The government plans to hire 50,000 career counselors in the next five years to help people look for jobs, Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Chikara Sakaguchi said Friday.
"We will create 10,000 career counselor posts in each year and 50,000 in five years. If necessary, we will do it ahead of schedule," Sakaguchi said in a speech at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan in Tokyo.
The labor ministry will seek budgetary allocations for the project in an extra budget to be submitted to Thursday's extraordinary Diet session, Sakaguchi said.
Sakaguchi said people who want to change their jobs and know how to do so have no problem. "But the problem is people who want to change their jobs but don't know what to do next," he said.
The number of young people who do not take permanent jobs, called "freeters," as well as those who have lost their jobs, have been increasing recently.
The ministry will consider introducing a certification system for the post of career counselor, he said. There are reportedly between 170,000 and 200,000 career counselors in the United States.