地域経済研究

第30号

2019

（論文）

The Actuality of Accepting Technical Intern Trainees in Japan andthe Reconsideration of the Technical Intern Training Program
Yaqina TONG †Abstract
The Technical Intern Training Program was established as a formal program in 1993 and was
implemented with the “Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act” and related ordinances as its
legal basis. The objectives and purpose of the Technical Intern Training Program are to transfer skills,
technologies, or knowledge, etc. accumulated in Japan to developing and other regions and to promoteinternational cooperation by contributing to the development of human resources who can play roles in theeconomic development of those developing region. However, in some situations organizers have deviatedfrom the original intent of the program, so the “Act on the Appropriate Implementation of Technical Intern
Training for Foreign Nationals, and Protection of Technical Intern Trainees” was promulgated in 2016 andcame into effect on November 1, 2017 in order to establish the protection of technical intern trainees andachieve the original purpose of the program more smoothly than before. However, the “Basic Policy on
Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform 2018” has made it clear that the Japanese government haschanged its attitude towards the policies on human resources from overseas. The purpose of this study is
to make clear about the discrepancy between the Technical Intern Program and the reality of employment
situation of technical intern trainees. This study analyzed the geographical distribution and characteristics
of technical intern trainees in Japan. Based on these analyses, I reviewed the Technical Intern Training
Program in the timing that the Japanese government’s policy on human resources from overseas has
already been changed to regular labor force in 2018. As a result of this study, the Technical Intern Training
Program itself is now a dead letter and ought to be abolished since the original intent of the program has
lost touch with reality.
Key words: Technical Intern Trainee, Technical Intern Training Program, Geographical Distribution, Labor
Force† Postdoctoral researcher, Center for Research on Regional Economic Systems (CRES), Hiroshima University
tongyaqina@yahoo.co.jp

33

地域経済研究-第30号-02Yaqina TONG.indd 33

19/05/09 20:27

1. Introduction
The Technical Intern Training Program was established in Japan as a formal program in 1993 based on
the high evaluations of training programs conducted by overseas local companies and others in the form of
employee education starting in the late 1960s. The particulars of the Technical Intern Training Program areintended to form employment relationships between corporations, sole proprietors, and other businesses
in Japan with technical intern trainees so that the trainees can acquire, master, or enhance skills etc.
that would be difficult to acquire in their home countries. Since the program is as a form of employment
relationships between the mutual sides, the technical intern trainees can also be seen as a form of labor
force from overseas to the local Japanese companies. It declares that this program has still remained theoriginal purpose constant since its establishment in 1993, which is aimed at transferring skills, technologies,
etc. to developing countries for the promotion of international cooperation and the economic developmentof those regions. According to the “Act on the Appropriate Implementation of Technical Intern Training
for Foreign Nationals, and Protection of Technical Intern Trainees” (Amendment of Act No. 71 of 2018),
the fundamental principle of the program is that “technical training shall not be conducted as a means ofadjusting labor supply and demand”.
Meanwhile, in the 25th year of the program, the “Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management andReform 2018” (Basic Policy 2018) with the aim of realizing sustainable economic growth by overcoming thedecreasing birth rate and aging population was approved by Cabinet Decision on June 15, 2018. In Chapter
2 “Major actions for realizing a strong economic” of the policy, “Acceptance of new human resources fromoverseas” is cited as one of seven measures in order to solve workforce shortages caused by depopulation,
particularly in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and small-scale entrepreneurs. To some extent,
this approved measure means that the Japanese government has already changed its attitude on humanresource policy from overseas.
Now, the policy is, quoting the Basic Policy 2018, “Workforce shortages particularly in small and medium
enterprises and small-scale entrepreneurs is intensifying and may prevent sustainability of the economic
social base in Japan…(abridged sentences) Additionally, it is necessary to construct a system that enables
wide acceptance that foreign human resources who have a certain level of professional knowledge andskills can contribute immediately, by eliminating the traditional limitation of only accepting foreign humanresources having special professional and technical skills”.
The policy has now been changed to accept regular labor force from overseas as labor supply to cover thedemand of domestic workforce shortage immediately. Japanese labor market now needs complementarylabor force to cover workforce shortage caused by depopulation. So here comes the divergence between
the fundamental principle of the program and the Basic Policy 2018. Shall the Technical Intern Training
Program be abolished or be maintained but still not as labor supply? If the program are not going to beabolished, how to re-define the human resources of technical intern trainees in the timing that the policy onhuman resources from overseas has been changed? Furthermore, how to conduct the management of thetwo different foreign labor force with specific distinction in the case that both are employed in the same
industry?
The purpose of this study is to make clear about the discrepancy between the Technical Intern Program
and the reality of employment situation of technical intern trainees by analyzing Japanese government
statistics and political institutions. Based on these analyses, this study reconsidered the Technical Intern
Program in the timing that the Japanese government’s policy on human resources from overseas has beenchanged greatly. Since the Basic Policy 2018 was just adopted upon Cabinet Decision on Jun. 15, 2018,34

