Japan’s shift away from a jobs-for-life culture could provide recruiters with business opportunities.

According to a report in the Financial Times, the country’s jobs-for-life culture is in decline and is slowly being replaced by a more western-style flexible labour market.

Since 1997, the number of part-time workers in Japan has nearly doubled from 15% to between 25% and 30%.

Meanwhile Japanese government statistics have revealed that the number of full-time workers has fallen by more than 4m to 34.6m.

Another survey revealed that the number of temps registered with employment agencies has jumped to more than 2m.

The move towards temporary workers has meant the average wage in the country has declined, despite a turnaround in Japan’s economic performance.

A boom in the country’s call centre industry has fed the demand for temporary workers, along with big corporations such as Toyota, which recently announced it would hire 500 temps.