Japan's shortage of full-time workers at worst level since COVID

Japanese companies really need to revise their work/life balance policies. The days of working super long hours to appease the boss are long over, and hybrid work programs are here to stay. Unless they are willing change, this trend is going to continue for a while.

" Economists, meanwhile, warn that small and midsize companies will struggle to keep pace with bigger firms that have the financial resources to continue hiking pay. "

They may have the resources, but very little action seen to use them.

Japanese firms are feeling the most acute shortage of full-time workers...

So offer them higher wages, as in higher than the competition and as in higher real wages, not nominal wages. They could also offer perks like longer paid holiday periods and time-and-a-half pay rates for overtime. You know, like what companies in other countries do.

Sounds like a too many companies problem...for a nation in which the population is downsizing

Only a shortage of workers willing to work below 3.5M.

There is absolutely no shortage of workers if salary is above 5M. Go put an ad for system engineer for 5M+, which they claim there is a shortage, and you will get several hundred applicants within a week. There had been so much layoffs in Japan in the past 2-3 years that the job market is completely in the employers favor

What a timely article. Guess what: I recently got rejected by several jobs I applied for. According to some people who know the industry, it is because some companies only want JAPANESE Nationals. Guess what else: I have 7 years of relevant experience in my industry, speak business level Japanese, been here for 15 years and even have PR. But, nope.... I'm not good enough.

Corporations making record profits for years, but cannot find permanent workers for the lowest possible salary and degrading work conditions.

What really irks me is that when companies are lacking a worker, the other workers have to pick up the extra work. And...they don't pay the current workers any more for doing that. If they are advertising 21 man a month for a new worker, then at least divide that money up till they find someone. It's only fair.

Or more accurately, it's shortage of workers continues to decline along pace with retiring boomers who wouldn't teach anyone new skills, the failure of apprenticeships, and the lack of a decent job opportunities outside tourism and customer service. Also the birth rate, etc.

I wonder why Japanese Corporations cannot attract people to slave for them in their companies that pay the lowest amount of money as possible? Why?

The labor shortage is only going to get worse.

I am looking at some of the comments with people saying they need to pay a higher salary with 1 comment suggesting going for 3.5 up to 5 mil. That is easier said than done. Yes I will agree with the coming replies to this comment that some companies are greedy and just do not want to pay. However, there are a lot that simply can not afford to pay high salaries with all the taxes the Japanese government make companies pay. I would love an extra 1 or 2 staff but when the government here took 70% of my income away from me last year there is not a lot left to pay extra salaries.

From what I learned from insiders, many Japanese nationals are relocating to countries like Malta, America, Canada, Vietnam, Malaysia, and other locations due to higher salaries. Sometimes 3 times a much as they can make in Japan. With a balanced work life experience.

 I have 7 years of relevant experience in my industry, speak business level Japanese, been here for 15 years and even have PR. But, nope.... I'm not good enough.

The question is whether or not you can read AND WRITE at a high school level.

Outside of manual labour jobs, there are few jobs that don't require functional literacy in English in North America. Functional in a white collar job means being able to read and write at a high school level at minimum.

From what I learned from insiders, many Japanese nationals are relocating to countries like Malta, America, Canada, Vietnam, Malaysia, and other locations due to higher salaries. Sometimes 3 times a much as they can make in Japan. With a balanced work life experience.

As of October 2023, 1,293,565 Japanese nationals were living abroad for at least three months, including those with permanent residence. This is a decline from the peak of 1,410,356 in 2019. 

The number of Japanese living abroad has been declining for four years in a row.

As someone who works in that specific sector I can personally say that there are tons of qualified foreigners who want to be full time but are forced to be on rolling contracts for years.

In my opinion, this is about a shortage of "Japanese" full-time workers.

Japan's aging and depopulation bubble bursting due to baby boom post WWIII combined with long-term and steadily growing baby bust = growing worker shortage

Japan's salaries and working life balance also not competitive; two good doctor friends of mine recently left Japan to US and UAE and could not be $happier!

