Labour Shortage in Japan ?
＊Foreign Workers in Low-paid Jobs

Shimono Keiko＊＊

Abstract
The Ministry of Welfare and Labour estimated in 2006 that over 900 thousand foreigners (excluding
Koreans with the right of permanent residence) are working in Japan, including 20 thousand illegal workers.
The majority of them, some 70 thousand, are working in low-paid jobs, although the Japanese government
only allows foreigners to work in highly skilled jobs. Why are many foreigners working legally as unskilled
labour ? Because Chinese may work as trainees and Japanese Brazilians are permanent residents who canwork freely in Japan.
This paper points out that there is not, and will not be, a labour shortage in Japan in the near future, inspite of prevailing views to the contrary. Small and medium-sized companies have a strong demand forforeign workers, whom they substitute for young Japanese workers. Japanese female “part timers”, elderly
employees aged 60 years and over, and foreigners, provide cheap labour for companies, but they clearly
prefer young foreign workers to other workers.

１．Introduction
With each year that passes in Japan, we see more foreigners working at small restaurants, construction sites and small factories. The number of registered foreigners was more than 2 million in 2005, andreached some 2.2 million in 2007, 1.7 per cent of the Japan’s population. Koreans number 610 thousand,though most Koreans are born in Japan. There are 590 thousand Chinese, 320 thousand Brazilians and
200 thousand Filipinos. Since 2000, the number of foreign workers has increased by some 80 thousand
every year.
In 2006 the number of foreign workers (born outside of Japan) was estimated by the Ministry of
Welfare and Labour to be some 930 thousand (including illegal workers). These were categorized asfollows : 180 thousand specialists and technical experts including entertainers, 95 thousand trainees, 370
thousand permanent residents of Japanese descent, 110 thousand students, and 170 thousand illegal＊

This paper was presented at the One day Conference on International Economics and Globalization : International

Factor Mobility, which was held on 4 October 2008, Saturday, at Medium Conference Hall, Conference Building, Yagoto
Campus, Chukyo University. The conference was organised by the Institute of Economic Research of Nagoya City
University and the Institute of Economics of Chukyo University.
＊＊

Institute of Economic Research, Nagoya City University Nagoya, Aichi 467-8501, Japan. Tel : ＋ 81-52-872-5724

e-mail : shimonok@econ.nagoya-cu.ac.jp― 1 ―workers.
The Japanese government officially gives foreigners permission to work only at skilled jobs. However, the number of skilled foreign workers working in Japan is 180 thousand, only one fifth of the total. It
should be noted that the majority of foreigners are working at unskilled jobs in Japan. That is, themajority of Japanese companies expect foreigners to work at unskilled jobs, not skilled jobs.
In this paper I will first discuss the perceived labour shortage, which has received a lot of publicity inthe media. In my opinion, the perception of a labour shortage is incorrect, since a lot of Japanese are
currently discouraged from working. Second, foreigners are working at low-paid jobs at the moment.
The Japanese government and managers, however, will have to deal with foreigner workers in the same
way as Japanese workers, because overt discrimination towards foreigners is criticised. In this case,what is the advantage of employing foreigners ?
This paper composes of 5 sections as follows. Section 2 examines projections for the Japanese labour
force and the demand for foreign workers. In Section 3, I will present data on foreign workers in the
Tokai area, and I will confirm that foreigners are working in unstable labour conditions. Section 4
discusses whether foreign workers in Japan could increase in the future or not. Concluding remarks are
in Section 5.

２．Labour Supply and Demand in Japan
Many politicians and managers are arguing for an increase of the number of foreign workers because
Figure 1

