Technical Intern Training Program

The Technical Intern Training Program (技能実習制度, Ginō Jisshū Seido) is a work training program providing employment opportunities for foreign nationals in Japan. Administered by the Japan International Training Cooperation Organization (JITCO) its stated purpose is to provide training, technical skills and technology experience for workers from developing economies. [1] The government-run internship program was first established in 1993.

Participation

According to Ministry of Justice data, there were 192,655 technical interns in Japan under the terms of the program as of the end of 2015, an increase of about 15% from the previous year. China was the largest source of interns, at 46.2% of the total, followed by Vietnam at 29.9% and the Philippines at 9.2%.

According to Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, approximately 35,000 workplaces hosted interns as of the end of 2015.[2] Small businesses in rural locations in Japan employee many of the trainees, who are often hosted by local commerce and industry groups and small-business associations. Approximately 42% of trainees work in the seafood processing industry, and as Mazumi finds, in contrast to some criticisms that trainees take jobs from domestic workers, in the seafood processing industry trainees are mostly found in regions which suffer from a shortage of a stable (non-seasonal) workforce. In these areas, "the larger the employment size of the seafood processing industry in the local labor market, and the higher the productivity of the industry, the higher the share of migrants in the local labor force." [3]

Criticism

The program has come under increasing scrutiny for alleged labour rights violations, occupational health and safety issues and lax administrative oversight.[4]

In 2016, the U.S. State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report pointed out that the program "originally designed to foster basic technical skills among foreign workers has effectively become a guest worker program." The report says many interns are "placed in jobs that do not teach or develop technical skills."[5]

Several Japanese organizations and politicians have demanded the Technical Intern Training Program to be abolished, among them Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan (SMJ), the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA), as well as the current Minister for Defense, Tarō Kōno (LDP).[6]

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See also

References
  1. "Outline of Technical Intern Training Program". Japan International Training Cooperation Organisation. JITCO. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
  2. Iwamoto, Kentaro (18 August 2016). "Abuses rampant in foreign trainee program, Japan labor ministry finds". Nikkei Asian Review. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
  3. Mazumi, Yusuke (2019). "What shapes local demand for 'guest worker' migrants in Japan? The case of the seafood processing industry". Contemporary Japan. 31 (1): 2–20. doi:10.1080/18692729.2018.1563346.
  4. "Japan's foreign trainee program suffering from shocking lack of oversight". Japan Times. Kyodo. 13 August 2014. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
  5. Iwamoto, Kentaro (18 August 2016). "Abuses rampant in foreign trainee program, Japan labor ministry finds". Nikkei Asian Review. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
  6. Kremers, Daniel (2014). "Transnational Migrant Advocacy From Japan: Tipping the Scales in the Policy-making Process". Pacific Affairs. 87 (4): 725. doi:10.5509/2014874715.
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