地域経済研究-第30号-02Yaqina TONG.indd 34

19/05/09 20:27

地域経済研究

第30号

2019

I analyzed these statistics and political institutions in order to expose how the actuality of acceptingTechnical Intern Trainees in Japan has just lost touch with the intent of Technical Intern Training Programas the originality in this study. This study also suggested that Japanese labor market should employ regularforeign labor force directly instead of accepting technical intern trainees under the Technical Intern
Training Program for international cooperation and technical transfer nominally.

2. Data and Methodology
I analyzed the demographic characteristics and time-series changes by using Japanese government
statistics obtained from the “Press Release of Foreign Residents”, “Statistics of Registered Foreign
Residents”, “Statistics of Foreign Residents” which are all conducted by Ministry of Justice, “Regarding theNotification Status of Foreign Workers’ Employment Status” conducted by Ministry of Health, Labor andWelfare (MHLW). The “Press Release of Foreign Residents” was posted annually from 2000 to 2012 onlywith very few details. “Statistics of Registered Foreign Residents” was posted annually from 2006 to 2012,
and turned to be as “Statistics of Foreign Residents” being posted semiannually by the end of June andDecember every year from 2013. The “Regarding the Notification Status of Foreign Workers’ Employment
Status” was conducted from 1993 annually and was made mandatory to all employers from 2007 that they
are obliged to report the situation of foreign workers employment to “Hello Work” (Japanese English namefor the public institution “Public Employment Security Office” under MHLW) in order to establish the
improvement of employment management and prevention of illegal work by foreign workers.
Before 2010, technical intern trainees were granted with a legal status of residence named “Trainee”.
Then, a new status of residence named “Technical Intern Training” was established to replace “Trainee”
after the July 2010 Amendment to the Immigration Control Act. However, the status of “Trainee” ismaintained its name after 2010 but has been limited to training that does not involve on-the-job training
whatsoever and public training that is conducted as an operation managed principally by funding from thenational government or local government bodies in Japan. It is generally for a person who belongs to public
or private organization as a common technical trainee in Japan. Therefore, this study exclusively analyzed
the foreign residents who are granted under “Trainee” from 2006 to 2009 and the “Technical Intern Training”
from 2010 to 2017 as target subject when using these government data abovementioned.
By using these government statistics, I examined an overview of the demographic fluctuation andcharacteristics of technical intern trainees by nationality, status of residence and prefecture. I also mademaps via ArcGIS 10.0 (Geographic Information System) to visualize these pubic data and find the trend of
their geographical distribution in order to know the tendency of their acceptance and residence.
3. Characteristics and Geographical Distribution of Technical Intern Trainees
3.1 Geographical Distribution
Human resources always concentrate intensely in big cities with advanced urban functions due to theurbanization. Although in Japan, this phenomena usually can be seen in Tokyo Metropolis, the solo Tokyo
centralization was not found out from the distribution of technical intern trainees (Figure 1 and Figure2) 1. Technical intern trainees distributed in regions with a high concentration of developed manufacturing
enterprises such as Kanto region, Tokai region and Hiroshima Prefecture in Chugoku region. The numberof technical intern trainees in Ibaraki Prefecture (13,841 people) and Hiroshima Prefecture (13,840 people)
are raking second after Aichi Prefecture (28,850 people).
1