Sounds like a too many companies problem...for a nation in which the population is downsizing

That would come with low business, not low number of workers, this would mean the products and services are still necessary, but companies are not giving competitive enough salaries for workers to choose them.

I wondner how many people are classified as working as 'part time', who would personally benefit from being properly considered to be full time and with the benefits. Are they counted in this shortage or are they excluded from it?

Become more friendly to employees. That's the trick.

When I had a chance to move permanently to Japan, I looked at the lifestyle and decided against it. I wasn't willing to have a lower quality of life, warped home-work life with too much work, too little home, and honestly, there's so many Japanese foods that I can't stomach.

8-9 hours of work, 5 days a week with 4+ weeks off annually, while living less than 10 minutes from work were my core requirements. Sure, there would be a few months every year with longer hours, but that wouldn't be every week, all year long. No thanks.

Oh, and paying more to get people into the company would be good too, but pay by stocks or options is a cheap way to tied workers to the company for much less money than a paycheck.

I guess it’s nice of this news site to put news on their site such as this article. It really isn’t relevant to most foreign people living here though because we would never be able to secure employment in most if not all of the companies that are understaffed.

When pay is so terrible and they don’t want to hire foreigners that require sponsorship then no pity at all. All these self service machines are cheapen Japan service. I now almost always walk out when I see them. Japanese companies need to pay a ton more and provide visa support as well as long term support for people. Their constant focus on Japanese skills for low paying jobs is ridiculous. You get what you pay for.

Pay them what they are worth, give them more time off so they can live their lives.

We work so we can live our lives, not live so we can work. Get it, oyaji CEOs?

Doom loop in Japan as well, as market steadily shrinks, companies hesitant to invest in capital investments, hire and train, so worker productivity stagnates.

Companies need product & services tapping into global markets to avoid above = must use global standards

Very soon Japan will be only 1% of Global GDP

I'm guessing most here are not or have never been a business owner

Economists, meanwhile, warn that small and midsize companies will struggle to keep pace with bigger firms that have the financial resources to continue hiking pay. "We have to be vigilant against the risk of more companies going bankrupt due to labor shortages," the research firm said, noting that the number of such bankruptcies hit a record high in 2024.

Economists should rather warn that small and midsize companies that have trouble paying competitive salaries need to look at their business models. Their problems may be poor management, poor marketing, offering services/goods for which there is insufficient demand, or other problems rather than labor shortages. It may be time to sell the businesses or close them down. Bankruptcies are more often caused by poor management than by labor shortages.

That would come with low business, not low number of workers,

Imagine you wanted to start up a baseball league (25 players per team)

and there were 500 pro level baseball players to choose from. That's enough for 20 teams.

If there were more teams...you'd have too few players.

Japan needs fewer teams. If and when they need to expand...they will...organically. Currently Japan is organically downsizing in an era in which 50% of current jobs will have been rendered obsolete by AI and automation within the next 2 decades...at minimum

Which workers are in short supply? The seven guard men to stop people falling into the hole being worked on by two construction workers? The 20 or so "workers" who seem to be sat waiting for something to do in the city hall every time I visit?

The millions of hikikomori and women who cannot or do not want to rejoin the work force?

Try paying a little more and see how that works.

Many millions of workers discovered just how badly they hate their jobs when reduced hours, online work and government handouts to stay at home happened. Who would willing go back after that?

Imagine you wanted to start up a baseball league (25 players per team)

and there were 500 pro level baseball players to choose from. That's enough for 20 teams.

How this example in any way refutes the fact that having too much offer of products or services would mean companies simply going bankrupt all around? In your own example it would be as if every team still had full stadiums every game, that in no way would mean it needs to have less teams, it would mean convincing more people to be players, which is no mystery.

I wondner how many people are classified as working as 'part time', who would personally benefit from being properly considered to be full time and with the benefits. Are they counted in this shortage or are they excluded from it?

This is a good point. Companies in Japan abuse the part time system, where if you work less than 30 hours a week you are not full time an excluded from all of the benefits.

