Japan has been one of the leading labour market for Vietnamese guest workers in recent years. Most recently, the Government of Japan formulated a new scheme that designed to train unskilled foreign workers and facilitate their attainment of medium- to long-term employment opportunities in the country. The initiative is part of a broader strategy to address pressing labour shortages locally.

The new system aims to train unskilled foreign workers over three years to help them obtain Type 1 residency status, which in turn will allow them to work in Japan for up to five years.

Those who acquire Type 2 status, granted to highly-skilled foreign workers, are effectively allowed to live in Japan permanently and then bring their family members over.

Overall, Vietnam sent more than 48,363 guest workers abroad in the first four months of the year, meeting 38.69% of the full-year target. Of the total, 14,193 were females.

Apart from Japan, other large recipients of Vietnamese guest workers in the past four months were Taiwan (China) and the Republic of Korea that welcomed 14,908 and 815 workers, respectively.

Elsewhere, China received 535 Vietnamese guest workers, Singapore 393, Romania 320, Thailand 295, the UAE 214, Macau (China) 182, and Hungary 164, among others.

VOV