Japan will allow more foreign nationals, including those holding short-term visas, to take a skills test from April under the new blue-collar visa program that is aimed at addressing national labor shortages, immigration officials said Thursday.
The program, which was launched in April last year, was intended to attract up to 345,000 blue-collar workers over five years for jobs in 14 sectors, including nursing care and the hotel industry.
However, so far less than 2,000 have obtained working permits under the new visa program, an abysmally low figure given that the government was expecting to draw 40,000 people in the first year.