 he data classification methods used in Figure 1 and Figure 2 is “Equal Interval”, which divides the range ofT
attribute values into equal-sized subranges.

35

地域経済研究-第30号-02Yaqina TONG.indd 35

19/05/09 20:27

Figure 1. Distribution of Technical Intern Trainees
Data from “Statistics of Foreign Residents” by Ministry of Justice (Dec. 2017)
In thinly populated district like Tohoku region, Shikoku region, and the southern part of Kyushu region,
Japanese residents and foreign residents both have very small population comparatively, but the ratio oftechnical intern trainees is conversely quite high in these regions (Figure 2). These trend of geographicaldistribution is mainly caused by the high concentration of manufacturing industries and SMEs which areserving as subcontractors for manufacturers in local region and suffering from a shortage of workers.
The most critical opinion against the Technical Intern Training Program is that some enterprises actuallytake advantage of technical intern trainees and treat them as cheaper and unskilled labor force to cover theworkforce shortage so that they can reduce their labor costs. This situation is strictly criticized because
this situation is quite far from the original purpose about technology transfer (Hashimoto, 2015; Idei, 2018).
However, for accepting technical intern trainees under the program legally, many office procedures arenecessary and the travel expenses from sending countries, the skill training, Japanese education, lifestyle
guidance and management for trainees also take a lot of cost. Therefore, in perspective, the enterprises
are not always necessarily for reducing the labor costs greatly by hiring cheaper technical intern trainees
36

地域経済研究-第30号-02Yaqina TONG.indd 36

19/05/09 20:27

地域経済研究

第30号

2019

Figure 2. Ratio of Technical Intern Trainee Population to Foreign Residents
Data from “Statistics of Foreign Residents” by Ministry of Justice (Dec. 2017)from overseas instead of Japanese workers, the root cause of that is the serious workforce shortage(Kamibayashi, 2015). These root cause was also analyzed by a research (Japan Finance Corporation, 2017)
on food-related enterprises (not only the manufacturing, but also the wholesale, retail, eating-drinking
industries relating to food and drink). It was reported that “only very few jobseekers apply for the availablejob” was the fundamental reason of workforce shortage (86.4% of enterprises replied this answer). The
enterprises need employable labor force immediately. Since the employment and the stable maintenanceof employment about Japanese workers are both increasingly difficult for regional SMEs to accomplish,
they have to turn to accepting technical intern trainees from overseas unwillingly but inevitably in order
to cover the workforce shortage, which is as a direct result of the serious decline in the labor population
simply due to the decreasing birthrate and aging of the Japanese population especially in depopulated rural
region.

37

地域経済研究-第30号-02Yaqina TONG.indd 37

19/05/09 20:27

3.2 Comparison with Different Statuses
The number of technical intern trainees is increasing rapidly as more as 13 times from 1996 (20,883
people) to 2017 (274,233 people). While, compared with other foreign residents who are permitted towork with or even without restriction2, the situation appears to be quite different. The other group withdifferent statuses of residence are increasing much more rapidly than technical intern trainees. “Permanent
Resident” has the biggest population and also has an overwhelmingly high rate of population increase(Figure 3). The status of permanent residence is granted when certain conditions have been satisfied
by foreign nationals who reside in Japan under another status of residence and who have applied forchange of status of residence to permanent residence or by those who have applied to acquire status

