Photo/Illutration Foreign workers process seafood in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, in 2020. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The government aims to set an acceptance limit of about 426,000 foreign workers for the first two years of its new training and employment program that is set to begin in fiscal 2027. 

The proposal was presented to a panel of experts on Dec. 23.

Combined with the Type 1 specified skilled worker visa, which requires considerable knowledge and experience, the maximum number of foreign workers allowed is expected to reach about 1.23 million by fiscal 2028.

The upper limit refers not to the cumulative total of new arrivals but to the number of residents at any given time after subtracting those who have left the country. If the cap set for each industry sector is exceeded, acceptance of new workers must be suspended.

A final decision will be made at the end of January, along with measures to tighten policies on foreign nationals.

Amid pockets of growing opposition to accepting non-Japanese workers, a government source said, “We want to avoid the misunderstanding that we are only expanding intake.”

The training and employment program is replacing the Technical Intern Training Program, which has long been criticized as a hotbed of human rights abuses.

The proposed cap for the new program is lower than the approximately 449,000 technical interns who were in Japan as of the end of June.

As for the specified skilled worker program, the government set an acceptance limit of 820,000 through fiscal 2028 last year but has since revised it to about 806,000.

A Liberal Democratic Party source described the revised figure as “relatively restrained.”

The government plans to establish a framework that allows foreign nationals to work in Japan for longer periods by operating the training and employment program and the specified skilled worker program as an integrated system.

In doing so, officials intend to make sure industry sectors covered by the two programs function in tandem. 

Workers will be encouraged to transition from the training and employment program, where the period of stay is three years, in principle, to the Type 1 specified skilled worker visa allowing stays of up to five years.

The next step would be to seek the Type 2 status, which has no renewal limit.

The training and employment program will initially apply to 17 sectors, such as nursing care, construction and agriculture.

The specified skilled worker program is expected to cover 19 sectors with the addition of three areas, including logistics and warehousing.

The largest combined cap across the two programs will be about 319,000 individuals in the industrial products manufacturing sector, which involves metal processing and electronic equipment assembly, among other responsibilities.

It will be followed by construction at about 200,000 and food and beverage manufacturing and processing totaling some 195,000.

Currently, acceptance caps are set only for the training and employment program and the Type 1 specified skilled worker status.

However, the government is considering introducing caps for other visa categories to control the proportion of non-Japanese nationals.

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