Warehouse and forklift workSkills training from 31 hours; openings ratio 1.08

Warehouse work runs from receiving goods, to storing them on shelves, to picking items to fill orders, inspecting, packing and shipping. There is also light processing such as labeling and assembling sets, inventory management in a warehouse management system (WMS), and team-leader roles overseeing workers on the floor.

Workplaces range from commercial warehouses holding goods for many shippers, to e-commerce and other distribution centers, manufacturers’ and retailers’ own warehouses, trucking companies’ warehouses, and port and cold-storage warehouses. Picking, inspection, packing, sorting and moving goods with a manual pallet jack need no qualification.

What you need to operate a forklift is not a driver’s license but a qualification under the Industrial Safety and Health Act. For a forklift with a maximum load (the most weight its forks can carry) of 1 ton or more, you must complete a forklift operator skills training course (技能講習) (Order for Enforcement of the Industrial Safety and Health Act, Art. 20(11)). Under 1 ton, you take special training (特別教育) run by the employer (Ordinance on Industrial Safety and Health, Art. 36(5)). Even under 1 ton, you cannot operate one without any training.

Driving a forklift on public roads outside the warehouse also requires a driver’s license matched to its size, such as a large special vehicle license (大型特殊免許) or small special vehicle license (小型特殊免許).

The length of the skills training depends on the licenses you hold. With none, it is 35 hours in total: 11 hours of classroom and 24 of practical training. With a standard, semi-medium, medium or large driver’s license, the classroom part on driving is waived, making it 31 hours. With a large special vehicle license, the practical driving part is also waived, leaving 11 hours. Courses are run by providers registered with the prefectural labor bureau and end with a completion test.

As an example of cost, the Aichi Labor Standards Association’s 31-hour course takes 4 days and costs ¥32,650 (course fee and textbook, tax included). Fees vary by provider and region, so treat this as one reference point. Some companies cover the cost of job-related courses using the government’s Human Resources Development Support Subsidy (人材開発支援助成金).

The openings-to-applicants ratio for “carrying workers,” which groups warehouse work, cargo handling and delivery, was 1.08 in FY2025. Compared with 2.58 for motor vehicle drivers, openings and job seekers are closely matched, so it is a field where even beginners can be choosy about where to apply.

The regional gaps are wide. Tokyo (2.36), Ehime (1.52) and Kagawa (1.51) are high, while Iwate (0.59), Kumamoto (0.66) and Fukushima (0.68) are below 1.

Forklift operators, on the other hand, are in short supply. In a Japan Warehousing Association survey of its members (December 2024, 988 operators responding), the shortage rate for forklift operators was 8.8%, rising to 17.7% when including those expected to leave within 5 years. These are member responses, not figures for the warehousing industry as a whole.

In the Basic Survey on Wage Structure (2025), “other carrying workers,” such as warehouse workers, packers and delivery workers, had annualized pay of about ¥4.07 million (average age 46.3). “Transport workers not elsewhere classified,” which includes forklift operators, had about ¥4.70 million (average age 47.1). The latter also includes seafarers and others, so it is not the pay of forklift operators alone.

Part-time hourly pay was ¥1,301 for other carrying workers and ¥1,448 for transport workers not elsewhere classified. Other carrying workers include many part-timers: an estimated 452,000 part-time against about 605,000 full-time. Whether a workplace promotes part-timers to regular employees is something to check workplace by workplace.

A Cabinet decision on Jan 23, 2026 added a “logistics warehousing” field to the Specified Skilled Worker (特定技能) residence status for foreign workers and to Employment for Skill Development (育成就労), which starts in April 2027. According to MLIT, as of September 2026 no start date had been set for the Specified Skilled Worker (i) skills test.

Under the amended Logistics Efficiency Act, warehouse operators have since April 2025 had a duty to make efforts to cut truck waiting and loading times, and since April 2026 “specified warehouse operators” storing 700,000 tons or more must draw up medium- to long-term plans and file periodic reports. Measures such as truck booking systems affect how warehouse staff work, too.

On safety, forklifts must undergo a specified voluntary inspection at least once a year and carry an inspection sticker (Ordinance on Industrial Safety and Health, Art. 151-21 and others). In land freight transport, occupational accidents in 2025 left 80 dead and 15,632 killed or injured with 4 or more days off work (we have not extracted figures for warehousing alone).