. It is also prohibited to engage in activities other than those authorized.

According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare(2018), there are 1,460,463 foreign workers in Japan.

Technical Internship Program for Foreign People

In the past, Japan accepted foreigners based on the "Technical Internship Program for Foreign Nationals". The "Technical Internship Program for Foreign Nationals" is a system that allows foreign workers to work in the field for up to five years to acquire skills. The purpose of the program is to temporarily employ foreign workers as technical interns in Japan so that they can acquire skills in various fields.

However, the Technical Intern Training Program is originally designed to contribute to human resource development that supports the development of developing countries. As a result, it was prohibited to employ technical interns as part of the workforce in order to make up for the labor shortage in Japan. Foreign workers were not allowed to work part-time or unskilled within 28 hours a week, which was characteristic of many restrictions on working conditions.

In addition, it is sometimes pointed out that the technical intern training system does not solve the labor shortage in Japan because trainees are forced to return to their home countries after their internship period ends.

Specific industrial fields and skills

It has become difficult to cope with the decrease in the domestic working population only with the technical intern training system for foreigners with the characteristics mentioned above.

To address this situation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has designated 14 areas as "specific industrial field" where the shortage of human resources is particularly acute, and foreign nationals has been allowed to work in Japan only in the specific industries within the scope of the status of residence specified in the "Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act" (Revised Immigration Control Act) enforced in April 2019.

Under this law, the status of residence of "specific skill", which was established based on the policy decided by the Cabinet in December 2018, will move to the implementation stage. Two residence statuses of "Specified Skilled Worker (i)" and "Specified Skilled Worker (ii)" were established, and the employment of foreign workers in the field of unskilled labor was newly approved.

Foreign workers with specific skills can change jobs on the condition that they are in the same industry.

Specific skills

Specific skills are status of residence that permits foreign workers to work within the scope prescribed by certain rules. Currently, those who can work with specific skills are limited to 14 types of industries such as fishery, agriculture, food and beverage industry, restaurant industry, construction industry, and nursing care.

In order to obtain a specific skill, you need to pass a certain level of technical internship experience or an examination to measure Japanese language ability and business skills at a predetermined level. Up to approximately 350,000 foreign workers will be accepted under the new status of residence over the next five years. Approximately half of them are expected to shift from technical intern training.

In addition, although the number of foreign workers accepted for specific skills is stipulated for each industry, there is no limit to the number of foreign workers in each workplace in industries other than nursing care and construction.

Specified Skilled Worker (i)

The conditions for obtaining the certification are to pass the specified skill test and the Japanese language examination, or to complete Technical Intern Training (ii). The period of stay is one year, six months, or renewal every four months for a maximum of five years, but you are not allowed to have your family with you.

If you have five years of technical intern training, you can obtain it, and you can stay for up to ten years in total. At present, employees are allowed to work in 14 industries, including nursing care, construction, restaurant, agriculture and aviation.

Specified Skilled Worker (ii)

Passing a specific skill test is required to obtain certification, but be differed to specified skill (i), the Japanese language test is not required. The target is foreign workers who are engaged in work requiring experienced skills. If the conditions are met, family members are allowed to be present, and they can be renewed every three years, one year or six months, but there is no upper limit to the expiration date. At present, construction industry and shipbuilding industry only are allowed to work.

Current situation of foreign workers in Japan

Breakdown of Foreign Workers in Japan

The number of foreign workers in Japan as of 2018 is shown below.

1. China (389,117 people)
2. Vietnam (316,840 people)
3. Philippines(164,006 people)

Industries with a large number of foreign workers

In Japan today, the manufacturing industry has the largest number of both foreign and foreign workers. (29.7% of the total number of foreign workers and 21.4% of the total number of plant employing foreign workers)

Advantages and Disadvantages of Employment of Foreign Workers

Advantage of employing foreign workers

Help to resolve the labor shortage

Addressing the labor shortage in Japan is expected with expanding the employment of foreign workers.

Help for expanding the business

By employing foreign workers, we will be able to respond to a variety of languages other than Japanese, and will be able to expand our business by working with foreign companies.

Growing globalization in the company

In an environment where foreign workers are in the same workplace, Japanese people will become to use foreign languages such as English to communicate with foreign workers. It is also possible for foreign workers to develop innovative ideas based on cultures and values of countries other than Japan and that could lead to develop new technologies.

Current problems

There are cases where contract-related obligations are not observed

At present, there are cases where contracts are not exchanged when hiring foreign workers, or even if contracts are exchanged, the contents are not kept. For example, if a contract is not signed and the working conditions are decided by verbal agreement, foreign workers may not be able to understand the salary system of their workplace, or they may not be able to present evidence of the contract when a trouble occurs, which may lead to the deterioration of the working environment.

Can be difficult to communicate smoothly

Nowadays, there are foreign workers who are able to speak Japanese at a certain level or higher, because they are required to pass the Japanese language examination for the Designated Skill No. 1. However, because not all foreign workers can speak Japanese fluently, multilingual support at small workplaces, such as local retailers, and obstacles to the lives of foreign workers have become particularly problematic.

In addition, due to differences in culture and values between Japan and other countries, it is probable to inadvertently mislead others, so it is necessary to respect each other's culture and coexist.

It takes time to get a working visa

Currently, it takes about one to three months to obtain a work visa if you have not issued and submitted a certificate of eligibility for resident status. Foreign workers who do not have work visas or who do not renew their visas are considered to be working illegally and are subject to penalties, so the inability to obtain work visas speedily limits their ability to work.

Labor costs could increase

As mentioned earlier in the section of "There are cases where contract-related obligations are not observed", there are cases where foreign workers are forced to work at unreasonably low wages without signing contracts. However, in order to secure excellent foreign human resources, it is necessary to offer a salary equal to or higher than that of Japanese.

In addition, since the travel expenses for foreign workers and the cost of obtaining work visas are borne by the company, it is likely that the burden on the company side will increase rather than hiring Japanese.