There has been a dramatic increase in the number of people from Nepal working in Japan over the past decade, owing in part to labor shortages in the service industry caused by the graying of society.
Many in the Nepalese labor force, which had surged thirteenfold to 120,000 nationwide in 2022, work as rafting guides, hotel employees, airport staff and other behind-the-scenes workers at bustling holiday destinations. Even so, there are hurdles to expanding their employment and calls for regulatory changes that loosen restrictions.
On a summer afternoon riding through a gorge on the Yoshino River in Miyoshi, Tokushima Prefecture, rafting guide Milthun Shrestha sings popular Nepalese tune "Resham Firiri" ("Silk Fluttering in the Wind") as he navigates his raft and its Japanese customers down the whitewater rapids.