KATHMANDU, Oct 20: Japan plans to resume accepting foreign workers for meal services at hospitals, welfare facilities and schools from April next year as an emergency measure to address staff shortages, according to The Japan Times.
The Japanese government presented the plan at a meeting of an expert panel on Monday and aims to approve it at a Cabinet meeting in December.
Under the proposal, meal services would be shifted from the restaurant industry category to the food and beverage manufacturing category under Japan’s Specified Skilled Worker (SSW) visa program.
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Japan suspended recruitment of foreign workers under the restaurant industry category in April as the number of workers holding Specified Skilled Worker Type 1 status approached the sector’s upper limit of 50,000. However, staff shortages in meal services at hospitals and other facilities have worsened.
The government plans to include meal services in the food and beverage manufacturing category because the work mainly involves food preparation and cooking rather than customer interaction.
The category has an upper limit of 133,500 foreign workers. As of the end of July, the number stood at 76 percent of that limit. Japan’s agriculture ministry expects the planned recruitment to have no significant impact on the category.
The government also plans to increase the upper limit for Type 1 foreign workers in the elderly care sector by 20,000 to 146,900, while keeping the overall limit for the sector at 160,700.
Japan plans to maintain the overall cap on foreign workers across all categories at 1,231,900 until the end of fiscal year 2028. This includes 825,400 Type 1 workers and 406,500 workers under the Employment for Skill Development program, which is scheduled to begin next April.