The Number of the Registered Foreigners― 2 ―of a labour shortage. This argument, however, is totally invalid. Managers have always tried to cut thelabour cost, as Adam Smith pointed out in his famous book The Wealth of Nations. In reality, if the wages
offered are lower than what people expect, they will not work. Excessively low wages are the real reason
behind the current labour shortage in Japan. In this section, I will point out that the Japanese manufacturing and service industries need low paid workers, and that they are the employers of cheap labour
from China, Brazil and so on.
Japan has one of the most aged populations in the world. Currently one fourth of the population isaged 65 years and over, because of a lower birth rate and longer life span. Along with the aging of the
population, the labour force is expected to decrease. Figures in Table 1 show estimates by the Ministryof Welfare and Labour.
Table 1 indicates that the labour force is expected to dramatically decrease in the near future, bysome 3.6 million for men and some 1.1 million for women from 2005 to 2025. These figures, however, arecalculated on the assumption that the labour market participation rate will remain the same as it is now.
That is, assuming that the labour market participation rate for women continues at the current low rateof less than 50 per cent. As is well known, Japan is an exception among the industrialised countries inrespect of the number of women not working, especially for educated women. If their working ratio
could increase to 60 per cent from current 50 per cent, over 5 million new workers would appear in thelabour market. This number would be enough to compensate for the decrease in young workers in the
future. That is, if Japanese women work more, the labour shortage will not occur.
Figure 2 shows the labour market participation rate for women by age. Japanese women have atendency to quit their jobs when they have a baby, just as Korean women do. Long working hours force
them to leave their jobs. Japanese regular workers are working for around 2,000 hours, compared with
Table 1

Projection of Labour Force by Ministory of Welfare and Labour(ten thousand persons)

Men

2005

2025

Difference

Women

2005

2025

difference

total

3,994

3,631

−363

total

2,778

2,666

−112

15-19

61

56

−5

15-19

56

47

−9

20-24

279

235

−44

20-24

267

211

−56

25-29

418

303

−115

25-29

309

226

−83

30-34

486

316

−170

30-34

306

202

−104

35-39

433

340

−93

35-39

277

227

−50

40-44

398

380

−18

40-44

287

286

−1

45-49

378

415

37

45-49

286

324

38

50-54

424

460

36

50-54

307

355

48

55-59

477

388

−89

55-59

310

288

−22

60-64

302

310

8

60-64

177

235

58

65-

338

427

89

65-

195

264

69

― 3 ―

around 1,600 hours in Germany and France (manufacturing workers, Ministry of Welfare and labour).
Long working hours prevent workers from finding a balance between work and family life.
Once women leave employment, the opportunity to re-enter the labour market is strongly limited to
low-paid and unskilled jobs. Women returning to the work force are commonly referred to as “parttimers”. In these circumstances it is understandable that many educated women do not want to work
again. Although some “part-timers” are skilled workers, their wages are still lower than those of “regular
employees”, because a “part-timer” is different labour category from that of “regular employee”. The
hourly wage rate for the former is half of that for the latter. Regular employees have bonuses, retirement
payments, and half of their social security burden is paid by the company, while “part-timers” receive
none of these benefits. “Part timers” are assumed to be married women, who are dependent on theirhusbands.
The above facts explain the low labour market participation rate for Japanese women. If their wage
rates were higher, Japanese women might work more. If the labour market participation rate forJapanese women were to increase to 60 percent from the current 50 percent, 5 million new workers
would appear in the Japanese labour market. In this case, a decrease in the working-aged population
would not equate to a decrease in the labour force.
Why are the wages of “part-timers” so low ? Because a wide wage gap exists among companies inJapan, and small and medium-sized companies demand cheap labour. Figure 3 shows the wage curve forregular employees by age group and by company size. A large company is one with 1,000 or more

Figure 2

Labour Market Participation Rate for Women by Age Class (2005)― 4 ―regular employees. A medium-sized company has between 100 and 999 employees, and a small-sizedcompany has between 10 and 99 employees. Figures show monthly earnings for regular employees.
Figure 3 presents three facts on Japanese wage system as follows. First, a seniority wage system still
remains for large- and medium-sized companies. This means that the younger workers are, the lower
their wage level is. Second, there is a huge wage differential governed by company size. Employees inlarge companies receive some 1.2 times the salary of employees in medium-sized companies, and some 1.5
times the salaries of those in small-sized companies (for male employees aged 40 years and over). Third,
even those women employed as regular employees receive lower wages than their male counterparts.
Monthly earnings for women are less than 60 percent of men’s for those aged 30 years and over. Even as
regular employees, female workers are working for less.
The wage differences between companies have been widening over the past decade. If a value of 100
is taken to represent the average wage at large company, then for medium-sized companies the corresponding figure would have been 85 in 1995, 83 in 2000, and 81 in 2005. For small-sized companies thecorresponding figures would be 79, 76 and 73 respectively.
The above findings show that medium and small-sized companies can not pay as much as large
companies. Because of labour conditions in these companies, including hours worked, wages and workplace security, they are not able to employ enough Japanese workers. It is mainly small companies thatare experiencing a labour shortage, a fact which has not received enough attention. As a result, they
Figure 3

Wage Profile of Regular Employee by Company Size (2005)― 5 ―employ a lot of foreign workers, whether they are legal or illegal.
It should be noted that the high profits and high wages of large companies are supported by low
wages at these smaller ones. Think of the Toyota group with all its smaller subsidiaries. In the case of
Toyota, most foreign workers are Japanese Brazilians, who are working at smaller subsidiary factories,
not at the famous Toyota factory, and not as regular employees, but as a non-regular employees referred
to as “haken”. Section 3 presents statistics for foreign workers in the Tokai area.

