March 21, 2021

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Fujino Yasufumi on March 17 at a House Foreign Affairs Committee meeting cited an increase in the number of Vietnamese trainees and said that it is necessary to improve the legal framework in order to protect foreign trainees from human rights violations and exploitation.

The number of Vietnamese who came to Japan under the foreign trainee program increased by 3.8 times compared with five years ago to 220,000, accounting for roughly 55% of all foreign trainees in Japan.

Fujino noted that in Vietnam, with the introduction of new rules in October 2020, the nation’s efforts to prevent malicious brokers’ exploitation of Vietnamese foreign trainees took one step forward.

The JCP lawmaker said that as the partner country in the bilateral agreement regarding the foreign trainee program, Japan should implement tougher measures to protect Vietnamese trainees. In response, Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu said that the ministry will work to bar the participation of known malicious brokers from the program.

Pointing out that many Vietnamese trainees are facing difficulties, including losing their jobs and places to live due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Fujino demanded that the government provide adequate support to them.

As a factor, Fujino cited the fact that top officials of companies accepting foreign trainees can hold a concurrent position in supervising organizations.

There are 3,000 supervising organizations in Japan. They are required by law on the use of foreign trainees to instruct and supervise recipient firms based on complaints made by foreign trainees. However, the current law allows employers of foreign trainees to assume managerial positions at supervising organizations.

Fujino reported that in Nagano Prefecture, the percentage of executives of recipient companies who also act as overseers reached 58%, and demanded the revision of the law to put an end to this practice.

Past related article:
> JCP Tamura urges gov’t to provide support for foreign trainees facing pandemic-caused hardships [July 11, 2020]