"Japan Cabinet Proposes Change to Foreign Trainee Program to Address Labor Crunch; Expects to Attract 820,000 over 5 Years," 15 March 2024

The government decided at a Cabinet meeting on Friday to present a legal revision that will abolish the current technical intern training program in order to establish a new training and employment system aimed at securing foreign workers.

Under the new system, the government expects trainees to achieve a certain level of skill within three years, then smoothly transition to “specified skilled” residence status that allows them to stay and work for a longer term...

The change also takes into account criticism of the current program as “a hotbed of human rights violations” in which trainees toil for long hours, wages are not paid and other problems. To eliminate malicious middlemen who arrange job transfers, the government will impose a heavier penalty on agencies that arrange for a foreign national to engage in illegal work of “imprisonment for no more than 5 years or a fine not exceeding ¥5 million.”

Supervisory bodies that arrange for the foreign nationals and provide guidance for companies where they are placed will be required to appoint an external auditor to ensure their independence...

To help employees make the transition in status, the government will require that hiring companies create a training plan that stipulates the worker’s tasks, sets a target of Japanese language proficiency, and specifies other matters. Job areas covered by the new system will be matched with the fields of specified skilled workers, so that trainees can more easily make the transition...