Hello! I work on our study-abroad support team.
Lately, when I walk around town, I really do see people from other countries at work more and more often.
The till at a convenience store. The staff at an izakaya. The front desk of a hotel. A factory floor. In all sorts of places, Japanese and foreign workers are working side by side.
About thirty years ago, when I was in primary school, even spotting a foreigner in central Sapporo was a minor event. I remember coming home from school and telling my mother all about it, in great detail: "Guess what, I saw a foreign person today!", right down to what they were wearing and the language they were speaking. Looking back, I was being a little over the top, but that is how unfamiliar "living in the same town as people from abroad" was to me back then.
Today, though, walk around Sapporo Station, Odori or the Tanukikoji arcade and you hear all kinds of languages. More and more people come to Japan from abroad to travel. And more are coming here to work, too.
And that got me wondering. If the number of foreign people is rising, might the number of jobs in which Japanese people use English be rising too?
And what is in demand is not necessarily "someone who speaks flawless, native-like English". Perhaps there is also a growing number of jobs in which a "Japanese person who speaks English" is the very person who can thrive: someone who understands Japanese culture and service, and can communicate with Japanese and foreign customers alike.
This time, I'd like to look at the questions "Does English really give you an edge at work?", "Does it change your salary?", "How well do you need to speak it to use it in a job?" and "How much do you need to study to reach that level?", together with the latest data.
First, the short version
Having looked through a good deal of data this time, I found a fairly clear trend. In Japanese workplaces, the value of people who can use English is rising.
That does not mean, however, that "if you can speak English, you will earn a high income just for that". What matters is "English × the work skills you already have".
Customer service × English. Sales × English. IT × English. Tourism × English. Manufacturing × English. Healthcare × English.
And a Japanese person who understands the Japanese language and Japanese culture, plus English: that combination, too, is becoming a major strength.
① It wasn't just a feeling: the number of foreign workers in Japan has grown about 2.8-fold in ten years
First, that sense that "I really do see foreign people at work more and more these days". The numbers bear it out clearly.
According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), at the end of October 2025 there were 2,571,037 foreign workers in Japan, the most ever recorded. That is 268,450 more than a year earlier.
So what about ten years ago? At the end of October 2015, the figure was 907,896. In other words, over these ten years it has gone from about 910,000 to about 2.57 million, which works out at roughly 2.8 times as many.
The same is true in Hokkaido. At the end of October 2025, it had 51,358 foreign workers, up 17.0% on the previous year and over the 50,000 mark.
What is interesting, too, is the industries foreign people work in. In Hokkaido, manufacturing has the most, but foreign workers are employed across a truly wide range of fields, including agriculture, construction, retail, accommodation, food and drink, and healthcare and welfare.
So from now on, it won't only be a matter of "serving foreign customers in English". There may also be more occasions when you use English to work alongside foreign colleagues.
② Foreign tourists are at a record high too: more and more situations around town call for English
Another big change is inbound tourism. According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), about 42.68 million foreign visitors came to Japan in 2025. That was the first time the annual figure had passed 42 million, and a record. In 2015 it was about 19.74 million, so it has more than doubled in ten years.
And those of us who live in Hokkaido may find this change especially easy to feel at first hand. In 2025, foreign guest-nights in Hokkaido totalled 13.303 million, up 29.0% on the previous year. That is 51.1% above 2019, and the highest figure on record.
In Sapporo, meanwhile, foreign guest-nights in fiscal 2025 (April 2025 to March 2026) came to about 4.58 million, up 19.6% on the previous fiscal year.
With this many visitors from abroad, it is only natural that businesses everywhere increasingly need to serve customers in other languages.
③ Do companies really want "people who can speak English"?
This is what I most wanted to know this time. The number of foreign people is rising. Inbound tourism is rising. So are companies on their side actually putting more weight on English ability?
A survey published in 2026 by ETS, the developer of the TOEIC (the English test widely taken in Japan), covered more than 1,300 HR leaders in 17 countries around the world. Looking at the responses from Japan alone, 96% said English ability had become more important than it was five years ago. And 91% believe that the need for English ability will grow in an increasingly competitive job market.
And what is interesting is AI. Translation AI and generative AI have advanced so far that you might well think, "Surely we won't need English any more?" Yet 89% of HR leaders in Japan say, on the contrary, that "the introduction of AI will increase the need for English ability".
Isn't that a surprising result?
You translate into English with AI. But you still check that the English really sounds natural. You hold an online meeting with an overseas business partner. You read information from an overseas head office directly. You give AI instructions in English. You explain things to colleagues from other countries. In situations like these, you don't "leave everything to AI". You need enough English to make good use of it.
④ English isn't needed only at foreign-owned companies or by international cabin crew
In the past, when you heard "a job that uses English", many people probably pictured quite a narrow range of work: interpreters, translators, airlines, trading companies, foreign-owned firms. Now it's different. Take these, for example:
- Hotel front desk: explaining to foreign tourists how to check in.