Figure 3. The Fluctuation Situation of Foreign Residents with Different Statues
Data from the “Press Release of Foreign Residents”, “Statistics of Registered Foreign
Residents”, “Statistics of Foreign Residents” by Ministry of Justiceof residence due to birth or renouncement of Japanese nationality. If a foreign resident is authorized tostay in Japan on a permanent basis, he/she will stay in Japan with the status of residence “Permanent
Resident” indefinitely and do any kind of work in any industry provided that his/her behavior is never withillegal acts and violations of discipline. Therefore, the status of residence “Permanent Resident” provides
much more advantageous treatments than other statuses of residence because it does not limit the status
holder's activities or period of stay. The group of “Permanent Resident” has been increased about morethan ten times larger from 1996 (72,008 people) to 2017 (749,191 people) and exceeded “Special Permanent
Resident” from 2007 becoming the most majority group of foreign residents. Both of the two groups are2

 person who is under the status of residence granted “Student” is in principle not permitted to work, but if he/sheAobtains the Permission to Engage in an Activity Other Than That Permitted by the Status of Residence Previously
Granted, then he/she can do activities (part-time job) within the scope of the permit for no more than 28 hours per
week.

38

地域経済研究-第30号-02Yaqina TONG.indd 38

19/05/09 20:27

地域経済研究

第30号

2019

based on civil status and positon in Japan without restrictions on activities and time limit on residence, andthe holder may engage in any type of employment activity as long as it is legal.
Conditions are quite different from residence based on the nature of foreigners’ activities like “TechnicalIntern Training”, “Student”, etc. Under the Technical Intern Training Program, acquisition of skills is
conducted pursuant to technical intern training plans in a maximum period of five years if the technicalintern trainee pass the specified Technical Intern Training Evaluation Examination on every stage infirst year and third year after their entry. Returning to the sending countries is set as the precondition of
accepting technical intern trainees and the occupations (80 types) and work subject (142 types)3 are also
strictly specified in ordinances of the competent ministries. Consequently, considering the population
size, work subject and employment duration, the contribution from “Permanent Resident” to Japaneselabor marker is actually bigger and wider than technical intern trainees. In one word, the Technical Intern
Training Program institutes like an on-the-job training system within limited scope for short-term employedperson from overseas as less skilled labor.
Although the original purpose of the program is to transfer skills, technologies, or knowledge, etc.
accumulated in Japan to developing and other regions and to promote international cooperation bycontributing to the development of human resources who can play roles in the economic development of
those developing region, do enterprises really have the motivation from the very beginning to invest onthe-job training and education for short-term employed person with necessary expenditure and cost in
every five years just for so-called technical transfer? As we all know as common sense, the answer is in thenegative.
Besides, according to the new actions for acceptance of new human resources from overseas on the
Basic Policy 2018, one of the actions is the creation of new status of residence for foreign people. It
mentioned that technical intern trainees who completed three-year technical intern training are exemptedfrom technical examination and he/she can change the status of residence from “Technical Intern Training”
to the new one if he/she is deemed to have a sufficient level of technical skills and Japanese proficiency.
The details such as the evaluation criterion for the new status of residence, the maximum period forworking, the criterion for the acquired level of technical skills, the ceiling on the number of acceptance,
etc. are still being discussed (until the submission of this article), but since the precondition of accepting
technical intern trainees is still returning to the sending countries, if these actions will be approved andestablished legally, technical intern trainees are allowed to change to the new status of residence after three
years, the current Technical Intern Training Program itself has to be reformed inevitably. Yet, no matter
how the Technical Intern Training Program is going to be improved, this still does not lead to finding afundamental solution to prevent enterprises from treating technical intern trainees as labor supply because
the whole country is suffering from the rapid advancement of aging society with lower child birthrates andserious decline in the labor force population. Japanese labor market needs labor supply urgently.

