A record 2.57 million foreign workers: what the numbers mean for Kanagawa and Kawasaki
On January 30, 2026, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) released its annual figures on foreign employment (in Japanese), counted as of the end of October 2025. Japan had 2,571,037 foreign workers, 268,450 more than a year earlier and the highest number since employers were first required to report foreign hires in 2007. Here is what the national numbers say, and what the figures for Kanagawa and Kawasaki add.
Across Japan
The number of foreign workers grew 11.7% in a year. Workplaces employing foreign nationals reached 371,215, up 8.5%, also a record. Vietnam is the largest source country with 605,906 workers, followed by China with 431,949 and the Philippines with 260,869.
Manufacturing employs the most foreign workers, 24.7% of the total. By status of residence, 865,588 people (33.7%) work under professional and technical statuses. Another 645,590 (25.1%) hold statuses based on personal relationships or long term residence, such as permanent residents and spouses of Japanese nationals. Technical intern trainees number 499,394 (19.4%). Specified Skilled Workers reached 286,225, up 38.3% (MHLW full report, in Japanese).
Kanagawa at a glance
The Kanagawa Labour Bureau reported (in Japanese) 148,888 foreign workers and 24,200 workplaces employing them in the prefecture. Both are record highs.
| Item | Japan | Kanagawa |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign workers | 2,571,037 | 148,888 |
| Growth over one year | 11.7% | 11.0% |
| Workplaces employing foreign nationals | 371,215 | 24,200 |
| Share working in manufacturing | 24.7% | 21.3% |
| Share on residence based statuses | 25.1% | 33.7% |
| Share of workplaces with under 30 staff | 63.1% | 63.2% |
In Kanagawa, China comes first with 31,216 workers, ahead of Vietnam with 30,454 and the Philippines with 16,554, the reverse of the national top two.
The number we watch most closely
In Kanagawa, 50,203 foreign workers, or 33.7%, hold residence based statuses: permanent resident, spouse of a Japanese national, spouse of a permanent resident, or long term resident. That share is well above the national 25.1%, and the group is almost as large as the 50,401 people on professional and technical statuses.
People with these statuses can do any kind of work. Many of them have already built their lives here. For employers in Kanagawa, that is a large pool of candidates who do not need to be brought in from abroad. People who already live in Japan are exactly who we focus on.
The MHLW prefecture tables (in Japanese) also show that 23,057 foreign workers in Kanagawa, 15.5% of the total, work at establishments that run worker dispatch or contracting businesses. The ministry notes that not everyone at those establishments is a dispatched worker.
Kawasaki's foreign residents
Kawasaki City publishes monthly figures by nationality (in Japanese). At the end of August 2026 the city had 65,163 foreign residents. The largest groups were from China (19,867), Vietnam (7,995), South Korea (7,512), the Philippines (6,036) and Nepal (4,163). Miyamae Ward, where our office is, had 6,018.
These are resident registration figures, so they count people living in the city, not workers. Still, they show how many potential colleagues already live close to local workplaces.
How to read these figures
- The MHLW numbers are a count of the notifications employers filed, so they depend on employers filing correctly.
- When a worker switches from Technical Intern Training to Specified Skilled Worker with the same employer and without leaving, no new notification is required. Keep that in mind when looking at the Specified Skilled Worker figure.
- MHLW compiles and publishes these figures once a year (MHLW, in Japanese). The most recent release came out on January 30, 2026.
If you are a company looking for staff, or a foreign resident looking for work, feel free to contact Sincero Global by phone at +81 90 7841 8887, by email at [email protected], or on LINE.
