Number of foreigners in Japan with new working visa totals 1,621

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said last Friday that the number of foreign workers in Japan hit a record 1,658,804 as of October last year.

This number is total foreigners in Japan that hold a working visa from various type.

The number of foreign residents of Japan holding a new skilled worker visa totaled 1,621 as of Dec. 31, the immigration agency said Friday, falling far short of the program's target for the first year.

it was far behind the maximum of 47,550 foreigners that the Japanese government is hoping will obtain the Specified Skilled Worker visa by the end of March.

They are expecting to reach 47,750 workers from specified skilled worker visa by the end of March, while last December they only get 1,621 workers?

With the low numbers evident , it seems that Japan is not really the type of country that is on any workers’ bucket list.

Japanese immigration office is trained for so many decades HOW NOT TO ALLOW ANY NEW COMERS. It will not be easy for them to think new or think what is right.

With the low numbers evident , it seems that Japan is not really the type of country that is on any workers’ bucket list.

of course not.

In theory, offering visas to bring in tens of thousands of new skilled workers from abroad every year could help address Japan's demographic problems.

In actuality, making the ability to read and write 9,000 kanji, recite 500 haiku from memory, and name all counties in all prefectures as prerequisites to getting the jobs the visa allows for, does not help address Japan's demographic problems.

It seems the program in practice is little more than a new visa for those in the technical intern program to extend their stay in Japan. That is a good thing I think, but it also means that even the 1621 figure is a bit misleading since 90% of that is people already working in Japan just switching their visa status.

The actual number of new workers arriving under the new visa is about 150. Not per month, but over an 8 month period. So in terms of doing anything to actually boost the number of foreign workers, the stated purpose of the law, its a pretty abysmal result.

For months before the start of the system, the medias and co made a fuss about the social impact of such a mass of foreigners coming here, the politicians preparing the citizens to this change, some tv broadcast reporting about possible community shifts, and how all these newcomers would adapt to the culture, etc, etc...And foreign medias mentioning that Japan opens his door to immigration , should I say a skilled immigration. ........

To get only 1627 positive visa applicants

What Southeast Asian or Melanasian has time to learn Japanese while becoming a "skilled laborer"?

How many Japanese are willing to move to developing countries to teach Japanese for low wages?

The expectations on applicants is way too high. The average worker targeted for this program doesn't exactly have an opportunity to study Japanese in their home country.

While Japanese language teaching programs do exist in developing countries, they don't seem to be producing the expected results. Even Japanese majors in universities may have a hard time passing JLPT!!

didou:

And then they said to themselves: Why aren't they coming? Coming to the land of milk and honey. Are we really at the bottom of the list?

Japan in Asia ranked 51st out of 63 countries in 2017 according to bloomberg news. Nothing has changed, if anything confirmation of the levels of corruption, lack of due process, and poor public health, endless scandals doesn't really help.

the same people that keep Japan at the bottom are not going to help it rise to the top. There are plenty of Japanese who can make the situation better but they are not involved.

Japan would rather proudly sink away into the quicksand than accept any sort of lifeline originating away from her shores. So be it then.

How are foreign health care workers going to communicate with their patients if they can't speak Japanese or read prescriptions? As for agriculture and construction, I think AI and automation can help alleviate some problems with labor shortages.

Here are three suggestions to try.

Get rid of any language proficiency test and just see if they can actually perform the job they are hired to do.

Eliminate the 5 year restriction rule.

Give decent worldwide competitive wages.

Then see what happens.

If I am a person with that specific skill set, I could just go to NZ, Oz or Canada and get higher salary for less effort. Learning Japanese is a must if you want to live here, but making it a requirement to get the visa is a bit too much for someone who is willing to work in these industries, i.e. not so rich person. The requirement just doesn't match the benefits.

"Get rid of any language proficiency test and just see if they can actually perform the job they are hired to do."

They should not.

Japan is well advised not to allow immigration of people unable to speak/write proper Japanese to work in sensitive areas such as healthcare.

Britain had a policy of taking almost anyone, regardless.

As a result lots of nurses could not read/interpret Doctors' notes properly; wrong medication and treatment regularly administered.

Many Healthcare Assistants couldn't communicate with patients at all, resulting in many incidents of overt racism/violence practices.

Consequently:

"English Language Requirements

Employers are responsible for ensuring all staff have the required level of English language skills to undertake their role effectively and deliver safe care to patients."

https://www.nhsemployers.org/your-workforce/recruit/employer-led-recruitment/international-recruitment/english-language-requirements