Japan to require four times more foreign workers, study says

Feb 04, 2022 | News On Japan

Feb 04, 2022 (Nikkei) - Japan will need 6.74 million foreign workers in 2040, four times more than it has today, a study by the country's aid agency shows.

The study, released on Thursday by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, also demonstrates that the country will have trouble attracting so many foreign workers as the Southeast Asian nations that many workers now hail from are expected to have to deal with aging and declining populations of their own.

The study assumes Japan will make aggressive investments in labor-saving technologies. Without such investments, the need for foreign labor would be even greater -- 21 million workers in 2040 -- the study shows.

The study estimates that Japan will fall short by 420,000 foreign workers in 2040.

Foreign workers are expected to filter into prefectures like Aichi that have large manufacturing bases as well as into cities like Tokyo that have established foreign communities. In the capital, the share of foreign workers among the working-age population is expected to reach 18%.

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