Japan considers expanding scope of skilled worker visa with no stay limit

Make sure to include the part where you get taxed on overseas inheritance somewhere in the application forms.

Treat them with respect and dignity and all will be well.

So still treat them like slaves and have zero health and safety regulation though right!?

How to introduce an unwanted, discriminated underclass in one easy move.

The current system was introduced ..to address the country's severe labor shortage.

Not really. It was introduced so that Japanese employers wouldn't be forced to raise wages of their already-existing workers, (thereby dragging down the country's economic growth).

allows foreigners with certain Japanese language and vocational skills to apply for a resident status... for up to five years.

So they are expected to gain a working fluency Japanese and then get kicked out of the country after 5 years. Wow, what an incentive. And they're wondering why the program hasn't been so successful.

Two points in this article stand out for me.

The first is:

the cabinet could give the green light as early as June,

I have never seen the Japanese Government act so fast. Proposing something on a two month notice must be some kind of record. Makes me think that this has been moving along behind the scene for quite sometime

And ;

The number of foreigners staying in Japan under the No. 1 visa totaled around 146,000 as of the end of February, but only 10 held the No. 2 resident status, according to the Immigration Services Agency.

In all these years that the program has been in action only 10 people hav been applied for or been granted "resident status". Either very few are applying or it has been too restrictive, but the numbers sure say something. Probably that the program is not operating very successfully.

gary

It's unskilled workers this country needs - to do the jobs Japanese have neither the ability nor desire to do.

So skilled worker program became a permanent residency?

No, big difference, as these workers would need to renew their visas every so many years, as dictated by the change.

PR allows one to stay, without any sponsor, and allows a person to stay here, even if they are unemployed as well.

Scary about this program is what are they going to do with people who decide to stay, until the stupid "mandatory" retirement age, and have paid into the system, but are no longer under any authorized visa status.

Japan considers expanding scope of skilled worker visa with no stay limit

I'd be VERY skeptical of that. They can revoke that no stay limit overnight, round you up, and deport you in a fortnight. That's what they did with the Iranians 30+ years ago.

The number of foreigners staying in Japan under the No. 1 visa totaled around 146,000 as of the end of February, but only 10 held the No. 2 resident status, according to the Immigration Services Agency.

In all these years that the program has been in action only 10 people hav been applied for or been granted "resident status". Either very few are applying or it has been too restrictive, but the numbers sure say something. Probably that the program is not operating very successfully.

Very few people have applied Gary. It was on JT here a few years ago. The J Gov thought that people would be clamoring to come here, but as it turns out, they didn't. And even some southeast Asians that did come here AND qualified for the No 2 opted out. The word is getting out that Japan is an unpleasant place to work and live in. Says a lot when they can't even get impoverished SE Asians to come here.

The government is doing it's best to create the image that it is doing something, and more importantly controlling the process and easing the xenophobic fears of an influx of "aliens" into Japan.

The No. 2 status allows holders to bring in family members and has no limit on how many times the visa can be renewed.

Other categories still not allowed to bring family, Japan still not recongizing that people outside Japan is living with family. Family is part of people live.

So skilled worker program became a permanent residency?

This skilled worker activity tied visa scope, where PR can do whatever they want.

Make sure to include the part where you get taxed on overseas inheritance somewhere in the application forms.

Not only Japan want to get these skilled worker youth time and hardworking sweat, Japan also want to take all mandatory social insurance, tax and pension. After that Japan still want to take what they already accumulated through inheritance tax.

Why so many critics ?

Japan is slowly moving into the right direction

Good, but check more carefully the records of all those who enter the country to work..

Even PR has limit (5 years outside of Japan) so this is just another anouncement.

You would think the business community would be speaking with a loud voice on this issue. The alternative is sending more manufacturing overseas.

The move comes in response to calls from the business community seeking to secure human resources amid an ongoing labor shortage

Sounds more like an illusion and btw it’s still again full of bureaucratic words and rules that no one understands even if somehow proficient in English or Japanese. Just assume someone considers to leave his country for working here in Japan or somewhere else and tries with his smartphone to translate or understand what a ‘Specified Skilled Worker No. 2 status’ ever should be or mean. Even with an IQ of 200 you won’t get any clear and quick clue and probably chose another country. And the not so skilled average or big rest doesn’t care anyway and immigrates into countries with generous social security systems, so they don’t even need to work at all , especially not in in hard or exhausting blue collar jobs.

Interesting. So Japan cannot build the high tech platforms that America creates so Japan is trying to recruit highly skilled professionals because their Japanese counter parts are lacking in any sort of high level intel?

Finally, some recognition that Japan needs more of the people who do all the work, rather than the people who earn all the cash. I wonder how much economic carnage the UK has to suffer before the Tories accept that Brexit's restrictions on migrant labour are an economy killer.

Got to kick in citizenship card, like Germany and others, otherwise too risky, too many employer 'exit' loopholes, too unreliable, too many known UNKNOWNS!

Smells like xenophobia in disguise!?

Naa, too many old people too, dynamic vitality needed!

Good, but check more carefully the records of all those who enter the country to work..

why more carefully?

What are they doing now that is insufficient?

White collar workers should be include. There are a lot of really smart folks that would love to come to Japan including folks still trying to leave HK.

Congratulations Japan, and welcome to the rest of the world.

This could be one of the most progressive steps in the history of this nation, the greatest and largest economies wheels and gears are turned daily by the help and support of MIGRANTS.