3.3 Time-series Changes in Characteristics of Technical Intern Trainees
The age of technical intern trainees ranges widely from 18 to 56 but the median age is at the age of 25.
The male technical intern trainees outnumbered the female by about 30 thousand people (sex ratio: 1.24)
with an evident trend that the number of female trainee is two times larger than the male from the age of
35-year-old (December, 2017). In other words, the majority of technical intern trainees are young people3 he newest approved occupations for transfer to Technical Intern Training (ii) and (iii) till the submission of thisTarticle has been updated on November 16, 2018https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/000403027.pdf (Acquired on December 14, 2018)39

地域経済研究-第30号-02Yaqina TONG.indd 39

19/05/09 20:27

Figure 4. The Fluctuation Situation of Foreign Residents by Nationality and the Percentage of Two
Trainee Acceptance Formats
Data from “Statistics of Registered Foreign Residents”, “Statistics of Foreign Residents” by
Ministry of Justicein their twenties while have a characteristic that the number of middle-aged female is quiet larger than themale over their late thirties. The very young technical intern trainees, compared with local Japanese labor
force, are mainly composed of Vietnamese, Chinese from Mainland China, Indonesian, Filipino, Thai (Figure4), etc. Generally, the incentive that prompt people to leave their home and go another country to work ina peaceful age is, first of all, earning money. Most of them come from Asian developing countries and also
the neighboring countries to Japan geographically. Economic disparity between Japan and the sending
countries also means a higher wage level in Japan. Higher wage always plays a role in the movement of
human resource as pull factor, so this is a direct incentive for young people, especially the young single
people, to leave their counties to do blue collar work in Japan. Until 2017, the international economic
disparity between Japan and the sending countries of technical intern trainees still remains large (Figure 6).
The GNI per capita, PPP of Thailand (17,040 dollars), which is comparatively higher than the other sending
countries, is only less than 40% of Japan. China has experienced rapid economic growth through Chinese
economic reform since 1978, rising from 990 dollars in 1990 to 16,760 dollars in 2017, but still remains quite
lower than Japan.
Chinese technical intern trainees had an overwhelming number (ranging from 60% to 75% to the total)
40

地域経済研究-第30号-02Yaqina TONG.indd 40

19/05/09 20:27

地域経済研究

第30号

2019

Figure 5. Rate of Increase in Technical Intern Trainee Population from 2010 to 2017
Figure 5. Data from “Statistics of Foreign Residents” by Ministry of Justiceuntil 2014 and was exceeded by Vietnamese trainees from 2016. China is geographically close to Japanso the travel expenses for Chinese trainees are lower than the other Asian countries generally. This is animmediate cause that enterprises do want to receive technical intern trainees from China for saving thenecessary expenses. In addition, the similarity on appearances won’t make Chinese trainees attract too
much attention on factory in local region, and to some extent, the process of training can be accomplishedmore efficiently and the communication can be performed more easily because the Chinese understand
Chinese characters in Japanese and usually have no religion so that they can work in food-related
manufacturing industry, which is seriously suffering from workforce shortage comparing with othermanufacturing industries.
Furthermore, foreign labor cooperation is an important part of international economic cooperation in
China as sending country, so Chinese side also offers pre-training service such as Japanese education inorder to meet the need from Japanese side. These are advantages of Chinese trainees for Japanese local
enterprise as accepting side (Kamibayashi, 2015). However, the number of Chinese trainees has recently
41

