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Japan issues rules for companies hiring foreigners via new system

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requiring employers to pay wages equivalent to or higher than those of Japanese nationals

Just wages or is it total remuneration, I wonder? Accommodation and bonuses can be a pretty significant part of the remuneration package.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

What about the economic wellbeing of the countries where the workers come from?

It's a good question, and I somehow doubt whether cabbage-picking skills or knowledge of Japanese gerontological nomenclature are going to benefit the home countries.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Japan needs cheap labor

No one "needs" cheap labor. Japan needs well-paid labor. Otherwise, what's the point of being a developed country, apart from enriching the billionaires?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Japan needs cheap labor and that sums up what this scheme is all about.

Has the Ministry of Justice really prosecuted companies under the trainee scheme? Where has it been reported on NHK about the sexual harassment of female trainees and the lack of any transferable skills given to the trainees?

Any abuse of the future workers will be quickly and artfully covered up, followed by a hastily issued plane ticket back to country of origin.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

This is great news. All they need is proper oversight to make certain these things are actually being done. But this is great news. Many workers were not being paid or they were paying well below the minimum wage. This at least helps protect against that.

@Sh1mon M4sada

India is one of the biggest exporters of IT professionals and Doctors. Many of their workers typically end up being employed in Europe and America.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Is there not a great reluctance of Japanese landlords to rent to foreigners? How is the Government going to overcome this and provide decent affordable accommodation which is not too far from places of employment?

Has this programme been sufficiently thought through ?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I know I won't be popular posting this, but someone has to say it.

What about the economic wellbeing of the countries where the workers come from?

Don't they also need young cheap labour, trained skilled workers and a source of tax revenue of their own countries?

Examples: India desperately need doctors, nurses, IT workers etc., but many of these workers are working overseas (I am guessing some in Japan).

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Family not allowed to join.

This is middle age policy.

You cannot disconnect brain, arm and heart.

Believing money is the only motivation to come to Japan is a very naive arrogant position from a country that NEED workers from abroad.

Japan is not ready to change and is asking others to make huge human sacrifices to help them.

It can only work in a win-win proposition. And it is far from it.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Problem #1:  If workers cannot finance their travel expenses to return to their countries after their contracts expire, employees should shoulder the cost.

The Govt wants them paid directly into their bank account as proof of proper payment. Ok, so what happens when each month they empty their accounts to remit the money back home and at the end of their stay they can say "oh, but I don't have enough money to get home, sorry."
1 ( +1 / -0 )

I know I won't be popular posting this, but someone has to say it.

What about the economic wellbeing of the countries where the workers come from?

Don't they also need young cheap labour, trained skilled workers and a source of tax revenue of their own countries?

Examples: India desperately need doctors, nurses, IT workers etc., but many of these workers are working overseas (I am guessing some in Japan).

Labor behaves like a market too. In the future, for example, if Japanese companies haven't been paying consultants a global competitive wage, and so some of those workers have left the country. It can cut both ways.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It's great to have deposit records to prove you were paid properly, but that also reminds the government how much taxes you will owe.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Good to see at least they are willing to deal with this in a positive direction.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I predict the same abuses that are rampant now will continue

The only reason for these ""new "" visas is that Japan is in dire need of labourers

And this is going to start to spread to office & other white collar jobs as well as Japan ages & fewer babies are being brought into the world here

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"The government will make sure that everything is in place for the launch of the new system," hehehe. "Entities that want to hire foreign workers must clear requirements such as not allowing the involvement of brokers who collect large sums from foreigners seeking to work in Japan." who will check 350000 suspicious desperate aliens? hehehe. "Companies will need to assign staff to take charge of supporting the daily lives of foreign workers, including helping make arrangements for them to secure accommodation and study the Japanese language." hehehe.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Where can one actually apply and what is the precedures?

Will they give us the way to apply already...

'Been waiting for years to go back to work in Japan... c'mon...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Is there not a great reluctance of Japanese landlords to rent to foreigners? 

Indeed there is. I had a hard time finding accomodation for my MEXT scholarship in Japan, because, unfortunately, my university was rather small and didn't have dormitories, so I had to search for apartment from abroad before arriving Japan. This was a nightmare since they ask for so many requisites and initial payments including deposit money, insurance, house cleaning, key and lock changing, broker's fee and even things that don't even make sense like the "Gratitude" money or Reikin and you never see that money again. This makes it absurdly costly (and I wasn't even in Tokyo) to move to an apartment that doesn't even have furniture or even a bed to sleep in and is ridiculously small, which, having to buy all those things makes it another thing you have to worry about economically speaking. They certainly don't make it easy and they don't really care that you are just a student. Also, many landlords simply don't want to have anything to do with foreigners and reject them right from the start. I was only able to find something because I speak and read Japanese fluently, but still, they asked me to pay all the 6 months worth of rent that I was planning to stay in that first apartment while I looked for something better, including ALL initial payments and fees because, as I wasn't a national and didn't have insurance, they couldn't trust that I would pay in time or that I wouldn't just go back to my country leaving the debtd unpaid for (which I understand to a certain extent, but still...). Lastly, most of the time they will tell you "sorry, but we don't lend apartments or houses if you don't come physically to see them first or if you are not already in Japan", which, as I lived in Mexico at the time, was kind of impossible. It was a shock to see how hard is the process to rent anything in Japan and how long it takes when in Mexico you can do everything in a day or two, no questions asked. Also, what they don't tell you is that, scholarship or job, they won't pay you until after the first month in most cases. So all the heavy part of the first payments and surviving that first month pretty much comes from your own pocket! (I guess in the case of a job they at least give you some sort of support, but still, it's better to be sure to have plenty of savings.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

If workers cannot finance their travel expenses to return to their countries after their contracts expire, employees should shoulder the cost.

EmployEEs should shoulder the cost!? Shouldn't it be the employERs? or am I getting this wrong?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It will be courting trouble to pay foreign workers more than their Japanese counterparts. Not only that, it's basically unfair.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Great news. Their skills are vital in these in-demand sectors.

Paying them AT LEAST as much as English teachers is a good start.

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

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