宣言・決議・意見書・声明等

President’s Statement on the Final Report of the Advisory Panel of Experts on Ideal Form of Technical Intern Training Program and Specified Skilled Worker System

The final report of the Advisory Panel of Experts on Ideal Form of Technical Intern Training Program and Specified Skilled Worker System (hereinafter referred to as “Advisory Panel”) established under the Council of Ministers on Acceptance of and Coexistence with Foreign Human Resources was submitted to the Minister of Justice, who is a co-chair of the Council, on November 30, 2023.
The Kanto Federation of Bar Associations (KFBA) published the “President’s Statement Supporting the Abolition of the Technical Intern Training Program and Calling for Establishment of a New Program to Fundamentally Solve the Problems of the Current Program” dated June 28, 2023 after the Advisory Panel had submitted their interim report. In the statement, the KFBA indicated that it is crucial for the new program after the abolition of the Technical Intern Training Program to be equipped with mechanisms to fundamentally solve the problems of the current Technical Intern Training Program, and that, when designing the new program, we shall have the sense of welcoming foreign nationals into Japanese society as human beings to whom the right to pursue happiness is guaranteed, instead of considering them just as labor, and a thorough discussion needs to be made for establishment of a support system (particularly, an enhanced Japanese language education) and a protection system for foreign workers inside Japan and promotion of their settlement including their stay with their families, and so on.
In the context of the indications described above, the final report submitted this time is far from the level expected by the KFBA, and there are concerns that the labor shortage situation will become even more serious and critical, because the rights and interests of foreign workers are not adequately guaranteed and thus Japan will not be able to gain the trust of foreign workers.
In particular, while the upper limit for the restriction of voluntary employer changes by the workers is set to be one year, the fact that it is permitted for the time being to set a period longer than one year depending on the field is extremely problematic, because this is likely to undermine the purport of setting such one-year limitation. The restriction on employer changes is one of the issues that has been attracting sharp criticism from inside and outside Japan, and a fundamental solution is required when establishing a new program. Therefore, in future legislative stages, no provision shall be made to permit the setting of a period exceeding one year including during the transition period. Some are concerned that such one-year limitation on the period of restriction of employer changes will cause outflows of human resources from rural regions, however, such issue must be solved by efforts to improve individual workplace environments and the living environment of the communities, or measures and policies of the government to effectively promote such efforts, just as in the case of Japanese workers, not at the sacrifice of the rights and interests of foreign workers.
In this regard, employer changes due to unavoidable circumstances is also an extremely important point of discussion in addition to the voluntary employer changes by the workers. The scope of cases of unavoidable circumstances to permit employer changes should be expanded and clarified so that the rights and interests of the workers will be adequately protected, and a thorough discussion must also be made as to the entity to determine whether there are “unavoidable circumstances” and the criteria for such determination so that the system of employer changes due to unavoidable circumstances will not lose substance.
Further, other issues are described in the final report, such as that families are not allowed to accompany foreign nationals, the proposal regarding Japanese language education remains abstract, and so on, and we cannot help but say that, throughout the report, it lacks a sense of welcoming foreign nationals into Japanese society, not just as labor, but as individual human beings.
Learning the Japanese language will strengthen the ties between foreign nationals and Japan and is an important factor to promote their settlement in Japan. The government should swiftly proceed with measures and policies to develop a better Japanese language education system, recognizing that active and strategic implementation of Japanese language education for foreign workers and their families will contribute to the fundamental solution of the national issue of labor shortage. The government should not just sit back and wait passively, hoping that foreign nationals themselves and the accepting organizations will make efforts voluntarily, but discussions must be made with a view to establishing a system of publicly-funded formal Japanese language education, and developing an environment for foreign nationals to learn Japanese without being restricted by time or location by utilizing the internet, and so on.
Furthermore, concurrently with the legislation for the new program, the government should positively consider enacting a basic law concerning multicultural coexistence and a comprehensive anti-discrimination law in order to push forward measures and policies covering various aspects of life in general of foreign workers and their families in line with a consistent philosophy and principles.
As described above, the final report of the Advisory Panel is far from the level expected by the KFBA and there is concern that the problems of the current Technical Intern Training Program will be handed down to the new program, but on the other hand, if the government pursues the protection of rights and interests of foreign workers earnestly in future legislative stages, quite a few problems can be remedied. The KFBA calls on the government to develop a program in which the rights and interests of foreign workers are adequately guaranteed and which can gain the trust of foreign workers.

March 7, 2024