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The story
On September 29, Japan’s Immigration Services Agency announced that the number of foreign nationals residing in Japan under the “Specified Skilled Worker” visa status reached a record 444,256 as of the end of June 2026. That’s up 13.8% from the end of 2025, six months earlier, with the advanced “Type 2” category surging 2.3-fold to 18,295 people. Because Type 2 has no cap on renewals and allows family members to accompany the worker, threads on 5ch raised the question of whether this amounts to de facto immigration. While some see it as a necessary fix for labor shortages, others questioned working conditions using the phrase “low-wage slaves,” criticized lax entry screening, or proposed taxing companies that hire foreign workers, Singapore-style.
The Immigration Services Agency announced on the 29th that the number of foreign nationals residing in Japan under the work-related “Specified Skilled Worker” status reached a record 444,256 as of the end of June 2026.
That’s a 13.8% increase from six months earlier, at the end of 2025. Of these, the “Type 2” category, which requires advanced skills, rose 2.3-fold to 18,295 people.
(Omitted)
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Just let the companies go under — then you won't need the workers either.
If the economy shrinks accordingly, just cut social security spending to match. No problem.
It makes no sense that people showing up saying 'Nihongo wakarimasen!' (I don't understand Japanese!) are getting approved.
There's no way you can work in a foreign country without speaking the language.
Even Australia, which used to be super lax, has gotten really strict on foreigners now — Japan's the only one still wide open.
Nah, that's not it.
Companies could've borrowed money at near-zero interest and invested in equipment, but they were too chicken to do it. That's why labor productivity never rises, and they keep whining about worker shortages forever.
They pay plenty in political donations, after all.
Aichi's now the prefecture with the 2nd-highest foreign resident ratio in the country.
Uh-huh, sure??
>﹤Keidanren Vision 2015﹥
>- Raise the consumption tax to 19% by fiscal 2025
>- Cut the corporate tax rate to 25% by fiscal 2021
>- Actively accept foreign workers and grow the labor force by 6 million
>www.keidanren.or.jp/policy/2015/vision.html
But it'd also be a problem if some welfare-expanding leftist party got voted in.
Which party do you even vote for to reduce the number of foreigners?
Or is it the opposite — are they handing out subsidies instead?
They should make companies put up a deposit against the risk of a foreign worker disappearing — forfeited if the worker runs off.
Companies with lots of runaways would rack up bigger costs, so the garbage companies would get weeded out.
I'm totally fine with being as strict as Singapore.
Hire Japanese people already!
Because companies get bigger subsidies for hiring foreigners lol
Might be great for management — cheap 'slaves' and all — but these guys aren't stupid.
One day they're going to revolt.
Demolition work is apparently in a bubble right now — annual salaries of 20-30 million yen.
Even the foreign workers are clearing over 10 million yen a year.
The foreigners in Kawaguchi are even driving luxury cars.
'Zero-based' isn't about basing things on reducing them to zero.
So I guess any increase from here on counts as Takaichi's achievement, lol
Background and Key Points of This Topic
The “Specified Skilled Worker” status was created in 2019 to address labor shortages, covering 14 designated fields including nursing care and construction. Unlike the Technical Intern Training Program, which is officially framed around skills transfer, this system is explicitly designed with securing labor as its stated purpose — though the two are often confused with each other. The “Type 2” category that surged this time has no cap on visa renewals and allows family members to accompany the worker, giving it a character close to de facto permanent residency or immigration. The government maintains that this is “not an immigration policy,” and the gap between that stated position and the reality on the ground is likely to remain a point of contention going forward. Opinions in the thread split into three camps: a pragmatic view that this fills labor shortages, concern over reliance on low-wage labor, and calls to tighten entry screening — painting a picture too complex for a simple for-or-against framing.
※This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Newsplus) thread “‘Specified Skilled Worker’ foreigners hit a record 440,000 — up 13.8% from six months ago, as of end of June.”
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