10/29/2026

We Have Published "Japan's Data Center Field Workforce: 2026 Industry Report"

Using government statistics, policy documents and company announcements, we looked at the people who build, install and maintain Japan's data centers: the shrinking construction and electrical workforce, government measures such as new visa tracks and exam reforms, industry training and inspection robots, and the gaps that remain.

Two Sheep Co., Ltd. has published "Japan's Data Center Field Workforce: 2026 Industry Report." It follows our October report, "Japan Data Centers & AI Compute Infrastructure: 2026 Industry Report", which named one shared problem: a shortage of people to receive, install and maintain equipment in Japan. This report looks at that problem in detail. We compiled it independently from government statistics, policy documents, company announcements and other public information available as of October 2026.

Key Points

Scope: the field workforce that builds data centers, installs and cables servers, and maintains electrical and IT equipment (often called "blue-collar" IT work)
Japan's skilled construction workers fell from 4.55 million in 1997 to 3.00 million in 2024, and about 70% of electrical contractors say they are short of staff (MLIT and METI data)
The government is widening the Specified Skilled Worker program, launching a new Employment for Skill Development system in April 2027 and moving electrician exams to computer-based testing
Industry efforts are emerging too: a Japan Data Center Council course, a data center consortium in Ishikari, inspection robots and container data centers
But training takes years, and denser, liquid-cooled racks make the work harder. For now, we see outside on-site services as one practical way to fill the gap

1. The Situation: The Field Workforce Gap in Numbers

Worldwide: more than half of operators struggle to find qualified staff

In its 16th Global Data Center Survey, published in July 2026 and conducted in April–May 2026, Uptime Institute found that 53% of data center operators have difficulty finding qualified candidates for open jobs, up from 46% the year before. Asked about the next 12 months, 26% said management is "very concerned" about a lack of qualified staff and 43% "somewhat concerned" (global figures; there is no Japan breakdown). Uptime notes that a shortage of qualified staff can delay projects and make operations harder to manage.

Uptime's 2025 staffing research found that junior facilities staff are in the shortest supply and have the highest turnover.

In Turner & Townsend's Data Centre Construction Cost Index 2026–27 (62 markets), published in October 2026, Tokyo is the world's most expensive market to build data centers at US$18.28 per watt, with Osaka second at US$17.15. Japan has led the index for four years in a row. In the consultancy's survey of more than 400 industry experts, 81% said skilled labour in their region is moderately or highly constrained, and mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) trades are the most sought-after (global responses).

Japan: fewer construction and electrical workers

The people who build data centers and install their electrical systems are steadily declining in number in Japan.

Construction employment: down from a peak of 6.85 million in 1997 to 4.77 million in 2024. Skilled workers fell from 4.55 million to 3.00 million. Workers aged 55 or over make up 36.7%, while those aged 29 or under are only 11.7% (MLIT, based on the Labour Force Survey of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications)
Job openings: in fiscal 2025 the ratio of job openings to applicants (regular jobs, including part-time) was 1.10 across all occupations but 5.02 for construction and mining occupations (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare)
Future shortage: the government expects the construction sector to need about 3.12 million skilled workers in fiscal 2028 but to secure only about 2.76 million, a gap of about 360,000 (sector policy under the Cabinet decision of 23 January 2026). The Japan Federation of Construction Contractors estimates a shortfall of about 1.29 million skilled workers in fiscal 2035 (an industry-body estimate)
Electrical work: in a fiscal 2024 survey commissioned by METI, about 70% of electrical contractors said they were short of staff (26.1% "severely", 44.4% "somewhat"), and about 80% of firms that recruited did not reach their hiring targets
Working-hour reform: since April 2024, construction has been subject to Japan's overtime cap (in principle 45 hours a month and 360 hours a year), so each worker's hours now have an upper limit

The Japan Electrical Construction Association's fiscal 2026 business plan says that while capital spending on data centers and other facilities remains firm, the ageing of engineers and skilled workers and the fall in young entrants are making on-site staff shortages more serious. It also mentions bids that failed for lack of engineers and construction capacity.

METI estimates that by 2040 Japan could have a surplus of about 4.4 million clerical workers but shortages of about 2.6 million field workers, including production and construction workers, and about 3.4 million people who can put AI and robotics to work. Field-worker shortages are expected to be largest in regional areas, which overlaps with the spread of data centers to regional Japan described in our previous report.

