---
title: "Foreign workers in Japan: who the 2.57 million are"
description: 2.57 million foreign workers in Japan, five times 2008. Vietnam leads with 606,000; China has 432,000 but still tops white-collar visas. Where the pools are.
image: https://nobusato.jp/hubfs/covers-2026-11/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers-cover-en-2026-10-m.png
---

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en?hsLang=en)

[Profile](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en) [Method](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/method?hsLang=en) [Articles](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog?hsLang=en) [Glossary](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/glossary?hsLang=en) [Contact](https://nobusato.jp/en/contact?hsLang=en)

[日本語](https://nobusato.jp/ja/blog/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers)[English](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers)[中文](https://nobusato.jp/zh/blog/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers)

Japan by the Numbers

In this article

1. [Five times in seventeen years](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers#s1)
2. [China fell to second, then the gap widened](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers#s2)
3. [White-collar visas: China still first](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers#s3)
4. [The other two lines](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers#s4)
5. [Tokyo holds a quarter](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers#s5)
6. [Two implications for foreign companies](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers#s6)

1. [Home](https://nobusato.jp/en?hsLang=en)
2. [Articles](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog?hsLang=en)
3. [Japan by the Numbers](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/tag/japan-by-the-numbers)

# Foreign workers in Japan: who the 2.57 million are, and where

Foreign workers in Japan grew fivefold in seventeen years

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)6 min read

Contents6

1. [Five times in seventeen years](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers#s1)
2. [China fell to second, then the gap widened](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers#s2)
3. [White-collar visas: China still first](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers#s3)
4. [The other two lines](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers#s4)
5. [Tokyo holds a quarter](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers#s5)
6. [Two implications for foreign companies](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers#s6)

Every January, Japan's labor ministry publishes the foreign-worker count as of the previous October. As of October 2025: 2,571,037 foreign workers, up 268,000 from a year earlier, the third straight year of roughly 12% growth.

I read this release every year. The total is the least interesting part. The lines underneath it are far more useful.

## Five times in seventeen years

In 2008 the figure was 486,000. It passed one million in 2016, reached 1.72 million in 2020, 2.05 million in 2023, 2.57 million in 2025.

Fivefold in seventeen years, while Japan's total labor force barely moved. A large share of the workers Japan added over that period were foreign. Executives tell me Japan is short of people. It is. And it is already filling the gap with foreign workers, faster each year.

Foreign workers in Japan grew fivefold in seventeen years: they already fill much of the labor gap

Foreign workers in Japan as of the end of October each year (labor ministry, Employment Status of Foreign Workers)

- 2008

  486,000
- 2016passed one million

  1.00m
- 2020

  1.72m
- 2023

  2.05m
- 2025up 268,000 in a year

  2.57m

Over the same years, Japan’s total labor force barely moved. The gap is already being filled by foreign workers.

Figure 1. Foreign workers in Japan rose from 486,000 in 2008 past one million in 2016 to 2.57 million at the end of October 2025, fivefold in seventeen years, with roughly 12% growth in each of the last three years.

## China fell to second, then the gap widened

Until 2020, Chinese nationals were the largest group. In October 2020, Vietnam passed China, 444,000 to 419,000. By 2025 it was Vietnam 606,000, China 432,000, a gap of 174,000.

The Chinese count has been nearly flat for five years. The growth is Vietnam, Indonesia (up 35% in one year), Myanmar (up 43%), Nepal, Sri Lanka.

What changed is the kind of foreign worker Japan brings in. It used to be Chinese people who came to study and stayed to work. Now it is Southeast Asians filling gaps in manufacturing, construction and care. Those are entirely different jobs.

The main group shifted from Chinese who came to study and work to Southeast Asians filling factory, construction and care jobs

Foreign workers by nationality, end of October 2024 and 2025 (labor ministry)

20242025571,000409,000246,000170,000115,000Vietnam 606,000China 432,000Philippines 261,000Indonesia 228,000Myanmar 163,000Gap 170,000

Vietnam now leads China by 170,000. If you hire for the front line, the pool is Southeast Asian, not Chinese.

Figure 2. From October 2024 to October 2025, Japan’s foreign workers from Vietnam rose from 571,000 to 606,000, China from 409,000 to 432,000, the Philippines from 246,000 to 261,000, Indonesia from 170,000 to 228,000 and Myanmar from 115,000 to 163,000: China has been flat for five years while Indonesia grew 35% and Myanmar 43% in a single year.

## White-collar visas: China still first

Split by residence status and you get a different picture.

The Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services visa, the standard white-collar work permit, covered 468,000 people in 2025, up 14%. By nationality: China 136,000, Vietnam 112,000, Nepal 43,000, Korea 31,000, India 14,000.

