Nearly 1 million foreign workers will be needed by the Japanese economy in 2040 to reach its goals, local experts warn. Expectations are that after 16 years, 5.91 million foreign citizens will work in the Land of the Rising Sun, but there will still be a significant shortage of foreign labor.
To date, the difference in the demand and supply of labor from abroad in Japan is more than 2 times compared to 2022, according to the data of the analysis of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Why does Japan have such a strong need for foreign labor? The reasons are twofold: a low birth rate and a very rapidly aging population. The import of foreign labor is not from yesterday. FOR the last 15 years, it has increased 4 times, statistics show. At the end of last year, 2.05 million foreigners worked in the country, which represents 3% of the working population.
However, the country must also deal with a number of other accompanying challenges such as the weakening of the yen in global markets, low wages and solving human rights issues.