Japón - Abuse of «trainee visa» system for sweatshop labour (2010)

Employers also abuse the Industrial Training Programme (ITP) and Technical Internship Programme (TIP), which provide three-year visas for unskilled foreign workers to come to Japan to be trained. Despite promises of being provided training in technological skills, many of the tens of thousands of foreign workers who come to Japan end up in sweatshops, forced to work long hours in dangerous conditions for as little as half the minimum wage. Employers additionally confiscate their work permits and deny them their right to form a union and bargain collectively. In many cases, employment agencies which provide foreign workers or companies from the sending countries also abuse the system and exploit the workers through inferior employment contracts. As a result, the law for partial amendment to the “Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act and the Special Act on the Immigration Control of, Inter Alia, Those who have Lost Japanese Nationality Pursuant to the Treaty of Peace with Japan” (hereinafter referred to as “the amended Immigration Control Act”) was passed and enacted at the regular Diet session of 2009, and promulgated on 15 July 2009. The amended Immigration Control Act contains new provisions including revision of the ITP and the TIP. The amended act will come into force in July 2010.