A government survey of the organisations expected to deliver Japanese-language training under Employment for Skill Development found that about 36% have no prospect of securing a teacher, NHK and Nikkei reported on 23 October 2026. The status starts in April 2027, and the training is a legal obligation on the receiving side, not an optional extra.
What the survey found
The survey went to bodies that could take on Japanese-language education for workers under the new status. Around 36% answered that they had no prospect of securing teaching staff; Nikkei reported the same share as having no candidate identified at all. NHK described it as a state-run survey. As of 24 October 2026 the Immigration Services Agency has not posted the results on its own site, so the percentage rests on press reporting rather than on a published dataset.
What the rules actually require
The ISA's own Q&A on the system sets out the obligation. Before a worker starts work, they must either pass an exam at A1 on the Japanese Language Education Reference Framework or complete a course of 100 hours or more at that level, the 「就労」課程. Part of the A1 course may be delivered overseas.
Across the three years, the employer must also offer an A2-level course of 100 hours or more, with a target of A2.2 by the end of the programme and an A1-level check inside the first year. The cost, fees included, falls on the employer or the supervising support organisation. Time spent in the A2 course does not have to be counted as working hours.
These are reference-framework levels, not JLPT grades; the Q&A does not state the requirement in N-levels.
Who is allowed to teach it
Courses are to be delivered by accredited Japanese-language education institutions. For a transitional period after the system starts, a class given by a registered Japanese-language teacher counts as the 「就労」課程 where it meets set conditions, one of which is a cap of no more than 20 students per teacher. Online delivery is permitted where the course supports real-time two-way communication.
That transitional route is the one the survey was probing, and the 20-student cap is why a teacher shortfall translates directly into a seat shortfall rather than into larger classes.
If you are arriving under the new status from April 2027
Get the training arrangements in writing before you sign anything. Ask who provides the A1 course, whether that provider is an accredited institution or a registered teacher, how many hours are scheduled, when those hours fall relative to your start date, and who is paying. The hours and the cost are the employer's or the supervising organisation's duty, so an offer that asks you to fund your own course is not consistent with the rules.
If you have already passed an A1-equivalent exam, the pre-employment course is not required of you. Confirm which exam your prospective employer will accept, because that single document can remove you from the queue the survey describes.
The ISA publishes a table of which Japanese-language institutions offer the course. The current version is dated June 2026, which means an employer naming a provider can be checked against it. The reference page on Japanese language requirements sets out how these levels sit against the other work routes.
If you live here and hold a residence card
Nothing in this changes your status, your renewal, or your re-entry. The obligation attaches to Employment for Skill Development and to the employers and supervising organisations running it, not to existing statuses.
Two things are easy to run together and should not be. The Japanese and daily-life learning programme for residents generally is a separate scheme on its own timetable, with a trial due in April 2028; it is not the 「就労」課程 described here.
Residents on Technical Intern Training have the closest practical interest, because the staffing of these courses decides what the receiving side can deliver once the new status is operating.
What to recheck before April 2027
Two documents, in this order. First, whether the ISA updates its provision table past the June 2026 cut-off, since that table and not the headline determines whether a named course actually exists. Second, whether the agency publishes the survey itself with a sector and regional breakdown, which would show where the gap is concentrated. Both sit on the ISA's Employment for Skill Development pages.
Sources: NHK, Nikkei, ISA — Employment for Skill Development Q&A, ISA — Japanese-language course provision table