Japan Press Weekly

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2024 April 24 - May 7 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

JCP Motomura: Disclose results of hearing from foreign trainees about their working conditions

Japanese Communist Party representative Motomura Nobuko on April 24 suggested that a large number of missing foreign technical intern trainees may have been forced to work for less than the minimum wage.

At the House of Representatives Legal Affairs Committee meeting, she pointed out that two-thirds of the 2,870 missing trainees, who were found in 2018, had worked for less than the local minimum wage.

This was discovered after several Dietmembers transcribed the “hearing reports” the government disclosed in the same year, in which the 2,870 trainees were interviewed about their working conditions, including wages.

More than 9,000 foreign technical intern trainees went missing in 2022, according to the Immigration Service Agency.

Noting that the actual situation and causes of their disappearances are unknown, Motomura demanded that the authorities disclose the hearing reports in which trainees who were found after their disappearances talked about their mistreatment in the workplace.

Justice Minister Koizumi Ryuji said, “It will be difficult to release such documents due to privacy concerns.”

Motomura pointed out that, as a precondition for proposed amendments to the Technical Intern Training Act, it is essential to investigate and analyze the actual situation of the disappearances of foreign technical intern trainees under the current law. She reiterated her demand for disclosure of the hearing documents as the primary source.