Japan's foreign intern program should be overhauled to protect human rights

 1.Japanese Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa recently announced that the government will start discussions with an eye to reviewing the Technical Intern Training Program. An expert panel will be set up by the end of the year.

2.Under the program, the human rights of foreign workers are being ignored. It should be abolished immediately, and a new system to accept international laborers should be established.

3.The program was introduced 29 years ago, and as of the end of 2021, some 280,000 foreign trainees were working in various fields in Japan.

4.At the same time, problems linked to the program have long been pointed out, including low wages, long working hours and poor working environments. Japanese labor laws are supposed to be applied to foreign trainees, but many employers are not following them.

5.In January this year, it emerged that a technical intern in the city of Okayama had been repeatedly assaulted by his Japanese coworkers for two years. There was also a case where a pregnant trainee, unable to talk to others about her pregnancy for fear of getting fired, was arrested on suspicion of abandoning the bodies of her twins after she went through a stillbirth.

6.Many technical trainees are in debt, having paid large sums of money for travel and other fees to dispatch agencies in their home countries before arriving in Japan. This means they have to put up with harsh working environments.

7.In principle, foreign interns cannot switch jobs. And we have seen case after case where they run away in desperation after becoming unable to withstand the hardships. A total of 7,167 such cases were reported last year.

8.The Japanese government has taken measures to enhance monitoring of companies that hire foreign trainees, but they have not proved effective.

9.The program has also come under international criticism. It was mentioned in a U.S. human trafficking report and the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has also voiced concerns.

10.The training program's objective is to have foreign nationals acquire skills while working in Japan in order to foster human resource development in developing countries. In reality, however, it's become a policy to hire foreign workers to make up for Japan's labor shortages.

11.This phony1 system, disguised2 as international contribution, is creating human rights violations. It will serve no purpose if the Japanese government's review merely treats the symptoms without addressing the causes.

12.Japan should improve and advance the "specified skilled worker" framework introduced three years ago in a bid to expand foreigners' employment. The government's involvement is essential to ensure that processing is performed properly.

13.The Japanese government has stuck to its public stance that foreign workers are "only accepted for jobs requiring expertise," all the while admitting foreigners in an ad hoc manner depending on the economic circumstances in Japan.

14.Foreign workers have become indispensable as members of Japan's society. Japan needs to squarely face this reality and work on fundamental policy reforms so that their human rights are protected.

Vocabulary

1. phony

2. disguised

3. an ad hoc manner

Understanding

1. What is the government trying to overhaul according to this article?

2. What is the official purpose of the system?

3. What is the reality of the system according to this article?

4. Please summarize what prompted the government to review the system?

Opinion Please give some reasons to support your ideas from 1 to 4

1. Do you think Japanese society needs more foreign workers or foreign trainees as

workforce?

2. Do you think Japanese society is a harsh environment for foreign workers?

3. Do you think Japan respects the human rights of foreign workers?

4. Do you think Japan is an attractive country for foreign workers to work?

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