Vietnamese Residents in Japan Hit Record 690,000 — 5ch: ‘Aichi Has So Many Manufacturing Jobs’

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The story

According to statistics released by Japan’s Immigration Services Agency (under the Ministry of Justice) as of the end of June 2026, the number of Vietnamese residents in Japan rose 1.9% from the end of the previous year to a record 693,750. By nationality, this ranks second after China’s 941,031, accounting for 16.2% of the total 4,281,026 foreign residents in Japan (up 3.8% year-on-year). By prefecture, Osaka took the top spot for the first time with 73,072 Vietnamese residents, narrowly edging out Aichi Prefecture’s previous record of 72,875. On 5ch, the thread split between explanations of why foreign workers flock to Aichi and debate over the pros and cons of the growing foreign workforce.

Vietnamese Residents in Japan Reach 694,000 as ‘Specified Skilled Worker’ Status Overtakes ‘Technical Intern Training’ to Become the Largest Category [Statistics] – VIETJO Vietnam News

According to statistics on the number of foreign residents released by Japan’s Immigration Services Agency (Ministry of Justice) as of the end of June 2026, the number of Vietnamese residents in Japan rose 1.9% from the end of the previous year to a record 693,750.

By nationality/region, this is the second-largest group after China’s 941,031, accounting for 16.2% of the total number of foreign residents (4,281,026). The total number of foreign residents increased 3.8% from the end of the previous year.

Source: viet-jo.com / Original article here

What people said

56AnonymousOct 20, 2026 15:41
Why's the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) getting cozy with the Vietnamese Communist Party?
I get that cooperating with Vietnam, the Philippines, and Taiwan is necessary to check China in the South China Sea, but still…
99AnonymousOct 20, 2026 15:47
Re: #56
Because you need Vietnam on your side if you're going to stand up to China.
59AnonymousOct 20, 2026 15:41
I live in a residential area in Tokyo, and even around here you can visibly see more and more different ethnicities.
Even a cheap apartment runs about 70,000 yen a month, so I'd love to know where they're all working.
77AnonymousOct 20, 2026 15:45
Re: #59
Foreigners sharing houses is just normal.
There are usually 3 or 4 people living in one unit.
68AnonymousOct 20, 2026 15:44
Why did you all buy into it when they said 'immigrants are Japan's treasure'?
112AnonymousOct 20, 2026 15:49
Re: #68
Because we want to fix the labor shortage and grow the economy.
Smart Japanese people don't support Trump-like figures.
131AnonymousOct 20, 2026 15:51
So there's a lot of Vietnamese people too, huh?
Why are Osaka and Aichi so far ahead of everyone else?
Tokyo's in third place with just 50-something thousand.
>By prefecture, Osaka leads with 73,072, overtaking Aichi's previous record of 72,875.
171AnonymousOct 20, 2026 15:55
Re: #131
Aichi has a lot of factories and actively supports foreign workers.
Back in the day, the Mikawa-to-Hamamatsu (Shizuoka) corridor had a lot of Brazilians too.

The reasons Aichi Prefecture has so many foreign workers, including Vietnamese, boil down to three big factors: 'a high number of job openings from manufacturing concentration,' 'relatively high wages,' and 'support systems from local government and communities.'

Efforts toward multicultural coexistence and living environment
• Government/corporate support: Aichi Prefecture was early to establish initiatives like the 'Aichi Multicultural Coexistence Promotion Plan,' putting effort into multilingual consultation desks and Japanese-language education support.
• Community building: Having fellow countrymen and seniors who arrived earlier helps with sharing everyday life info and forming communities, creating a cycle that draws in even more people.
161AnonymousOct 20, 2026 15:54
Everyone's saying there's a labor shortage, but isn't that just because you keep opening more convenience stores and restaurants?

The population hasn't changed from the old days, so just cut back on stores.

All you guys playing franchise owner — go work in a factory instead.

Do that and there's no way you'd have a labor shortage.

Don't act like the number of stores is some fixed given, you idiots.
204AnonymousOct 20, 2026 15:59
Re: #161
Those aren't essential businesses anyway, so just ban hiring foreigners for that kind of work.

Background and Key Points of This Topic

These figures come from the foreign resident statistics the Immigration Services Agency publishes every six months, and the key point is that, by residency status, ‘Specified Skilled Worker’ has overtaken ‘Technical Intern Training’ to become the largest category. This also reflects the ongoing shift from technical intern training to specified skilled worker status, so the numbers don’t simply indicate a surge of brand-new arrivals. As for the swap in prefectural rankings between Osaka and Aichi, commenters on the thread pointed to several factors on Aichi’s side: ‘abundant job openings from manufacturing concentration,’ ‘relatively high wages,’ ‘government support systems like the multicultural coexistence promotion plan,’ and ‘the presence of same-nationality communities’ — suggesting this isn’t mere coincidence but the cumulative result of industrial structure and administrative policy. Meanwhile, no concrete explanation for why Osaka took the top spot emerged in the thread, and that point remains unresolved even in this article.

*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (News Flash+) thread ‘Vietnamese Residents in Japan Reach 694,000 as Osaka Overtakes Aichi to Become the Top Residence Prefecture‘.

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