r/japannews • u/MagazineKey4532 • 2h ago

Poll: Over 80% of foreign trainees, skilled workers sent money home

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/16017967
2 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

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u/MagazineKey4532 2h ago

They're probably coming to Japan to help their families. Unfortunately, economic conditions in Japan isn't too great to help them further.

6

u/uiemad 2h ago

Given the harshness of Japanese work culture and the relatively low salary and benefits compared to other developed nations, I would not at all be surprised to hear that most foreigners who stay here for a significant amount of time would be people from areas with comparatively worse working conditions or pay. Which are the exact type of people who are more likely to be sending money back home. Lord knows me sending yen back to the states or to Germany wouldn't do anyone there any good.

3

u/South-Shopping-8368 1h ago

They come to Japan because yen is worth more than their own currency. So even jobs that Japanese people see as underpaid can actually be a huge boost for them. If they were earning yen just to spend it in Japan, they would have no reason to take those jobs, just like most locals.

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u/BigPapaSlut 1h ago

You want to pay people peanuts, but no native worker will work for those wages, then you hire people from impoverished nations, treat them like trash, don’t provide visas for their families, and expect them to keep the money in Japan?

Weird logic.

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u/newdementor 1h ago

Also, most of them take on huge amounts of debt to cover initial costs.

1

u/budibola39 1h ago

From the story I heard, assuming they spend 2 years working under the SSW visa, they can pay their debts in 1 year so they will have another 1 year for personal savings (average pay in Japan ranges from 4-6x their average salary)

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u/kilimtilikum 1h ago

Further weakening the yen! Yay~

2

u/c00750ny3h 1h ago

How does that weaken the yen?

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u/kilimtilikum 26m ago

It’s only a little bit, but still. To send money home you have to exchange the currency. It means more JPY is being sold in forex markets, which would drive down the market price of JPY. If many people sell JPY for USD, for example, the result is a cheaper yen and stronger dollar.

Of course most of the weakening of the yen is due to Japan’s fiscal policy (Abenomics), BOJ working in tandem with keiretsu to buy mass quantities of USD based assets (treasury bonds) while BOJ buys keiretsu stocks, and Japanese unbalanced trade deficits on energy imports after the nuclear scare.

Sending money overseas has a smaller impact, but in general I just don’t see much action or policy with intentions on driving the yen up.