Changes employment contracts to abuse the part-time workers loopholes, then complains about not having any full time workers. Gotta love it.

About 40 years ago I heard in Brazil that overtime is like fever. You can have it as a symptom. Overtime should never be accepted as "normal". But, in Japan, due to the "shortage" of workers, it is a common practice, to have 2 hours of overtime a day, up to 45 hours a month, exceptionally up to 60 hours/month up to 6 months a year. The result is a workforce living to work, not working to live. Several diseases. Crazy and inadequate work shifts as 4x1, 4x2, nikotai, sankotai, and other not healthy schedules of work in the industry. The result of overtime is the dilution of the productivity, people go to work knowing that they have to spend 10, 12 hours at workplace, instead of 8 hours. This daily overtime results in lowering, diluting the productivity and salary. Many people have negative views of trade unions, workers syndicates, workers association, but, there is a big gap, absence of authentic discussions about quality of life, balance between work and family, leisure, future. Worldwide Japan has a tremendous good reputation about its culture. Hope that top management of the private companies awake regarding the need to leverage the working time practices with other developed countries. Happy people produce more. Well-being should be a permanent target.

For context, I have completed my studies at a Japanese university, have experience working for a Japanese company in the past, and speak, read and write Japanese in my current line of work at a business level about half the time (the other half is English). So yes, I read and write the language beyond high school level. The point is, some companies will reject me simply based on nationality and not on competency.

Geeter MckluskieToday  08:39 am JST

The question is whether or not you can read AND WRITE at a high school level.

Outside of manual labour jobs, there are few jobs that don't require functional literacy in English in North America. Functional in a white collar job means being able to read and write at a high school level at minimum

LDP has a bad brand, like Democrats in US, too much focus on Govt. Centric Society, that creates no new wealth, innovation or productivity.

LDP seems to be controlled by unelected Bureaucrats, an unhealthy relationship that only fuels their co-dependency and in doing so destroys Democracy itself.

As most citizens want Govt. that solves THEIR problems, not one enriches and empower themselves!

I was wondering how many other responses would be EXACTLY what I instantly thought when reading this title:

It’s not that people already working aren’t entitled to actually being: “Staff”, instead of Bite’O, it’s that the management refuse to HIRE / pay them as such.

The more things change, the more they stay the SAME

I keep hearing about people working long hours and all these stories about these kind of people.

But to be honest, i've never actually met any (foreigner or Japanese) of this kind.

At least people around me. I guess i should be happy that most of them are doing fine.

It's like everyone has an image of this salary man that got molded from all the stories you hear and the stories you spread so much that this person became a fictional character.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/01/14/economy/bankruptcies-rise-last-year/

In your own example it would be as if every team still had full stadiums every game, that in no way would mean it needs to have less teams, 

Over 10,000 companies went bankrupt in a single calendar year. Many claiming labour shortages or the rise in materials and labour costs as the reason.

Too many teams

I keep hearing about people working long hours and all these stories about these kind of people.

But to be honest, i've never actually met any (foreigner or Japanese) of this kind.

Strange. I worked with and met loads of them not so long ago from different industries. In the public sector, I knew a few bureaucrats in some ministries reporting absolutely brutal hours.

Those at managerial level in particular worked very long hours in my experience of working at a Japanese manufacturing company.

Has there been a dramatic change very recently?

Over 10,000 companies went bankrupt in a single calendar year. 

And for those you could argue that they were unnecessary, for the ones that keep being profitable right now your argument fall completely flat. They are still producing things that the people consume, so the solution you give (eliminating them as unnecessary) is not justified.

The point is, some companies will reject me simply based on nationality and not on competency.

That's a huge supposition...which unverified I'll take with a truckload of salt.

They are still producing things that the people consume, so the solution you give (eliminating them as unnecessary) is not justified.

What you've classified as a "solution" is not. What it is is a description rather than a prescription.

The more companies there are...the more workers required. Fewer companies require fewer workers overall.

Too many companies will result in labour shortages.