地域経済研究-第30号-02Yaqina TONG.indd 41

19/05/09 20:27

Figure 6. Comparison about GNI per capita, PPP (current international $) between Main Sending
Countries and Japan
Data from International Comparison Program database, World Bank, Last Updated in Jan. 30,
2019shrunk to about 77 thousand people (less than 30%) in 2017, almost decreased to the same number as it wasin 2010. The principal reason for the decreasing is the rapid economic growth in China. China has achieved
a significant economic development in the past ten years and, no needless to say, it led to minimum wage
increasing domestically. The reduction of economic disparity between Japan and China led to the reductionof Chinese technical intern trainees in Japan, although the gap is still huge.
As the incentive to Chinese trainees has turned to be lower than before, enterprises started actively toreceive technical intern trainees from Vietnam from 2010. The Vietnamese trainees have increased as moreas 24 times from 2006 (5,148 people) to 2017 (123,563 people) and became the largest (45%) among theother countries. The rapid increase of Vietnamese trainees contributed to an overall increase and made thenumber of the total technical intern trainees increased nearly four times. From 2010 to 2017, the number
has greatly increased in all 47 prefectures (Figure 5)4 and 40 prefectures have increased double times ormore. Aichi Prefecture always has the most numerous technical intern trainees (Figure 1) and has been
increased to 28 thousand in 2017, which is 11% of the total technical intern trainees in Japan.
While, the number in Okinawa Prefecture, which is not even in one of the four largest islands in Japan,
has increased from only 82 (2010) to 1,330 (2017) by an overwhelming rate of increase (1522%) comparing4

 he data classification methods used in Figure 5 is “Natural breaks (Jenks)”, by which the classes are based onTnatural groupings inherent in the data, because there are relatively big differences in the data values like Okinawa
Prefecture (1522%).

42

地域経済研究-第30号-02Yaqina TONG.indd 42

19/05/09 20:27

地域経済研究

第30号

2019

with the other prefectures. Besides Okinawa Prefecture, it is followed by Tokyo Prefecture (486%) and
Kanagawa Prefecture (411%) in Kanto region.

3.4 Relationship with Other Program for Employment
The demand in construction industry has greatly expanded being affected by the rebuilding efforts after
the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, and there are
36,589 trainees working in construction industry (“Regarding the Notification Status of Foreign Workers’
Employment Status”, Oct. 2017). Japanese government designed the Foreign Construction Worker
Acceptance Program to accept readily available foreign construction workers as a fixed-term urgent
measure. The public notice on Foreign Construction Worker Acceptance Business was promulgated by
the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) on August 13, 2014 and said that thisbusiness is separate from the Technical Intern Training and the status of residence granted is named“Specified Activities”.
Meanwhile, it is also said that trainees who have completed the Technical Intern Training Program are
eligible for this foreign construction worker acceptance business. A worker shall satisfy two requirementsthat he/she has participated in the Construction Technical Intern Training Program for approximately two
years and has a history of good conduct during the Technical Internship. Under the Foreign Construction
Worker Acceptance Program, the worker may change the status of residence from “Technical Intern
Training” to “Specified Activities” after he/she have completed Technical Intern Training Program inconstruction industry. The worker shall return to the sending country for a fixed period lasting not lessthan 1 month or 1 years depending on his/her course, and then are allowed to go back to Japan to do
construction-related work until 2022. Returning to sending country ultimately is also set as the preconditionof acceptance just like the Technical Intern Training Program. This new Foreign Construction Worker
Acceptance Program has been amended since November, 2017 and actually extended the fixed-term of
foreign workers’ working experience in Japan after their technical intern training. After all, this new
program is aimed at keeping foreign workers who are finished his/her apprenticeship in Technical Intern
Training Program and let them work regularly in Japan as readily employable labor force. There were 287
foreign workers who were granted the status of residence “Specified Activities” working in constructionindustry since its establishment in 2015 and it has been rapidly increased to 1,988 people in 2017 (“Regarding
the Notification Status of Foreign Workers’ Employment Status”, Oct. 2017). No matter how the original
purpose of the Technical Intern Training Program is emphasized as technology transfer, labor supply is
obviously the key factor that enterprises do want to receive them. Because if not, why was this Foreign
Construction Worker Acceptance Program established?
4. Reconsideration of the Technical Intern Training Program
4.1 Supervision System of Accepting Technical Intern Trainees
There are two types of procedures for accepting technical intern trainees, which are individual enterprise
type and supervising organization type. Individual enterprise type is, a format whereby enterprises andother businesses in Japan (implementing organizations) accept employees of overseas local subsidiaries,
joint venture companies, or trading partners (dispatching companies) for technical intern training by
the status of residence named “Technical Intern Training (a)”. Supervising organization type is, a format
whereby non-profit organizations such as business cooperatives and societies of commerce and industry(supervising organizations) accept technical intern trainees from dispatching companies (businessenterprises, etc. that located overseas) and send them to the affiliated enterprises (implementing
43

