Foreign trainees in Japan face exploitation

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By MALCOLM FOSTER, Associated Press

KAIZU, Japan (AP) — When Chinese textile worker Wang Mingzhi heard he could more than triple his income with a three-year stint working in Japan as an apprentice, he eagerly paid a broker $7,300 in fees and deposit money.


Promised a clothing factory job, the 25-year-old wound up at a huge warehouse surrounded by rice paddies where he was told to fill boxes with clothing, toys and other goods. Wang and other new arrivals weren't given contracts by their Japanese boss and monthly wages were withheld, except for overtime.


"We didn't have any choice but to stay," Wang said from his bunk in a cramped house he shared with a dozen others in Kaizu, a small city in central Gifu prefecture.


Employers committing violations such as failing to pay wages numbered 197 last year, down more than half from 452 in 2008, according to Japanese officials. Lawyers and labor activists say the true number is many times higher and interns fear being sent home if they speak up despite government attempts to prevent abuses.

In interviews with The Associated Press, eight current and former interns described being cheated of wages, forced to work overtime, having contracts withheld or being charged exorbitant rents for cramped, poorly insulated housing. Some said they were prohibited from owning cellphones. The internship system has been criticized by the U.N. and the U.S. State Department, which in its annual "Trafficking in Persons Report" said Japan is failing to stop cases of forced labor.

"The program is portrayed as way to transfer technology, and that Japan is doing a wonderful thing, but in reality many are working like slaves," said Shoichi Ibusuki, a lawyer who has represented several interns in court cases.

Some say the plight of the interns highlights the need for Japan to rethink its deep-seated resistance to immigration, out of sheer economic necessity. A government institute projects Japan's workforce will plummet by nearly half to 44 million over the next 50 years as the population ages and birthrates remain low. At that rate, many companies will run out of workers. Foreign workers and first generation immigrants make up less than 2 percent of Japan's workforce. In the United States, the percentage is 14.2 percent, and in Germany it is 11.7 percent, according to U.N. figures.


"We need to stop the deception," said Ippei Torii, vice president of ZWU All United Workers Union, which has battled on behalf of interns. "If we need to bring in foreign workers, then we should call them workers and treat them so."


"That's really our only salvation," said Sakanaka, now head of a think tank. "We should allow them to enter the country on the assumption that they could become residents of Japan."

The chances of that happening are low. Immigration is perceived as a threat to Japan's prized social harmony, and opponents paint scenarios of rising crime and other problems.



The government strengthened laws covering the program in 2010, including prohibiting trainees from paying deposits to labor brokers. Japanese employers are expected to pay the third-party agencies. A panel of experts and officials is reviewing the program again to see if it needs further changes.

"There are some who go against the objectives of this program and use it as a source of cheap labor," said Jun Nakamura, an immigration bureau official. "We have tried to strengthen the legal framework."


Wang and three others chose to go home. A few days later they were taken to the airport, where Shibata paid them each 750,000 yen ($7,500), barely enough to cover the broker fee, according to Zhen Kai, an official with the Gifu Ippan Labor Union who helped in negotiations between the two sides.

In a phone interview, Shibata said he withheld 50,000 yen (about $500) every month from each trainee's wages for the first year as a security deposit due to problems in the past, including cases where trainees ran away. He said he paid the remaining regular wages on time and in the end paid them all they had earned.

After "all this trouble," Shibata said he has decided against using foreign interns any more.

"I think it may be better to scrap the program since there's a risk both sides will just be unhappy."
