... While the trainees are covered by Japan’s labor laws, there are widespread reports of long working hours under severe conditions, low and unpaid wages as well as abuses such as trainees being confined or being banned from contacting other trainees. Roughly 80 percent of 2,300 businesses employing trainees covered by the ministry’s 2013 on-site inspections were found to have violated labor regulations, including safety violations and failure to pay minimum legal wages. Whereas the program is supposed to promote transfer of job skills to developing economies through the trainees, many of the employers — mostly small businesses — are said to utilize them as low-cost manual laborers — positions that they have difficult filling with Japanese workers. In pushing to expand the scope of the program, the government plans to tighten oversight of the recipient organizations and companies hiring trainees. A new oversight body would be empowered to carry out on-site inspections of employers, and issue warnings and guidance on labor offenses. Still, experts familiar with the situation doubt if such measures can effectively root out widespread labor violations and abuses of trainees’ rights. ...