Institutional Transitions in the Employment of Foreign Workers in Japan’s Agriculture and Food Manufacturing: From Technical Intern Training to Employment for Skill Development and Specified Skilled Worker in Comparison with the UK

This paper investigates the institutional transition in Japan’s acceptance of foreign workers in the agriculture and food manufacturing sectors, focusing on the restructuring of entry-stage training schemes and their linkage to skill-based employment. In particular, it traces the shift from the Technical Intern Training Programme (TITP) to the Employment for Skill Development (ESD) Programme as the primary entry route, and examines how these institutional changes are embedded within the Specified Skilled Worker (SSW) framework. Drawing upon official statistics from 2012 to 2024 and sector-specific case studies, the analysis demonstrates that the introduction of the SSW status in 2019 marked a turning point by explicitly recognising foreign nationals as “workers” engaged in manual labour. In agriculture, SSW Type 1 has increasingly supplemented or replaced technical interns, especially in horticulture and livestock farming, while early cases of transition to SSW Type 2 since 2024 suggest the gradual emergence of pathways leading to longer-term residence. In food manufacturing, the rapid expansion of SSW reflects greater institutional flexibility in responding to fluctuating labour demand, particularly in processing sectors characterised by seasonal or volatile production cycles. A cross-sectoral comparison highlights differentiated transition trajectories: food manufacturing exhibits a “rapid transition model”, agriculture a “phased connection model”, and construction and shipbuilding a “leading expansion model”. These variations indicate that institutional transition under the SSW framework is shaped not only by formal institutional design but also by sector-specific labour demand and employment practices. Comparative analysis with the United Kingdom underscores a fundamental divergence in institutional orientation. Whereas Japan’s system is structured around a stepwise transition from training-based entry to medium- and long-term workforce retention—now reconfigured through the replacement of TITP with ESD while maintaining the internal progression from SSW Type 1 to Type 2—the UK relies on a dual structure combining immediately deployable skilled labour with short-term seasonal worker schemes. The paper concludes that Japan’s approach represents a distinctive long-term human resource strategy, although challenges remain in enhancing flexibility and responsiveness to short-term labour demand.