Japan’s Foreign Workforce Rises to Record 2.6 Million

Meeting Labor Shortages

As of October 2025, there were 2.6 million foreign workers in Japan, a rise of 11.7% year on year. With labor shortages leading businesses to actively recruit foreign workers, the total has reached record-setting highs for 13 consecutive years.

By residence status, the largest category consisted of 870,000 people on an “engineer/specialist in humanities/international services” visa related to their profession or technical field, followed by 650,000 “status-based residents,” such as permanent residents or spouses of Japanese nationals, and 500,000 technical trainees.

Other statuses in the data include “permission for other activity”—granted to foreign residents engaged in labor or other activity not covered by their original status of residence, such as exchange students taking on work or residents performing tasks outside their designated industries—and “designated activities,” covering a wide range of activities from amateur sports to internships, working holidays, and job-searching after graduation from a Japanese school.

By nationality, Vietnam had the largest number of workers in Japan, with around 610,000, or 23.6% of the total, up 6.2% year on year. It was followed by China (including Hong Kong and Macao) with 430,000, and the Philippines with 260,000, respectively. The largest year-on-year increases came from Myanmar (42.5%), Indonesia (34.6%), and Sri Lanka (28.9%).

By industry, the largest number of foreign workers were employed in manufacturing (24.7% of the total), followed by the service sector (15.2%) and wholesale and retail (13.3%). The foreign worker population is concentrated in major urban areas, with 25.4% of the total in Tokyo, 9.7% in Aichi Prefecture, and 8.1% in Osaka Prefecture.

Data Sources

• Data on foreign workers in Japan (Japanese) from the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © PhotoAC.)