If you are a hiring manager in Japan who is responsible for recruiting non-Japanese applicants, an important trend to watch is whether new job seekers are entering the market.

Record high number of foreign workers in Japan in 2022
A report (in Japanese) published by the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare this January showed that the number of foreign workers in Japan in 2022 reached a record high of 1,822,725 as of October 31, 2022.
This is 95,000 more than the previous year, for a 5.5% year-on-year increase. By nationality, workers from Vietnam, China (including Hong Kong and Macau), and the Philippines totaled over 1 million, accounting for nearly 60% of all foreign workers.
By industry, the manufacturing industry accounted for the largest number of foreign workers, at 485,128, or 26.6% of the total, followed by wholesale and retail jobs at 13.1% and accommodation and food services at 11.5%.
The number of businesses employing foreign nationals reached a record high in 2022 of 298,790, up 4.8% year on year.
Has the number of new job seekers also increased?
Does this mean that the pool of active foreign job seekers in Japan has also grown?
The GaijinPot marketing team wanted to answer this question with respect to our own candidate database and to see how we compare to the nationwide numbers.
More specifically,
- Can employers looking for candidates on GaijinPot expect to see more new candidate profiles this year?
- What nationalities are growing the most in new resumes?
- What industries are growing the most in new resumes?
- How does this compare to the overall picture for foreign workers in Japan?
New candidate profiles submitted by Japan-based job seekers on GaijinPot Jobs increased by 21.3% in 2023
Job seekers on GaijinPot Jobs have been very active this year.
The number of new candidate profiles (resumes) submitted by Japan-resident foreigners increased 21.3% in the first six months of 2023 compared to 2022.
This wasn’t completely unexpected as we finally emerged from COVID-induced cocooning behavior, but higher than expected growth meant that employers also had the opportunity to comb through resumes that weren’t available last year.
We have seen this trend continue through the summer, although YoY growth has slowed a little since the majority of job seekers did their job hunting in the spring before the start of the new fiscal year.
Nationalities with the highest number of new resumes added to GaijinPot Jobs
The nationality profile of candidates on GaijinPot Jobs differs significantly from the nationwide profile of resident-foreigner workers.
This is mainly because the site mainly lists jobs in such industries as:
- English teaching
- Food and beverage
- Tourism and hospitality
- IT and engineering
- Media and publishing
- Sales
- Translation and localization, among others
Which nationalities submitted the most resumes to the database, among Japan-based job seekers?

Industries with the highest number of new resumes added to GaijinPot Jobs
Which industries had the most active job seekers on GaijinPot Jobs?
The top five in the first six months of 2023 were:
- Education / teaching
- Food and beverage
- Tourism / travel / hospitality
- Wholesale /retail
- Information technology
In this respect, the GaijinPot Jobs database also differs significantly from the profile of resident-foreign workers in Japan, where manufacturing is the dominant industry. However, as with the overall picture, we see that job seekers in food and beverage and wholesale and retail industries are well represented.
Also noteworthy is that in the top twenty chart below, all twenty industries had increases of between 18% and 60% YoY in the number of new resumes submitted in 2023, except for Media / Publishing / Printing and Translation and Interpretation.

The key takeaways
In conclusion, our data indicates that among Japan-based job seekers:
- Job candidates on GaijinPot Jobs are more active in 2023 than 2022, with over 21.3% YoY growth in new resumes in the first six months of the year.
- All nationalities in the top twenty in the database showed very high percentage growth YoY in new resumes, led by the Philippines, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and India.
- All industries in the top twenty in the database had increases of between 18% and 60% YoY in the number of new resumes submitted in the first six months of 2023, except for Media / Publishing / Printing and Translation and Interpretation.
Are you trying to hire multinational employees?
If your company is looking to hire multinational talent, please contact the GaijinPot Jobs team to see how we can help.
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