Japan's labor crunch is reshaping how companies attract workers

Our goal is to create unmanned production lines that can operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year," said Masato Uno, chairman of the Hiroshima Manufacturing Engineering Association, a consortium of Mazda suppliers and IT companies. "We expect this to address problems with productivity and labor shortages."

So the solution is to remove people all together? What's the goal? People are not needed except for the elite management. Frightening to think a majority of people are not needed, useless. Best to buy a book and wait for death, your useless and frankly not needed.

It's not just about the money anymore...

It was never about money in the first place in Japan. Employers these days are desperate to do anything except pay their workers properly.

Plenty of Japanese companies still treat their workers as chattels, to be moved around the country at short notice for no good reason.

Quality of life matters more, once a comfortable salary is achieved.

I was an hourly consultant for about a decade. The company said they would pay me for any extra hours I choose to work. After working 60 hrs/wk for a little over a year with no end in sight, I countered with an offer to work 30 hrs/wk so I could have a better life. They didn't like that idea very much and made a counter offer I couldn't accept, so I left.

Never been happier. More time for family, friends, and travel.

The trouble is that if companies want to make their jobs more appealing, they need to reduce hours. Without changing the culture of work in Japan to get workers to do their jobs more efficiently without putting in more hours, there is no way to ease workers' burdens without hiring more staff. This would only exacerbate the labor crunch.

@cricky - AI and robots do not pay taxes, contribute to pensions or health insurance. Nor do they currently eat, shop, drink, buy clothes, watch films or sports, or doanything besides be a robot. Great way to kill a community, replace a town of working people with robots.

So you think these robots just drop from the sky? They need to be designed, built, serviced, repaired and replaced. There are a whole slew of new robot related jobs on the horizon.

Definitely and good jobs too but on the longer run robots will maintain, design and manufacture themselves.

Cricky, not exactly an enlightened society; not proactive. Sad.

"Some companies even provide counselling and time off for couples trying to conceive."

Makes sound Japanese like if they were robots and that you needed practice before being able.

I remember a colleague asked to be sent to China while he did not want. His wife had just given birthto their first kid, he did not have the balls to say no even though his competencies made him a rather worthy fish for a company.

So the solution is to remove people all together? What's the goal? People are not needed except for the elite management. Frightening to think a majority of people are not needed, useless. Best to buy a book and wait for death, your useless and frankly not needed.

The future might bring the necessity of a basic income for many in society as further automation and robotics especially among white collar jobs who seemed untouchable till now will happen sooner or later.

Another interesting aspect:

https://youtu.be/XIctCDYv7Yg