Health, distribution, hotels and restaurants, agriculture… In Japan, no economic sector is spared from an increasingly glaring labor shortage. The problem is so acute that it sometimes has tragic consequences: how to quickly rebuild the Noto peninsula, where the earthquake of 1er January destroyed more than 60,600 homes and buildings, when the number of construction workers fell 30% from the 1997 peak? And at what price? The cost of the Osaka World Expo in 2025 has already doubled due to inflation in raw material costs and lack of manpower.
And the situation is likely to get worse: according to the independent research institute Recruit Works, the world’s fourth-largest economy, which today has 123.3 million inhabitants, could be short 11 million workers in 2040. The cause: demographic aging and low fertility. In 2023, the number of deaths (1,590,503) was twice as high as that of births (758,631), which fell by 5.1%, according to government data.
For several years, companies have been trying to adapt to this new situation, by widening their recruitment circles, in particular by hiring more women, but also older people, authorized to work until the age of 70, or even older. . The authorities are even considering raising the retirement age for taxi drivers to 80, compared to the current 75. Traditionally reluctant in this area, the country has also relaxed its immigration policy a little. More than two million foreigners work there, twice as many as twenty years ago.
However, as this is not enough, the Archipelago is also turning, and increasingly, towards new technologies. In 2017, the government launched a major plan called “Society 5.0”, intended to fundamentally transform the economy. Its ambition is to create a “human-centered society, which reconciles economic progress and the resolution of social problems through the integration of cyberspace and the real world”. Companies are following: investments in digital increased by 23% in 2023, according to a survey by the economic daily Nihon Keizai (Nikkei), published in December 2023. In total, 40.9% of the companies consulted – a record – rely on “digital transformation”.
“Increase productivity”
Among the most active sectors is distribution. Seven Eleven, number one in convenience stores, konbinis, will open its first fully automated points of sale in April. The group also wants to offer this model to companies whose cafeterias close due to lack of staff.
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