Japan’s government plans to raise the quota for foreign caregivers under its Specified Skilled Worker (i) status by 20,000 slots, after preliminary figures showed caregiver arrivals were on track to exceed the original cap well ahead of schedule. Roughly 80,000 foreign care workers were already in Japan under this status by late July, putting the sector on pace to hit its original 126,900-person cap before March 2029.
To add the 20,000 slots without raising the overall foreign-labor target, officials will transfer the headroom from the upcoming Employment for Skill Development program, set to launch in April 2027 — bringing the combined cap for care workers to 160,700 while leaving Japan’s total intake ceiling unchanged. The reallocation was discussed at a Ministry of Justice expert panel meeting in Tokyo. Masayuki Saito, chairman of the Japan Federation of Kaigo (nursing-care) Business Providers, said the government needs to build a more accurate plan based on what care facilities actually need. Officials said halting new caregiver intake — as happened previously in the food-service sector — would leave essential care facilities unable to operate.
Separately, the government is also expanding permitted duties for foreign construction workers to include snow removal. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is keeping the nationwide ceiling for all specified skilled workers and skill-development trainees unchanged at 1.23 million people, even as it shifts capacity between sectors to match where shortages are most acute.
