Chinese News The population estimates recently released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan reflect that the aging population of Japanese society is increasing, and the need to supplement labor through foreigners is prominent. However, as the yen continues to slide to record lows against the US dollar, Japan's attractiveness to foreign talent has declined significantly.
According to a sample survey conducted by Mynavi Global at the beginning of 2024, the percentage of talented foreigners who want to work in Japan is 91.0%, a decrease of 5.8% from 2022. The top reason for foreigners' reluctance to work in Japan was the weak yen, accounting for 38.5% of respondents.
According to a survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan, the number of people over the age of 15 in Japan who have not yet been employed or looking for a job in 2022 but still hope to have a job will fall to 2.33 million, 2.97 million fewer than 20 years ago, and if you add about 1.78 million unemployed people who are looking for jobs, the potential labor force is only 4.11 million, accounting for 3.7% of the population over 15 years old, less than half of the 8% in 2003. This shows that Japan's labor force is losing.
In addition, according to the National Institute of Social Security and Population Research, from 1995 to 2023, the working population aged 15 to 64 was 15% less than the peak. Munehisa Tamura, an analyst at the Daiwa Research Institute, pointed out that Japan has reached the limit of allowing women and the elderly to return to the labor market to offset the decline in employment. It is estimated that by 2035, there will still be a shortage of about 8 million employed people to meet the manpower needed to grow Japan's real GDP by 0.5% per year. According to the forecast of the Rickley Career Research Institute in Japan, by 2040, the labor supply gap in Japan will exceed 11 million people.
It is no longer realistic to rely on local people to fill such a large manpower gap, so the fundamental purpose of Japan's continuous changes to the foreign policy is to more effectively attract foreign talents to work in Japan. The abolition of the "technical intern training" system for foreigners and the creation of a new "education and achievement work" program is a major step forward. On 16 April, the amendment entered the deliberation stage.
Although the Japanese government has "curried" over foreign talents with "enthusiasm" so that they can stay and work in Japan, the yen has continued to bottom out recently, so foreign talents should also carefully consider whether they can "make money" by working in Japan for a long time.
According to the survey data of Mynavi Global, the percentage of talented foreigners who want to work in Japan is 91.0%, a decrease of 5.8% from 2022.
Even Vietnamese human resources, who generally do not have a high average income in Japan, answered in the survey that they would like to stay and work in Japan in the future, down 12.1% from 2022 to 85.9%. However, Indonesians and Burmese, who have a small domestic income, still have a high percentage of respondents who say they want to stay and work in Japan in the future, at 94.4% and 97.0%, respectively.
In terms of the importance of choosing a company, "salary" ranked first with 69.8% of respondents, an increase of 9.9% from 2022, which is due to the weakening of the yen and the tendency of workers to seek higher wages, followed by "job content and type" with 65.1%, "work location" with 51.9%, and "self-growth environment" with 51.2%.
The survey also showed that 5.7% of respondents said they did not want to stay and work in Japan, with the strongest reason being the weak yen, accounting for 38.5% of respondents.
Mr. Motoki Kong, President of Mynavi Global, pointed out that it is an indisputable fact that Japan's attractiveness is declining from the perspective of foreign talent. In addition to raising salaries and other conditions, companies that recruit talent must also strive to create a working environment where employees from all over the world can get along well in order to be competitive.
According to the latest statistics released by the Immigration Agency of the Ministry of Justice, the total number of foreign residents in Japan was 3,410,992 at the end of 2023, an increase of 335,779 year-on-year from 3,075,213 at the end of last year.
According to the latest report from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, as of October 31, 2023, the number of foreign workers in Japan exceeded 2 million for the first time, reaching 2,048,675, an increase of more than 220,000 year-on-year. Vietnam accounted for the largest number of workers by nationality with 518,364, followed by China with 397,918 and the Philippines with 226,846.