Tag - jobs

 
 

JOBS

Iwao Tanaka (right) speaks to a snowboarder getting off a ski lift at a resort in Daisen, Tottori Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Mar 30, 2026
For some retirees, life is a little bit like a holiday
More and more older people are taking up short-term resort jobs as they embark on their “second life” post-retirement.
The executive committee of Women in Law Japan poses for a photo at the organization’s 10th anniversary gala.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Mar 30, 2026
Women in Law Japan marks 10 years amid persistent gender gap in the profession
Through events, workshops and mentorship programs, the platform offers opportunities to connect for women in the legal profession in Japan.
Visitors in the Dotonbori area in Osaka. The number of foreign residents in Japan has exceeded 4 million for the first time.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 28, 2026
Japan’s foreign resident population hits record 4.12 million
The figure is a 9.5% increase from a year earlier, the Immigration Services Agency said Friday.
Japan introduced the specified skilled worker residency program in 2019 to expand the acceptance of foreign workers amid domestic labor shortages.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2026
Japan’s tally of specified skilled workers hits record 390,296
The program was introduced in 2019 to expand the acceptance of foreign workers amid domestic labor shortages.
Shigeru Aizawa, head of employee benefits in the empowerment division at Tokyo-based Freee
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 27, 2026
Shadow raises pitched as option for cash-strapped Japanese companies
Benefits, discounts and freebies can increase compensation without triggering a big tax hit for employees and employers.
The U.S. health care sector has been expanding as baby boomers retire, Social Security rolls rise and medical advances extend lifespans.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2026
Health care can’t be the only job in town — but it is
Health care is a labor-intensive industry that’s become more central to the economy as baby boomers retire.
Labor unions under Rengo have so far secured an average pay increase of 5.26% in wage negotiations with employers, according to an initial tally.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 23, 2026
Japan’s key labor union wins wage hike topping 5% for third year
The development will likely keep the central bank on track for another interest rate hike in the coming months.
Training for foreign workers under Japan’s Specified Skilled Worker program on March 6 in Shirakawa, Fukushima Prefecture
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 22, 2026
Japan trains foreign workers for railway maintenance
The trained workers are expected to find jobs at railway companies across the country, attracting attention as to whether they can contribute to alleviating the labor shortages.
An official of the Japan Council of Metalworkers’ Unions writes down companies’ response to labor unions’ demands in wage negotiations in Tokyo’s Chuo Ward on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 19, 2026
Many major Japanese companies agree to pay hike demands in full
Close attention is being paid to whether the wage hike momentum will spread to small companies, which employ about 70% of all workers in Japan.
About 92% of job-seeking university students in Japan set to graduate this month had received informal job offers as of Feb. 1, with the rate remaining high due to labor shortages despite a slight decline from a year earlier, government data showed Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 17, 2026
92% of job-seeking university students held offers as of Feb. 1, data shows
The rate at which the students secured job offers remained high due to labor shortages, though it fell from a year earlier in the first decline in five years.
According to a survey covering some 2,000 LGBTQ+ people over three years to 2024, 54.9% of respondents said in the final year that their workplaces did not have any specific measures for sexual and gender minorities.
JAPAN
Mar 16, 2026
No LGBTQ+ measures at over half of workplaces in Japan: survey
The figure slightly improved from 57.2% in 2022 and 60.4% in 2023, according to the survey.
Naomi Matsushita of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines became the first woman to serve as captain aboard a ship operated by a major integrated Japanese shipping company.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2026
Japanese women build careers in male-dominated industries
As of 2020, women accounted for less than 20% of the workforce in the maritime transportation and construction sectors, far below the figure of more than 40% across all industries.
The Japanese Trade Union Confederation, known as Rengo, holds a meeting late last month to call for robust wage hikes in this year's shuntō spring offensive.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 15, 2026
Japan electronics unions to accept pay scale hike of ¥12,000 or more
The hike is intended to help sustainably realize robust pay increases outpacing inflation.
A person visits the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on July 26, 2025.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 11, 2026
China pins hopes on society-wide AI push to add jobs, rejuvenate economy
Policymakers and company executives play down growing global fears that artificial intelligence could stunt employment.
A kickoff meeting for the cross mentoring initiative held in May, with four companies including Ricoh taking part
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 9, 2026
Cross-mentoring initiatives aim to develop female executives at Japan firms
Companies have a low proportion of female executives who were promoted internally, rather than being appointed from outside companies.
Japan ranked 34th among 35 countries in a survey of the ratio of senior management roles held by women at medium-size companies.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 8, 2026
Ratio of female executives at midsize firms 21.5% in Japan, survey shows
Despite a 3.1% rise from the previous year’s survey, Japan still ranked 34th among 35 countries surveyed.
Japan's Digital Agency said it will start in May a large-scale test of its generative artificial intelligence platform for administrative tasks.
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2026
Digital agency to begin testing AI use for administrative tasks in May
The agency aims to ascertain the effects of generative AI utilization and sort out issues related to its use for work style and task process reforms.
Real wages have been falling in Japan for a number of years despite high nominal increases.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 6, 2026
Unions seeking wage increases this year of almost 6%
The spring offensive results are likely to be in line with last year’s.
Across the Global South, a growing crisis of overheating cities is impacting the health and livelihoods of more than 1 billion people living in informal settlements, a figure expected to increase sevenfold by 2050, a new report said.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 6, 2026
Extreme heat hurts work, health and sleep in Africa slums, report says
A growing crisis of overheating cities is impacting the health and livelihoods of more than 1 billion people living in informal settlements.
A punting boat passes the King's College Chapel at the University of Cambridge, England, where John Maynard Keynes studied. He predicted that advances like AI could one day free people from material necessity, leaving humanity to face the “permanent problem” of how to live well.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2026
AI is proving a 100-year-old prediction true
Keynes’ work on the problem of leisure has not been treated with the same reverence as his work on solving the problem of the great depression.

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival