Since 1993, Japan has operated a foreign trainee programme (the Technical Intern Trainee Programme), under which persons from developing countries are employed as technical interns by companies in Japan for a maximum of three years, ostensibly to obtain skills that they can utilize after returning to their countries. At of the end of 2013, there were approximately 155,000 foreign trainnees, most of whom were from China or Vietnam (the running total since 1993 was more than 800,000). Human rights advocates report that abuses are rife in the system, and accuse companies and the government of exploiting foreigners as cheap labour. The Japanese government has announced its plan to expand the system, to increase foreign labour in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.