The number of people in work in Japan could grow by 3.9 million as a result of a new target set by the government.

A plan is being drawn up by the nation's Trade Ministry that is aimed at increasing domestic demand by 15 trillion yen during the next decade.

It is intended to significantly boost employment, particularly the number of renewable energy, agriculture and healthcare jobs in Japan, according to Reuters.

Citing a draft report published this week, the news source noted that the government is looking at ways of fuelling the economy and reversing a "hollowing out" of industry, evidenced by prime minister Yoshihiko Noda holding free trade talks with the US.

The ministry panel responsible for the publication stated: "It is important to develop the industries that have a potential to unearth latent domestic demand through innovation, deregulation and intensive allocation of resources."

Recent employment figures from the Statistics Bureau of Japan for October 2011 indicated that there was a dip of 0.3 per cent year-on-year in the number of people in work to 62.64 million, with the jobless rate standing at 4.5 per cent.

Posted by Kate Griffin