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The number of foreign workers in Japan reached a new high, underscoring the country’s growing reliance on people from overseas to address its chronic labour shortage.
Japan had a record 2,3 million foreign workers as of October 2024, marking a 12,4 percent increase from the previous year, according to labour ministry figures released Friday.
The number of businesses employing at least one foreign worker also hit a record high of around 342 000, up 7,3 percent from a year ago, the report showed.
The steady rise highlights Japan’s increasing dependence on overseas labour as the nation struggles with a shrinking workforce, a trend that has persisted since its working-age population peaked in 1995.
Japan’s unemployment rate has been below 3 percent for almost four years, remaining among the lowest in advanced nations.
The aging nation will need 6,88 million foreign workers in 2040 to meet its growth targets, according to an estimate by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
“The results reflect Japan’s need to accept foreign workers to some extent to cover the shortfall in the labour force,” said Shungo Akimoto, economist at Mizuho Securities.
Small businesses have been hit particularly hard by the labour shortage, with more than 60 percent of small- and medium-sized businesses reporting labour shortfalls, according to a survey by the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry last year. Friday’s report showed that nearly 80 percent of those 342,000 businesses are smaller firms with fewer than 100 employees. — Bloomberg.
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