Seven-Eleven steps up work-life support for foreign workers

Maybe some of them then won’t have to also work a second job at a ‘Massage’ place to help make ends meet.

They need to up the wage to ¥250,000 per month, for a 40 hour work week.

Who can really live even decent on 1000 yen per hour in Tokyo? Yet alone but a house?

where Japanese and foreign nationals live harmoniously

where foreign nationals will never become Japanese

…a society where Japanese and foreign nationals live harmoniously.

Who would pen such an unnatural sentence? This article is, plain and simple, propaganda.

Japan doesn’t have a labor shortage. What is does have is a lack of decent jobs paying a living wage. Raise wages and all these positions will be filled the next day.

labor shortage due to Japan's graying population.

That's the actual reason behind this.

Who would pen such an unnatural sentence?

People for whom English is not their first language?

…a society where Japanese and foreign nationals live harmoniously.

And they lived happily ever after.

Pay them more followed up by periodic raises. Then watch your retention problem quickly and mysteriously disappear.

-to establish a database that will compile information on them.

No more accidental overstaying.

what happens in Japan is the same all over the world, basic jobs and without the need for special skills will ALWAYS be badly paid.

That's not true. A bigger and bigger share of national income of advanced countries is going to the rich and less to low-wage earners. One big reason is that labor unions have steadily lost their power, resulting in working class people losing their ability to negotiate their wages. All this, while corporates have been raking in the highest profits in human history.

The programs will be led by Seven Global Linkage, an organization the company set up last year to realize a society where Japanese and foreign nationals live harmoniously.

Sounds like copy from an ad agency tasked with showcasing the "diversity" of a corporation.

There is not a labor shortage, this fake narrative being pushed here and abroad, there is a jobs paying a living wage shortage.

And in case you need reminding, it was reported here and in other news outlets Seven-Eleven Japan Co had been shortchanging staff on wages for years and apologized for "errors", so they are guilty of gross wage theft too.

to enhance the workers' credibility when applying for credit cards, rental housing and other services, the company said.

I appreciate the company trying to help their people. But this is just putting a plaster on a gunshot wound.

Instead of helping them get through a broken system. Use your company to advocate change.

I feel like many in the Japanese government have this idea that they want to increase immigration to counteract the ageing population but only want the very "best" immigrants that will magically come to Japan, invest a billion dollars and create 10 Softbanks while speaking fluent Japanese. The reality is Japan won't be able to attract these Silicon Valley types because they'll all be headed to the more traditional routes of well, Silicon Valley and other anglo-countries. The language barrier, wages, and work-life (im)balance are all massive inhibitors. So if Japan really does want to reserve its demographic decline then it'll have to have to make do with allowing lower skilled immigrants to come with their families in the hope that they'll assimilate with subsequent generations. If it means we have to bring in thousands of 7-11 workers every year then so be it - Japanese people aren't having more babies, it's time to move on from natural population growth. Even Son-San is a naturalised Japanese and look what he's achieved. Yanai (although Japanese) was a burakumin. Maybe it's time to create "The Japanese Dream" so we can stop sleepwalking in this economic nightmare?

The programs for foreign workers, primarily students, aim to encourage them to settle down in Japan and work over the long term, it added.

Change the immigration and labor laws and there wouldn’t be a need for ‘programs’ for foreign workers!

If only Japan could really change to allow cultural and social differences to become accepted-what a dream!

Having low skilled workers for a limited period of time to do the jobs Japanese do not want will not benefit anyone at all.

Who wants to be a ‘throwaway’ human being?

The underlying problems are not being addressed.

"The programs will be led by Seven Global Linkage, an organization the company set up last year to realize a society where Japanese and foreign nationals live harmoniously."

A pipe dream. Soon AI and robots will make foreign workers unnecessary.