TOKYO: The number of foreign workers in Japan with new visa status granted to people having certain job skills came to 1,621 as of the end of December 2019, up 7.4-fold from three months before, the Immigration Services Agency of Japan said Friday.

The new visa status, covering 14 industries, was launched in April last year. Food and beverage manufacturers had the highest number of foreign workers with the new status, with 557, followed by the agriculture industry, with 292, and industrial machinery makers, with 198.

By country or region, the number of workers from Vietnam was the highest, at 901, followed by those from Indonesia, at 189, and those from the Philippines, at 111.

Applicants for the new visa status in principle have to complete about three years of technical training in Japan or pass both job skill tests conducted at each industry and a Japanese proficiency test.

More than 90 pct of the current holders of the new status are those who completed technical training.

The job skill tests had been carried out for 10 of the 14 industries, in Japan and six other countries, as of the end of last month and will be conducted by the end of next month for the other three sectors.

JIJI Press