Japan’s Young Workers Head Abroad as Huge Wage Gap Persists
- Outflow risks worsening the labor shortage for Japanese firms
- Australia is a hotspot as UK, Canada also gain traction
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Tomoki Yoshihara starts his shift at a meat-processing plant in rural Australia at 5am, and earns three times more butchering lamb for almost 50 hours a week than he did as a member of Japan’s military.
He’s among a record number of young Japanese granted working holiday visas in Australia last financial year, lured by higher wages that are made even more attractive by the weakening yen.