At present, non-Japanese workers can’t apply for residence status to engage in the service industry, including food and manufacturing industries. The move comes amid a government decision to increase the current job placement rate of foreign students from 30% to 50%, suggested by the country’s 2016 Growth Strategy. The ministry also points out that foreign graduates of Japanese universities with strong language skills can cover communication between foreign and Japanese workers, and help accommodate Japan’s growing inbound tourism.

[Website]Partial amendment of Ministry of Justice’s public notice to provide employment support for international students

Under this law, the certification of placement agencies for foreign workers, which are tasked with supporting the placement of foreign residents in Japan, will be limited to those who have no records of offenses under Labor Standards Acts. To be more specific, certification as an authorized organization will not be granted if any record of an offense has been found less than 5 years from the date of registration. An agency’s registration will be revoked if the violation occurs after its registration.

Placement agencies are responsible for supporting companies who are willing to accept foreign workers by providing appropriate assistance and guidance on employment and life support planning. Upon registration, they are required to receive certification by the Immigration and Residency Control Agency, which will begin operations in April.

This new visa status law and the revised immigration control law will be in effect from April 1st.

The ranking is based on contributions from current and former employees, who evaluated their companies on certain points. These contributions were gathered by Vorkers and turned into a ranking based on how rewarded employees felt.

Companies were evaluated on 8 factors – treatment of employees, employee morale, openness and trust, teamwork, potential for career growth in one’s 20s, long term cultivation of employees, compliance with laws, and fair evaluations of staff.

This year’s Rewarding Companies survey was the sixth conducted in total. Google Japan came in 1st place, followed by Salesforce.com in 2nd, and Mitsui Fudosan in 3rd.

As for why Google was ranked 1st, comments were posted about the company’s “openness and trust, and a flat organizational structure,” as well as “a culture that respects every employee’s background, individuality, and ideas.”

There were also comments about 2nd place ranker Salesforce.com regarding its “cooperative atmosphere” and “an environment where one can always get career advice,” which were appealing points for many.

Mitsui Fudosan, which came in 3rd place, had many praising its various job opportunities and generous investment in its staff, as well as its extremely good work life balance.

In order, the following companies ranked 4th place and below: Boston Consulting Group, Link and Motivation, Uzabase, Suntory Holdings, Cisco Systems, Prudential Life Insurance, and Itochu Corporation.

The ranking results show a clear trend towards foreign companies being highly ranked. For those who are currently job hunting, the above ranking may be useful when finding your next company.

[Reference] Rewarding Companies Ranking 2019, as Chosen by Employees

Amongst the count, 208,901 students were enrolled in higher education institutions with a 10.9% increase from previous year and 90,079 students enrolled in Japanese language institutions with a 14.5% increase from previous year.

Looking at the nationality of foreign students, China stood first with 114,950 students, followed by Vietnam (72,354 students), Nepal (24,331 students), Korea (17,012 students), and Taiwan (9,524 students). International students from Asia accounted for 93.4% of the total, followed by 3.4% from Europe and 1.1% from North America.

Chart showing transition of foreign students (As of May 1 of each year)

From this survey, we see that there is a consecutive increase in the number of foreign students visiting Japan for past 6 years and that universities are on the path of globalization.

［Reference］ Survey result on enrollment status of foreign students in the year 2018

This newly launched portal site facilitates smooth immigration to Japan and provides information right up to employment. Foreigners willing to work in Japan can get information on universities and study in Japan, events or job-fairs for employment search, requisite procedures after securing employment, social insurance system after getting employed, and consultation service for learning Japanese etc.

This site is very helpful as the detailed summary of the process until employment in Japan is provided such as employment support programs by the Japanese government, information on Japanese language teaching, finding jobs in Japan, and companies actively engaged in hiring foreign recruits etc.

Moreover, there are plans to enrich the content further by providing information such as small and medium-sized enterprises interested in recruiting foreigners. A useful site for foreigners willing to work in Japan.

［Reference］ Portal for promoting highly-skilled foreign professionals

The current revision to the law of opening doors to foreigners in the field of unskilled labor which the government has not acknowledged so far, would be a major policy change in Japan’s foreign acceptance policy. Under the revised Immigration Control Act, 2 types of resident status will be granted to cope up with the labor shortage occurring due to low birthrate and longevity. The acceptance of foreign workers would be increased.

Particularly, the resident status “For a specific skill” will be further classified into 2 types. Status with “Skills that require considerable knowledge or experience” will be classified as “Type 1”. “Type 1” can be obtained by completing Technical internship training program for up to 5 years or by having specialized skills and passing the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Also, the current Technical interns can obtain “Type 1” status without appearing for the exam if they have completed apprenticeship for 3 years or more.

The period of stay for Type 1 would be of aggregate 5 years and accompanying family members will not be accepted. This type would particularly include 14 types of industries such as Nursing and Care, Agriculture, Construction, Lodging and Accommodation, Food Service Industry etc. where human labor shortage is significant.

Moreover, if a person has passed advanced exams and has specialized knowledge and skills, he would be qualified for “Type 2” permit that can be renewed every 1 to 3 years. As there are no restrictions on the number of renewals, practically; one can obtain permanent residence in Japan and family members can be accompanied.

