Vietnamese community becomes 3rd largest foreign group in Japan

In a report released on October 25, the agency said the number of Vietnamese people increased by 12.4 percent compared to data in the most recent report.

Particularly, the number of Vietnamese living in Japan as "skill trainees" is growing sharply, reaching about 190,000 at present.

By the end of June 2019, the total number of foreigners in Japan was 2.82 million, an increase of 3.6 percent compared to the end of December 2018 and reaching the highest level ever.

Chinese are the largest community in Japan with 786,241 people, followed by Koreans with 451,543 people.

Since April, the Japanese government has adopted a revised immigration management law with the introduction of 14 new statuses of residence with specific skills in areas where there is a serious shortage of labour in the country such as nurses and construction workers.  

Foreign workers, who meet all requirements such as passing a professional examination and Japanese language, will be able to work in Japan for up to 5 years, instead of just 3 years prescribed in previous regulations.

According to a plan set by the Japanese government, within the next five years, the country will receive about 345,000 foreign workers. This is said to be one of the important measures to help Japan address the population aging and labour shortage, thus maintaining its economic growth.