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Look at foreign workers' problems, and you can see Japanese workers' problems too
The number of foreign workers in Japan keeps growing. According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, there were about 2.57 million foreign workers as of the end of month 10 of Reiwa 7 (October 2025), the highest ever.
Whenever this topic comes up, the same points tend to appear.
Foreign workers are paid cheaply.
They start work without enough Japanese.
Support is lacking.
Labor shortages are being filled with foreign workers.
The system is complicated, and it's easy for the worker to end up in a weak position.
These are all serious problems.
But if we stop here, we miss something.
The structure that makes foreign workers cheap to use also affects Japanese people.
Young employees.
Non-regular employees.
Temp agency workers.
Employees of small and mid-sized companies in the regions.
People who earned a qualification and still got no raise.
People whose improvement suggestions never get recognized.
The go-to fixer who keeps plugging holes in the company.
People who are too conscientious to say no, so they just end up with more work.
Their status and the rules they live under differ, but they have one thing in common: they've been put in the "cheap labor lane."
The problem isn't nationality. It's a structure where your price never goes up
This isn't a simple story where foreigners are to blame, or Japanese people are to blame, or only the company is to blame.
The problem is a structure that keeps using cheap-to-use people cheaply.
For example, from a company's point of view, people like these are easy to use cheaply:
- They find it hard to quit
- They have few other jobs to move to
- They don't negotiate
- They don't know the company's rules
- They don't know their own market value
- They fill the gaps without complaining
- Even with qualifications or experience, they haven't prepared to sell themselves outside
- The company thinks, "This person won't run away"
This isn't only about foreigners.
Japanese people fall into the same structure too: people in regions with few job openings, people who can't easily move because of family circumstances, people worried about their age, people who can't write a work history résumé, people who can't stand up to their boss, people who are so conscientious that they pick up everything.
Once a company sees you as someone who stays even when paid cheaply, your pay becomes hard to raise.
"I'm Japanese, so I'm safe" is not true
When looking at foreign workers' problems, Japanese people tend to think, somewhere in their minds, "That's different from us."
But in reality, it isn't.
Even for Japanese people, if you're at a company with a weak evaluation system, your effort never turns into pay.
Even if you earn a qualification, it won't count if the company has no qualification allowance or raise system.
Even if you make improvement suggestions, they won't be recognized if your boss can't understand them.
Even if you fill the gaps on the shop floor, you may hear "Since you can do that, could you do this too?" and just get more work.
This is a problem of the company's operating system, not of nationality.
No system for developing people.
Vague evaluation criteria.
Work that only one person understands, left as it is.
Capable people made to absorb every gap.
And still no raises.
All wrapped up in words like "taking initiative," "sense of responsibility," and "fulfillment."
A company like this is hard on foreigners and Japanese alike.
In short, it's a zoo full of holes.
The cages and rules aren't in place, yet the animals are told to "take initiative and manage well."
Sympathy alone isn't enough, and neither is "it's your own fault"
When people talk about foreign workers' problems, they sometimes stop at "poor them," "the company is bad," or "the system is bad."
On the other hand, they sometimes lean too far toward "personal responsibility": "They should just try harder," "They should study Japanese," "If they don't like it, they can go home."
Both have a point.
But neither one alone is enough.
The structure is real.
The system, residence status, the Japanese language, the information gap with the company, limits on changing jobs, and few places to ask for help. These can't be changed easily by one person's effort.
At the same time, individuals are not completely powerless.
Studying Japanese, earning qualifications, building a work history, finding out where to get advice, widening your chances of changing jobs, looking for a better company. Actions like these gradually increase your options.
It's the same for Japanese people.
The company's structure being bad is a separate matter from you being unable to do anything.
If the company has problems, that's all the more reason to build your own way out and your own options.
Signs you're in the cheap labor lane
You can tell whether you're in the "cheap labor lane" by these signs:
- Your work grows, but your pay doesn't
- Your responsibility grows, but your authority doesn't
- You make improvement suggestions and they aren't recognized
- You earn a qualification and your treatment doesn't change
- Work piles up only on the people who can do it
- People who don't refuse lose out more than people who do
- Evaluation criteria are vague
- Evaluations depend on who the boss favors or on the mood in the room
- There's a labor shortage, but wages aren't raised
- Individual goodwill is what fills the company's gaps
- Odd jobs that can't go on a work history résumé keep piling up
- You're used cheaply under words like "initiative," "responsibility," and "growth"
If you keep working hard in this state, what rises isn't your market value but only your dependence on the company.
That is dangerous.
