Japan plans to hire 20,000 foreign taxi drivers

There are currently 20,000 foreign taxi drivers in demand in Japan, and the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) expects strong interest from Filipinos.

In an interview, DMW Undersecretary Patricia Yvonne Caunan said the Japanese government has expressed interest in hiring 20,000 taxi drivers.

“They said there was demand from the automotive industry. When we clarified, they are actually taxi drivers,” Caunan said.

“Even I was surprised by the sheer number of over 20,000 wanted taxi drivers,” she added.

The DMW official said the demand was due to the stricter guidelines issued by the host government for Japanese taxi drivers.

“It has limited the number of skilled people in Japan, so they need to open the market to foreign workers,” she noted.

Caunan said they have already expressed the country’s interest in sending overseas Filipino workers to join their Japanese counterparts pending the announcement of the details of the work order.

“I told them this will be very interesting for Filipino workers,” the official said.

However, she said they expect the employment opportunities would require Japanese language skills.

“If you look at the nature of the job, being a taxi driver requires direct communication with customers,” Caunan said. (HDT/SunStar Philippines)