Bangladesh to Japan: A New Era of Workforce Diplomacy

The success of Bangladeshis in penetrating the Japanese labour market is very poor compared to their success in the Middle Eastern markets. Bangladesh sent a total of 4,856 workers to Japan between 2004 and 2024. In the just concluded year of 2024, Bangladesh exported a total of 1,088 workers to Japan, 967 workers in 2023, and 508 workers in 2022, according to data from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment, and Training (BMET). The success of ASEAN countries and Nepal is enviable, and Bangladesh can learn from their example.

The population of Japan experienced a negative growth of 0.50 percent in 2024. The population of this G-7 country was recorded at 123,753,041 (a negative 0.50 percent) in 2024, compared to 124,370,947 (negative 0.50 percent) in 2023, 124,997,578 (a 0.54 percent decrease) in 2022, and 126,304,543 (a negative 0.31 percent) in 2020.

Additionally, the number of aging individuals has increased over the last 10-20 years, as the life expectancy in Japan is among the highest in the world.

Bangladesh has a long-term plan to send 50,000 workers to Japan in phases. Research by JICA reveals that Japan will require around 1 million foreign workers by 2040.

Foreign workers in Japan increased by 2.05 million at a rate of 3% since October 2023.

Meanwhile, the number of foreign workers in Japan reached a new high, underscoring the country’s growing reliance on people from overseas to address its chronic labour shortage.

Japan had a record 2.3 million foreign workers as of October 2024, marking a 12.4% increase from the previous year, according to labour ministry figures recently released. The number of businesses employing at least one foreign worker also hit a record high of around 342,000, up 7.3% from a year ago, the report showed.

The steady rise highlights Japan’s increasing dependence on overseas labour as the nation struggles with a shrinking workforce—a trend that has persisted since its working-age population peaked in 1995.

Japan’s unemployment rate has been below 3% for almost four years, remaining among the lowest in advanced nations. The aging nation will need 6.88 million foreign workers by 2040 to meet its growth targets, according to an estimate by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

"The results reflect Japan’s need to accept foreign workers to some extent to cover the shortfall in the labour force,” said Shungo Akimoto, economist at Mizuho Securities.

Small businesses have been hit particularly hard by the labour shortage, with more than 60% of small- and medium-sized businesses reporting labour shortfalls, according to a survey by the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry last year. The report showed that nearly 80% of the 342,000 businesses are smaller firms with fewer than 100 employees.

The construction and medical industries saw a particularly sharp increase in foreign workers, both rising by more than 20% from a year ago. These sectors are among those facing the most severe labour shortages in Japan, with the jobs-to-applicants ratio reaching 5.60 for construction workers and 2.37 for nursing positions, compared to a national average of 1.25 in December.

The report also showed that Japan saw a surge in foreign workers from Myanmar, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka in 2024, many of whom were blue-collar labourers or students rather than high-skilled professionals. A lack of job opportunities in these countries—precipitated, for example, by Sri Lanka’s 2022 debt default and Myanmar’s ongoing armed conflict—has likely driven more workers to seek employment abroad.

While the demand for foreign workers has been strong, it’s unclear whether Japan can sustain the current pace of attracting people from overseas. One key challenge is the scramble for workers in the region, as neighbours including Singapore and South Korea also look to fill their own labour shortages. Singapore’s nonresident population, including foreign workers, grew by 5% last year, while South Korea was planning to allow a record 165,000 foreign workers to arrive last year, up 38% from the previous year.

"It’s true that Japan has become less attractive as a place to earn money for foreign workers due to the weak yen,” said Akimoto. "Still, there’s attractiveness, as Japan’s wages are at the level of developed countries.”

Another shift that may have implications for companies trying to attract foreign workers is tighter regulations, which are expected to take effect in 2027.

The revised system will introduce stricter oversight and allow workers to switch companies more easily, which means it will become easier to demand higher pay. This could result in smaller firms giving up on trying to hire workers from abroad due to higher costs, but Akimoto says that from a broader perspective, this could be a positive development.

"If Japan can prepare a system to improve the working environment for foreign workers, the influx of foreign workers could increase further,” he said.

Bangladesh should set up international-standard training institutions to groom the manpower required in Japan, as Japan’s population has experienced negative growth in recent years, sources in Dhaka and Tokyo said.

Meanwhile, Japan is to recruit 20,000 Nepali workers to work as caregivers in the health sector. At a press conference organized in Kathmandu last month, Nepali and Japanese companies announced the signing of the ‘Nepal-Japan Service Exchange Program’ to recruit 20,000 Nepali caregivers.