- Restaurant: being asked about allergies and about the dishes.
- Chemist's: being asked about the differences between products.
- Ski resort: explaining rental equipment sizes and how to use the equipment.
- Company office: explaining the work to colleagues from other countries.
- Manufacturer: holding online meetings with overseas factories and business partners.
- IT company: reading overseas documents and the latest information in English.
In other words, there is now demand not only for "people whose job is English itself" but also for "people who use English to do their own job".
A fiscal 2025 survey by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) points the same way. Among companies that gave "resolving a shortage of staff in specialist fields" as a reason for hiring highly skilled foreign talent, 48.4% said they were short of people in "overseas sales and marketing" (multiple answers allowed). As more companies connect with overseas markets, they will need people among their Japanese staff who can act as a bridge in English.
⑤ So is "someone who can use English" really at an advantage when changing jobs?
There are some interesting figures in a fiscal 2024 survey by Daijob.com, a job-change site for global talent. Of the Japanese registrants who were scouted by companies, more than 75% had English ability at "business conversation level or above". The number of scouted candidates covered by the fiscal 2024 survey was 3,322 higher than the year before.
Of course, the fact that "75% of the people scouted by companies could speak English" does not mean that "if you can speak English, you have a 75% chance of being scouted". Some caution is needed here.
Even so, the fact that so many of the people companies approach in the global job market have business-level English or better is quite suggestive. English may be becoming not just one more line in the qualifications box, but an ability that increases the number of jobs you can apply for in the first place.
⑥ How much does being able to speak English change your salary?
Now for what you are probably most curious about. If you can use English, does your income really go up? Daijob.com runs a survey on this every year, too.
In the fiscal 2024 survey, the average annual income of people scouted by companies who had English ability at "business conversation level or above" was compared with the average salary in the National Tax Agency's Statistical Survey of Actual Status for Salary in the Private Sector. For men in their fifties, the scouted group earned about ¥2.61 million more than the average (roughly US$16,500), or about 1.4 times as much. For women in their fifties, they earned about ¥3.01 million more (roughly US$19,000), or about 1.9 times as much.
Those are sizeable numbers. But they need to be read with some care.
It does not mean that "just by studying English, your annual income goes up by ¥3.01 million". People with strong English may also be in jobs where pay is high to begin with, such as specialist roles, management, foreign-owned companies, overseas sales and global companies. In other words, English ability and high income are correlated, but it cannot be said that English alone is the cause.
Even so, let's turn it around. Picture two people with the same specialist knowledge, the same experience and a similar age. One of them can say, "I can deal with overseas customers", "I can work with foreign colleagues", "I can take part in meetings with overseas partners". The range of work that can be entrusted to that person will undoubtedly be wider.
That is why it may be easier to think of English not as an ability that earns money on its own, but as "an ability that raises what your own expertise is worth".
⑦ Could even a Japanese person with "a little English" be valuable?
After reading this far, some of you may be thinking, "Business English is beyond me." But you don't necessarily need to aim, from the start, for a level at which you could negotiate a contract with an overseas company.
At a hotel, for instance, English like "The breakfast room is this way", "Check-out is at 11 o'clock" and "We'll look after your luggage" is already useful. In a restaurant, "This contains pork", "It isn't spicy" and "You can pay by card" will do.
What matters is being able to convey, in your own words, the English your work calls for.
If anything, from now on, the opportunities may widen not only for people with near-native English, but for ordinary Japanese people who can handle everyday English conversation alongside their work.
⑧ Not many Japanese people are yet confident about speaking English
So how confident are Japanese people in English at present? Unfortunately, I could not find a reliable, up-to-date official statistic that measures the whole population against a single standard and tells us "X% of Japanese people can hold an everyday English conversation" or "X% can use business English". So I won't force a percentage. There is, however, a survey worth looking at.
In a 2024 survey by the Institute for International Business Communication (IIBC) of 501 men and women in their twenties to fifties across Japan, 70.2% said they were "not good at English". The top reason given for finding English difficult was "I have no chance to speak English, so I lack confidence" (58.5%). In addition, 73.2% think that "English and English conversation are needed to offer hospitality to foreign visitors to Japan".
In other words, they feel the need. But a large number lack the confidence to speak.
Seen from another angle, that is an opportunity. If many people are in the state of "I know I need English, but I can't speak it", then simply being able to speak "to a reasonable degree" would already set you apart.
⑨ How well do you need to speak for it to count as "English you can use at work"?
Let's think about English ability using the CEFR, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, an international standard. Roughly speaking, three of its levels look like this:
- A2: you can manage simple, everyday exchanges, such as shopping and introducing yourself.
- B1: you can explain your own thoughts and experiences to a reasonable degree on familiar topics.
- B2: you can interact fairly naturally with people from other countries on work and social topics.
