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2026-09-16

The three fields nobody is talking about

誰も話題にしていない3つの分野

Three fields were added to Japan's specified skilled worker list in January. You cannot apply to any of them yet.

Logistics warehouses. Linen supply. Resource recycling.

The cabinet approved them on January 23rd. The skills tests do not exist. Hiring is expected to start around 2027.

That reads like come back later. I read it as the only kind of head start anyone actually gets.

Every open field in Japan is crowded because it has been open. These three have a start date and no queue. The people who pass those exams first will be the ones who started studying Japanese before the exam was even written.

One limit worth knowing before you build a plan around them. All three are Type 1 only. Type 2, the tier that leads toward staying long term and bringing your family, has not been decided for these fields. That is not a detail.

And these are physical jobs. Warehouse work in a Japanese summer is not a soft landing, and linen supply means industrial laundry, at scale, on a schedule.

The Japanese requirement is the same as everywhere else. JFT-Basic or N4. That part you can start today, and it does not go to waste if you change your mind about the field.

The map of what will be open in Japan changed in January. Almost none of the advice you will read has caught up with it.

When did you last check the list, rather than what someone told you was on it?

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