In the white-collar pool, Chinese nationals remain first by a clear margin. In the information and communications industry there are 98,000 foreign workers, two-thirds on this visa.

How big is the pool of Chinese-speaking engineers in Japan? I've been asked that many times in search work. My rough estimate is 136,000 on this visa, times the share that goes into IT. That matches what I see in the market. Tens of thousands, not more, and hardly growing in recent years.

The pool of Chinese-speaking white-collar workers is 136,000, and it has barely grown in five years

Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services visa holders by nationality, end of October 2025 (labor ministry). Total 468,000

- Chinathe largest; every Chinese company in Japan competes for it

  136,000
- Vietnam

  112,000
- Nepal

  43,000
- Korea

  31,000
- India

  14,000

It is not bottomless. Map these 136,000 before you move.

Figure 3. Japan’s standard white-collar work visa covered 468,000 people in 2025, with China first at 136,000, ahead of Vietnam 112,000, Nepal 43,000, Korea 31,000 and India 14,000, so the pool of Chinese-speaking white-collar hires is about 136,000 and has barely grown in five years.

## The other two lines

Specified Skilled Worker: 286,000, up 38% in a year, the fastest-growing category. Technical Intern Training: 499,000, still growing but slowing. Together 785,000, almost all in manufacturing, construction, agriculture and care, which lines up exactly with the 5x and 8x occupations in [the previous post](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-job-openings-ratio-by-occupation?hsLang=en).

Japan is replacing the intern program with a new training-employment scheme, so this line will be redrawn over the next few years.

## Tokyo holds a quarter

Tokyo 652,000, or 25.4%. Aichi 249,000, Osaka 208,000. Tokyo's share of foreign workers is well above its share of total employment, which is the same story as white-collar jobs concentrating in Tokyo.

371,000 workplaces employ foreign workers, and 63% of them have fewer than 30 employees. Large companies are a smaller part of this than people assume. Anyone who recruits foreign talent in Japan knows it. The clients are small and mid-sized firms and foreign entities. The big names are rare.

## Two implications for foreign companies

One. If you need site workers in Japan, the pool is Southeast Asian, not Chinese. The intermediaries and visa routes are completely different, so your engineer-hiring playbook won't help.

Two. If you need Chinese-speaking white-collar staff, the pool is those 136,000, and it hasn't grown much in five years. It runs out. You're also competing for it with every Chinese company in Japan. Map the pool before you move. That's what [A talent map is not a list](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/talent-map-is-not-a-list?hsLang=en) is about.

One caveat on the data. It comes from employer filings, and small firms often under-report, so the real figure is above 2.57 million. It also counts only employees. Business owners and freelancers aren't in it.

Your foreign employees in Japan: which visa are they on?

Sources

- [厚生労働省「外国人雇用状況」の届出状況まとめ（令和7年10月末現在）](https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/11655000/001646128.pdf)
- [厚生労働省「外国人雇用状況」の届出状況 各年版（2008年以降の推移）](https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/koyou_roudou/koyou/gaikokujin/gaikokujin-koyou/06.html)
- [JILPT ビジネス・レーバー・トレンド 2021年4月号（2020年、ベトナムが中国を抜いて最多に）](https://www.jil.go.jp/kokunai/blt/backnumber/2021/04/037.pdf)

Related: [After you hire foreign staff in Japan, the hard part begins](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/after-you-hire-foreign-staff-the-hard-part?hsLang=en) For how one Japanese builder is training foreign graduates on professional visas into site supervisors, see [Can foreign hires become site engineers in Japan?](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/daito-trust-foreign-site-supervisors?hsLang=en) For the shrinking denominator behind these numbers, see [Japan Lost 13.5 Million Working-Age People in 30 Years](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-working-age-population-down-13-million?hsLang=en). For the October 2025 tightening of the Business Manager visa, and why the real gate is one local hire, see [Japan's Business Manager Visa: ¥30 Million, One Local Hire](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/business-manager-visa-30-million-yen?hsLang=en). For what each residence status is paid, see [Foreign Workers in Japan Earn 25% Below the Overall Average](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/foreign-worker-pay-gap-japan?hsLang=en).

In elderly care alone, the routes I could count add up to about 80,000 foreign workers, under 4% of the workforce. I set that against MHLW's 2040 estimate in [a piece on Japan's care worker gap](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-care-workers-2040-shortfall?hsLang=en).

Author

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)

Launching in Japan, starting with people and systems. I write about building organizations, sales teams and technology organizations in Japan, in English, Japanese and Chinese.

