Economy Nearly half of Japan’s high-skill visa holders earn less than new graduates

Nearly half of foreign workers who come to Japan on visas intended for college-educated and other highly skilled professionals earn less than the average starting salary of new university graduates, according to Nikkei, suggesting widespread underuse of their qualifications. Japan has increasingly turned to overseas labour to ease shortages across many industries. In practice, visas aiming to attract skilled professionals are often used to fill short-term jobs that do not match workers' qualifications.

A 2024 government wage survey showed that 45% of foreign workers entering Japan under specialised or technical visas earned less than ¥240,000 a month, about the average starting salary for new graduates. By comparison, only 15% of workers nationwide in similar roles fall below that level. While the government promotes the recruitment of highly skilled foreign workers, it remains cautious about expanding pathways for other types of overseas labour. Only two visa categories officially allow on-site work: the technical intern programme, which focuses on training in fields such as farming and manufacturing, and the specified skilled worker scheme introduced in 2019 to ease labour shortages. In practice, many people on visas intended for higher-skilled jobs end up doing on-site work that requires little specialised skill.

There has been a surge in high-skilled workers coming to Japan. There were 458,000 visa holders in the engineering, the humanities and international services category at the end of June last year. That is a 9.4% rise from the end of 2024. This contrasts sharply with the 1.6% decline in workers in the technical intern program in the same period amid tighter regulations. [...] As for specified skilled workers, their employer in Japan or a registered support organization is obligated to provide support, and systems are in place that keep the immigration agency informed of where they are employed. For the higher-skilled professional categories, however, there are no such systems. While this affords workers in this category more freedom, it can also leave them isolated.

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