The Japanese government is taking steps to address the growing labor shortage by expanding its program for welcoming foreign workers. Four new job categories will be added to the Type 1 specified skilled worker visa, which allows workers to stay in Japan for up to five years without bringing their families.
The new categories include automotive transportation, railways, forestry, and the lumber industry. This expansion is part of a broader migrant labor policy that aims to accept 820,000 workers from overseas over the next five years, a 2.4-fold increase from the previous five years.
Under the specified skilled worker program, foreign nationals can only work in fields where there is a labor shortage after efforts have been made to secure domestic workers and improve productivity. As of the end of last year, 208,462 people were living in Japan under this visa status.
The expected number of incoming workers over the next five years is 173,000 for industrial manufacturing, followed by 139,000 for food and beverage manufacturing, 135,000 for nursing care, 80,000 for construction, and 78,000 for agriculture. The number has increased from the program’s launch in 2019 in 10 of the 12 existing work fields. The other two are building cleaning and the restaurant industry.