Less than half of foreign workers want to remain in Japan’s countryside

17 comments

1. Hi all! This is Emma from Nikkei Asia’s audience engagement team. Here’s an excerpt from the above article:

   *Retaining foreign talent in Japan’s countryside has emerged as a critical challenge, a survey shows ahead of the 2027 implementation of a new system for training foreign workers.*

   *To prevent an exodus of foreign workers, especially in rural areas, where the population decline is generally more severe than in major cities, companies and municipalities need to join forces to improve working conditions, including wages, and support career advancement by offering Japanese-language learning opportunities.*

   *Less than half of foreign workers and students in Japan’s rural areas want to remain in their current region when seeking employment or changing jobs, according to the analysis, compiled by Global Power, an operator of the job search and recruitment site NINJA for highly skilled foreign workers and students.*

   *The company analyzed data from its 42,000 registered users as of May, focusing on their current addresses and desired employment locations.*

   *Among those whose current residence matches their desired employment location, Tokyo leads the way with 51.7%, followed by the prefectures of Fukuoka at 51.5%, Aichi at 49.6% and Osaka at 48.8%. In contrast, Shimane is the lowest at 9.4%, followed by Kochi at 15.4%, Tokushima at 15.9% and Kagawa at 16%.*

2. I honestly would make less but live in a more rural area because I can’t take the stress and pace of a city. Life’s a large chunk of my life in Berlin, a city that is small and almost backwater compared to a metropolis like Tokyo, and still had to move away because I just couldn’t keep up.

   Now I live in the countryside where everything’s slower and less serious.

3. Kind of aside to this actual article but still along with the inaka, but at some point Japan is going to have to decide to open up farming to more people because right now the old men denying people the right to farm is crazy. (Technically you can still farm and everything on your non-agriculture land, but taxes.)

   It’s just another area of friction for foreigners coming to Japan and it’s one that’s completely unnecessary.

4. Pretty shit analysis to be honest?

   They didn’t even survey anyone they just used (likely) old data from address and preferred work location, not sure how they can make these statements with certainty…

5. I don’t think that is a particular problem related to foreigners, even young japanese are moving to bigger cities.

   The technical intern system somewhat tried to tie foreigners to certain locations, not allowing to switch jobs, at the same time moving to bigger cities. Not to mention the fact that most of the international and open companies, which are more open to foreigners, are located in big cities.

   Nevertheless, as much as for foreigners, as much as for japanese, some incentives required to move from bigger cities (with more services, entertainment and opportunities) to rural areas. Perhaps remote working could be a solution?

6. The bear problem must be worse than I thought.

7. Describe “living wages”

8. I suspect Japan will deal with this by making the visas for these workers more similar to HSP visas in one specific way: The visa is tied to the employer and job.

9. Oh Japan, on one hand you rely on foreigners to fill labour shortages but on the other you’re sick of tourists.

   It’s almost as if you should have been a bit more proactive and realised working your population to death means just that, less and less population.

10. Half would be pretty good.

11. So Japanese people and foreigners are on the same page on this matter.

12. If I had a chance to move to Japan to work and live (i’m a software engineer) i definitely wouldn’t mind to live in countryside given there are basic facilities (electricity, stable internet, centralised water, etc)

13. Even if workers can remote-work with good salaries, I imagine the majority would still prefer to live closer to large cities for better schools, hospitals and cultural acitivies like concerts and conventions.

14. You can’t simultaneously do city planning for pop growth and to hedge for NOT having growth. Rural places need local services and businesses in order to grow; you can’t treat these places as stagnant villages that change the faces of people living in the houses and nothing else.

15. I lived in the country side and honestly I prefer it but it’s very different from the Japan most people envision. The gas stations closed at 8 in my city and the nearest mall was 40 minutes away. My town had more rice paddies than buildings.

16. Who the hell wants to leave in the countryside. You have to be crazy

17. Not me. I want to leave the city.