Japanese supermarkets can’t recruit people? The total number of foreign store employees exceeds 80,000, and the truth behind the labor shortage is revealed online

When you go to Japan, you find that most of the supermarket clerks are foreigners? Supermarkets and drugstores have become the base camps for foreign migrant workers. Japanese LAWSON. (File photo from Bloomberg)

The increasing proportion of foreign clerks in Japanese supermarkets and drugstores has caused concern. Some netizens shared in Dcard that Shinichi Murao, a former employee of Japan's 7-ELEVEN for 30 years, recently published a new book exposing the current shortage of workers in supermarkets. He bluntly said that the work content has become increasingly complex and "it is impossible to recruit Japanese employees." Currently, the number of foreign store employees in the three major supermarkets including 7-ELEVEN, LAWSON, and FamilyMart has exceeded 80,000.

The book mentions that around 2000, a newly opened supermarket could attract about 100 people to apply. However, nowadays, store clerks are no longer just checking out and replenishing goods. They also have to handle many services such as bill collection, parcel delivery, ticket printing, microwave heating, etc. The business is complicated and the work is considered "tiring and uneconomical." This has discouraged young Japanese people, and the job vacancies are gradually being filled by international students and foreigners in Japan. According to LAWSON statistics, as of July 2024, its foreign employees are mainly from Nepal, Vietnam, China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, and as Japan's population ages, this trend is likely to continue to expand.

The topic also resonated with netizens. Some people shared, "When I went to Tokyo this year, all the drug stores were old people moving goods" and "Supermarkets have the most foreign employees, but department stores are still dominated by Japanese." Many people believe that foreign shop assistants have improved the convenience of communication. In the past, it was difficult to communicate with Japanese shop assistants who did not speak English. Now, many foreign shop assistants can deal with them fluently in English. According to a 2011 7-ELEVEN head office survey, one of the reasons why foreign employees choose to work in supermarkets is that they can learn daily Japanese through interactions with customers.

Taiwan, on the other hand, is also facing the challenge of labor shortage caused by declining birthrate and aging population. The Ministry of Labor has promoted the "Transnational Technical Manpower Enhancement Plan" since January this year, and has opened the hotel industry and commercial port industry to introduce foreign technical manpower, but the retail, supermarket and catering industries have not yet been opened. Currently, only qualified foreign students and graduates can apply for a work permit in accordance with the Employment Service Law to work in the retail and service industries. In principle, the working hours per week shall not exceed 20 hours except during winter and summer vacations.