Survey on technical trainees’ financial situation in Japan begins

Japan has commenced a survey to grasp the financial situations of foreign technical trainees as money problems seem to be the reason many abruptly leave their host firms, a government official said.

The Immigration Services Agency of Japan and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare began gathering the information of 2,000 trainees across the country, including on the pay they receive at workplaces and the amount they owe in relocation expenses.

In Japan, thousands of technical trainees leave their host companies without notice every year seeking better wages, among other reasons, as many of them start their lives here heavily in debt due to the huge expense of entering the country.

It is the first survey on expenses these trainees shoulder since the law on the protection of technical trainees came into force in November 2017, according to the official. The law enhances the monitoring of firms accepting trainees.

The ministry and agency aim to reflect the survey’s outcome in the review of the country’s foreign technical intern program, as the law stipulates in its supplementary provisions that the system would be reviewed around the fifth year of the enforcement of the law if necessary.

The program aims to transfer skills to developing countries but has been criticized as being used as a cover for companies to import cheap labor.

According to the agency, the number of trainees with whom their host companies lost contact rose to around 9,000 in 2018 from about 3,500 in 2013.

Those who disappeared stood at about 3,300 in 2021 as of June, with Vietnamese accounting for the largest number.

For the survey, scheduled from January to April, the Organization for Technical Intern Training, which oversees the intern program, mainly hands out survey forms to trainees from six countries — Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Vietnam — during its visit to companies for regular on-site inspections.

The survey asks for information, such as the amount they paid to organizations that arranged for them to come to Japan, the purpose of the payments and whether they made payments to anyone else. Respondents were also asked whether their pay in Japan was what they had expected before arriving.

“There are cases in which those runaway trainees engage in illegal labor and crimes such as theft. It is essential to implement measures to reduce the number of trainees who disappear from their workplaces,” the official said.