Japan enacts law monitoring foreign trainees' work environment

Japan's upper house of parliament enacted on Friday a law aimed at better monitoring companies that accept foreign trainees under a government program.

According to the new law, Japan will set up a government body to carry out on-site inspections of and oversee the companies that foreign trainees work for under the government's Technical Intern Training Program.

The government body will also offer counseling services to the foreign trainees working under the program.

Firms that abuse its foreign trainees, including confiscating their passports against their will and limiting their movements, will be punished, while companies with good records will be allowed to keep their interns for up to 5 years, instead of the current 3-year maximum term.

Japan established the foreign training program in 1993. Though the government said the program aimed to transfer skills to developing countries, it faced criticism both home and abroad that the program could be used as a cover for importing cheap labor.

There have also been reports of labor rights violation related to the program, including terrible work environment, illegally long work hours, and low wages.

According to Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, some 35,000 workplaces hosted interns as of the end of 2015.

The program currently covers 74 job categories mainly in construction, manufacturing, agriculture and fishery industries. The government recently added nursing care on the list to deal with the growing demand for such services as a result of the country's increasingly aging population. Endit