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April 02, 2025
 

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WORKERS

Osamu Murata (left), the acting chairman of nonprofit Ashinaga, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on Wednesday. Ashinaga, which provides financial aid to children, conducted a survey among parents and guardians of recipients to determine the challenges they face.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 27, 2025
Japan’s single parents struggle to raise children, survey finds
Such households grapple with economic hardship, "time poverty" and social isolation, according to a nonprofit that provides financial aid to children.
The Immigration Services Agency in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2025
Imabari Shipbuilding loses technical intern certification
The firm will be unable to accept foreign trainees for the next five years.
A Vietnamese worker harvests tomatoes at a farm in the city of Asahi, Chiba Prefecture, in 2018.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2025
Amid labor shortage, Japan approves guidelines to upskill foreign workers
The new program aims to nurture trainees into skilled workers to motivate them to remain in the country.
Forbidden from seeing friends and forced to devote herself to housework, Reina (whose name has been changed), a 37-year-old Filipino national living in the city of Nagoya, became socially isolated.
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2025
Foreign single mothers struggle with language barriers and visas
Experts are urging the government to create a safer environment where these women can continue living in Japan without fear.
The government plans to allow foreign nationals to engage in home care services, a sector struggling with a labor shortage.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2025
Japan looks to allow foreign nationals to engage in home care services
Non-Japanese would be allowed to work in the sector if they meet certain conditions, such as receiving training.
The Japanese government is considering allowing foreign workers under its specified skilled worker program to take orders and serve and cook food at restaurants within inns and hotels.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2025
Japan to ease foreign worker rules for hotel restaurants
The government is considering allowing foreign workers under the program to take orders and serve and cook food at restaurants at inns and hotels.
The Immigration Services Agency says it is unclear whether application fee price hikes will lead to shorter processing times, but would “continue its efforts to improve efficiency to minimize any inconvenience to applicants.”
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2025
Japan's immigration processing fees to rise starting April 1
The Immigration Services Agency has cited rising prices and personnel costs for its first price hikes — of as much as 50% — in over four decades.
A Japanese class at a job placement company in Hanoi in 2022. The number of foreign workers in Japan hit a record high in 2024.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2025
Japan’s foreign workforce hits fresh record as labor crisis deepens
Japan had a record 2.3 million foreign workers as of October 2024, marking a 12.4% increase from the previous year.
In the survey, 36.7% of respondents said that they have not taken measures to prevent customer harassment.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2025
Customer harassment pushes part-timers to quit
The proportion of companies whose part-time workers faced customer harassment, such as yelling, within the past year was 45.7%.
Currently, companies with 51 or more employees must have their part-time workers join the kosei nenkin program. The government plans to lower that threshold to 21 employees in October 2027 and scrap it two years later.
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2025
Japan to have more part-timers join employee pension program
The government plans to lower the corporate size threshold for part-timers joining the pension program from 51 or more employees to 21 in October 2027.
The labor ministry conducted the survey on foreign workers, the first of its kind, in October to November last year.
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2024
Many foreign workers in Japan face high employment agency fees
The survey found that 14.4% of foreign workers in Japan are facing problems or difficulties at work.
The three Cambodian women are seeking compensation for damages over alleged sexual abuse and unpaid overtime wages.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 17, 2024
Cambodian interns accuse farmer of sexual abuse and wage theft
One woman was raped nearly every day and endured conditions “akin to sexual slavery,” the three women's lawyer said in a statement.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi (second from left) speaks at a ministerial meeting on foreign workers at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2024
Japan begins process to replace controversial foreign trainee program
An expert panel has been appointed to assist the government in drafting a system to replace the controversial Technical Intern Training Program.
The government's pension reform plan under consideration will make it easier for part-timers to join the kosei nenkin employee pension program.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 8, 2024
Japan to scrap ¥1.06 million employee pension threshold in 2026
The government also plans to abolish a requirement that companies must have at least 51 employees for employees to join the kosei nenkin program.
Filipino housekeepers undergo training to work for a Japanese staffing company. By applying the same criteria when hiring overseas and local workers, Japanese firms tend to underutilize the unique skills that foreign nationals can bring.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 8, 2024
Firms should quit turning foreign workers into Japanese ones
Many foreign nationals struggle with the idiosyncrasies of Japan's employment system. Firms tend to assimilate overseas personnel rather than utilize their unique skills.
Leaders of over 70 universities and research institutions from Japan and India attended a forum in New Delhi in mid-October.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2024
Japan's public and private sectors seek workers from India
The number of technical trainees and what are known as specified skilled workers coming from India to Japan has been on the rise in recent years.
Justice Minister Ryuji Koizumi speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Friday. Koizumi stressed that the granting of the special residency permits to children subjected to deportation orders was a one-time measure.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 27, 2024
Japan fine-tunes issuance of humanitarian visas
The move comes amid a near-tripling of technical intern trainees from Myanmar going missing from their programs in 2023.
Out of a total of 509,373 foreign technical trainees, 1.9% went missing in 2023, according to Immigration Services Agency data.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 27, 2024
Record number of technical trainees go missing in Japan in 2023
Of the total, 1,765 were Myanmar nationals who had fled conflict in their home country.
The Justice Ministry said there are now over 250,000 specified skilled foreign workers.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2024
Number of specified skilled visa holders in Japan surpasses 250,000
The government is aiming to attract 820,000 foreign workers under the specified skilled worker program over a five-year period through April 2029.
Job-seekers take a Japanese class at an employment placement company in Hanoi in October 2022.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 11, 2024
Is Japan an attractive option for foreign talent from Asia?
The uptick in young foreign workers is driven by growing interest in Japanese society and culture and difficulty in finding jobs at home.
As ‘Buy Canadian’ grows, more U.S. firms say retailers turning away products
Empty shelves with "Buy Canadian Instead" signs are seen in the American Whiskey section of the BC Liquor in Vancouver, British Columbia, on March 10.
Japan, South Korea and China vow to strengthen trade ties amid looming U.S. tariffs
Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yoji Muto (left), South Korean Trade Industry and Energy Minister Ahn Duk-geun (center) and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao during a trilateral meeting in Seoul on Sunday
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.
Meiji says sayonara to bottled milk, a staple of Japan's bathhouses
Meiji bottled milk lined up in a fridge at Kosugiyu, a bathhouse in Tokyo. The sticker urges patrons to enjoy the milk one last time before it’s gone.
Nankai Trough earthquake could kill 298,000 people, government says
Residents participate in an evacuation drill held with West Japan Railway in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, in January 2024 to prepare for a Nankai Trough earthquake and a possible tsunami following the quake.
Meiji says sayonara to bottled milk, a staple of Japan's bathhouses
Meiji bottled milk lined up in a fridge at Kosugiyu, a bathhouse in Tokyo. The sticker urges patrons to enjoy the milk one last time before it’s gone.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.
On defense, Japan may avoid Trump's worst impulses — for now
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth chat after reviewing an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on Sunday.
No longer a 'bridesmaid': Yuki Tsunoda prepares for the Red Bull pressure cooker
All eyes will be on Yuki Tsunoda as he makes his Red Bull debut at the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend.
Tokyo tech failures lean into misfortune, mistakes and missteps
Tsuyoshi Domoto in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on March 28. As an entrepreneur, Domoto experienced plenty of setbacks but maintains a positive attitude and continues to pursue his dreams.

Podcast

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Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

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By Johan Brooks

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