The government assumes a maximum of 345,000 foreign acceptances within next 5 years for Type 1 status. Further details on the number of people to be accepted and types of industries will be clearly stated in the policy that would be announced within the year.

Regarding the votes for current revisions to the Immigration Control Act, there is a backlash from the Opposition party over various points like the number of people accepted, target industries, ways to determine skills etc. These points comprise essential details of the system that remain unclear. Due to reasons like frequent problems with technical interns and lack of appropriate deliberations there was relentless opposition from the Opposition party.

As the detailed planning of the system is entrusted to government ordinance for the amended law, this point seems to be the focus of discussion in next year’s regular Diet session for enforcement of this law in next year’s April.

The system is set to be implemented in Osaka at first, and then expand into Kyoto, Hyogo, Shiga, Nara and Wakayama prefectures.

They plan to make an information system that enables disaster-related information notifications to be sent to smartphones of foreign travelers and/or residents based on GPS tracking and the individual’s registered information. Within this system, the following functions will be available: a push notification in multiple languages in times of earthquakes, torrential rain and so on, and delivery of disaster-related information customized for the individual, based on their current location and nationality.

In addition, the ministry has considered sharing important information even at other times in cooperation with local governments, public transportation companies, tourism organizations, hotels, foreigner communities and Japanese language schools. The system will also be available for free for foreign embassies and consulates in Japan that want to send out safety confirmation emails and rescue information to citizens of their own country at the time of a large-scale disaster.

Quick delivery of accurate information in multiple languages is essential for non-Japanese travelers and residents to live a safe life in Japan where natural disasters such as earthquakes, typhoons and torrential rain often occur.

It is hoped that this experiment will succeed and the system will expand into other regions so that international people can feel safe whilst staying in Japan.

［Reference］Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications starts demonstration experiments of disaster-related information platform.

The results highlighted that currently in Japan it is easier to increase your salary if you change jobs. This is due to the seller’s market condition, the economy continuing to boom, and the size of available workforce continuing to decline.

Looking at the wage rise by age, 53.4% is for people ​​under 19 years old, 40.8% 20 to 24-year-olds, 45.6% 25 to 29-year-olds, 41.9% for 30 to 34-year-olds, and 48.2% for 35 to 39-year-olds. Nearly half of the employees over the middle-aged group of 35 years old were found to have achieved salary increases.

In addition, the number of people entering a company in 2017 was about 7.88 million and the number of people leaving a company was about 7.34 million. This was the fifth consecutive year that the hiring rate exceeding the number people leaving. Looking at the number of employees by type of employment, the number of full-time workers increased by approximately 330,000 from the previous year to approximately 4.457 million, while the number of part-time workers only decreased to approximately 3.3 million, a drop of 130,000 from the previous year. This shows that full-time employment chances are also increasing.

According to the data from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, we can see that the job market in Japan is at an unprecedented seller’s market, and the situation is currently very favorable for job seekers. In recent years, talented overseas personnel are increasingly being recruited by not only major companies but also small and medium-sized enterprises to help promote overseas development in anticipation of the inevitable shrinking domestic market in the future. Therefore, for those who want to work in Japan, it is getting a lot easier to find work.

If you are interested in moving to Japan and getting a job at a Japanese company, why not take advantage of this current seller’s market?

［Reference］ Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare 2017 employment survey results summary.

The employment rate of students graduating from junior college increased by 3.4% to 42.8%. The overall employment rate of universities, junior colleges, and technology colleges increased by 1.9% when compared to last year, showing an overall increase of 74.5%.

When classified region-wise, Kinki region marks the highest employment rate of 82.1%. When classified as per arts and science faculty, arts faculty students accounted for 76.5% and science faculty students accounted for 79.2%.

Incidentally, some of the graduands aspire for further university education and family operated business assistance besides the job seeking students.

With the incessant labor shortage, finding an employment has become easier for students with favorable job-seeking market conditions in Japan.

Many companies are aggressively coming up with year-round recruitments and foreign staff recruitments to secure human resources. This can be a good opportunity for foreign students willing to work in Japan.

［Reference］ Publishing the status of job offers (As of October) for 2018 university graduands

As a general rule, the current public medical insurance system offers services not only to Japanese nationals but also to foreign nationals living in Japan. Under the health insurance program, family members within the third degree of kinship, including children and grandchildren, are considered as dependents of insurance holders. This means that those who live outside of Japan are still eligible to receive the coverage.

At the moment, the government is looking to reform the immigration law in preparation of accepting more foreign workers. Once the new immigration law is implemented and new visa status of residence categories are created, more foreign workers are expected to relocate to Japan. If that is the case, it is possible that the costs to cover the medical treatment of their family members overseas would ultimately put a great deal of pressure on government finances.

Taking this into consideration, the government is preparing to narrow down the definition of “dependent” in their health insurance program, and family members living overseas will no longer be covered, regardless of their nationality.

Generous insurance programs and other employee benefits have been one of the main appeals of working in Japan. With the revision of the Health Insurance Act, family members of foreign workers who live in their home countries will likely be excluded from the health insurance program, which could discourage foreign nationals who wish to come and work in Japan.

[Reference] Health insurance will only be available to family members living in Japan, in response to more foreign workers
[Reference] Government to revise medical insurance system to exclude family members of foreign workers living overseas