The number of foreign students who changed their visa status to work in Japan after graduating from universities or vocational schools hit a record high in 2018, immigration authorities said Wednesday, amid a chronic manpower shortage in the nation.
A total of 25,942 students switched their status of residence last year to one that permits employment in Japan, up 3,523 from a year earlier, according to the Immigration Services Agency.
The figure more than doubled from 2013, apparently reflecting overall growth in the number of overseas students and surging demand from companies for foreign workers to deal with a labor crunch caused by Japan’s aging population and low birthrate.
By visa status type, “engineer, specialist in humanities, international services,†under which foreigners can work as engineers, accountants, language-related and other roles, accounted for 93.2 percent of work visas. “Business manager†comprised 2.2 percent and “professor†2.1 percent.
Translation and interpretation were the most popular job descriptions, with 23.6 percent of students hired for such work, followed by sales at 13.4 percent, overseas business at 9.0 percent and technology development in the field of data processing at 6.5 percent.
By country and region of origin, Chinese nationals topped the list of students switching to work visas, accounting for 42.0 percent, followed by Vietnamese at 20.2 percent and Nepalese at 11.3 percent. Asian nations accounted for 95.3 percent of the total.