３．Foreign Workers in the Tokai Area : Japanese Brazilians and Chinese Trainees
According to the Foreign Workers Survey (2005) undertaken by the Ministry of Welfare and Labour,some 54 percent of foreign workers are working in production factories, especially at car manufacturers.
There are many car factories in the Tokai area, including Toyota, Honda, and Suzuki. Many foreign
workers are working at factories with less than 100 Japanese regular employees.
Figure 4 shows that Aichi and Shizuoka are the most significant working places for foreigners alongwith Tokyo. Furthermore, in the Tokai area, half of foreigners working in companies with more than 50
employees are not directly employed by companies, but are the staff of employment agencies. On theother hand, in Tokyo over 80 percent of foreigners are employed directly by companies. This suggeststhat foreign workers in Tokyo might be skilled workers and those in the Tokai area could be unskilledworkers. Unskilled workers are substitutable and their wages are likely to be at a low level.

Figure 4

The Number of Foreign Workers in Companies with 50 Employees and over― 6 ―In 2006, the number of foreigners registered in Aichi prefecture reached 210 thousand, representing
2.8 percent of the population. This is much higher than the average for Japan, which is 1.6 percent. The
largest group in this population is made up of Japanese Brazilians (75 thousand), followed by 42 thousand
for Koreans (including those who were born in Japan) and 35 thousand for Chinese. This composition of
the foreign labour force is different from the national average (see Figure 1). Nation wide the mostnumerous groups are Koreans, Chinese and Brazilians in that order. Japanese Brazilians are concentrated in the Tokai area.
Figure 5 shows that the population of Japanese Brazilians in Aichi started to increase in 1990. In
1990, the Japanese government decided to create a new visa category within the class of permanent
residents, which allows Japanese descendents to work in Japan without any restrictions. They are able tolive and work freely in Japan. Since then, foreign workers, mainly Japanese Brazilians, have begun to be
employed as unskilled labourers at car parts subsidiaries, (referred to as “haken” or “ukeoi”), although
the Japanese government still officially prohibits foreigners working in unskilled jobs .
The total number of Japanese Brazilians registered was some 320 thousand in 2007. They became
new immigrants to Japan, although most can’t understand Japanese properly. As a result, they have
faced a lot of difficulties over wage contracts and their children have experienced difficulties getting an
education.
There is another opportunity for foreigners to be legally employed in unskilled jobs. It is a trainee
system which commenced in 1993. An earlier trainee system began in 1981 for learning technology andtraining at Japanese factories. Under that scheme a trainee could stay only for one year. In 1993, theperiod was extended to three years : one year as a trainee and two years as a worker in the training
process. From that time, the number of trainees began to increase. The majority of trainees are Chinese.
Their wages are extremely low : on average 60 thousand yen per month for a trainee and around 150
Figure 5

The Number of Foreigners registered in Aichi― 7 ―thousand yen for a worker with training.
Furthermore, some have complained that foreigners visiting Japan under this system have a tendency
to be illegal workers, because this system allows trainees to work for three years at most. Korea used tohave the same trainee system as Japan does now, but they abolished it in 2007 and introduced a newlabour contract system, because of an increase in the number of illegal workers.
Currently, cheap labour is officially supplied by Japanese Brazilians and trainees, mainly Chinese, andadditionally by students and illegal workers.
Japanese manufacturing companies prefer young foreigners to Japanese females or the Japaneseelderly. However, is it possible to continue to do this in the future ? Section 4 discusses the relationshipbetween the standard of living and labour mobility.

