On 5ch’s “Live Everything G” board, a thread heated up over which certifications and jobs are likely to keep their value even as AI takes over more work. Hands-on, legally mandated credentials like the forklift operator training course and the Certified Chief Electric Engineer (“denken”) license came up as safe bets, while some argued that tax accountants and middle managers are “on the verge of being replaced by AI.” The thread split over whether white-collar or blue-collar work will get wiped out first, and posters pointed to real examples of the shifting labor market, like companies reassigning AI-displaced staff into caregiving jobs.
You know, the kind where they actually issue you a physical license
Apparently there's work only licensed tax accountants are legally allowed to do, so they're barely hanging on because of that
A working tax accountant was debating this on YouTube, and the takeaway was basically:
– almost all the actual work will get replaced by AI
– but that doesn't mean tax accountants lose their value right away
Also, I think dietitians/nutritionists will become unnecessary
So are cram school instructors and private tutors
Those guys look like they'd even pull power-harassment on a physical AI robot
Whether or not it actually happens, AI is already way better than humans at the routine, standardized work typical middle managers do
According to recent research, "bullshit jobs" exist mainly to give people a paycheck, so they're predicted to be among the last things to disappear
And yet decades later, humans still haven't disappeared from factory floors
AI pro wrestling still can't do anything but bizarre, nonsensical moves
It's a world where smart, well-connected people who are good at building vested interests are the ones who make it
So somehow it feels like blue-collar workers, who have less of that going for them, are the ones who'll get weeded out instead
In Japan, sorting out the interests of vested-interest groups and revising laws takes an insanely long time, so AI replacement is definitely still a long way off
No way
In AI-advanced countries, white-collar workers are getting laid off left and right and switching into blue-collar jobs
Physical AI robots will probably replace the high-margin blue-collar jobs too, but nobody's gonna bother developing them for low-margin work
Humans will end up doing those jobs instead
It won't disappear completely, but only the true elite will be left standing
Mediocre white-collar workers will become unnecessary
They're already testing driverless trucks on the highway
Well, what matters is how many more years the job will last
As long as it lasts through the rest of your working life, that's fine
Could they actually cut it though?
They're talented, so of course they can cut it
Plenty of people can't even hack it in a factory though
That bought a nursing-care company
Apparently they're funneling employees made redundant by AI into caregiving jobs
This kind of thing is only gonna increase from here
Smart move
Japan's regulations against firing full-time employees are brutally strict, so being able to transfer them within the corporate group is efficient
That's just, like, your opinion, man
Transferring people into the field to make them quit "on their own" is already a thing that happens
You're the one who's gonna end up quitting
They'll need somewhere to dump their surplus staff
They've already piled in ages ago and failed over and over
No way AI can read out the legally required disclosure explanation, right?
Not unless the industry law gets revised
If you've actually got real-world experience in the real estate industry, you're probably saying that fully aware of what the takken license is really worth in practice
Background and key points of this discussion
The forklift operator training mentioned in the thread is a “skills training course” obtainable through institutions registered with prefectural labor bureaus — institutionally, a different category from a national exam like the Certified Chief Electric Engineer (“denken”) license. What the two have in common is that they involve hands-on work or legally required personnel appointments, which structurally makes them hard to replace with AI’s core strength of pure information processing. The thread’s comments clustered heavily around white-collar jobs like tax accountants and middle managers, but opinions stayed split — without reaching any conclusion — on whether white-collar layoffs are really happening first in AI-advanced countries, and just how much Japan’s employment protection laws will slow down replacement.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Live Everything G) thread “Certifications that will never go obsolete even in the AI era: forklift, denken… what else?“.
