Japan is hoping to tackle a growing manpower shortage in its transportation industry by licensing up to 24,500 foreign taxi, bus, and truck drivers by fiscal year 2028. What do you think of this plan?

Less people consume less so less need for goods and people to be moved. Demand will shrink so no need for this

One day we are told that "self driving" vehicles will make drivers redundant the next is we need to hire foreigners. Which is it?

Japan is hoping to tackle a growing manpower shortage in its transportation industry by licensing up to 24,500 foreign taxi, bus, and truck drivers by fiscal year 2028.

Just another pledge by Japan that will not be fulfilled by the time is being set. Keep on hoping.

No problems if they have the right qualifications, including the ability to speak and read Japanese.

i’m picturing my times being driven around in china, thailand, the philippines, indonesia,…

oh boy.

Say Ni Hao to your new driver as expecting blue collar workers from countries not using kanji to learn kanji is a bridge too far.

ability to speak and read Japanese.

Only if they had something like UBER.........

oh wait, they did.

And then they banned it.

Bad idea in my opinion!

licensing... licensing... licensing.... look at how the nurse licensing scheme brought japan!

licensing... licensing... licensing.... look at how the nurse licensing scheme brought japan!

That was/is a great scheme. It gets qualified nurses to work in Japan as care givers and has a three year period in which to learn Japanese well enough to pass the Japanese nursing exam in Kanji. So it means they leave after 3 years and are replaced with others. No long term immigration so a win, win!

In deed. Probably they will do something simmilar to the nursing or trainee schemes, for very low salaries and even less taxes.

The authorities will not be able to meet the quota. Tough qualifications are needed.

I'm glad they're looking to hire more foreigners. It's always nice having other options in case you're out of a job. I really like driving, so this may be something for me someday.

I see 90% of them going back home after a few months because they can't pass the kanji exam. SE Asian nurses all over again.

Even if they find them in numbers, driving skills are perfect as well as Kanji reading abilities, but then it will fail at latest when searching for the final destination. If you ever had the need and tried to find in time a more unknown address of people or a company, you probably know what I mean.

Robert Maes: "Less people consume less so less need for goods and people to be moved. Demand will shrink so no need for this"

Hogwash. People want to maintain there current lifestyle, even if there are fewer. What's more, the number of people ordering medicines and what not to be delivered is going to INCREASE, so if there are no drivers, they won't get the meds for an extended period of time. Japanese trains will become third-world, and then some.

Anyway, his is absolutely necessary, but as is usual in Japan when something is necessary, they are going to throw up as many roadblocks as they can to put the onus on the foreign drivers, not the needs of the nation. "I'm sorry, sir, but to turn this key you need to know Kanji that most Japanese don't know, can't read, and won't write!"

Was like the film Rendezvous.

Apparently faked, but you can dismiss that as "special effects". Still a great watch

The comparison with the nurses is aposite. Japan has no entitlement to in-demand skilled workers from overseas. You have to attract them, not demand them. Trucking might be okay, but taxis and delivery folks are customer facing, and there are plenty of grumpy folks out there giving taxi drivers and Kuroneko workers grief and expecting groveling apologies in perfect keigo. Its one thing to have foreign staff mispronounce things in a convenience store, another for them to have communication problems parked outside someone's house in a 2.5m wide road.

Peter NeilDec. 7 09:47 am JST

i’m picturing my times being driven around in china, thailand, the philippines, indonesia,…

> oh boy.

Excellent! I remember those times too. Lived through all of them so it's all nostalgia now. You think Japan is headed for that? It will certainly accelerate depopulation.

What happens when their jobs become obsolete within the next 2 decades?

but then it will fail at latest when searching for the final destination. 

Destination for trucks tend to be very easy to find, they are not trying to find drivers to deliver to the final user at their tiny door between two buildings but instead to big stores or facilities that will store the cargo before it is sold, delivered, etc. to the final user.

What happens when their jobs become obsolete within the next 2 decades?

Even if that happens (and it is looking like it will take considerably longer than that for automation to make drivers unnecessary) it would not be a problem for the Japanese government, as usual there is no mention of giving the drivers permanent residency or nationality. If they are no longer needed as drivers they will have to find another job or their next visa application will be denied and they will have to return to their countries.