On November 24, an expert panel of the Japanese government discussed a review of the "Foreign Technical Intern Training System" and the "Specified Technical Skills System. According to the conference report, the trainee system, which has been in place for 30 years, will be completely abolished.
Instead, a new, more modest system will be established to provide medium- to long-term employment for foreign workers, and will be officially named the new "Inclusion and Training (Training and Employment) System.
The new "employment system" directly grants a three-year residency status to foreign workers coming to Japan, allowing foreign workers with no work experience to acquire skills that reach the level of "specified skill No. 1" over a three-year period.
In Japan, a Specified Technical Skills 1 visa can be converted to a Specified Technical Skills 2 visa by taking the Japanese language and skills test, and a Specified Technical Skills 2 visa allows the applicant to apply for permanent residence with his/her family.
This is a friendly measure based on the "Inclusion Society (Training and Employment) Program":
(1) After working for three years, the visa can be transferred to a Specified Technical Skills No. 1 visa by taking an examination. In addition, the Japanese government intends to extend the visa for one year for those who fail the examination as a measure against the examination.
(2) After working for at least one year, if you have a certain level of Japanese language ability and skills, you can change to a company in the same field.
(iii) To alleviate the situation where many foreign workers go into debt to work in Japan, the Japanese government is also considering the possibility of companies that accept foreign workers to cover the brokerage costs of foreign workers coming to Japan to work.
The main reasons for the abolition of the technical internship program, which lasted for 30 years, are as follows
(1) Technical interns are not regular workers and are not protected by labor laws.
(2) Low base wages, lack of protection under the minimum wage protection system, lack of transfers, and many wage arrears and deductions due to bad employers.
(iii) Many employers strictly control the personal activities of their interns, and pregnant female interns are often sent back to their home countries.
Currently, more than 50% of technical intern trainees are heavily in debt before coming to Japan, and there are approximately 330,000 foreigners living in Japan as technical intern trainees. The deepening of these problems is the fundamental reason why the Japanese government plans to completely abolish the technical internship system.

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