Aeon, the Japanese retail giant, currently employs 1,500 specified skilled workers and plans to hire 4,000 foreign workers by 2030. Over the next five years, Aeon aims to expand its workforce and is seeking foreign talent with specified skilled worker visas to address the labour shortage in the food-service and retail sectors. Japan has already started hiring Indonesian workers under this program.
Aeon operates several supermarket chains including Peacock Store, Maruetsu, and My Basket, and currently has 1,500 specified skilled workers working in various food-processing units across the group. The Japanese government is broadening the designated fields under the specified skilled worker program to attract more foreign workers. Visa holders are now allowed to work not only in traditional food factories but also in facilities where dishes are prepared for sale at supermarkets.
Aeon Delight, the facility-management arm of the Aeon Group, will oversee the onboarding of the hired foreign workers and assign them to other group companies as well as external businesses after meeting its own labor needs. One of Aeon’s subsidiaries will be responsible for arranging travel and accommodation for these workers upon their arrival in Japan.
The Indonesian workers currently employed had received training through Aeon’s local subsidiary in Indonesia, in collaboration with the Indonesian government and local language schools. The specified skilled worker program, which requires basic proficiency in the Japanese language and relevant skills related to the designated sector, allows foreign workers to work in specified fields designated by the government for up to five years.
The Japanese government aims to hire 820,000 foreign workers under the specified skilled worker program by April 2029, a significant increase from the 280,000 foreign workers employed under this program as of December 2023.