地域経済研究-第30号-02Yaqina TONG.indd 43

19/05/09 20:27

organizations) under a memorandum of cooperation between the government of sending country overseas
and the Japanese government. This supervising organization type is by the status of residence named“Technical Intern Training (b)” and more than 90% of technical intern trainees were accepted as this type
(Figure 4).
Implementing organizations must prepare a technical intern training plan and receive accreditation of thesuitability of the plan and receive guidance from the supervising organization that supervises the training.
Accreditation of technical intern training plan is performed by the Organization for Technical Intern
Training (OTIT) and if a violation occurs, the organization will be subject to an order for improvement
or cancellation of accreditation. There are upper limits on the number of technical intern trainees that in
implementing organization can accept and training courses of studying on related laws and Acts, training
management, lifestyle guidance, etc. are also required to them in order to implement the technical interntraining smoothly.
Although, this supervision system sounds rigorous, it is actually not very sound on management,
particularly on wage problems. Since the technical intern training is as a form of training skills andeducation to the trainees, the wage paid for trainees is always lower than the minimum wage level in theregion. The absconding problems and malpractice behavior regarding technical intern training, which may
threaten the public safety, have turned to be the biggest issues domestically and even internationally. Morethan 7 thousand trainees were missing in 2017 and “unpaid wages” was the most reported reason for theirdisappearance (46.5%) (Ministry of Justice, 2018).
Besides the issue about unpaid wages problem, the issues regarding liberalization of movement andhuman rights for natural person are also strictly criticized. Technical intern training is conducted in a
maximum period of five years and no family members are allowed to accompany. It is reasonable on any
country’s human resource policy considering the public safety. But the point is that the trainees cannot
select their employers and even the location in which prefectures by themselves before their entry.
Technical intern trainees are less skilled with lower educational background so they also do the same blue
collar work in their home countries. They are actually not like highly skilled professionals that can decide
their movement much more voluntarily, being impelled to move for better pay and on-the-job training
experience abroad, but only have to give up the family union, or even endure social, cultural or personalalienation from the Japanese community. They even know very few about Japan due to the information
divide. Japanese labor market needs labor supply, but labor force comes as human being who deserves
human rights.

4.2 Statistics relating to Technical Intern Trainee
The government statistics regarding foreign residents is not with great precision (Figure 7). The
deviation5 between the “Regarding the Notification Status of Foreign Workers’ Employment Status” by
MHLW and “Statistics of Foreign Residents” by Ministry of Justice during 2011 to 2017 is around about
20 thousand. Great precision in statistics is the first step on developing a better policy or amending Acts,
program, etc. Data must be collected accurately. “Regarding the Notification Status of Foreign Workers’
Employment Status” was made mandatory to all employers from 2007 that they are obliged to report
the situation of foreign workers employment to “Hello Work” in order to establish the improvement of
employment management and prevention of illegal work by foreign workers. An employer who has failed
5

 he collection of “Regarding the Notification Status of Foreign Workers’ Employment Status” by MHLW is by theT
end of October every year. “Statistics of Foreign Residents” by Ministry of Justice is collected by the end of
December every year, which is only two month later than the former.

