Japan Press Weekly

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2009 January 28 - February 3 [LABOR]

Working conditions of foreign trainees will be improved

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry on January 26 ordered the Corporation International Labor Research Association (CILA), which is overseen by the ministry, to stop forcing foreign trainees to work under harsh conditions.

The ministry says that it will apply strict punishment measures to CILA, including its dissolution, if it does not comply with the order.

Even though the CILA is required to provide training to foreign trainees and interns for 160 hours after their arrival in Japan, it has provided them only a few days of training.

Furthermore, the CILA has used them as cheap labor paying less than the minimum wage, and made them work overtime in violation of regulations.

Japanese Communist Party Nihi Sohei (House of Councilors) has taken up this issue in the Diet, criticizing the CILA for abusing the internship program to illegally supply foreign trainees as temporary workers under the guise of on-the-job-training.

Referring to the fact that the CILA makes profits by introducing foreign trainees to companies, Nihi has accused the CILA of “using the guise of a public-interest corporation to exploit low-wage workers and day laborers.”

Any public-interest corporation that has a government permit can receive tax breaks.

Nihi has demanded that the government “conduct a survey to determine if there are unfair practices that exploit foreign trainees at the CILA as well as at other organizations operating with government permits.”