2025-08-16

Specified Skills is a system that allows industrial sectors in need of human resources to hire foreigners with certain skills, etc. Under this system, is so-called “dispatch employment” allowed? We will explain in detail.

What is a “specific skill”?

Specified Technical Skill is one of the residence qualifications. It is a system designed to alleviate labor shortages in Japan and is available to foreign nationals who meet certain skill and Japanese language ability standards.

There are two types of specified skills: No. 1 and No. 2, and No. 1 can be obtained by passing a Japanese language proficiency test and a skills test. With the exception of certain fields, there is no upper limit to the number of foreign nationals who can be accepted. If you qualify for a specified technical skill No. 1, you can work in Japan for a maximum of five years.

Can I be employed on a temporary basis?

In principle, the employment status of a foreign national with a specified technical skill 1 qualification is defined as full-time or regular employee. Therefore, employment as a dispatched worker is not permitted.

However, they can be employed as dispatched workers only in the fields of agriculture or fishery. This is because these fields have busy and off-peak seasons, depending on the season and region. This means that even if you are hired as a full-time employee, you may not have a job during the off-season.

Also, in agriculture, even if the same crops are grown in the same area, different establishments need different amounts of manpower for different periods of time. Therefore, employers can also benefit from short-term temporary employment.

By the way, when hiring a foreign national with a specified skill, support for the foreign national with the specified skill is usually required. In addition, they must join the “Specified Skills Council” of their respective fields. However, when hiring as a dispatched worker, the employing company is not obliged to do these two things.

This is because when hiring a dispatched worker, the receiving agency for the foreigner will be the company from which the dispatched worker is dispatched. Therefore, it is also the dispatching company that is obligated to support and join the Specified Skills Council.

Advantages of Temporary Employment

The advantage of hiring temporary workers in the agricultural sector is, above all, the ability to reduce labor costs.

Since the workers are not dispatched to work throughout the year, but only during the peak season, labor costs can be significantly reduced. For example, suppose there is a farm that employs three technical intern trainees throughout the year. If these three are reduced to two, and one foreigner with a specific skill is hired only during the busy season, there will be no excess staff during the off-season, and labor costs will be greatly reduced.

As explained earlier, a foreigner with a specified technical skill No. 1 can work in Japan for up to five years. However, in the case of temporary employment during the peak season, the foreign worker can temporarily return to his/her home country during the off-season and re-enter Japan to work during the peak season. By repeating this process, the worker can work for five years.

This type of employment makes it easier for unmarried young people to work. In addition, considering the heavy work such as farm work, there are advantages for both the employer and the foreign worker.

Summary

Foreigners with specified skills are basically employed as regular employees and cannot be hired on a temporary basis. However, dispatch employment is exceptionally permitted in the agricultural and fishery fields, where there is no stable employment environment throughout the year.