Part-Time Hotel Jobs Surge As Japan's Tourism Industry Recovers

The number of job offers in Japan's hotel industry increased over 20-fold in the January-March quarter from a year before as inbound tourism recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, a Tokyo-based company that operates a part-time job application service told Mainichi Shimbun.

Photo Insert: The number of job openings in January was about 8.6 times higher than a year earlier, and the figure in February surged 23.3 times from the same month in 2022.

Timee Inc. said the number of job openings in January was about 8.6 times higher than a year earlier, and the figure in February surged 23.3 times from the same month in 2022.

It remained high in March, logging 13.4 times year-on-year growth. There are many job offers particularly in urban areas in western Japan, the company said.

Japan drastically eased COVID-19 border control measures in October last year, boosting the number of foreign visitors.

The estimated total rose to 1,817,500 in March, equivalent to 65.8 percent of the level seen in March 2019 before the novel coronavirus outbreak, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.

The total was the highest since the country lifted its pandemic-prompted ban on individual, non-prearranged trips last October.

Timee has responded to the rising demand from hotels by offering short-hour assignments for work such as cleaning and working in restaurants to enable people to work in their "spare time," it said.

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