Nearly a year has passed since the Specified Skilled Worker system took effect in April 2019 as a new status of residence. To address serious labor shortages, the Japanese government is encouraging the acceptance of about 350,000 foreign nationals who hold Specified Skilled Worker status by fiscal year 2024. Companies considering hiring such workers will naturally want to know the advantages and disadvantages.

This article explains the advantages and disadvantages for companies of accepting talent through the Specified Skilled Worker program.

What Is Specified Skilled Worker?

Specified Skilled Worker is a status of residence for foreign nationals newly established in April 2019. Until then, Technical Intern Training was the primary status of residence under which foreign nationals worked, but it could not fill labor shortages. Technical Intern Training is also intended for trainees to take skills learned in specific industries back to their home countries, so it was never designed for labor purposes.

For that reason, the Specified Skilled Worker system was created to cover serious talent shortages and to build an environment in which foreign nationals can work.

Under Specified Skilled Worker, work is limited to 14 specified industrial fields such as nursing care, construction, and food service. It also allows longer periods of stay and job changes within the same industry—options that Technical Intern Training does not provide.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Accepting Specified Skilled Worker Talent

Below, we explain the advantages and disadvantages of accepting foreign nationals who hold Specified Skilled Worker status.

Advantages of Accepting Specified Skilled Worker Talent

The advantages of accepting foreign nationals with Specified Skilled Worker status are as follows.

・Securing talent
・Ready to contribute immediately thanks to knowledge and experience
・Long-term employment is possible
・Able to communicate in Japanese

Each point is explained in more detail below.

・Securing talent
First, Specified Skilled Worker was newly established to ease Japan’s talent shortages. It is a major asset for specified industrial fields facing severe shortages, such as nursing care, construction, and agriculture. Many foreign workers are also relatively young, which makes workforce development easier in industries that are aging.

・Ready to contribute immediately thanks to knowledge and experience
To obtain Specified Skilled Worker status, candidates must pass a Japanese language assessment and a skills exam for the field, so they can work with a certain level of knowledge and experience from day one. Many have also completed three years as technical intern trainees, in which case those three years of experience can be put to use.

・Long-term employment is possible
Specified Skilled Worker includes Specified Skilled Worker (i), which allows a stay of up to five years in total, and Specified Skilled Worker (ii), which permits indefinite work if the status of residence is renewed every three years. Obtaining Specified Skilled Worker (ii) enables long-term employment.

・Able to communicate in Japanese
Passing a Japanese language assessment is a condition for obtaining Specified Skilled Worker status. As a result, workers have a certain level of Japanese and can communicate smoothly. The Japanese language assessment is roughly equivalent to JLPT N4, so Japanese ability is generally higher than that of technical intern trainees. Those who have completed Technical Intern Training (ii) can often be expected to have Japanese ability at N3 or above.

Disadvantages of Accepting Specified Skilled Worker Talent

Next, we explain the disadvantages of accepting foreign nationals with Specified Skilled Worker status. They are as follows.

・Acceptance frameworks are not yet fully in place
・Workers may change jobs

Each point is explained in more detail below.

・Acceptance frameworks are not yet fully in place

The Specified Skilled Worker system took effect in April 2019 as a new status of residence to ease domestic talent shortages in Japan. However, resistance from sending countries and incomplete acceptance frameworks mean that intake has not progressed as hoped.

・Workers may change jobs

Compared with technical intern trainees, Specified Skilled Worker status allows job changes within the same industry. As a result, there is a real risk that foreign workers may change employers. Saying that technical intern trainees are preferable because they cannot change jobs runs counter to the purpose of that system. Still, companies should keep the possibility of job changes in mind and build friction-free relationships with foreign workers—whether retaining them or parting ways.

Conclusion

This article introduced the advantages and disadvantages for companies when accepting foreign nationals who hold Specified Skilled Worker status.

Hiring foreign nationals has both positives and negatives, but in many cases there will not be enough people if companies continue with Japanese workers alone.

Going forward, the Specified Skilled Worker system will certainly see its frameworks put in place and accept more foreign nationals. Please consider hiring in light of both the advantages and the disadvantages.