Japanese companies citing labor shortage as a risk
rose eightfold in nine years.

Listed companies naming labor shortage under Business Risks rose from 23 (0.68%) in FY2017 to 184 (4.71%) in FY2025. In FY2026, 154 of the 2,609 reports filed so far (5.90%) mention it, so the rise continues.

To check whether every word simply appears more as the risk section gets longer, we also measured exchange rates (為替), which most companies mention. It barely moved, from 57.5% to 58.0%.

AI read each paragraph mentioning labor shortage and sorted it into four groups: the company's own shortage; a shortage at business partners (carriers, subcontractors, construction contractors, customers); a business opportunity where the shortage creates demand; and a passing mention of the economy.

Shortages at business partners grew fastest: from 5 companies in FY2017 to 59 in FY2025, about twelvefold, faster than the company's own shortage (14 to 104, about sevenfold). Their share among companies mentioning labor shortage rose from 22% to 32%, and to 34% in the FY2026 early count.

* FY2026 is an early count (2,609 reports filed so far, mostly March year-ends).

By industry, land transport is highest: 2 of 56 companies in FY2017, 11 of 61 (18.0%) in FY2025. They are railway, bus, taxi and trucking companies, and 10 of the 11 describe a shortage of their own drivers. Konoike Transport names the "2024 problem".

TSE 33 industry groups. Only industries with at least 30 companies in FY2025, sorted by the FY2025 share.

The shortage is most severe in trucking and construction. In FY2025 the job-openings-to-applicants ratio was 1.10 across all occupations but 2.15 for transport and machine operators, which include truck drivers. Since April 2024, truck drivers' overtime has been capped at 960 hours a year, and a government panel estimated that without countermeasures, commercial trucking capacity would fall 34.1% short by 2030. Teikoku Databank counted 427 labor-shortage bankruptcies in 2025, a record, including 113 in construction and 52 in logistics.

These two industries sell moving and building to every other industry, so the shortage does not stay there. Companies citing a shortage at business partners rose from 5 in FY2017 to 59 in FY2025, and the partners are mostly carriers and construction contractors. Seafood wholesaler Daisui cites tighter limits on truck drivers' hours, mail-order retailer Halmek warns it could end up with no carrier to deliver at all, and used-home reseller Tobu Jyuhan cites rising labor costs from contractors' shortages. That is likely why wholesalers (10) and retailers (7) are common among them: they rely on others to move their goods.

Once it spreads, the shortage shows up not as personnel cost but in freight, construction and outsourcing costs, so it is hard to see in financial statements. It becomes visible only because companies have started describing it themselves in the risk section of their annual reports.

• Source：JILPT, Job openings-to-applicants ratio by occupation, FY2025 (July 2026, Japanese)
• Source：MLIT Kanto District Transport Bureau, "Toward the 2024 problem" (December 2023, Japanese)
• Source：Teikoku Databank, labor-shortage bankruptcies in 2025 (January 8, 2026, Japanese)

• Scope: listed companies (with a securities code) that filed an annual securities report for the fiscal year. Fiscal year is the year the period ends. Source: annual reports on EDINET (Japan FSA).
• We counted whether the Business Risks section contains the exact word 人手不足 (labor shortage). Synonyms such as 人材不足 or 労働力不足 are not counted.
• FY2026 covers reports filed by August 30, 2026, mostly March year-end companies. December year-end companies are not yet included.
• Disclosure rules changed from March 2020 year-ends, and the risk section got longer (median length 2,272 characters in FY2017, 3,495 in FY2020). Part of the FY2020 jump reflects that.
• AI classified each paragraph. Against 30 FY2025 paragraphs read by a person, it agreed on 24 of the 28 that could be matched. Most misses labeled a partner's shortage as the company's own, so partner counts may be slightly low.
• The FY2017 company count (3,391) is lower than the actual number of listed companies; some companies that later delisted may be missing.