Japan gov't panel to propose scrapping foreign trainee program

TOKYO - A Japanese government panel plans to propose scrapping the country's controversial trainee program for foreigners and creating a new system to address issues related to human rights violations, a draft interim report showed Monday.

The new system should clearly state that it is intended to "secure human resources" and "develop human resources," unlike the existing program that only mentioned the latter against its reality of often being used as a means to secure labor, according to the draft by the panel tasked with reviewing the plan.

The program, established 30 years ago to transfer knowledge and skills to developing countries from Japan has been criticized as simply allowing companies to import cheap labor. There have also been multiple allegations of trainees being abused.

As the government plans to base the new program on the conclusions of the expert panel, its launch could mark a new turning point for accepting foreign human resources in a country that faces a graying population and severe labor shortage.

The draft also called for facilitating the transfer of workers within the same business categories, as foreigners accepted under the foreign trainees program are not technically allowed to change their workplace.

"It is undesirable to continue accepting (trainees) as workers while saying that the program is only pursuing the goal of human resources development," the panel said in the draft, calling for the abolishment of the current program.

The panel of 15 members, composed of academics and heads of municipal government, also aims to realize the trainees' smooth transition to the "specified skilled worker" program by aligning job categories and allowing them to shape long-term careers in Japan.

The Specified Skilled Worker program was established in 2019 to address labor shortages for particular industries, such as in the construction and the nursing sectors. To be part of the program, a foreign individual must have the necessary occupational skills as well as a proficiency in Japanese.

Despite the planned changes, supporters of the trainees worry that the technical internship program will be continued in practice as the envisioned new system maintains the existence of supervising organizations, which overlook the introduction of technical interns and provide them and their companies support.

The draft, however, acknowledged that many organizations have not prevented abuses against the trainees and underscored on the need for such organizations to be corrected or eliminated.

The panel aims to compile the interim report by the end of April at the earliest and finalize it by the fall of 2023.

Japan introduced the training program in 1993, primarily for the agriculture and manufacturing sectors, with trainees permitted to work for up to five years, but it has garnered domestic and international criticism for human rights violations such as physical abuse and the withholding of wages.

Reports of pregnant trainees being forced to keep their jobs, and trainees running away to escape harsh working conditions have also raised public awareness of the program's problem.

As of the end of 2022, there were around 325,000 foreign technical trainees in Japan.