Abstract
Survey Number	1231
Survey Title	Fact-finding Survey on Employment Policy for Foreign Workers, 2017
Depositor	Foreign Workers' Affairs Division, Employment Measures for the Dispatched and Fixed-term Workers Department, Employment Security Bureau, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
Restriction of Use	For detailed information, please refer to 'For Data Users' at SSJDA website. - Apply to SSJDA. SSJDA's approval required.
Educational Purpose	Only available for research.
Period of Data Use Permission	One year
Access to Datasets	Download
Nesstar	Not available
Summary	The number of foreign human resources with a background in advanced technology and specialized fields working in Japan (hereinafter, “HSPs”) has been increasing in recent years, and as of the end of October 2017, foreign nationals with a status of residence that reflects activity in their specialized/technical field and the number of HSPs have reached 238,000, an increase of about 18% compared to the same month in the previous year. The government is actively promoting the acceptance of HSPs from the perspective of revitalizing Japan's economy and society, and companies are also securing HSPs as an important aspect of their management strategy in response to the increasingly globalized economy and society. Against this backdrop, this survey was conducted as a fact-finding initiative related to the promotion and retention of HSPs, leading to further success by implementing work style reforms and improving employment management related to the employment situation of highly-skilled foreign human resources and their personnel evaluation and compensation system.
Data Type	quantitative research quantitative research: micro data
Universe	HSPs and human resources (HR) Supervisors working at companies in prefectures with the highest proportion of highly-skilled foreign human resources in the five industries of "manufacturing," "information and communication," "wholesale/retail," "education/learning support," and "finance/insurance"
Unit of Observation	Individual
Sample Size	[HSP Questionnaire Survey] Number of responses: 1,416, total number of questionnaires distributed: 30,831 (10,277 companies x 3), response rate: 4.6% [HR Supervisor Questionnaire Survey] Number of responses: 2,330, total number of questionnaires distributed: 10,277, response rate: 22.7%
Date of Collection	September – October 2017
Time Period
Spatial Unit
Sampling Procedure
51–100	1,000
101–300	1,000
301–500	1,000
501–1,000	1,000
1,001 or more	1,000
Total	5,000

<Worker questionnaire survey>
Questionnaires were collected from a total of 3,000 people assigned under the following conditions:

	Sample size	Final number of responses
Men (regular employees)	2,000	2,062
Women (regular employees)	1,000	1,032

Based on the notification status list summarizing the "employment status of foreigners" (as of the end of October 2016) in the four industries with the most HSPs (manufacturing, information and communications, wholesale/retail, education/learning support, and a fifth industry, finance and insurance), approximately 10,000 listed companies were extracted from the prefectures with the highest number of HSPs. The manufacturing industry was also classified among the top industries with the highest number of HSPs and extracted. As a result, this survey targeted 10,277 companies in the 13 prefectures of Tokyo, Osaka, Aichi, Kanagawa, Fukuoka, Hyogo, Shizuoka, Hokkaido, Saitama, Hiroshima, Nagano, Kyoto, and Chiba.

[HSP Questionnaire Survey]
Three HSP questionnaires were sent to 10,277 businesses to reach the HSPs working at the selected companies surveyed. A total of 30,831 questionnaires were sent.

[HR Supervisor Questionnaire Survey]
One human resources supervisor was extracted from each of the surveyed companies.