On the occasion, representatives from Japan’s Genkou Research Institute, Kozai Koson Corporation Progressive Staff Agency, and Nepal’s Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences, Sun & Company Pvt. Ltd., and Sandipani Group of Companies signed the agreement.

Naresh Ojha, Executive Director of Sandipani Group of Companies, said people between the ages of 18 and 45 will be eligible for such employment in Japan. Nepalis who have passed the basic Japanese language test and the prescribed skills test will be eligible to be selected to work as caregivers in Japan.

Those who pass the language and skills tests will be selected by a Japanese company through an interview, said PSS Executive Director Chizo Masuda.

Those selected to work as caregivers in Japan can earn up to 200,000 Japanese yen per month, and will have a three-to-five-year working contract (RSS).

Meanwhile, Indonesia has raised its target for sending workers to Japan to 250,000 over the next five years, up from 100,000, its labour minister said, partly in response to the expansion of Japan's "specified skilled worker" visa program.

"Workers are coming to Japan with the aim of increasing their competitiveness," said Ida Fauziyah, minister of manpower, in an interview here.

Diplomats who have worked in Japan and are now working in Bangladesh said that Bangladeshi workers, if properly trained in the Japanese language, can penetrate the Japanese market easily.

They mentioned that some 200,000 Nepalese and 400,000 Vietnamese live in Japan, compared to 33,000 Bangladeshis.

The working population in Japan is decreasing, and Bangladesh should have a mid- and long-term policy to groom manpower aimed at the Japanese labour market, said a Bangladesh diplomat.

He added that the Bangladesh mission in Tokyo usually issues 6,000 to 8,000 visas to Japanese citizens in a year. Additionally, a good number of Japanese citizens visit Bangladesh with “visa-on-arrival”.

"Meanwhile, Japan has lifted its travel advisory on Bangladesh from Level 2 to Level 1 with effect from 27 December 2024. It is expected that this will facilitate more Japanese businessmen and tourists to travel to Bangladesh,” said the Bangladesh diplomat working in Tokyo.

A Bangladesh diplomat working in Tokyo also mentioned that the Bangladesh mission issued some 500 visas in December 2024, and interest from Japanese citizens has increased.

He said Japanese citizens had avoided visiting Bangladesh during the political turmoil in July and August, and the travel warning on Bangladesh hindered the attraction of Japanese citizens to Bangladesh until October 2024.

New Bangladesh Ambassador to Japan Md. Daud Ali in Tokyo is working hard to deepen multilateral relations between Japan and Bangladesh, a relationship that is set to gain new momentum—momentum that has been lost in recent years due to the political posting of the Bangladesh diplomat in Tokyo, sources in Dhaka and Tokyo said.

Mir Khairul Alam, former Additional Director General of BMET, while speaking to the daily, said that some 3,000 Bangladeshi youths have been trained in the Japanese language with requisite technical training.

“The manpower export to Japan depends on the requirements of the G-7 market. Bangladesh has started exporting to Japan. The government is focusing on higher training for manpower to cater to the markets of industrialized nations,” he said.

“To tap the Japanese labour market, around 30 technical training centres (TTCs) across the country, under the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), are offering youths the necessary training, including a six-month course on the Japanese language and culture,” said Engineer Md Salah Uddin, former director of Training Operations at the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, while speaking to the daily recently.

Bangladesh is aiming to tap the Japanese labour market and has already begun grooming a good number of Bangladeshi youths with the necessary skills,” he added.

“Bangladeshis, trained in the Japanese language and culture, and with proper vocational training, will cater to the G-7 market next year,” the BMET official said.

However, a leading manpower exporter in the country was less optimistic, stating that the training and teaching methods need improvement and that the duration of courses should be extended to a year.

The government is currently conducting six-month-long training sessions on spoken Japanese at 30 TTCs.

In a significant shift for a country long closed to immigrants, Japan is looking to allow foreigners in certain blue-collar jobs to stay indefinitely, an official from the Ministry of Justice said.

“As the shrinking population becomes a more serious problem, if Japan wants to be seen as a good option for overseas workers, it needs to communicate that it has the proper structure in place to welcome them,” Toshihiro Menju, managing director of the think-tank Japan Centre for International Exchange, told media.

First Secretary (Labour) of the Bangladesh mission in Japan Md Joynal Abedin said the number of Bangladeshis in Japan was recorded at 18,055 in December 2021 and increased to 31,536 in June 2024.

Stakeholders in the manpower sector said that the number of Bangladeshis in Japan is likely to increase in the next five years, provided Bangladesh can groom the necessary manpower for the G-7 market.