Japan's new working visa sees only 219 holders in first 6 months

A new skilled worker visa introduced by Japan in April to bring in more foreign labor has only been acquired by 219 foreigners as of the end of September, the country's immigration agency said Wednesday, falling far short of the target for the program's first year.While the numbers represent a more than 10-fold increase from the 20 visa holders recorded by June, they fall short of the maximum 47,550 foreigners expected to acquire the visa by March 2020.The subdued response has been attributed to the limited test sites outside of Japan, and the narrow range of sectors for tests conducted thu…READ FULL ARTICLE