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The story
The Indonesian government has reportedly set a goal of increasing the number of its citizens working in Japan from just over 220,000 to 600,000, strengthening the pipeline of workers sent abroad mainly through the Technical Intern Training and Specified Skilled Worker programs. If achieved, this would put Indonesia on par with Vietnam, which has so far topped the list of countries sending foreign workers to Japan. On the ground, the plan reportedly emphasizes placing workers in automotive-related jobs while expanding Japanese-language education. On 5ch, a thread on the topic saw arguments clash between those blaming Japan’s labor shortage on “NEETs who won’t work” and those countering that it’s really a matter of “wages and working conditions,” alongside comments expressing concern about AI replacing jobs and about how foreign workers are treated.
Indonesia Sets Goal of 600,000 Workers in Japan, Focusing on Automotive Jobs and Boosting Language Training – Nikkei
September 14, 2026, 5:00 AM [Subscriber-only article]
Indonesia is stepping up its dispatch of workers to Japan, centered on the Specified Skilled Worker program. It aims to raise the number of its citizens working in Japan from just over 220,000 to 600,000, a target that would put it on par with Vietnam, currently the top source country for foreign workers in Japan. To get there, Indonesia is putting effort into expanding Japanese-language education at home.
Source: nikkei.com / Original article here
What people said
Take some responsibility!
Then why not just hire them?
The workforce right now is actually at an all-time high.
The places that are "short-staffed" aren't suffering a labor shortage — they just don't offer decent working conditions.
now we're sacrificing ourselves to Indonesia too?
There are tons of places hiring full-time — trucking, construction, caregiving, factories, you name it.
It's the trash NEETs who refuse to take them.
Even NEETs have their pride, you know.
If you don't want immigrants, go put the NEETs to work in a nice office in Marunouchi instead.
so it's better than the Vietnamese or whatever.
Wait, what??
You're saying Muslims are better than Buddhists?
They'd be richer and happier going to China instead of coming to Japan.
China basically doesn't take in immigrants though.
And after all that effort on their shinkansen, even fewer people will end up riding it.
Filipinos work as sailors all over the world, after all — Japan included, of course.
Domestic labor for the grunt work has been shrinking, so there's no choice but to fill the gap.
Even the Ice Age generation (Japan's long-suffering "lost generation" of job seekers) is getting up there in age now too.
The jobs AI is taking are further up the ladder — it's not competing with lower-tier laborers.
Same mindset as Black slavery in the US.
And I can already picture the future, decades from now, where we're the ones being asked for apologies and compensation.
It'll shift over time, so it'll be fine.
It's the middle-aged and older who get pushed out of jobs, so not really.
Are middle-aged desk workers really going to go do construction, caregiving, or farming?
Actually, I don't think AI is even going to make real inroads in Japan.
Tokyo, packed with white-collar corporate slaves at the top of the ladder, would turn into a Detroit — the government will stop it no matter what.
Europe: "Immigration causes too many problems."
Japan & Indonesia: "Re: #1"
You're only seeing the surface of things.
Even in America, it's Chinese and Indian immigrants leading cutting-edge industries like AI.
Trump's just deporting some illegal immigrants for show — the useful ones keep right on being employed.
Doesn't sound like that's how it'll go.
An Indonesian guy who worked construction in Japan said he never wants to go back.
Granted, that's not about this particular story.
Asia's developing too these days, so people won't stick around ugly Japanese companies for long.
Is there some kind of kickback in it for them?
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Foreign worker acceptance in Japan today centers on the “Specified Skilled Worker” program, launched in 2019 to succeed the Technical Intern Training program, and it has expanded in sectors facing severe labor shortages such as caregiving, construction, and manufacturing. Vietnam has been the largest source country, with Indonesia ranking next; if this new target is achieved, the two countries would be roughly equal in scale. The thread’s disagreement centered on the cause of Japan’s domestic labor shortage — one side pointing to “NEETs and job-avoidance,” the other to “inadequate wages and working conditions” — though both sides took for granted the underlying structural factor of a shrinking workforce due to Japan’s aging, low-birthrate population. The thread also featured firsthand complaints from someone who actually came from Indonesia to work in Japan, a reminder that the friction on the ground doesn’t necessarily show up in the headline numbers about how many workers are being sent.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Express+) thread “Indonesia Sets Goal of 600,000 Workers in Japan, Focusing on Automotive Jobs and Boosting Language Training.”
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