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The article reports on the rising trend of female employment in Japan that is seeing success in the country's womenomics policies. It attributes the labor force growth to increased immigration and recovery of the labor force from the pandemic. Factors that played a role in freeing up women for work in Japan include increase in child care center capacity and the changing attitudes toward family.

The article discusses the labor shortage in Japan. Topics discussed include some factors attributed to the labor shortage are declining birthrate and the reluctance of Japan to hire immigrants, the construction industry and Japanese government's campaign to boost the number of women in construction and structural issues that hinder female participation in the work force.

The article focuses on pilot Shigekazu Miyazaki who has extended his commercial flying career with All Nippon Airways at 65 years of age, and mentions rethinking of traditional career paths and government safety nets due to aging of Japan's work force.

The article describes the challenges faced by technical trainees in Japan, who are essentially second-class laborers brought in from other countries to fill jobs that Japanese citizens are not taking. Due to the strict immigration laws of Japan, loopholes have been created by the government to allow low-wage workers from abroad to enter the country to help solve its labor shortage problem. Most trainee workers incur large debts due to broker fees and they cannot change their jobs.

KASHIWA, Japan -- Maria Fransiska, a young, hard-working nurse from Indonesia, is just the kind of worker Japan would seem to need to replenish its aging work force. But Ms. Fransiska, 26, is having to fight to stay. To extend her three-year stint at a hospital outside Tokyo, she must pass a standardized nursing exam administered in Japanese, a test so difficult that only 3 of the 600 nurses brought here from Indonesia and the Philippines since 2007 have passed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Every day, the impeccably dressed ''elevator girls'' of Tokyo's Odakyu department store greet customers, ushering them in and out of the cars. During breaks, they practice their greetings and meticulously reapply their makeup. Critics see the women as the embodiment of this country's productivity problem -- squandering of one of the world's best educated labor forces on banal jobs that do little to make the economy grow. But others, including the Democrats, Japan's new ruling party, see them as beneficiaries of a more humane capitalism, a capitalism that values employment and stability over growth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With job signs stuck to their vans' windshields and sliding side doors left open in expectation, the recruiters were sizing up the potential hires at Japan's largest day labor market here recently. By 4:30 a.m., thousands of aging day laborers had spilled out of the neighborhood's flophouses and homeless shelters, or risen from its parks and streets, to form a potential work force of mostly graying men. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There was no inherent reason that this northern Japanese town, population 19,743, had never had a lawyer until now. It had its share of people with debts, disputes over property, wrangling over inheritances -- enough disharmony, certainly, to keep at least one lawyer busy. But Japan, in contrast to the United States, has long suffered from a shortage of lawyers, especially in the countryside. If it was not unusual for towns with five times Yakumo's population to have no lawyer, how could Yakumo hope to secure one just for itself? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Japan's work force of 66.5 million people is set to shrink by more than one-third, to 42 million, by 2050 if the country fails to reverse a declining birthrate, the government said in a report. The white paper outlined potential measures to address the labor problem, including earmarking $15 billion to $23 billion to encourage women to resume working after having children by improving child-care centers and making maternity leave more flexible. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reports on the exodus of the Japanese young from farming life. Statistics on the loss of people in farming businesses; Aging of the farm labor force; Resumption of free trade talks with Mexico; What it will mean for the subsidized agriculture industry in Japan.

Discusses the role of immigrants in Japan. Concerns about prejudice and discrimination against children; Example of Vietnamese immigrants; Economists and demographers who believe that Japan's success or failure in addressing the concerns of immigrants will go a long way toward determining whether Japan remains an economic powerhouse; Populations in Japan that are aging; Fertility that is dwindling; Decline in the size of the workforce.

Reports the forecasted difficulties of Japan. Reasons, including decrease in the work force and support for moribund industries and backward regions; Possible effects, including decrease in world economic power; Strengths of the country; Recommendations, including easier immigration to increase population and restructuring to bolster productivity; Comments from Chikashi Moriguchi, a Japanese economist, and others.

Analyzes Japan's economic policy for employing its labor supply. Trade barriers; Reason behind a structural trade deficit with the United States; Recommendations for adapting to a global economy.