It depends on the job, of course, but if you want to start by using English in hotels, tourism or customer service, A2 to B1 is a useful yardstick. If you want to use it in earnest at work, such as in overseas business or meetings with foreign people, B1 to B2 makes a good rough guide.
There is no need to aim straight away for being "fluent".
⑩ So how many hours does it take to acquire that English?
Let's look at some quite realistic numbers. For a complete beginner to reach each CEFR level, Cambridge English gives the following guide to the hours of "guided learning" needed:
- A2: about 180 to 200 hours
- B1: about 350 to 400 hours
- B2: about 500 to 600 hours
- C1: about 700 to 800 hours
Of course, if you graduated from a Japanese high school, you are not starting from absolute zero. In junior high and high school you have already studied the verb "to be", the past tense, the present perfect, relative pronouns, vocabulary and more.
But "knowing it in your head" and "having it come out of your mouth the moment you are asked" are two different things. For many Japanese people, what is needed may be not so much relearning grammar from scratch as practice at turning the knowledge they already have into something they can use in conversation.
⑪ One hour a day means 400 days. But what about six hours a day?
Suppose, for the sake of argument, that you need 400 hours of English study.
At 30 minutes a day, that is about 800 days. At one hour a day, about 400 days. At two hours a day, about 200 days.
If you keep it up alongside work or school, that is a long road.
On a language study programme abroad, on the other hand, you can turn a large part of your day into English: one-to-one lessons, group lessons, self-study, conversation at meals, chatting with friends from other countries, shopping, restaurants.
If you study six hours a day, five days a week, for four weeks, for example, that comes to about 120 hours from lessons alone. And you use English after class and in daily life as well.
Of course, it isn't as simple as "I studied for 120 hours, so I will definitely go up one CEFR level". Cambridge English, too, says that the hours required vary with study history, age, intensity of study, how much English you encounter outside lessons, and so on.
Still, I think a very big advantage of a short-term language study trip abroad is that it lets you condense into a few weeks part of the English time that would take a year to secure in Japan.
⑫ Instead of "learning English", try thinking of it as "widening your career options"
When people hear "English study", many think of the TOEIC, vocabulary books, grammar and exams.
But for working adults there is another way of looking at English: as an investment in widening your career options.
The company you didn't apply to because the listing said "English essential". The hotel you avoided because the job involved dealing with foreign customers. The internal transfer you thought had nothing to do with you because it was to the overseas division. A position managing foreign colleagues. Business trips abroad. Foreign-owned companies. A working holiday. Working abroad.
As you gradually become able to use English, you can open, one by one, the doors you had shut from the start with "that's beyond me". That may well be the biggest "pay rise" that studying English brings.
Summary: English is moving from "an ability for special people" to "an ability that widens your job options"
Thirty years ago, if I merely saw a foreigner in Sapporo, I would go home and tell my mother. Today, visitors from abroad spend some 4.58 million guest-nights a year in that same city.
In Hokkaido more than 50,000 foreign people are working, and across Japan the figure has passed 2.57 million. And companies' HR staff feel that "English ability has become more important than five years ago".
In other words, there are more places where English can be used. And there are more places that need people who can use English.
Of course, a few weeks abroad will not suddenly make you fluent. But you can take the first step. Not running away when someone speaks to you in English. Asking again when you don't understand. Trying to explain in your own words. Coming to feel you'd like to work with foreign people.
If you are thinking, "I want one more string to my bow in my current job", "I want to widen my options for changing jobs" or "I want to pick up a new skill with the next ten years in mind", then English is one very interesting thing to invest in.
And to turn English from "knowledge you have studied" into "an ability you can actually use", there is also the option of throwing yourself, at least once, into an English-speaking environment, even for a short time. Wouldn't that, too, be perfectly reasonable for building your career from here on?
References
- 厚生労働省（2026）「『外国人雇用状況』の届出状況まとめ（令和７年10月末時点）」. Link
- 厚生労働省（2016）「『外国人雇用状況』の届出状況まとめ（平成27年10月末現在）」. Link
- 北海道労働局（2026）「外国人雇用状況の届出状況（令和７年10月末時点）」. Link
- 日本政府観光局（JNTO）「訪日外客統計」. Link
- 北海道運輸局（2026）「北海道における宿泊旅行統計調査の結果 令和7年・年間値（確定値）」. Link
- 札幌市（2026）「2025年度 札幌の観光動向に関する調査結果」. Link
- ETS (2026). AI Is Increasing the Need for English in Japan. Link
- 日本貿易振興機構（ジェトロ）（2026）「2025年度 日本企業の海外事業展開に関するアンケート調査」. Link
- Daijob.com（2025）「『英語力』で『年収』はどれだけ変わる？」. Link
- 国際ビジネスコミュニケーション協会（IIBC）（2024）「訪日外国人観光客へのおもてなしに関する意識調査」. Link
- Cambridge English. Guided learning hours. Link