４．Wage Inequality and Labour Mobility
As I have mentioned in the previous Sections, Japan is one of the biggest international immigrantcountries, if an immigrant is be defined as those who stay in a country other than that of their birth for
one year and over. This is the definition used by International Organisation for Immigrants.
To be perfectly frank, the current Japanese government and Japanese employers exploit foreign
workers as cheap labour, and they don’t care about their future or their children’s future. It is known
that many Japanese Brazilians are not able to understand Japanese, and so they have a lot of problems
with their working conditions including wages, job stability, promotion, and so on. Their children are also
at a disadvantage due to their poor command of Japanese.
The majority of current immigrants to Japan are from Brazil and China. The question then arises : if
their countries become prosperous, will they continue to work in Japan ?
Figure 6 presents movement in the GDP differential between Japan and Brazil, and between Japanand China. Both Brazil and China belong to the so-called BRICs, however, these two countries are very
different in terms of their GDP per capita. According to the United Nations Statistics Division, GDP per
capita in 2005 is US$ 35,644 for Japan, US$ 1,766 for China, and US$ 4,260 for Brazil. The difference
between Japan and Brazil has been relatively stable, a factor of between 6 and 12. On the other hand, thedifference between Japan and China has decreased year by year. Japan’s GDP per capita was some 90
times that of China in 1990, but has reduced to some 20 times in 2005.
Figure 7 suggests what will happen if Brazil and China become wealthy. The relationship between
economic inequality and the increase in the number of registered foreigner workers is positive, at least
for both China and Brazil. It suggests that the number of foreigners working in Japan will continue toincrease as long as the wealth difference remains, Japanese companies have a demand for them, and theJapanese government permits economic immigrants. If the difference in wealth disappears, however, thesupply of cheap labour is also likely to disappear.
― 8 ―Figure 6

GDP Gap (par capita) : Japan/Brazil and Japan/China
source : the United Nations

Figure 7(1) Brazil : The Relationship between Economic Inequality and Increases in the number ofRegistered Foreign Workers― 9 ―Figure 7(2) China : The Relationshop between Economic Inequality and Increases in the Number ofRegistered Foreign Workers

５．Conclusion
First, I pointed out in this paper that a future labour shortage in Japan is not inevitable, because of alot of women, especially educated women, currently do not work. If the labour market participation rate
for women increases to 60 percent from the current 50 percent, a decrease in the number of young
workers could be compensated for by an increase in the number of female workers.
Long working hours are a major reason why women cannot currently continue to work. The ineffective Japanese unions have accepted such long working hours. They have negotiated only a 25 per centloading for overtime, unlike the 50 per cent common in other developed countries. Long working hours
force working women to quit their job when having a baby. They re-enter the labour market only towork as “part-timers” at small factories, supermarkets and small shops. These are unskilled jobs, unattractive to educated women. If the Japanese government would like to bring more women into theworkforce it is essential to shorten working hours.
Second, Japan has already allowed foreigners to work at unskilled jobs, although it has officiallyinsisted that only skilled workers can be accepted. Japanese Brazilians and Chinese are the main sourcesof cheap labour. Most Japanese Brazilians are working at small manufacturing companies, especially car
parts factories in the Tokai area. Chinese are mainly working at small factories and at small shops,
including restaurants and convenience stores.
The substitution of foreign workers for Japanese women in the workforce of small companies leads,
theoretically, to a negative impact on the Japanese economy. The consequence is that 50% of women do― 10 ―

not work, do not pay tax, and do not contribute social security payments. Japan might not have accepted
unskilled workers with such readiness if these consequences had been considered adequately.
Third, current foreign workers have visited Japan because of economic reasons. This being the case,they will continue to increase in number, as long as there is a strong demand for them is in Japan and an
economic gap remains (see Figure 6 and Figure 7).
I argued in this paper that the perception of a labour shortage is invalid, because a lot of Japanese do
not work ― mainly educated women. Japan, however, has already accepted a lot of unskilled workers
from Brazil, China and so on. This means that the Japanese government should take responsibility forthem. It needs to allocate money to teach the Japanese language to Japanese Brazilians and theirchildren, because they are permanent residents. Japan should also pass legislation protecting the rights
of immigrant workers, affording them the same protections enjoyed by other Japanese workers.

References
Okubo, T., The Labour Market for Japanese Descendents and Ethnicity, Ochanomizu Shobo, 2005. (in Japanese)
Shimono, K., ‘Unskilled Workers with Low wages in the Tokai Area : Japanese Brazilians and Chinese Trainees maintainthe Small-sized Manufacturing Companies’, The Journal of International and Regional Economics, no. 9, 23-34, 2008.
(in Japanese)
Tanno, K., The Borderless Labour Market and Foreign Workers, Tokyo University Press, 2007. (in Japanese)― 11 ―