[Profile](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)[Contact](https://nobusato.jp/en/contact?hsLang=en)

## Read next

1. 01[How Good Is English in Japan, Really?](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-english-proficiency?hsLang=en)6 min
   
   Japan ranks 96th on the EF English index, yet a quarter of TOEIC takers score 745+. Neither measures the workplace. ...
2. 02[Is LinkedIn Useful in Japan? What the Numbers Say](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/is-linkedin-useful-in-japan?hsLang=en)6 min
   
   LinkedIn reported 3 million members in Japan in 2022, about 4% of a 70 million labor force. Small, but dense in foreign ...
3. 03[Japan's 98% graduate employment rate: check the denominator](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-graduate-employment-rate?hsLang=en)4 min
   
   Japan's 98% graduate job rate counts only those seeking work, 75.6% of graduates. Of all graduates, 77% got jobs. ...

[Column guide: Japan by the Numbers](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/guide-japan-by-the-numbers?hsLang=en) · [Glossary](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/glossary?hsLang=en) · [The method behind the articles](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/method?hsLang=en)

[← All articles](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog?hsLang=en)

## Writing about launching in Japan, in three languages.

[Profile](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en) [Get in touch](https://nobusato.jp/en/contact?hsLang=en)

Nobu Sato

Writing about launching in Japan, in three languages.

[info@nobusato.jp](mailto:info@nobusato.jp) [Substack](https://nobusato.substack.com)[Newsletter](https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/the-japan-entry-memo-7519750783555518464/)[Medium](https://medium.com/@nobusato5888)[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/realnobusato/)[X](https://x.com/nobusato5888) [RSS](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/rss.xml?hsLang=en)

[Profile](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)[Method](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/method?hsLang=en)[Articles](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog?hsLang=en)[Glossary](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/glossary?hsLang=en)[Contact](https://nobusato.jp/en/contact?hsLang=en)

Views here are my own and don’t represent any organization I work or have worked for.

© 2026 Nobu Sato. All rights reserved.·[Privacy and disclaimer](https://nobusato.jp/en/privacy?hsLang=en)

```json
{
  "@context" : "https://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BreadcrumbList",
  "itemListElement" : [ {
    "@type" : "ListItem",
    "item" : "https://nobusato.jp/en",
    "name" : "Home",
    "position" : 1
  }, {
    "@type" : "ListItem",
    "item" : "https://nobusato.jp/en/blog",
    "name" : "Articles",
    "position" : 2
  }, {
    "@type" : "ListItem",
    "item" : "https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/tag/japan-by-the-numbers",
    "name" : "Japan by the Numbers",
    "position" : 3
  }, {
    "@type" : "ListItem",
    "item" : "https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers",
    "name" : "Foreign workers in Japan: who the 2.57 million are, and where",
    "position" : 4
  } ]
}
```

```json
{
  "@context" : "https://schema.org",
  "@id" : "https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers",
  "@type" : "WebPage",
  "about" : {
    "@type" : "Thing",
    "name" : "Japan by the Numbers"
  },
  "author" : {
    "@id" : "https://nobusato.jp/#person"
  },
  "description" : "2.57 million foreign workers in Japan, five times 2008. Vietnam leads with 606,000; China has 432,000 but still tops white-collar visas. Where the pools are.",
  "inLanguage" : "en",
  "isPartOf" : {
    "@id" : "https://nobusato.jp/en/blog",
    "@type" : "Blog",
    "name" : "Articles"
  },
  "keywords" : "Japan by the Numbers",
  "name" : "Foreign workers in Japan: who the 2.57 million are, and where",
  "url" : "https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers"
}
```

```json
{
  "@context" : "https://schema.org",
  "@id" : "https://nobusato.jp/#person",
  "@type" : "Person",
  "alternateName" : [ "佐藤伸明", "Nobu Sato", "左滕" ],
  "description" : "Japan market launches: organization, sales and technology",
  "knowsAbout" : [ "Japan market entry", "Organization design", "Talent acquisition", "Sales organization building", "Technology organization building", "Japanese labor law" ],
  "name" : "Nobu Sato",
  "sameAs" : [ "https://www.linkedin.com/in/realnobusato/", "https://x.com/nobusato5888" ],
  "url" : "https://nobusato.jp/en/profile"
}
```

```json
{
  "@context" : "https://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "Nobu Sato",
    "url" : "https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/author/nobu-sato"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2026-10-24T14:24:23.766Z",
  "datePublished" : "2026-10-23T15:10:33.000Z",
  "headline" : "Foreign workers in Japan: who the 2.57 million are",
  "image" : [ "https://nobusato.jp/hubfs/covers-2026-11/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers-cover-en-2026-10-m.png" ],
  "mainEntityOfPage" : {
    "@id" : "https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/foreign-workers-in-japan-by-the-numbers",
    "@type" : "WebPage"
  },
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "url" : "https://nobusato.jp/hubfs/seo/logo-nobusato-2026-10.png"
    },
    "name" : "nobusato.jp"
  }
}
```