On October 10th, the Ministry of Justice granted 22,419 foreign students to change their status of residence to get employed in Japanese firms in 2017. This marked a record high in permissions granted by Ministry of Justice to change the status with a year-on-year increase of 15.4%.
The top permits by nationality and region saw China standing first with 10,326 students, followed by Vietnam on second with 4,633 students, Nepal on the third position with 2,026 students, Korea on the fourth position with 1,487 students, and Taiwan on fifth position with 810 students respectively. This constituted to 95.5% students from Asian countries out of the total international students.
The growth rate was particularly high for Vietnam and Nepal compared to previous years. Vietnam accounting for 86.2% increase from 2,145 in previous year, and Nepal accounting for 73.6% increase from 859 in previous year.
Moreover, the breakdown of status of residence after permission change is 20,486 for “Engineer/ Specialist in Humanities/ International Services” accounting for 91.4% of the total residence status.
The non-manufacturing industry employment comprises of 81.0% and manufacturing industry comprises of 19.0%, with “Translation and interpretation” as the most common job followed by “Sales and Marketing”, “Overseas services”, and “Technology Development (Information Processing)”.
It is imperative from this article that the number of foreign students seeking jobs in Japan continue to increase year by year. Considering the strong recruitment needs of small to medium enterprises facing labor shortages, and leading companies promoting overseas expansion, the chances of finding employment in Japan will continue to rise in future.
［Reference］Employment situation of international students in Japanese companies in 2017
jopus Editorial Dep.
