“Check left and right. Check behind. All clear.” In mid-May, three Vietnamese men in their 20s and 30s were undergoing training to become truck drivers at a base of Tokyo-based logistics company Nakano Shokai in Atsugi, Kanagawa prefecture.
The men arrived in Japan at the end of January and were granted a five-year residence status under the Specified Skilled Worker (SSW) programme. They have already obtained Japanese driver’s licences and are currently learning Japanese traffic rules and culture. They are scheduled to begin working in inter-company logistics using medium-sized trucks in the Kanto region by the end of 2026.
Nakano Shokai is a subsidiary of Yamato Holdings, the parent company of major parcel delivery firm Yamato Transport, which employs around 700 drivers.
While the company is not currently facing a driver shortage, its managing director Yusuke Takada has expressed a strong sense of urgency, saying, “Unless we hire foreign drivers, we’ll inevitably see a decline in our transport capacity in the future.”
Starting in 2027, Yamato HD plans to hire up to 500 Vietnamese drivers in Japan over a five-year period. Logistics giant SBS Holdings, meanwhile, plans to have foreign nationals make up about 30% of its drivers – about 1,800 people – within 10 years.
The trend of hiring foreign drivers for logistics is spreading throughout the industry.
According to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry’s Labour Force Survey, driver numbers in the road freight transport industry have remained flat. On the other hand, the proportion of drivers aged 50 and over has been rising year by year, reaching 47% in 2025.
Among younger drivers, those in their teens account for just 1%, and those in their 20s for only 10%, deepening concerns that a driver shortage will grow as the ageing workforce moves into retirement.
Meanwhile, as online shopping continues to spread, the volume of parcels has been increasing annually, with delivery handling more and more each year.
In fiscal 2024, the figure stood at 5.03 billion parcels, but some estimates suggest it will exceed six billion by fiscal 2030.
An industry insider said, “If we include parcels delivered via online retailers’ own delivery networks, the total has already surpassed six billion.”
On the front lines, a sense of operational strain is intensifying.
Logistics is a critical infrastructure that supports the economy and society, and public-private partnerships have begun to form to address crises looming in the future. — The Japan News/ANN