Economists should focus on raising inflation, increasing the price of basic commodities such as food so that people will need to work to survive.

What you've classified as a "solution" is not. What it is is a description rather than a prescription.

You said this "Sounds like a too many companies problem. Clearly suggesting that eliminating companies would solve it, but when confronted with the fact that the companies are still producing and being profitable you can't argue anything to refute it.

Replacing one problem with another (lack of services and products that are in demand) is not a solution. If a finger hurts you don't solve that problem by cutting your finger.

Too many companies will result in labour shortages.

But for this to be an accurate representation you would have to prove that the companies are also not necessary. You have not been able to prove this point, only trying to avoid it. There are of course many other reasons that cause labor shortages, so focusing in the single one that can be proved not to apply makes no sense.

It's just only an inconvenient and often non-fitting market, because they don't actively search for available employees. Many people of course have the knowledge, available time etc, but also can't actively search a lot for jobs, because it's of course very expensive and in general too exhausting to estimate and search for fitting nearby companies, writing tons of application letters or expensively going there for multiple job interviews and all that. They expect everyone to do it such and to beg on knees for the open job offerings at lowest salaries. That's understandable, but it obviously doesn't work well anymore in that old fashioned direction. Does anyone have interesting job offers from such companies daily in the letterbox? I guess, not, and neither do I. They can and also should change their attitude to attract potential and immediately available staff. There is no lack of staff, there's only a lack of bringing potential companies and fitting employees together.

Lorem ipsumToday  07:52 am JST

What a timely article. Guess what: I recently got rejected by several jobs I applied for. According to some people who know the industry, it is because some companies only want JAPANESE Nationals. Guess what else: I have 7 years of relevant experience in my industry, speak business level Japanese, been here for 15 years and even have PR. But, nope.... I'm not good enough.

That’s how it works.

unless you have connections or are a recognized expert in your field.

It took me 2 years and 80 resumes to find a job in the past, but with a connection, only one resume was enough

A lot of companies here in Japan cheat the so called foreigners on their pay and to top it off they pay the foreigners chump change no overtime but yet they loooooooooooove the free labor so tell me who would want to work and if they only prefer there own kind GOOD LUCK with that because Japan’s population is declining every year due to it being expensive and a lot of them can care less to have a family without the Gaijin’s they so call Us this country would be totally F!!!!! …

Japan going down…Goooooooo

JAPAN

to thrive in the global economy, a nation needs to have abundant natural resources, or a small stable population with longstanding worldwide financial industries, or be in the arms and war business.

Among the around 11,000 companies who responded to the January survey, 53.4 percent said they need more full-time workers, the highest since April 2020 and close to the all-time high of 53.9 percent in November 2018, Teikoku Databank Ltd said.

They can hire their part-time workers full time, for starters

It's always about quality not quantity. Think about world's top companies, most of the work actually occurs at other companies within ecosystems they sit at the top of.

Problem in Japan, no great companies building world class global ecosystems. Sony comes to mind in gaming, but who the hell else?

Hard to build truly global eco-systems in the Galapagos!

So many depressing accounts, are any of you commenting actually earning a salary that you can live on and feed your family on.

Hard to build truly global eco-systems in the Galapagos. mmmh the topic nation is Japan

‘Robust wage growth seen last year’, eh? REAL wages FELL again last year, as many commenters here point out. I was wondering why the labor shortage should be particularly acute now, but I think Michael Machida has gotten close to the answer. It’s surely no coincidence that it comes at a time of high inflation. That said, many other countries are experiencing what seems to be a new labor shortage paradigm post-Covid. Final point - how do unemployed people survive? Are their benefits higher than even the ungenerous wages of companies?

Companies choose workers, but workers also choose companies. If these companies are having trouble finding employees, it's a sign that something needs to change.

You said this "Sounds like a too many companies problem. Clearly suggesting that eliminating companies would solve it, but when confronted with the fact that the companies are still producing and being profitable you can't argue anything to refute it.

Replacing one problem with another (lack of services and products that are in demand) is not a solution. If a finger hurts you don't solve that problem by cutting your finger.

