Japan Observer: Substituting machines under labor shortage

In November 2016, at the entry point of Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan, several elderly people with gray hair were especially eye-catching. They were wearing uniforms and wearing work permits to guide people to go through various windows to complete entry procedures. This is the epitome of aging in Japan. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan, from 2010 to 2015, the population aged over 65 in Japan rose from 23.0% to 26.7%. As aging progresses, the total population of Japan continues to decline. This has caused a major special phenomenon in Japanese society in recent years: labor shortage. According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan, the effective job-seeking ratio in Japan in November 2016 (the number of job-seekers per job applicant) was 1.41 times, a record high since July 1991.
Difficulties in recruiting companies have made the competition among labor forces in Japan aggravate. At the same time, it has also prompted Japanese companies to improve their management efficiency and accelerate their innovation. New technologies such as robotics are used to solve the problem of artificial shortage. The shortage of employment is getting worse At 10:00 in the evening, there are still many young people in the streets of Shinjuku distributing advertising flyers everywhere. Every class of subway stops brings in a large number of potential customers. Young people work hard and it is an intuitive impression of Japanese society after the burst of the bubble economy. However, this does not mean that Japan’s employment pressure is high. According to the "Japan Statistical Yearbook 2017" released by the Ministry of General Affairs of Japan, the total unemployed in Japan has decreased from 3.34 million in 2010 to 2.22 million in 2015, and the total unemployment rate has dropped from 5.1% to 3.4%. Correspondingly, the effective rate of general demand increase from 0.52 in 2010 to 1.20 in 2015, which means that the number of jobs per job seeker has more than doubled, and the number of jobs has exceeded the number of candidates. "(Osaka) companies face shortages of manpower, and Tokyo is also the same," said Fujimoto Koichi, head of regional economic strategy at the Planning Division of Osaka's Economic and Strategic Bureau. In serious cases, there are even only two job candidates for two job positions. Behind the labor shortage, apart from the increase in employment opportunities brought about by Japan’s economic recovery in recent years, there is also an important factor that the aging of Japanese society is becoming increasingly serious under low fertility rates. In recent years, the total population of Japan has continuously decreased, from 1.28057 billion in 2010 to 1.271 billion in 2015, a decrease of 947,000 people and an average reduction of 189,000 people each year. Looking back at Japan’s population structure, the population under 15 years old is 15.816 million, accounting for 12.7% of the total population; the population aged 15 to 64 is 75.918 million, accounting for 60.6%; the population over 65 is 33.422 million, accounting for 26.7%. The proportion of Japan’s elderly population is the highest in the world, which is much higher than 22.4% of the second Italian and 21.2% of the third German. In the context of an aging population and a decrease in the total population, Japan’s labor force decreased from 66.32 million in 2010 to 65.98 million in 2015, a total of 340,000 fewer people. Therefore, the problem of shortage of employment has become increasingly serious. In response to this problem, Osaka began to compete with Tokyo for labor. Fujimoto Bo said that in order to attract a young workforce, Osaka has begun to address the issue of child support for young people. This has made the Osaka economy much better. At the corporate level, which has the most immediate impact on employment, it began to explore various countermeasures and technologies. "Machine replacement tide" is now lacking people, unable to recruit workers." Takashi Shinji, head of the Omeron plant, told the 21st Century Business Herald that for this purpose Ormron will reduce the number of people's operating procedures by 50% and introduce robot replacement parts. The goal of the workforce is to double production efficiency by 2020. Labor shortages forced the factory to accelerate the development of robotics technology. In the factory floor, a handling robot is being debugged. This robot can automatically detect obstacles and people and choose the best route for handling. Once put into use, it can replace about 3 people, and the cost will be reduced and the efficiency will be greatly improved. In order to solve the problem of insufficient numbers of Japanese obstetricians and obstetricians, the Future Robotics Organization of Waseda University has developed a remote pregnancy test machine that can perform B-ultrasound for pregnant women through remote control. These machines will eventually enter the community to facilitate pregnant women and no longer have to travel far to go to the hospital. Similarly, at the Osaka Innovation Center under the Osaka Economic Strategy Bureau, a startup company has developed a care robot arm that can replace two or three people and carry the patient from the bed to the wheelchair. In order to solve the problem of labor shortage, in addition to accelerating technological innovation, companies also innovate in management to increase efficiency. The production management method adopted by the Aolong Longpan factory is unit production. U-shaped operating tables are used to accommodate 1-3 workers for various business operations. This can reduce the waiting time for workers to be idle, solve the problem of imbalances in the speed of different processes, and can help slow, and can also adjust the number of workers according to the size of production. In addition, the management also introduces the Internet of Things technology, real-time monitoring of each production process, improve efficiency and reduce waste, once the problems can be traced back to the source. Of course, these cannot solve the problem of labor shortage in a short time. In Japan, there are more and more foreign laborers. As Chinese tourists have increased greatly over the years, more and more Chinese are working in travel companies and intermediary agencies in Japan. Even many companies are founded by the Chinese themselves. However, officials of the Osaka Economic and Strategic Bureau and Omeron both stated to the 21st Century Business Herald that there are still obstacles in hiring foreign workers in Japan. Japan’s attitude towards foreign workers and immigrants is relatively conservative. Although the number of foreign workers has increased rapidly in these years, it has not changed much.

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