As the Japanese parliament was set to adopt legislation providing for foreign "trainee" workers in the caregiving industry, the Cooperative Association for International Operation Research, an officially recognised recruiting organisation for foreign trainees, posted a table on its site ranking the "potential" of foreign trainees by nationality. This table gave each nationality points on categories such as "morality", "learning ability", and whether the dominant religion would be acceptable in Japanese care homes. The organisation was subject to fierce criticism and deleted the table from its website within days.  

The Japanese foreign trainee programme has been heavily criticised since its inception as a hotbed for abuse by domestic and international NGOs, UN human rights bodies, and even the US State Department.