Japan's foreign workers hit hard by pandemic despite record number

Feb 04, 2021 | News On Japan

Feb 04, 2021 (Kyodo) - The economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has taken a toll on the employment and daily lives of foreign workers in Japan, despite their number hitting a record high of around 1.72 million in 2020.

Foreign workers who have lost jobs due to the economic downturn are financially struggling as they have not received sufficient support, with labor experts urging the government to offer more help.

The Japanese government has been seeking to boost foreign workers at a time when the world's third-largest economy is coping with a chronic labor shortage caused by the declining birthrate and aging population.

The number of foreign workers in Japan hit a record high of 1,724,328 as of October 2020, increasing 4.0 percent from a year earlier.

The pace of rise was nevertheless down from a 13.6 percent surge recorded the previous year, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, with the pandemic hitting early in 2020.

Most workers were permanent residents or spouses of Japanese, totaling 546,469. The next largest group was technical interns, whose number climbed 4.8 percent to 402,356. Those working under a new visa status created in 2019 to attract more blue-collar workers in labor-hungry industries stood at 7,262.

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