Miyazaki Kotsu (Miyazaki City) has hired three Filipino men as “specified skilled worker” foreign nationals — its first such hires — to address a severe shortage of bus drivers. The three, aged 21 to 26, already passed the intermediate level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test before arriving in Japan. Starting in November they’ll attend driving school aiming for the Class 2 large-vehicle license, with plans to debut as bus drivers from September next year onward; their stay is capped at six years. On 5ch, commenters repeatedly argued “it’s not a labor shortage, the pay is just too low,” with opinions split over whether to prioritize better pay and conditions or bringing in foreign workers.
Facing a severe shortage of bus drivers, Miyazaki Kotsu (Miyazaki City) has hired three Filipino men in their twenties as specified skilled workers — the company’s first such hires. They will spend roughly a year learning Japanese traffic manners and bus driving skills, with plans to debut as bus drivers from September next year onward.
The three are Martos Joshua Rebueno (21), Felisianohans Luis Meras (24), and Castillo Rani Lumasac (26). They were selected through a Tokyo-based staffing agency with ties to the Philippines. Their acceptance period runs for up to six years. All three reportedly passed the intermediate level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test before coming to Japan.
Starting around November, they will attend driving school, with the immediate goal of obtaining the Class 2 large-vehicle license needed to carry passengers by bus before the year is out. From next year, they’re expected to undergo in-house training for revenue service driving.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
2AnonymousSep 23, 2026 13:10
It's not a labor shortage — the pay is just too low
31AnonymousSep 23, 2026 13:28
Re: #2
Raise wages
↓
Fares have to go up
↓
Ridership drops
↓
Losses keep piling up, wasting tax money (a private bus company would just axe the route)
↓
Unprofitable routes get cut, game over
In the city, where ridership is high, bus driver pay needs to go up
But out in the boonies where ridership is low, there's no need to raise driver pay
If you don't like it, quit — scrapping unprofitable routes is the right call
Eventually fully autonomous AI vehicles will take over, and taxi/bus drivers will become unnecessary
Japan's way behind, but AI taxis are already running overseas
In the Middle East, test flights for AI flying taxis have even wrapped up, and they're moving toward practical use
96AnonymousSep 23, 2026 14:49
Re: #2
Three years as a fixed-term contract worker on near-minimum wage, with no pay for standby time
Cause an accident and you're fired — that's a bus driver's life
After that comes
Quasi-regular employee
Then regular employee
Even once you get there, cause an accident and your bonus gets cut
For repairs under 100,000 yen, everyone just pays out of pocket to avoid the accident paperwork
97AnonymousSep 23, 2026 14:50
Re: #2
Nah, the pay's actually good — for what Japanese people are capable of
10AnonymousSep 23, 2026 13:13
A rural bus driver job sounds like solid, stable work — and they're still short-staffed?
55AnonymousSep 23, 2026 13:51
Re: #10
Low pay, long binding hours
That's why they're short-staffed — some drivers work 13 days straight
Only fools take this job
21AnonymousSep 23, 2026 13:22
At a local school's lunch popularity poll, bibimbap once beat out curry for first place.
It was supposed to be a story about the local school lunch center refining the recipe into a fan favorite…
But apparently the phone complaints were intense. "How dare you serve food from an enemy nation!"
angry calls reportedly flooded the school and the lunch center.
121AnonymousSep 23, 2026 15:14
Re: #21
Curry (as in, from India)
28AnonymousSep 23, 2026 13:25
Is being a bus driver actually a bad deal?
They're always striking, so
I figured it was a good job
43AnonymousSep 23, 2026 13:35
Re: #28
Osaka's prefectural bus drivers used to be paid quite well, but Hashimoto slashed their pay across the board.
89AnonymousSep 23, 2026 14:32
Re: #28
Bus drivers at publicly-run bus operators in the city get good pay
Bus drivers at local government or private bus companies get pay that's neither high nor low
It's just a job where you drive, that's all
113AnonymousSep 23, 2026 15:06
By the way, they say a Japanese person who moved to Australia ended up earning more than they did working in Japan,
while a German who worked in Japan ended up earning less than they did back in Germany.
Both are articles you can find with a quick search.
Does a worker's productivity really rise or fall just from crossing a border?
No, it doesn't
The real deceit is trying to make you believe productivity numbers translate cleanly and directly to individual workers' pay —
that's the con being run by the people who won't actually raise wages and just keep lying about it.
