News
Foreign workers in Japan up 5.6% in Oct. from year earlier
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A total of 686,246 foreign workers were employed by companies and other establishments in Japan as of the end of October, up 5.6 percent from a year earlier, the labor ministry said Friday.
By nationality, Chinese workers numbered about 297,000, or 43.3 percent of the total, followed by 117,000 Brazilians and 70,000 Filipinos, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
The ministry said the number of foreign workers may have temporarily decreased immediately after last March's massive earthquake and tsunami, but in October the number topped the previous year's level as automakers and other companies had begun to increase production.
The total included about 265,000 workers in the manufacturing sector, accounting for 38.7 percent, and about 185,000 dispatch and contract workers, or 27.0 percent.
By prefecture, Tokyo, Aichi and Kanagawa had the three largest populations of foreign workers at about 168,000, 84,000 and 41,000, respectively.
(Mainichi Japan) January 28, 2012