To get out, turn your experience into something that sells at a higher price
To get out of the cheap labor lane, being angry isn't enough.
You need to convert your experience into a form that sells for more.
Here are some examples of that conversion.
Picking up odd jobs
Weak version: I helped out with various things.
Strong version: Organized routine tasks in the department, wrote them up as step-by-step procedures, and reviewed how the work was divided.
Teaching junior colleagues
Weak version: I looked after new hires.
Strong version: Created training materials for new hires and reduced inconsistency in early training.
Working in Excel
Weak version: I can use Excel.
Strong version: Used Excel functions, summaries, and macros to cut the time spent on manual checking.
Noticing problems on the shop floor
Weak version: I pointed out problems.
Strong version: Identified undefined parts of the work flow and sorted out what needed confirming, who was responsible for what, and how it should be run.
Even experience where you were treated roughly inside the company can become market value if you look at it differently.
What matters is not letting it end as being the company's go-to fixer.
It means converting it into words you can put on a work history résumé.
What both foreign and Japanese workers need is "the ability to move"
If you want your pay to rise, in the end the ability to move is what matters.
Even if you stay at your current company, a person who "can go elsewhere" and a person who "has no choice but to stay here" are in different positions.
For foreign workers: Japanese ability, qualifications, residence status, work history, places to get advice, and the procedures for changing jobs.
For Japanese workers: a work history résumé, track record, skills, qualifications, the job market, and a portfolio.
The forms differ, but what needs to be done is similar.
Look for a place where you'll be valued highly.
Put your current experience into a form that people outside can understand.
Don't let only your company decide your price.
Don't wait forever to be valued in a place that doesn't value you.
This is what matters.
Summary
The structure that makes foreign workers cheap to use isn't a problem for foreign workers alone.
The same kind of structure exists for young Japanese employees, non-regular staff, employees of small and mid-sized regional companies, the company's go-to fixers, people whose pay doesn't rise even after earning qualifications, and people who aren't recognized even when they improve things.
The problem isn't nationality.
It's a lane that keeps using cheap-to-use people cheaply.
To get out of it, it's important to:
- Convert your experience into a work history
- Turn your qualifications and skills into something that works in the market
- Widen your chances of changing jobs
- Not put all your hopes on a company that doesn't value you
- Not make plugging the company's holes the center of your life
If you don't want to be undersold by your company, don't let only your company decide your price.
This is a very realistic survival strategy that applies to foreign and Japanese workers alike.
FAQ
Q. Are foreign workers and Japanese workers facing the same problem?
The limits imposed by the system and by residence status are different. But they're similar in that people who find it hard to change jobs, hard to negotiate, or hard to show their market value outside are the ones most easily used cheaply.
Q. If the company is the problem, why should individuals make an effort?
The company's structure being bad is a separate matter from widening your own options. The worse the company, the more an individual needs to build a way out and the ability to move.
Q. Is there any point in gaining experience at my current company?
Yes. But what matters is whether you can convert it into experience you can put on a work history résumé. Don't let it end as company odd jobs. Organize it as improvement, training, standardization, management, and results.
Candidate internal links
- Why your pay doesn't rise even when you work hard
- How to raise your income from the Specified Skilled Worker visa
- Is a handwritten résumé better?
- How to convert experience into something you can put on a work history résumé
Sources
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, "Summary of reports on the employment status of foreign nationals" (as of the end of October, Reiwa 7)
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/newpage_68794.html - Cabinet Office, "Reiwa 6 (FY2024) Annual Report on the Japanese Economy and Public Finance, Chapter 2, Section 2: Current Situation and Issues Concerning Labor Mobility"
https://www5.cao.go.jp/j-j/wp/wp-je24/h02-02.html - Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, "The current state and issues of the labor market"
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/12602000/001670967.pdf
Proposed overall parent theme
Parent category name
Getting out of the cheap labor lane
Parent category description
You work hard, yet your pay doesn't rise. You earn qualifications, yet nobody values them. Foreign and Japanese workers alike can end up in the cheap labor lane inside a company or a system. This category doesn't dismiss anyone's effort. It lays out ways of thinking that turn effort into market value, work history, and the ability to move.
Candidate follow-up topics
- Traits of companies where pay doesn't rise even after you earn a qualification
- For people whose work keeps growing in ways that can't go on a work history résumé
- How to avoid losing out by picking up too much undefined work
- A plain-Japanese work history résumé template for foreign workers
- A collection of phrases for describing your work in Japanese job interviews
- How to turn the company's go-to fixer into a work-improvement specialist
- Cutting back on "looking busy" work: ways of thinking that get you out of handwriting, paper, and sheer grit