116AnonymousSep 23, 2026 15:11
Re: #113
It's always the otaku types who love anime and Japanese culture saying "I came to Japan even though my pay went down, because I wanted to live here."
I've never seen anyone say they came to Japan because they could earn more than back home.
115AnonymousSep 23, 2026 15:09
Japan also has this weird public sentiment that won't tolerate strikes, so wages probably won't rise.
Naturally, management wants to work people at the bare legal minimum
If Japanese people won't take the job, turning to Filipino workers is a natural next move.
128AnonymousSep 23, 2026 15:19
Re: #113
Japanese people are useless even if they go abroad
They never got debate training in compulsory education, and working efficiently isn't something you pick up overnight
Re: #115
Germany doesn't strike either
It's not just Japan
133AnonymousSep 23, 2026 15:21
Re: #115
That's not it
Wages don't rise in Japan because workers' rights are too strong
Japan has the strictest dismissal regulations in the world
Japan is the only country in the world where there isn't even monetary settlement in lieu of reinstatement
So there's no labor mobility or competition, which means companies can't grow — and there's no need to raise wages in the first place
211AnonymousSep 23, 2026 16:20
Re: #115
Maybe because labor unions are weak
They're not organized by occupation/trade either
175AnonymousSep 23, 2026 15:55
> 161
> For Japan to become wealthy in the first place, Japanese companies have to beat foreign companies, right?
I'm talking about how the employees of "Japanese companies" would stop being Japanese people
If every employee at a Japanese company were foreign, maybe it could beat foreign companies — but that's premised on Japanese companies hiring foreigners
180AnonymousSep 23, 2026 15:58
Re: #175
The working-age population is shrinking, so this is a perfect fit
Plus competent foreign workers boost companies' competitiveness
What's the problem
Foreigners pay taxes too, you know?
If competent foreigners work at Japanese companies, that means Japan gets to use competent foreigners as its own workforce
182AnonymousSep 23, 2026 16:00
Re: #180
At that rate, the Japanese people will go extinct
183AnonymousSep 23, 2026 16:01
Re: #182
They won't go extinct
Plenty of countries have smaller populations than Japan
203AnonymousSep 23, 2026 16:14
Re: #182
They won't go extinct
It just means the share of Japanese nationals in the total population goes down
Also, since pre-war emigrants to Latin America and elsewhere have descendants (Nikkei) living abroad, even if the Japanese state were to disappear, the Japanese people as an ethnicity wouldn't.
185AnonymousSep 23, 2026 16:03
Fix this idiotic pay system where you don't get paid for restraint time you're not actually driving during
Bring in foreigners and they'll just quit too, you know?
193AnonymousSep 23, 2026 16:08
Re: #185
Just work a side gig during the downtime
Japanese people are needlessly serious and waste time following the rules, but foreigners will figure out a way to work it
Well, maybe that's quietly what's expected too, even if nobody says it out loud
Foreigners are more flexible than Japanese workers, and easier to let go if problems come up, so of course companies want to hire them
195AnonymousSep 23, 2026 16:09
Re: #193
Do you even know what "restraint time" means? Mr. Unemployed??
197AnonymousSep 23, 2026 16:10
Re: #1
Eventually former taxi drivers displaced by self-driving taxis will switch over to bus driving, so foreigners won't be needed
[Transport] Self-driving taxis coming to Tokyo, launching in 2027 — GO and Waymo ★2 [Gure★]
https://asahi.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/newsplus/1789454999/
205AnonymousSep 23, 2026 16:15
Re: #197
Self-driving cars
won't happen in your lifetime
208AnonymousSep 23, 2026 16:17
Re: #197
Wait, are you the same guy who keeps banging on about video-streamed classes in the education threads?
Background and Key Points of This Topic
The Specified Skilled Worker system is a residency status introduced for fields facing serious labor shortages, with a cap on how long someone can work under it. Bus driving requires a Class 2 large-vehicle license, which poses a high bar for foreign workers on both the language and practical-skills fronts — making it an industry that, until now, has seen few such hires. The thread’s debate split over whether to view the driver shortage as simple understaffing or as avoidance driven by low pay, and commenters also pointed to the large gap in treatment between publicly-run urban bus operators and private rural ones. Though not mentioned in the article itself, bus operators across Japan — not just Miyazaki Kotsu — are grappling with an aging driver workforce and high early turnover, and many operators nationwide are exploring hiring foreign workers in parallel.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Express+) thread “[Miyazaki] Miyazaki Kotsu, facing bus driver shortage, hires three Filipino men for the first time.”
