Foreigners in Japan with skilled visa hits record high
Japan's immigration agency said Tuesday that the number of foreigners working under the Specified Skilled Worker visa reached a record 336,196 as of the end of June, with an increase in workers holding the No. 2 visa, which requires advanced skills and offers a pathway to permanent residency, Kyodo reports.
The industry employing the most such foreign workers was the food and beverage manufacturing sector, with approximately 84,000 workers, the immigration agency said, adding the largest group of workers holding the visa is Vietnamese, accounting for around 40 percent, followed by workers from Indonesia and Myanmar.
Introduced in 2019, the No. 1 visa allows holders to stay in Japan for up to five years and advance to the No. 2 visa after meeting certain requirements, such as passing an exam.
The Immigration Services Agency believes the recent surge in No. 2 visa holders is likely due to more No. 1 visa holders becoming eligible to advance after completing five years.
The No. 1 visa allows foreigners to work in 16 different industrial sectors, including farming and construction. Regarding the No. 2 visa, which allows employment in 11 sectors, the visa holders reached 3,073, roughly 3.7 times since the end of last year, the immigration agency said.
The agency found that roughly 50 percent of No. 1 visa holders had seamlessly transitioned from the Technical Intern Training Program, designed to develop the technical skills of foreign workers from developing countries, without needing to take an exam.
The government plans to abolish the widely criticized foreign trainee program during fiscal 2027 and replace it with a new system called the Employment for Skill Development. Under the system, workers will be encouraged to transition to the Specified Skilled Worker status after working for three years in principle.
Earlier, it was reported that the share of Japan's population aged 65 or older hit record high 29.4 percent.