Japan faces a shortage of almost one million foreign workers in 2040 if the government wants to achieve its economic growth goals as the population dwindles, reports Reuters, citing an estimate from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)’s research arm. At the current pace, 5.91 million foreign people will be working in Japan in 2040, almost one million short of the foreign workforce needed to sustain the targeted average annual growth rate of 1.24%, the JICA said.

The demand-supply gap in foreign labour widened more than twofold from JICA’s previous estimate in 2022, after the researchers updated the data to take into account slower than expected economic growth in emigrating countries like Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia.

Foreign workers are crucial to Japan’s economy as they help to fill a severe labour shortage due to the rapid aging and plummeting birthrate.