JAPAN: Foreign Workers Dying & more – 5th June 2025

Konnichiwa from BA! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 5th of June twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

In business news, the Japanese government recently released a survey reporting that over 6,000 foreign workers were killed or injured in workplace accidents in twenty twenty-four, marking the thirteenth year in a row that number has gone up. The survey also found that the casualty rate for foreign workers was higher than that of the overall workforce.

Manufacturing and construction had the highest number of workplace accidents, and the most affected groups were Vietnamese, Filipino, and Indonesian workers. The main reasons for the accidents were language barriers and lack of experience in the field. The Labor Ministry is urging companies to improve safety training for foreign workers, and implied that the best solution would likely be to provide safety training in the workers’ native languages, not just Japanese.

Speaking of foreign workers, many small and midsize companies with fewer than 100 employees are actively hiring foreigners, especially skilled workers who can fill in roles that are experiencing labor shortages, like in manufacturing and hospitality. However, many foreigners face poor working conditions, such as too much overtime and unpaid wages, especially the 470,000 technical intern trainees.

Currently, the biggest improvement in the works for these individuals is a new residency status set for twenty twenty-seven that will replace the current intern system, which requires workers to stay at the same job for a set period or risk being deported, even if the company treats them poorly. The new residency status will make it easier for workers to get a new job if they’re not happy in their current one.

As for the reason behind the labor shortages, it’s likely because of Japan’s declining birth rate. The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research recently revealed that in twenty twenty-four, the country had fewer than 700,000 births for the first time since eighteen ninety-nine, with only 686,000 babies born—a drop of over 41,000 from the previous year.

The fertility rate fell to a record low of one point fifteen, while deaths hit a record high of over a million and a half, leading to a population decline of over 919,000, the largest ever in Japan’s recorded history.

The institute said the decline is partly because of delayed marriage and childbirth. The government said it would continue efforts to address the issue.

The Imperial family is doing their part in keeping up the population. On Friday the 30th of May, the Imperial Household Agency announced that Mako Komuro, the daughter of Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, gave birth to her first child. Her parents said they were overjoyed and wished happiness for their daughter and her family.

In other news, Japan is facing some criticism for its recent whaling activity. A Japanese whaling ship returned to port with twenty-five fin whales from the Sea of Okhotsk, located between Japan and Russia. This marked the first such hunt since Japan left the International Whaling Commission in twenty nineteen.

The ship unloaded about 320 tons of whale meat, with some to be sold as raw meat nationwide. Most of the online criticism surrounded two points: first, that fin whales are intelligent animals and shouldn’t be hunted for moral reasons; and second, that fin whales are the second-largest creature in the world and have a very high mercury content, so they’re not fit for human consumption. Instead, the meat will probably be used as pet food. If sold as food to people, stores would likely have to sell it very cheap, since many would want to avoid it because of its high mercury content, which can have negative health effects.

At least the stockpiled rice is fine to eat, and major convenience store chains across the country, including Lawson and FamilyMart, started selling the lower-priced rice earlier this week. Recall from last week’s show that the government began selling stockpiled rice under a new no-bid contract system to keep prices as low as possible.

The convenience stores are selling the rice in small packages to suit elderly and single-person households, with a one-kilogram or two-pound bag costing 360 yen, which is two and a half dollars. The Agriculture Minister said he hoped that more cheap, stockpiled rice will be sold nationwide. The public reaction has also been fairly positive, with people saying that the stockpiled rice was much easier to afford.

In an update to a story from previous shows, East Japan Railway may have found out why two bullet trains decoupled back in September. At first, the company thought a metal fragment interfered with the system, but they recently realized that both decouplings used the same modified circuit board.

The company is still investigating the circuit board to figure out what’s the issue. In the meantime, it has already put in place other safety measures, including metal reinforcements and a planned permanent double-locking system. The Japan Transport Safety Board is also investigating the incidents, which disrupted travel for hundreds of thousands of people because of cancellations.

The Transport Ministry is also busy with another issue. On Thursday the 5th, it said that over seventy post offices run by Japan Post, the country’s national postal service, failed to conduct proper health and alcohol checks on their truck drivers, either falsifying documents or skipping inspections. This violates the Trucking Business Law, so the ministry plans to revoke Japan Post’s trucking license.

This will be the first time the ministry has revoked the license of a large-scale transport operator. Japan Post won’t be able to use about 2,500 vehicles for five years, so it will have to use other companies to deliver mail and packages.

Japan Post said it was taking the matter very seriously and that it would implement measures to correct the issue.

Meanwhile, several moderate earthquakes have been shaking up the eastern coast of Hokkaido Prefecture, northern Japan, since late May, including a magnitude-six quake on Monday the 2nd. The Meteorological Agency said most of the quakes were intensity four and would probably not trigger larger quakes.

However, officials warned that a major quake could still occur at any time along the nearby Chishima Trench, which was also the source of a magnitude-eight quake in two thousand three. The officials suggested that those in affected areas should stay prepared.

In sports news, Shigeo Nagashima, a legendary figure in Japanese baseball, died at eighty-nine years old on Tuesday the 3rd from pneumonia. Known as Mr. Giants and Mr. Pro Baseball, or Mister Pro Yakyu in Japanese, he starred for the Yomiuri Giants, leading them to nine straight Japan Series titles between nineteen sixty-five and nineteen seventy-three. Nagashima also won the People’s Honor Award and the Order of Culture, and even appeared at the twenty twenty-one Tokyo Olympics. He remains a symbol of Japan’s baseball golden era and national pride.

To see a memorial slideshow of Nagashima’s baseball career, visit Asahi Shimbun’s website with the link in the show notes!

That wasn’t the only sports news. Hakuho, a sumo legend, said that he would be stepping away from the sport after sumo officials closed down his stable because of reports of physical abuse. The Mongolian-born wrestler, who won a record forty-five tournaments before retiring in twenty twenty-one, faced demotion after someone accused his protégé of bullying and theft.

With his stable still inactive over a year later, Hakuho, now forty years old, submitted his resignation to the Japan Sumo Association, which reportedly accepted it. Hakuho will likely hold a press conference next week.

Closing this edition on a lighter note, who doesn’t love space? ispace, a Tokyo-based company, will soon attempt a moon landing with its Resilience lander, aiming for an unexplored northern area called the Sea of Cold. The mission carries a mini rover, Tenacious, to collect lunar soil and also put a tiny, Swedish-style red house on the moon’s surface. Much cozier than a flag.

This marks ispace’s second attempt at a lunar landing after a twenty twenty-two crash. It also reflects how much private companies are getting involved with space exploration, like SpaceX and Blue Origin, both in the US.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Want to pass along an episode? Just head to www.rorshok.com/japan to download any of them as .mp3 files. The link’s in the show notes!

Mata Ne!