Views differ, though. Yasuo Suzuki of NTT Global Data Centers has said that long waits for power and a shortage of construction capacity are major barriers for developers around Tokyo. Fuminori Asaki of JLL has said that significant construction delays in Japan are extremely rare (both quoted in a September 2025 Data Center Knowledge article).

2. The Response: Government, Industry and Technology

Government response 1: more foreign workers

Specified Skilled Worker (construction): the "lifelines and building services" category covers telecommunications, electrical and other building-services work. The intake cap through March 2029 is 76,000, and 52,366 Specified Skilled Workers in construction were resident in Japan at the end of July 2026 (preliminary figure)
Employment for Skill Development: a new system replacing the Technical Intern Training Program takes effect on 1 April 2027. It trains workers over three years up to Specified Skilled Worker (i) level, and in construction it includes an "electrical installation" skill. In construction its intake cap is 123,500, or 199,500 together with the 76,000 Specified Skilled Worker (i) places (both through March 2029)
Industrial products manufacturing: the sector was reorganised by a Cabinet decision in March 2024 and includes categories such as electrical and electronic equipment assembly

Even so, METI's survey found that only 3.2% of responding electrical contractors employ foreign technicians, so their use is still limited.

Government response 2: exam and safety-rule changes

Electrician exams: computer-based testing (CBT) was introduced in fiscal 2023, and from fiscal 2024 the first-class exam is also held twice a year. Since January 2025 a written-exam pass exempts candidates for the next two exams instead of just the next one. The Electrical Engineer Examination Center, which runs the exams, announced on 8 April 2026 that written exams will in principle be CBT-only from fiscal 2027
First-class electrician experience requirement: since April 2021 it has been a flat three years or more, regardless of education
Smart safety: from fiscal 2025, outsourced inspections that were expected monthly may be done on site once every three months where remote monitoring is in place (with further conditions such as an equipment-renewal plan)

Government response 3: vocational training and regional hubs

Public vocational training: in fiscal 2024 (preliminary), 6,887 people took electrical courses in training for job leavers. For example, Polytech Center Fukushima's six-month, 661-hour electrical facilities course covers wiring, sequence control and maintenance of power-receiving and transforming equipment (tuition is free; trainees pay for textbooks and similar items)
Watt-Bit Collaboration: a summary by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and METI (June 2025) says regional data centers could become hubs for digital-talent development and attracting digital industries. Requests submitted for the GX strategic region scheme included relaxing rules on placing specialist staff in regional areas, securing construction capacity and faster procedures for accepting foreign talent (these are proposals, not adopted measures)
Fewer workers per construction site: MLIT's i-Construction 2.0 (April 2024) aims to cut the labour needed at construction sites by at least 30% by fiscal 2040

The government's digital-talent drive trained a cumulative 2.44 million people in fiscal 2022–2025, ahead of target. However, the Digital Skill Standards ver.2.0, revised in April 2026, centre on data management and AI and define no role for running data center facilities. In our reading, data center field work falls between the construction, electrical and IT frameworks.

Industry response 1: training courses and regional partnerships

Japan Data Center Council (JDCC): runs a data center construction and operations course taught by experienced members. The fiscal 2026 course has five sessions from 13 November 2026 to 12 March 2027 and was fully booked on 31 August. JDCC also publishes talent-development guidelines that set skill levels for roles such as operations and facilities
AWS: announced in November 2024 a Japanese version of "AWS Academy Data Center Technician" for students. It is not specific to AWS and teaches the basics of servers and networks
Ishikari Data Center Consortium: set up on 28 July 2026 by Ishikari City, Hokkaido, and 11 local data center, power and telecom companies including SAKURA internet and NTT East (GMO Internet joined later). It plans to train the technicians data centers need, exchange staff between data centers and create jobs
Tomakomai, Hokkaido: Hokkaido and SoftBank signed a comprehensive partnership agreement in February 2024 whose areas include industrial revitalisation through data centers and next-generation digital talent. Citing the large data centers being built nearby, National Institute of Technology, Tomakomai College set out a plan to merge its information and electrical tracks into a new 80-place information and electronics course from fiscal 2026
Local hiring: according to METI's own media, AI Fukushima in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, must hire 10 local people as a condition of its subsidy for GPU servers

