Japan mulling curbing growth of medical, welfare workers

May 3, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's welfare ministry is considering limiting the number of medical and welfare workers to some nine million from 2025 as the figure is expected to increase due to an aging society, informed sources told Jiji Press.

The ministry aims to avoid the situation in which a rise in the proportion of workers in the medical and welfare sector causes serious labor shortages in other industrial sectors amid a declining population, the sources said. It also hopes to curb growth in social welfare costs.

According to the ministry, 8.23 million people are working in medical and welfare services in 2018, accounting for 13 percent of all 65.8 million workers in the country.

In 2025, when people in the postwar baby-boom generation will be 75 years old or over, the total number of workers is expected to fall to 63.5 million, while that of medical and welfare workers is seen rising to 9.3 million, due to increasing demand for such services.

Furthermore, in 2040, when the number of people aged 65 or older is expected to peak, 10.6 million people, or 19 percent of all 56.5 million workers, are projected to work in the medical and welfare sector.

If the labor force is concentrated in a particular field, results could include lower competitiveness and serious labor shortages in other industrial sectors.

To avoid such a situation, the ministry is considering measures to help keep the number of medical and welfare workers at around nine million between 2025 and 2040 while meeting demand for such services.

For instance, the ministry aims to make use of artificial intelligence and information and communications technologies to improve productivity.

Related measures are expected to include diagnoses and the production of nursing care plans using AI and the introduction of nursing care robots. The ministry believes that such measures will also help reduce any excessive provision of care services.

The ministry will present its plan to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy so that it can be reflected in the government's annual economic and fiscal policy guidelines, due out this summer.

In order to slow the pace of decrease in the total number of workers, the ministry also aims to extend the country's healthy life expectancy by more than three years by 2040 to increase work opportunities for older people. Jiji Press