JAPAN: Exploiting ‘Trainee’ Migrant Workers

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Nov 16 2006 (IPS) - The story, this week, of three Chinese women workers fleeing a garments factory in northern Aomori prefecture has dealt another blow to Japan’s much touted trainee programme for foreign workers-that activists say is a front for cheap labour.

”Japan’s so called trainee visa that promises to teach technology to foreigners is a cover for acquiring cheap labour from foreign countries. Many Japanese employers discriminate against foreign trainees by paying low salaries and controlling their freedom,” Shu Furiyama, officer in charge of Chinese workers at Tokyo Rengo, a labour union, told IPS.

Japan’s trainee visa system was launched in 1993 and has become popular today given the difficulties companies face in obtaining working visas for unskilled labour.

But news reports of the Aomori incident, splashed in the Japanese media, have exposed the shocking conditions that many foreigners get into after they arrive here to work in rural industries under the programme.

The women, who had left their families in China in 2004 seeking better paid jobs in Japan, were quoted in the media complaining of being made to work 13 hours a day, insufficient pay and denied the use of heaters during the winter in the company dormitory – a refurbished garage.

”I came to Japan to earn money. I have been a migrant worker at sewing plants in Saipan and the United Arab Emirates, but I was never treated this badly,” said one of the women, quoted in the ‘Yomiuri’ daily on Monday.

Chinese nationals at 55,150 top the list of 83,319 people who visited Japan in 2005 under the trainee programme. Others included Indonesians and Filipinos.

Japan is an attractive market for Asian overseas workers given the high value of the Japanese yen compared to the currencies of Malaysia, Singapore or even the Middle East.

Eagerly sought after by small manufacturing companies and farms for cheap labour, they are considered essential to stay competitive against rapid globalisation that has increased imports of low-priced goods around the world.

But experts contend that the programme, under which visas are granted for 3- 4 years, does not fill needs on both sides and must be scrapped immediately.

”While the notions appear lofty -the dispatch of technology to foreigners to improve their skills – the actual practice falls far short of these ideals. It is time to stop and rethink our foreign labour policies,” said Takao Sakamoto, an official in charge of the issue at the Tokyo metropolitan government.

Sakamoto says what is urgently needed is a system where the government can ensure that trainees acquire technology expertise and also that once the foreigners start working they get paid same as the Japanese workers.

On average, foreigners are paid around 15,000 US dollars annually, half the minimum 28,000 dollars considered necessary to live in Japan.

The work is gruelling in these small companies – more than 12 hours a day and only one or two holidays a month. The workers are not entitled to injury compensation and often have their passports taken away, making them virtual prisoners.

If they protest, Japanese employers threaten to send them back home, a dreaded thought as many of the trainees pay high fees to local brokers to find jobs in Japan.

Last month, a Chinese worker employed in a farm in Chiba -a suburb of Tokyo-committed suicide after he was scolded for not working properly and told to leave.

Such stories need urgent attention say counsellors who point to a report by the United Nations in October that catalogues ill treatment including forced labour bordering on slavery and denial of freedom.

The government has acknowledged the problems and is now developing stricter regulations that include a new monitoring process of Japanese employers to stop exploitation.

Pin Win, a Burmese refugee and now president of the Burmese workers association in Japan, says the problem is more deep-rooted and can not be settled soon.

”There is no sincerity on the part of the Japanese government to help foreigners learn new technology and be able to be independent. The trainee policy is based on only helping hard struck Japanese companies. As long as this xenophobic policy exits, I do not support the trainee programme,” he said.

Win is helping several Burmese workers who are fed up with their trainee jobs where they have received little pay despite their hard work.

”The conditions are cruel in Japan- not at all what the foreigners think before they arrive,” he said.