In the figures for number of workers by type of employment announced by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, from January to March 2019 there were an average of 34.57 million regular employees (101.0% YoY), 21.62 million other employees (including fixed-term contract workers, temporary contract workers, part-time workers, and temporary agency workers) (102.1% YoY). In the 33 year period from 1986 to 2019, the number of regular employees peaked at 38.12 million in 1997. The number of other workers is currently 21.61 million and trending upwards, with the ratio of other employees increasing significantly from 16.6% in 1986 to 38.5% in 2019 as a percentage of all employed workers (excluding executives).

[Reference] "Labor Force Special Survey" by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications up to 2001 (every February)
"Labor Force Survey" by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications since 2002 (average of January to March every year)