The number of people from overseas obtaining a new visa status created in April to open the doors wider to foreign workers has fallen far short of expectations. The government anticipated up to 47,500 workers from abroad in the first year of the program designed to address the severe domestic manpower shortage, but the number of people receiving the new visa so far is only 2 to 3 percent of the expected figure.
The situation is attributed partly to delays in holding the tests for Japanese language and job skills that are required for those applying for the status. This was due to a lack of time to prepare for the system, which was hastily introduced following an amendment to the immigration control law a year ago. Interest in the new system among manpower-scarce employers is also said to remain sluggish because the government's Technical Intern Training Program — which effectively serves as a source of cheap foreign labor — has been kept intact despite widespread abuse of trainees, including illegally low or unpaid wages. To streamline and improve the system for inviting people from overseas to work in this country, the intern program should either be overhauled and limited to its stated purpose or scrapped.
The new visa status for foreign workers represented a major turnaround in Japan's immigration policy, which had officially welcomed only highly skilled professional workers from abroad, to accept foreign workers in simple labor positions in 14 industrial sectors as an increasingly severe labor shortage confronts the nation with its rapidly aging and shrinking population. The government anticipates an inflow of up to 345,000 foreign workers in the first five years of the program.