Just Do It Japan.

I had to jump so many hoops to get permanent residency. Now just buy a fake degree on the internet.

And do yourself a favor and SCRAP this slavery system and allow workers to move freely in search of a better job and opportunities and NOT get locked under the control of one business owner or company.. Let them get a driving Lic. a smart phone, all the basics needed to start a life so they can work, pay taxes and be a part of this democracy .

Transforming your society for the benefit of big business is rarely a good idea.

I had to jump so many hoops to get permanent residency.

Narrow mindset, we ALL need to think GLOBAL, country culture is pure legacy, there is no NEW country culture!

Slow death decline, depopulation, aging stagnation poor house, irrelevancy collapse, like hell, who wants that?

jspan needs women for child care. It’s too hard to find a childcare. No skill needed. There can be one month training on their arrivals. Once i spent a lot of time to find childcarer. It turned out that her teaching license was cancelled by a court for drug abuse. You need to bring good people to japan.

The move comes in response to calls from the business community seeking to secure human resources amid an ongoing labor shortage

While I am glad that the visa restrictions are starting to be a little bit more lenient and appealing, why is it that the business community never seems to understand why they have a labor shortage in the first place? They think their current system of intensive labor with mandatory overtime, power harassing managers, and extremely underpaid staff is something that doesn't need to be addressed? Instead they want to take the long route by lobbying instead of fixing the problem internally...

jspan needs women for child care. It’s too hard to find a childcare. No skill needed. 

If you are advertising for a job with the belief that "no skill is needed" - then you deserve to attract the very worst applicants out there.

Its not about a labor shortage, it’s about a shortage of cheap labor.

When japan says its considering something......dont hold your breath !!

The "no stay limit" in the headline is a little deceptive. It's not a permanent residency permit; it's just a work visa that can be renewed any number of times, just like other categories of work visa. The only loosening is that holders are no longer forced to end their stay after a fixed number of years.

These workers are on slave wages - not enough to support bringing family members over,

So first it was 5 years and kick out. Now they want to allow anytime to stay, because the company owners told the goverment to do so...so they can hire pple who do the job for less money and they get more rich.

Im sure there are enough people sat at home playing video games and such.

Surely maximising your full resources should be addressed first.

ZetaToday  12:07 pm JST

So first it was 5 years and kick out. Now they want to allow anytime to stay, because the company owners told the goverment to do so...so they can hire pple who do the job for less money and they get more rich.

Above captures essence of matter, real beaut eh?! Just call everything 'culture', that makes ok!

Could this mean sustaining the "hikikomori"?

Say nothing, pay nothing

Make sure to include the part where you get taxed on overseas inheritance somewhere in the application forms.

It's a good move in the short term. In the long term, Japan will likely become an internationally colonized nation akin to the international settlements system in Shanghai during the late Qing era.

Chinese have already owned most of the core assets and solidly established themselves deeply into the Japanese elite society. Vietnamese is second behind but has the most prolific foreign population in Japan. Soon, it will be Filipinos, Indonesians,... following to establish their foreign settlements in Japan.

It will be interesting to see if Japan will unravel like France or thrive like the US multiculturally.

With so much layoffs/restructuring in the skilled job market, I failed to see where there are skilled labor shortages except for the unskilled positions that locals don’t want.

The current system was introduced in April 2019 to attract foreign workers and address the country's severe labor shortage.

The number of foreigners staying in Japan under the No. 1 visa totaled around 146,000 as of the end of February, but only 10 held the No. 2 resident status, according to the Immigration Services Agency.

So, only .00006849% of THAT population in 4 years..............that's a hell of a job you guys are doing to attract skilled workers, boyz. Keep it up!

I'm surprised they haven't blamed the low numbers on corona or the Russian war yet.

Keep on scratching them heads and sucking those teeth. That'll turn up the results.

LOL. Some positive news. Skilled workers from lesser economic strength countries. Brought in to be harassed by their Japanese superiors.

Even PR has limit (5 years outside of Japan) so this is just another anouncement.

Never did understand why someone who wants PR here, with the intent of actually living here, decides to live somewhere else for an extended period of time, without returning.

Why don’t you all just share and discuss what you think Japan should do?

Basically they are just giving up on the lie that the "trainee visa's" purpose was to teach foreigners Japanese working skills so they could bring it to their own countries, when in reality it just existed to get cheap unskilled labor. The 5 year limit was there to make that look believable as well as to keep "un wanted" non Japanese Asians from settling down.

From a business perspective though it's horribly stupid to send home the people you have finally trained up to replace them with new workers that you have to start all over with. Companies lobbied to get this changed, and out of the two evils money won against the nationalists.

First of all government need to do something about the discrimination and bullying (GAIJIN) foreigners face on daily bases.

Frankly, at the moment foreigners have no rights.

I never had a problem getting PR, housing, credit cards, loans, etc., during my 25 years in Japan. I what was I doing wrong?

Either way same in USA I was just applying a tourist visa for 5 days but the US embassy gave me 10 years long tern visa, what would I do there? I said WHAT!!!?

@joeblack

That sounds like a "you problem" not an "everyone problem."

I am sorry to hear that you feel that you are mistreated. It is not right that you have experienced problems but in 20 years I never experienced any of that.

One thing Japan has to be prepared for is the onslaught of people coming and then starting families that will stay in Japan for years. How will this effect those families on a daily basis especially when they have children and those children start to go to school. Something to think about because once these children grow up n Japan they will only know Japan now what?