For the Dum-Dah-Dum-Dum File

I have been wondering for a while about the apparent discrepancy between the number of registered young foreign workers and the number of non-Japanese employees I encounter at the various businesses I patronize in the downtown area.

According to this evening's Yomiuri Shimbun, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has begun asking a few questions too.

外国人雇用報告を義務化、不法就労防止に法改正へ (Sorry, Japanese only at this point)

厚生労働省は２２日、外国人を雇用している事業主に対し、外国人労働者の人数、名前、国籍などの報告を義務付ける制度を創設する方針を固めた。

It seems that someone has taken the Justice Department's figure of 2.01 million registered foreign residents, laid it alongside the Health, Labor and Welfare's figure of 340,000 foreign workers in Japan, and started to do some serious thinking about the relationship between those two numbers.