A recent survey made by Teikoku Databank Ltd. released last August 24 showed that Japanese companies are facing a record-high 45% shortage of full-time workers. It is a huge increase from the July 2016 survey showing just 7.5% shortage.
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Here is the breakdown of the shortage per sector:
- 69.7% shortage for the industrial sector and information technology services such as software-developing companies,
- 61.5% shortage for the home electronics and information equipment retail, and
- 60.9% shortage for the transportation and warehouse services
According to Teikoku Databank, this significant leap has resulted to company bankruptcies as there is not enough manpower to develop new products and services. It suggested that Japanese companies create an employee-centric environment wherein age and sex are not crucial deciding factors for hiring.
To address the situation, Japanese firms have integrated robots in their operations. It is not to replace existing full-time workers but compliment them so as to produce the required output.
Japan is not after all a stranger to robotics. In the automobile industry alone, Japan leads the global integration of robotics in the work field with 219 robots per 10,000 workers while Germany has 147 and U.S. with only 76 robots.
However, The Land of the Rising Sun still values human employment. Japanese clerical workers are still kept even if in theory, efficiency and accuracy are much higher when done by computers. Taxis are still preferred over online hailing services. Ironically, it is the U.S. that is seen as more aggressive in replacing humans with robots.
References: Labor shortage looming, Japan looks to robots for answers