Geeter does actually make a fair point. I don't agree with elimination of all companies, but you have to agree there are many questionable companies that don't actually produce anything and actually leech off other's benefits. A good example would be the many middle man jobs out there that are taking their portion of the money without actually doing anything productive.

Although I can also agree with you Virus and having only a few beneficial companies around will also have it's issues. Take for example S. Korea and the absolute bloodbath kids are indoctrinated into believing they need to study hard in order to be employed by Samsung.

but you have to agree there are many questionable companies that don't actually produce anything and actually leech off other's benefits.

Of course, but I seriously doubt those questionable companies are the ones that answered having a shortage of full time workers. Useless middle man positions are surely filled instantaneously (if not before) no matter how much difficulties the useful companies have.

"Japan's shortage of full-time workers at worst level since COVID."

Japan with such high quality products and services could be on a class of it economically. If only they adopt the language of business which happens to be English. So it's not surprising when some sectors don't have enough full time workers.

Salaries for foreign language teachers are very low due to oversupply. They should study Japanese and acquire skills, become full-time employees, and increase their salaries. Japanese companies will be also pleased.

It’s not simply about wages in large companies vs small and medium sized companies, although that is part of the problem. The multiple tier employment system in Japan is almost designed to lock people into their working environment. Productivity in Japan is parlous in comparison to other developed nations. Lack of employment flexibility, lack of opportunity even in employment, lack of reward for innovation or hard work, poor training, ageism, sexism, nationalism, all work to dampen productivity.

daikaka

Today 07:43 am JST

Only a shortage of workers willing to work below 3.5M.

> There is absolutely no shortage of workers if salary is above 5M. Go put an ad for system engineer for 5M+, which they claim there is a shortage, and you will get several hundred applicants within a week. There had been so much layoffs in Japan in the past 2-3 years that the job market is completely in the employers favor

So what are the people qualified to be system engineers doing meantime?

And they they offer lower salaries than even 10 years ago. God forbidden to increase them. Those yearly record profits need to come from somewhere.

Since I work in the exact area, I can tell you right away, that the salaries they offer is ridiculously low compared to other countries.

No doubt many view work differently than prior to Covid, including both workers and employers, so historical supply demand dynamics no longer so applicable.

Many, especially women, do not view benefits of being a full-time worker worth it. They prefer to have more flexibility and less stress, especially those with kids.

Often workers generating serious value take a pay cut by going 'full-time', because they lose their OT and end up working far more hours with more responsibilities etc.

It makes sense, the statistics tell the above story.

Full-Time's a Con Job companies use to exploit their most productive workers they don't want to pay OT anymore

You know Japanese are dying out and retiring every day. Then you have Hikkikomori and Johatsu where people are isolating themselves or disappearing from life. I dare anybody to come up with an argument that Japan in its current form will survive another decade. Without people there is no "economy" nor further advancement and nobody is gonna be able to fund the pension system.

Absolutely no one should be sad for these companies. After all, this is their own making. Now reap what you sow.

We wish company could find full time workers in the near future. We sincerely hope that companies in every scale could be able to find full-time employees in the near future, contributing to their continued growth and success.

Japan Inc. corporate culture is killing the goose, key driving force behind Japan's depopulation. The part-timers with good gigs, like $skillful independent contractors, are far happier than their full-time peers.

Back in the day when working at a LARGE Company, someone in IT who supported me just quit and I asked why. Told me he had just tripled his wages by becoming an independent contractor - nothing changed except his $pay, the same desk, office, workload, etc.

Sharp guy, Mgmt. needed him more than vice-versa!

Japan's shortage of full-time workers willing to work for pathetically low wages at worst level since COVID

Fixed the headline for you.

These ojisans running these companies need to get with the times. Young people don't want to work those long hours of overtime and be yelled at and talked down to by there higher ups. Either get with the times or just use ai and robots because only they will not complain about being bullied and harassed at work. Not even foreign workers want to put up with the Japanese work customs