44

地域経済研究-第30号-02Yaqina TONG.indd 44

19/05/09 20:27

地域経済研究

第30号

2019

Figure 7. Comparison about the number of technical intern trainees registered in the two government
statistics
Date from “Regarding the Notification Status of Foreign Workers’ Employment Status” by
MHLW, “Statistics of Foreign Residents” by Ministry of Justice
to make the notification shall be punished by a penal fine of not more than 300,000 yen, but the precision
is still not very good enough. It is also a problem caused from the management and supervision on
enterprises.

5. Conclusion
It will be the 26th year of Technical Intern Training Program in 2019. Though Technical Intern Training
Program has been amended for several times since its establishment, there are many opposition to thisprogram. This study analyzed the geographical distribution, characteristics of technical intern trainee andreconsidered the supervision system of Technical Intern Training Program for accepting technical interntrainees. According to these analyses, this study clarified the actuality of accepting technical intern trainees
in Japan and found that the Technical Intern Training Program is now lost touch with its original intent andeven untimely after the Basic Policy 2018 was adopted. This study also emphasized that Japanese labormarket should employ regular foreign labor force directly instead of accepting technical intern trainees
under the Technical Intern Training Program for international cooperation and technical transfer nominally.
Instruction, adequate remuneration and avoid taking advantage of lower salaries are vital when weare attracting human resource to come and work with them. Promote, and when necessary, strengthen
quality apprenticeship systems that ensure a high level of implementation. In order to achieve the original
45

地域経済研究-第30号-02Yaqina TONG.indd 45

19/05/09 20:27

objectives of the program, it is necessary to optimize its operation in line with the original intent and, atthe same time, to review the program itself. Now, almost every developed country is facing the situation of
depopulation and aging society, the program itself in Japan is no longer suitable in this particular time. It istime to think about some better systems else to take the place of it.

References
Act on the Appropriate Implementation of Technical Intern Training for Foreign Nationals, and Protectionof Technical Intern Trainees (Amendment of Act No. 71 of 2018)
Cabinet Office (2018), Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform 2018,https://www5.cao.go.jp/keizai-shimon/kaigi/cabinet/2018/decision0615.html (Acquired on December 14,
2018)
Hashimoto, Y (2015), Assessing the New Technical Intern Training Program through the Cases ofAgricultural and Construction Industries, The Japanese Journal of Labor Studies, No. 662, pp.76-87
Kamibayashi, C (2015), Accepting Foreign Workers in Japanese Society-The Dilemma of a Temporary
Immigrants Program, University of Tokyo Press
Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act (Amendment of Act No. 113 of 2014)
Idei, Y (2018), The Actuality about Foreign Technical Intern Trainees and Students − The Fate of “Slave
Labor” Who Has Been Covered with Concession (Issue 1. Foreign Labor Force and Immigrants in Japan),Toshimondai, No.109, pp.11-15 (in Japanese)
Japan Finance Corporation (2017), Research of Food-related Enterprises Trend for The First Half ofYear 2017 (Special Question), https://www.jfc.go.jp/n/news/2017/ (Acquired on December 14, 2018) (inJapanese)
Ministry of Justice (2018), Press Release about The Actuality of Technical Intern Training Program (Issues
on Fraudulent Acts and Disappearance), http://www.meti.go.jp/policy/mono_info_service/mono/fiber/
ginoujisshukyougikai/180323/4_moj-genjyou.pdf#search=%27%E6%B3%95%E5%8B%99%E7%9C%81+%E
6%8A%80%E8%83%BD%E5%AE%9F%E7%BF%92%E7%94%9F+%E5%A4%B1%E8%B8%AA%E8%80%85%27(Acquired on December 14, 2018) (in Japanese)＊ Publication of this article depends on judgement of two anonymous referees.（本稿は，２人の匿名レフリーによる査読を経て掲載したものである。）

46

地域経済研究-第30号-02Yaqina TONG.indd 46

19/05/09 20:27