Japan to Check Demand to Decide No. of Foreign Workers to Accept

November 6, 2018

Tokyo--The government will decide how many foreign workers Japan will accept after a proposed immigration control law revision by examining supply and demand data, Justice Minister Takashi Yamashita said Monday.

On Friday, the government submitted a bill to introduce two visa categories for foreign workers through the amendment, a step to ease labor shortages across the country.

The government will decide the number after receiving objective data from government agencies overseeing industries affected by the revision and checking projections on labor supply and demand, Yamashita told a House of Councillors Budget Committee meeting Monday.

At a parliamentary meeting Thursday, he said the government has no plans to set a limit on the number of foreign workers to be accepted under the new categories.

In connection with this, a senior Justice Ministry official said Monday, "We're not going to continue accepting foreign workers after manpower shortages are resolved."

The official added that ministers supervising the industries accepting foreign workers under the categories can ask for a halt to new arrivals once enough human resources are secured.

During the day's Upper House committee meeting, agriculture minister Takamori Yoshikawa suggested that the proposed type 2 resident status for foreign nationals with specified skills, which will enable indefinite residence, does not include agricultural workers. The status is one of the two categories planned under the bill.

Yoshikawa also said the technical levels required to apply for type one status, the other category, will be basic knowledge that enables handling of agricultural chemicals and fertilizers. Jiji Press