Japanese firms hire foreigners to address labour shortages

In the multiple-response survey, 56.8 % of companies said foreign workers were employed with the expectation that they will perform as well or better than Japanese staff, while 18.5 % pointed to efforts to promote diversity, according to the labour ministry survey released earlier this week.

The survey of companies with foreign workers that have five or more employees, conducted in October and November 2023, received responses from 3,534 businesses and 11,629 workers, the report said.

The survey also found that 51.5 % of foreign workers in Japan were introduced to their jobs by agencies or individuals in their home countries, while 13.5 % secured employment via agencies or individuals in Japan.

"We'd like to continue conducting the survey and use it as a basic document for policymaking," a ministry official said.

The survey was the first conducted by the ministry on employment and recruitment of foreign workers, with the number continuing to increase amid Japan's declining population and plummeting birthrate.

The number of foreign workers in Japan more than quadrupled in the past 15 years to 2.05 million, or about 3 % of the entire workforce, as of October last year.

Xinhua