20 years ago, a "tide to work abroad" was launched in China. South Korea and Japan were both popular destinations for working abroad at that time, because the hourly wages of in these two countries were very high, and they could get a very high salary after working for a few years. However, with the increase in the per capita disposable income of in China in recent years, there have been fewer and fewer people working abroad.
However, although there are fewer Chinese people, there are still many people going to the surrounding countries such as Vietnam and Philippines every year. Take Japan for example, the minimum hourly wage is about 1,100 yen, which is still very attractive to many Southeast Asian countries.
Japanese foreign workers/Source: nikkei asia
But everything has changed this year. As the dollar continues to strengthen, the yen has fallen sharply against the dollar and other currencies, which has caused Japan's attractiveness to foreign workers to plummet. The development of the phenomenon of
is not a good sign for Japan. Japan is an "aging" country, and every year it requires hiring a large number of foreign workers on labor-intensive industry . But if is discounted in September, the average wages of Japanese workers in the past two years have been 40% lower than in fiscal 2012, which narrows the salary gap with emerging Asian countries, and Japan's construction and nursing industries have become difficult to hire the workers they need.
changes have occurred in the number of Vietnamese construction engineers who need training. In 2019, a nonprofit in Tokyo received more than 200 applications for construction engineer courses, but this fall, the organization had only 50 places and will not increase any more. The main reason for
is the sharp depreciation of the yen. In the past two years, the exchange rate of yen against Vietnamese Dong has fallen by more than 20%. In Japan, the average monthly salary of foreign construction engineers is currently about 200,000 yen ($1,375), while in Vietnam, the monthly salary of skilled workers in the same industry is about 25 million VND ($1,027), and the gap is narrowing sharply.
On the other hand, the difficult increase in Japan's basic salary has also affected the attractiveness of Japan's salary level. It is reported that although Japan's minimum wage has increased in recent years, the growth rate has been "tepid". In August this year, the Bank of Japan made its biggest increase in Japan's minimum hourly wage since 2002. However, this "upgrade" is only 31 yen, which is equivalent to about 1.5 yuan in RMB, with a slim impact on overall income.
According to Japanese media, Japan's minimum wage is only 60% to 70% of that of major European countries, and the gap between this minimum wage and other developed countries is also increasing. In 2015, Japan's actual minimum annual salary was surpassed by South Korea, and the gap was widening, and the gap with South Korea widened to about $5,500 in 2020.
Compared with Japan, although wages in Vietnam and the Philippines are still very low. If Japan's average salary index based on the US dollar is 100, the Vietnamese Philippines will be between 20 and 30. But wages in Vietnam and the Philippines are rising rapidly, with the wages of construction engineers and nursing staff rising to 50 to 70. Under this influence, more and more workers are starting to travel to Australia and other countries with higher wages.
There is a saying in the Japanese human resources industry that when the per capita GDP of the country of origin exceeds US$7,000, the workers flowing to Japan begin to decrease. In addition, when the per capita GDP 1 of these countries exceeds US$10,000, they begin to accept workers from other countries. This is exactly the changes in China that Japan is witnessing in recent years. Now Vietnam seems to be on a "track" similar to China.