Industry response 2: robots and design that need fewer people

Inspection robots: NTT DATA reported that an inspection-robot trial at its Shinagawa data center cut manual facility-inspection work by about 50%. The work won the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Award at the Infrastructure Maintenance Awards in January 2025. In July 2026 NTT West launched a monthly inspection-robot package aimed at facilities including data centers
Remote-controlled robots: citing the growing difficulty of securing operations and maintenance staff, NTT Communications (now NTT DOCOMO BUSINESS) and three other companies announced a trial of remote-controlled robots maintaining IT equipment in a commercial data center (planned for October 2023 to March 2024). IIJ began trialling a security robot at its Shiroi Data Center Campus in Chiba in fiscal 2019 (according to 2020–2022 trade press reports)
Container data centers: SAKURA internet completed its container data center in Ishikari about 1 year and 6 months after planning and began operating it in June 2025 (Ishikari Building 3 in 2016 took about 3 years and 3 months). KDDI also plans container data centers inside its Osaka Sakai building to install NVIDIA HGX Rubin NVL8 in fiscal 2027, aiming to greatly shorten construction time

Industry response 3: on-site services from data center operators

Many data center operators offer services in which their staff do on-site work for customers.

Equinix's Smart Hands provides equipment installation and removal, power cycling, cabling, shipping logistics and more, with 24x7 support at staffed facilities
AT TOKYO handles first response to faults, receiving deliveries, in-rack patching, equipment installation and removal and similar tasks 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in Japanese and English
NTT DOCOMO BUSINESS's Nexcenter includes a standard Basic Remote Hands service and an Advance Remote Hands service that covers tasks such as rack-mounting and part replacement

Examples from other countries

United States: Northern Virginia Community College offers a two-year program specialising in data center operations. Microsoft runs a Datacenter Academy with community colleges and other schools near its data center regions
Ireland: the TU Dublin and Amazon data center technician program (two semesters of evening study plus a 14-week placement at a data center) marked its tenth anniversary in 2026, according to TU Dublin
Equinix: in March 2026 announced expanded workforce programs, including a global technician-training coalition and apprenticeships (Japan was not among the launch markets)

3. The Problem: Filling the Gap Until Training Catches Up

Government and industry are both acting, but in our view several problems remain for now.

Training takes time: Employment for Skill Development only takes effect in April 2027 and trains workers over three years. Graduates of new courses and college programs will also take years to become experienced field staff
A gap in scale: the JDCC course is full, and many regional efforts have only just begun. These are still small steps next to a shortfall of about 360,000 in construction alone
Harder work: racks drawing several tens of kW or more and liquid cooling mean more work involving piping, power and fibre cabling. Equinix, announcing liquid-cooling test centers in October 2026, said few enterprises have the expertise to make cooling, power, networking and facility operations work together, and that a gap in any one of them can stall a deployment
Spread to regional areas: new data centers are spreading to suburbs and regional Japan, where field-worker shortages are expected to be largest

For companies entering Japan from overseas in particular, large, concentrated deliveries and installations, fault response at night and on holidays, and communicating with the site in languages other than Japanese can be hard to arrange on their own.

4. What Two Sheep Co., Ltd. Provides

Two Sheep Co., Ltd., headquartered in the Telecom Center Building in Aomi, Koto-ku, Tokyo, acts as the "local hands" for customers running equipment in Japan, with the following services. Customers without their own on-site team can ask us for the work they need, when they need it.

24/7/365 on-site work (Remote Hands): at data centers in Tokyo and Osaka (Equinix TY and OS sites, AT TOKYO CC1 and CC2, NTT and others), we handle server rack-mounting, cabling, part replacement (RMA), status checks and more
International shipping and import/export customs for IT equipment: we arrange transport, customs clearance and delivery from overseas all the way into the data center
Data center migrations, IP transit and private-line arrangements, and optical module sales (ModuleSheep)
Support in Japanese, English and Chinese: we coordinate between overseas customers and Japanese data centers

Our work has included moving 100 production servers from Equinix TY8 to AT TOKYO CC1 (completed within the planned maintenance window), door-to-door delivery and customs clearance of network equipment to 29 sites in 16 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, and cold/hot aisle containment, cable tray and power cabling work at Equinix HK3 in Hong Kong (completed in June 2026).

Main Sources

About This Report

This report was compiled independently by Two Sheep from government statistics, policy documents, company press releases, news coverage and other public information available as of October 2026. Future shortfall figures are estimates by the bodies cited, and the policies and plans described may change.
Companies and organisations are named only to illustrate industry trends; their mention does not indicate any business relationship with Two Sheep. Company and facility names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Contact: Japan@2sheep.jp, or use the contact form on this website.