Japan is on alert to overhaul its logistics network. The country is making all-out efforts to modify its logistics network by creating a route for unmanned trucks on expressways, and developing low-height trains, trucks that can be driven with a normal license, and cargo Shinkansen.
What Japan is urgently trying to do is to reduce its dependence on trucks, or more precisely, truck drivers. What’s happening to Japanese truckers.
Japan is now on alert due to the “logistics 2024 problem.” Logistics 2024 problem refers to a situation in which a large part of logistics, including delivery, has been stopped due to a lack of truck drivers since April.
The change comes as the Japanese government has restricted truckers’ annual overtime hours to less than 960 hours from April due to the implementation of a law on how to work, which is a 52-hour workweek. Those who already have no one to work for will also be able to work less hours. Experts point to the “logistics problem in 2024” as one of the deadliest counterattacks in the demographic decline. Some might question whether the lack of truckers is a big deal at a time when wars are waging in Ukraine and Palestine, and whether the planet is dying or living due to global warming. However, the logistics problem in 2024 will have a far greater impact than expected on the Japanese economy and the daily lives of the Japanese. Trucks account for 16 trillion yen (12.7 billion U.S. dollars) in Japan’s logistics market, or about 60 percent of the total. In terms of weight (2018), not amount, truckers are in charge of 4.33 billion tons, or 92 percent of the total 4.73 billion tons of logistics. The Japanese government predicts that if this continues, the number of truckers will be 140,000 in April. If that happens, cargo transport capacity will be 14.2 percent (worth 400 million tons) less than in 2019. The future is even gloomier. “By 2030, 35 percent of cargo across Japan will stop,” said Nomura Research Institute. In the surrounding areas of the country, such as Tohoku and Shikoku, more than 40% of the cargo will not be able to move because there is no truck driver. The counterattack of population decline leads to ‘logistics 2024 problem’.
SOPHIA KIM
ASIA JOURNAL
