Japan struggles with finding workers

In the U.S, 7% of workers are 65. Or over; in the UK, 4%. But in Japan, 14% are 65 or older. (The same in Korea: 13%).  Why this huge difference?

Aging: The population of people aged 65 and over accounts for 29.3% of the country’s total population. This is expected to reach 35% by 2040. In the U.S.. they account for 18% of the population. By 2054, they 23% of the population.

Absence of a large foreign-born population: in 2000, about 1.2% of the population was foreign-born. Today, after a decade of targeted but discreetly revealed governmental policies, 3.3% of the population is foreign-born.  Immigration tends to concentrate is early-mid working age (20 – 45 years). In the U.S. foreign-born persons are 14%; in Germany, 19%. OECD countries average 10% of their population as foreign-born.

In the U.S. some 30% of the entire workforce will in the next five years be either first or second generation foreign-born. It is hard to see how this percentage in Japan will be over 5%. (I’ve posted in tbis here.)

The largest sending countries of foreign-born persons in descending order are China, Korea, Philippines and Vietnam. (There are a good number of Brazilians as well, stemming from immigration in the pre-WW 2 period; there are currently 2 million Brazilians of Japanese descent.)

According to an OECD study, eligibility conditions for permanent residency in Japan are strict. Migrants usually need to live ten years in the country to be eligible. Attracting talent is also hindered by low job mobility in the Japanese labor market.

International students are a key resource targeted by Japan’s strategy to attract and retain global talent and have been traditionally the main way for foreign-born persons to settle in the country.  But the numbers are tiny. The number of international students grew from about 140,000 in 2010 to over 300,000 today and the government aims that number to grow.   Compare 300,000 with the size of Japan’s entire workforce of 69 million. In Canada, there are one million international students and a total workforce of 22 million!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *