In a report released on October 25, the agency said the number of Vietnamese people increased by 12.4 percent compared to data in the most recent report.

Particularly, the number of Vietnamese living in Japan as "skill trainees" is growing sharply, reaching about 190,000 at present.

Vietnamese nurses trained in Japan.

By the end of June 2019, the total number of foreigners in Japan was 2.82 million, an increase of 3.6 percent compared to the end of December 2018 and reaching the highest level ever.

Chinese are the largest community in Japan with 786,241 people, followed by Koreans with 451,543 people.

Since April, the Japanese government has adopted a revised immigration management law with the introduction of 14 new statuses of residence with specific skills in areas where there is a serious shortage of labour in the country such as nurses and construction workers.

Foreign workers, who meet all requirements such as passing a professional examination and Japanese language, will be able to work in Japan for up to 5 years, instead of just 3 years prescribed in previous regulations.

According to a plan set by the Japanese government, within the next five years, the country will receive about 345,000 foreign workers. This is said to be one of the important measures to help Japan address the population aging and labour shortage, thus maintaining its economic growth.

Japan helps Vietnam improve control of food safety

JICA signed a grant agreement with Vietnam on October 17 to provide over 1.2 billion JPY for a project to enhance laboratory capacity of the Reference Testing and Agrifood Quality Consultancy (RETAQ) Centre, helping Vietnam better ensure safety of agricultural and fishery products as food.

Japanese-funded project to help Ben Tre manage water resources

The Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre has launched a Japanese-funded water management project worth 266,170 USD.

PM receives Governor of Japan’s Kagoshima prefecture

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc hosted a reception for Governor of Japan’s Kagoshima prefecture Mitazono Satoshi in Hanoi on October 16.

ASEAN, Japan deputy defence chiefs gather in Tokyo

Deputy defence chiefs of ASEAN countries and Japan met in Tokyo, Japan from October 8-10 to discuss regional security, the future of the Indo-Pacific region and ASEAN’s initiatives for regional cooperation.

Vietnam, Japan share experience in social security policy making

Experiences of Vietnam and Japan in making social security policies were shared at a seminar held by the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) in Hanoi on October 9.

Source: VNA