The Japanese cabinet on Tuesday approved a basic policy for a new scheme to replace the controversy-plagued foreign trainee program, explicitly stating it is designed to attract overseas laborers to tackle the country's acute labor shortage.
In a landmark shift in Japan's official stance on accepting foreign workers, the new system, to be implemented by June 2027, will encourage workers to transition to the more permanent Specified Skilled Worker visa after three years, in principle.
The new scheme, which will permit participants to change workplaces, will replace the Technical Intern Training Program, which has been in place since 1993 to ostensibly improve the technical skills of foreign workers from developing nations. The program has been criticized as simply being an avenue for Japan to import cheap labor.
"As the global race to acquire foreign talent intensifies, the basic policy is an important guideline to (make Japan an) attractive labor environment," Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told a meeting with ministers.
Workers under the new system will be able to switch their workplaces within the same industry under certain conditions, provided they have worked in a job for over a year and their Japanese language and professional skills meet certain requirements.
The restrictions on changing employers for trainees working under the existing system caused many to abandon the program and their jobs in the face of abuse such as unpaid wages, harassment and unreasonably long work hours.
The basic policy also includes a requirement for both foreign workers and their employers to pay taxes and social insurance contributions.
It states that skilled foreign workers, if they cannot work due to pregnancy and childbirth, can have the period spent outside the workforce exempted from their five-year residency time. A similar exemption has already been adopted for foreigners working under the current technical trainee program.
Holders of the Specified Skilled Worker visa, created in 2019, are eligible to work in 16 industries struggling with severe labor shortages, including construction, nursing care and agriculture, with many transferring from the technical trainee program.
The Specified Skilled Worker No. 1 visa allows holders to spend five years in the country, while the No. 2 visa allows for unlimited renewals, opening the path to permanent residency, and permits workers to bring spouses and children to Japan.
The number of foreign workers in Japan reached a record 2.3 million as of the end of last October, continuing a trend of consecutive annual highs that has run since 2013, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
In the latest figures, holders of the Specified Skilled Worker visa rose nearly 50 percent from the previous year to 206,995.
© KYODO
9 Comments
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sakurasuki
Another complex scheme being replaced by another complex scheme, which being no mentioned how is really being enforced.
Many rules seem to be nice in Japan, however since it lack enforcer many employer just choose to pressure their worker especially foreign trainee just to quite and back to home country when those foreign worker pregnant.
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/04/803ebc204b8e-focus-pregnant-trainee-in-japan-feared-being-forced-to-return-to-vietnam.html
deanzaZZR
Is there truly a global race to acquire foreign talent to clean hotel rooms, do construction jobs and work in poultry processing plants?
diobrando
What about a permit to employ trainees that can be revoked in case of abusement and inspectors checking working conditions without appointment? For sure it will avoid slavery.
Will Taylor
"Is there truly a global race to acquire foreign talent to clean hotel rooms, do construction jobs and work in poultry processing plants?"
Yes. Because no one wants to do that kind of work. It's dirty, long hours, looked down on, needed, and underpaid for the amount of labor involved (construction jobs are generally increasing in pay especially because young Japanese don't want to work outdoors).
Chabbawanga
It takes something special to do a lot of these thankless and gruelling tasks.
Aly Rustom
Will and Chabba- both of you are correct, but there is an even bigger elephant in the room- the declining birthrates around the world. Now, with the exception of the Middle East and Africa, nearly the whole world's fertility rate is below replacement, and that includes poor countries. Pretty soon, its going to be very difficult to get people to do these jobs, and if Japan has to compete with western nations for these people, it might find itself in an extremely difficult position.
GillislowTier
It seems like a majority of construction workers, hotel staff, and food processors are all foreign these days. Most of which are contract work or day laborers. With so many of them living and working here giving priority to their rights and protection is needed. Hopefully the new standards help but it sounds like a lot of red tape still.
kurisupisu
Because that is what it is!
It states that skilled foreign workers, if they cannot work due to pregnancy and childbirth, can have the period spent outside the workforce exempted from their five-year residency time.
.
If it’s not law then the workers will be abused
Next time,on buying something from one of the ubiquitous convenience stores in Japan, simply, ask the clerk whether they want to stay in Japan in the future or not-the answers are illuminating…
kurisupisu
Even the businesses that are booming like hotels still treat staff with little respect.
Some of the staff are Japanese and some other staff are foreign but the turnover at even 4 star hotels is high.