Today, Japan is facing an unprecedented demographic crisis: of a population of over 125 million people, 29% are over the age of 65 while more than one in ten are over the age of 80. According to the United Nations, Japan has the world’s oldest population, as measured by the proportion of people over 65, and the nation’s birth rate continues to decline. In 2022, fewer than 800,000 babies were born—the lowest number since records began in the 19th century. Among the many wide-reaching and fundamental problems associated with an aging population, mass labor shortages pose a profound and urgent obstacle for Japan —not least the national construction industry. In 2019, 25% of Japanese construction workers were over the age of 60 while less than 10% of construction workers were under the age of 30. Most pressingly, the Japanese Infrastructure Ministry estimated a shortage of 470,000-930,000 workers within the sector by this year and the infrastructure demands of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics only accented these shortages further.
In the lead up to the Tokyo Olympics, large-scale building and manufacturing projects, in addition to wide range of service sectors, required an enormous influx of additional labor. To fulfill this need, Japan recruited hundreds of thousands of migrant workers; notably, the government expanded the Technical Intern Training Program (TITP) in order to accomplish this. Initially introduced as a program to transfer ‘technical skills and knowledge’ to less developed countries in the region, the TITP has instead become an opportunity for Japan to access disposable low-wage workers. As one executive working with intern support explained, “only around 10% of interns continue the same job after they go back home.” Instead, this person continued, “the main purpose for the interns is to make money […] [and] ‘international cooperation’ is just a rationale for the policy.”
Notably, TITP has garnered wide-scale criticism over reports of its numerous forms of abuse. These include “excessive overtime work hours, unpaid or underpaid wages, coercive salary withholding under the name of ‘mandatory savings’, passport confiscation, and habitual forms of verbal and physical violence.” Unlike other Japanese workers, technical interns do not have the right to freely association or collectively bargaining. Thus, many technical interns and foreign workers exist in a state of de facto labor-servitude due to penalties restricting employment transfers, economic responsibility for family members, and large debts from pre-departure fees.
The extent of this malpractice in preparing for the Olympics was showcased in a 2019 report by International Federation of Building and Wood Workers. Almost half of the workers consulted on Olympic sites did not have formal employment contracts, the study noted, and many were underpaid in addition to the majority being critically overworked. According to the Japanese Labour Ministry, there were twenty-one deaths due to Karoshi (suicide due to overwork) in the construction sector, the second highest of all sectors in Japan. Among these was a 23 year old man who worked 190 hours of overtime at the Olympic stadium in the month preceding his death. In preparation for the games, workers at the Olympic Village reported working 28 days in a row and workers at the New National Stadium reported working 26 days in a row. As a result of collective pressure, TITP interns are legally required to be paid the minimum wage—though their wages are two-thirds less than other Japanese construction workers on average. Problems continue with migrant workers interviewed by BWI further explaining that there were no translated safety materials or procedures on site. Today, the mortality rate of foreign technical interns in the construction sector is twice the rate of other Japanese workers in the industry.
Since the 2020 Olympics, the Japanese government has implemented a number of policies to improve conditions for foreign technical interns. These includes, for example, a provision allowing interns to transfer employment to sectors beyond their original assignments—a step towards combating exploitative practices. Additionally, the government has expanded the category of “Specific Skills Workers I” (SSWI) and “Specific Skills Workers II” (SSWII) to attract qualified foreign labor in specialized sectors including construction. Workers that fit the skill criteria of SSWI are allowed to stay in Japan for up to five years, and, upon passing a specialized industry exam, can attain the type SSWII visa—which offers additional benefits such as permanent residency and allowances for bringing family members to the country. Toshihiro Menju, an executive at the Japan Center for International Exchange, described these expansions as “the full-scale start of long-term settlement for more blue-collar workers.” In reality, however, these changes have been significantly smaller in scope than first anticipated. As of March 2023 per the Justice Ministry, only eleven people held SSWII visas, despite over 154,800 eligible SSWI workers living in Japan today. It is significant that a Justice Ministry panel, examining the prevalence of human rights abuses surrounding the TITP, recommended the abolition of the current system and the establishment of a new program promoting stronger support and protections for migrant workers. Change must occur.
As Japan faces a new stage in its history, questions of foreign labor and immigration will only become more essential to nation’s future. By 2070, Japan’s population is estimated to reach 87 million people—38% of which will be over the age of 65 and 10% will be of foreign origin. Temporary measures to access immediate labor such as the Technical Intern Training or Special Skilled Workers programs will not solve Japan’s labor and demographic crises, however. The mistreatment of foreign technical interns during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics exposed a critical mistake made by Japanese government as the country moves towards this new era: its representation of immigrant labor. Immigrants are not the disposable sources of labor that they have been treated as, but are instead humans who must become an integral part of Japan for its own economic and social future. Japan cannot continue to expand pathways for foreign workers as temporary labor without understanding the deeper issues as well—such as systemic issues of race in the country—it continues into a more resilient, expansive future.
Featured/Headline Image Caption and Citation:新国立競技場, taken by 江戸村のとく– Own work | Image sourced from Wikimedia Commons | CC License, no changes made