For Japanese moving companies, March and April are the busiest season for their business with people getting ready for a new school year or starting a new job posting.

But such companies are having difficulty keeping up with the demand this year amid a shortage of truck drivers and the so-called "2024 problem."

A revised law going into effect on Monday will cap overtime for truck drivers to 960 hours per year — a move aiming to improve working conditions. The profession has long been faced with long working hours and low pay.

Those who are planning to move to new homes are finding themselves either struggling to make a reservation or facing increasingly higher costs. And people unable to secure a moving company have been dubbed hikkoshi nanmin, which translates as “moving refugees."

When Sachiko Tazawa, 42, made plans to move from Tokyo to Sapporo with her husband and three children earlier in March, two moving companies she got price quotes from told her that she will be charged about double the normal amount since it’s the busy season and will involve long-distance travel.

She eventually moved in the evening of March 18 as there were no available slots in the morning.

“Even if there were, there would be an additional charge,” she said. She ended up paying ¥550,000 — higher than the usual price of around ¥300,000 to ¥350,000 for a two-ton truck worth of boxes.

One of Japan's largest moving companies, Heart International Group, is seeing a rise in demand and sales for March and April compared with the same period of last year, especially among people who have to move due to work-related reasons.

The group, which has branches from Hokkaido to Okinawa, had secured about 22,000 reservations in March alone as of Tuesday, roughly a 9.4% increase from the same month in 2023.

“Because of the work-style reform (on overtime limits for drivers), we are facing a shortage of employees including part-timers,” said Kaori Takeuchi, a spokesperson for Heart International.

The overtime cap is expected to cause a series of logistical issues such as potential disruption to delivery services and a decrease in delivery capacity — dubbed the "2024 problem."

Shin Shizuoka Hikkoshi Center is also experiencing something similar, with the number of reservations rising about 1.5 times compared with the same period of last year.

The figure jumped because the number was still low last year due to the lingering effects of the pandemic, said Yusuke Konno, the company’s executive.

“It feels like it (customer numbers) came back again,” he said.

The Shizuoka-based moving company expects the new regulation to affect its operations and is considering ways to reduce the workload of its employees and increase its unit prices.

“(The price) is certainly higher than usual, but we are doing our best to make it as affordable as possible,” he said.

Staff writer Kanako Takahara contributed to this report.