Reported mistreatment of foreign workers in Japan is down by 11% since a law took effect last November
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Fewer Japanese companies were found to have mistreated its foreign trainees last year, the Justice Ministry said.
The number of reported mistreatments has been down for the second year in a row, with just 213 employers in Japan being reported – a 10.9% decrease from the 2016 figure.
The most common problem was unpaid wages with 139 cases. Document tampering and forgery, including falsified tax statements to conceal wage non-payment, saw 73 cases.
Labour law violations such as illegal overtime came up to 24 cases.
The ministry also said there were a total of 299 cases of unfair practice.
Under the Technical Intern Training Program, trainees from abroad have complained about illegally low wages and long working hours, reported Japan Times.
A new law to improve the treatment of trainees and strengthen supervision of companies took effect in last November.
Under the law, Japanese employers are obliged to secure accreditation for their training programs.
The government also created a watchdog for the program – the Organization for Technical Intern Training (OTIT) – to more effectively screen whether companies are complying with the new rules and not exploiting trainees.
Under the new law, employers found to have violated the trainees’ rights could face up to 10 years in prison or JPY3 million for physical abuse.
