On April 1, 2019, amendments to the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act (hereinafter, the “Act”) took effect to address Japan’s labor shortage, and a new status of residence, Specified Skilled Worker, was established. This article explains in detail the background to the legal amendment.

Background to the Creation of Specified Skilled Worker

In recent years, labor shortages in Japan have grown severe, even raising the possibility of undermining the sustainability of the country’s economic and social foundations. To accept foreign nationals who have a certain level of expertise and skills and can contribute immediately, the Specified Skilled Worker status of residence was newly established.
In addition, the Immigration Bureau was upgraded to the Immigration Services Agency of Japan, and more budget and personnel than ever before were allocated to immigration policy for foreign nationals. This was the first time the Japanese government had publicly created a new status of residence specifically to address labor shortages.

Until Specified Skilled Worker was established, technical intern trainees and international students had become an important workforce in industries facing labor shortages in Japan.
However, the original purpose of technical intern trainees coming to Japan is to take the skills they learn back to their home countries and contribute to their development, so they must return home when the Technical Intern Training period (up to five years) ends. From the employer’s perspective, this means having to let go of talent just as they have become accustomed to the work.

Transition from Student to Specified Skilled Worker

International students have become indispensable workers in on-site roles that technical intern trainees cannot perform (such as convenience store staff and servers in restaurants and hotels), especially in the food service and accommodation industries. However, because the primary purpose of their entry is study, they are permitted to work only up to 28 hours per week (or up to 40 hours per week during long breaks such as summer and winter vacations). Despite this, so-called “work-seeking international students,” who enter Japan for employment purposes without observing these work limits, have surged in recent years. To achieve the “300,000 International Students Plan” launched under the Fukuda administration in 2008, Japan has accepted large numbers of international students. Contrary to expectations, however, the highly skilled foreign professionals Japan originally needed did not arrive in large numbers; instead, work-seeking international students increased steadily, bringing the problem of unauthorized work by foreign nationals into sharper focus.

As a result, now that the “300,000 International Students Plan” has largely been achieved, cases in which student visas are not issued to foreign nationals seeking to enter from lower-income countries have increased over the past one to two years. In addition, violations of permission to engage in activities other than those permitted under the status of residence, which were previously overlooked, are now more strictly enforced. In recent years, more international students have been unable to renew their period of stay and have faced deportation after failing to observe the 28-hour weekly work limit even once. This can be seen as the Japanese government implicitly encouraging foreign nationals who wish to work in Japan to enter under the Specified Skilled Worker status of residence.

Conclusion

One year and eight months have passed since Specified Skilled Worker was established, yet acceptance numbers in every industry still fall far short of the projected figures set for each sector.
In the nursing care industry, where labor shortages are especially severe, only 343 people have been accepted against a five-year target of 60,000 (preliminary figures as of the end of September 2020). Because the Technical Intern Training program for nursing care was only established in November 2017, even those who change to Specified Skilled Worker (i) after completing their training remain limited in number. When Specified Skilled Worker was created, the government stated that it would review the system around two years after the amended Act took effect and revise the basic policy if necessary. It may now be time to undertake a serious policy review.