Photo/Illutration Company officials, left, explain working conditions to foreigners at a recruiting session in Tokyo on Dec. 6. (Makoto Oda)

The number of foreigners working in Japan with the “specified skilled worker” visa has sharply increased since its creation five years ago to address labor shortages.

Unlike conditions under the technical intern training program, the visa allows for working conditions that can benefit both workers and short-handed employers.

For example, visa holders can work longer overtime hours, including night shifts, and in a broader range of industries than those in the technical intern training program.

Another big attraction of the visa is that holders can change jobs after working for one to two years.

As of the end of June, 251,747 people were working with the specified skilled worker visa, equivalent to about 60 percent of technical interns, according to the Justice Ministry.

The number has been increasing by 5,000 to 6,000 a month since July, ministry officials said.

About 200 workers and students from Vietnam, Indonesia, Nepal and elsewhere attended a recruiting session for jobs that require the specified skilled worker visa in Tokyo on Dec. 6.

About one-third of the participants were already working with the visa and considering switching jobs.

Another one-third or so were technical interns who were considering upgrading to the specified skilled worker visa.

Twenty-three companies, such as restaurants and automobile repair shops, set up booths.

Representatives answered questions from prospective applicants, such as how many overtime hours they could work, whether they can live in a dormitory and how much it would cost.

A 23-year-old Sri Lankan technical intern said she wants to acquire the visa and work in Osaka, where her husband lives, after her three-year training program at a food production company ends next year.

An official of a food and beverage company acknowledged that specified skilled worker visa holders may move to different jobs but said there was an advantage in hiring them.

“Unlike in the case of technical interns, we do not have to provide housing because they can choose to rent it on their own,” the official said.

The Immigration Services Agency, which organized the Dec. 6-7 event in the capital, said the recruiting sessions in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya attracted about 900 foreigners this year, about four times as many as in last year.

Labor ministry figures show that 2,048,675 foreigners were working in Japan as of the end of October 2023, up 225,950 from a year earlier.

Specified skilled worker visa holders accounted for much of the increase.

They are accepted in 16 designated industries suffering from labor shortages, such as nursing care and food and beverage production.

A large number of technical interns arrived in Japan after the government eased pandemic entry restrictions in spring 2022.

The Immigration Services Agency said many of them are expected to advance to the specified skilled worker visa after the three-year training program ends.

“The pace of increase in visa holder numbers will pick up,” an official said.

Jiho Yoshimizu, representative director of Nichietsu Tomoiki Shienkai, a nonprofit organization that supports Vietnamese in Japan, said some rules need to be changed for job-switching foreigners.

Currently, those who choose to change jobs for their own reasons are banned from working while they look for a new workplace.

Many people work part time while looking for a new workplace, but that constitutes illegal employment because those who choose to change jobs for their own reasons are banned from working during the interim period.

Yoshimizu advises job-seeking specified skilled worker visa holders to temporarily return to their home country.

However, they often do not listen because they can earn 11,000 yen ($70) a day if they work part time in the construction industry in Japan, she said.

“It takes several months before finding a new workplace,” Yoshimizu said. “It is impossible to require them to live without any wage over the period. Something must be done.”

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