{"id":17147,"date":"2022-08-21T19:38:08","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T02:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17147"},"modified":"2022-08-21T19:38:08","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T02:38:08","slug":"debitos-sna-vm37-reforming-japans-dickensian-foreign-trainee-program-aug-22-2022-and-why-i-remain-skeptical-that-reforms-will-actually-happen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17147","title":{"rendered":"Debito&#8217;s SNA VM37: &#8220;Reforming Japan&#8217;s Dickensian Foreign Trainee Program,&#8221; Aug 22, 2022, and why I remain skeptical that reforms will actually happen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Books, eBooks, and more from Debito Arudou, Ph.D. (click on icon):<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/handbook.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11452\" title=\"Guidebookcover.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Guidebookcover.jpg\" alt=\"Guidebookcover.jpg\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/japaneseonly.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11335\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/japaneseonlyebookcovertext-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"japaneseonlyebookcovertext\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/handbook.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1298\" title=\"Handbook2ndEdcover.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Handbook2ndEdcover.jpg\" alt=\"Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/inappropriate.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8577\" title=\"inappropriatecoverthumb150x226\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/inappropriatecoverthumb150x226.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/japaneseonly.html#japanese\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1700\" title=\"jobookcover\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/jobookcover-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\u300c\u30b8\u30e3\u30d1\u30cb\u30fc\u30ba\u30fb\u30aa\u30f3\u30ea\u30fc\u3000\u5c0f\u6a3d\u5165\u6d74\u62d2\u5426\u554f\u984c\u3068\u4eba\u7a2e\u5dee\u5225\u300d\uff08\u660e\u77f3\u66f8\u5e97\uff09\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cinemabstruso.de\/strawberries\/main.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2735\" title=\"sourstrawberriesavatar\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/sourstrawberriesavatar.jpg\" alt=\"sourstrawberriesavatar\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?cat=32\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4921\" title=\"debitopodcastthumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/debitopodcastthumb.jpg\" alt=\"debitopodcastthumb\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12473\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-12474\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/FodorsJapan2014cover-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"FodorsJapan2014cover\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nUPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito<br \/>\nDEBITO.ORG PODCASTS on iTunes, subscribe free<br \/>\n&#8220;LIKE&#8221; US on Facebook at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/debitoorg\">http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/debitoorg<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embeddedrcsmJapan\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embeddedrcsmJapan<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/handbookimmigrants\">http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/handbookimmigrants<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JapaneseOnlyTheBook\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JapaneseOnlyTheBook<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BookInAppropriate\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BookInAppropriate<\/a><br \/>\nIf you like what you read and discuss on Debito.org, please consider helping us stop hackers and defray maintenance costs with a little donation via my webhoster:<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dreamhost.com\/donate.cgi?id=17701\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/secure.newdream.net\/donate4.gif\" alt=\"Donate towards my web hosting bill!\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<i>All donations go towards website costs only. Thanks for your support!<\/i><\/p>\n<p><strong>Visible Minorities: Reforming Japan&#8217;s Dickensian Foreign Trainee Program<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>August 22, 2022, By Debito Arudou<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>SNA (Tokyo) &#8212; News Item: video footage surfaced in 2020 of a Vietnamese \u201ctrainee\u201d being physically abused by Japanese co-workers at a construction company in Okayama Prefecture, resulting in injuries including broken ribs and a broken tooth. Despite a criminal complaint, the Okayama Prefectural Police Prosecutor\u2019s Office declined to prosecute the four Japanese co-workers involved.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Here is the video footage that started it all.<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PK1HhnvktOc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PK1HhnvktOc&amp;t=76s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PK1HhnvktOc&amp;t=76s<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>This Vietnamese trainee is not alone. Despite the strict Covid border controls, currently 280,000 foreigners toil as temporary low-wage workers in Japan\u2019s farms and factories nationwide. Given Japan\u2019s often nasty work environments, which generally combine exploitative work ethics with a normalized bullying culture, this means that more than a quarter of a million foreigners are here and in harm\u2019s way under a system of unfettered abuse&#8230;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>[&#8230;]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Fortunately, there are some stirrings that reforms might happen. Even the conservative Yomiuri Shinbun\u00a0said in an August 20 editorial that reforming the system is \u201cunavoidable.\u201d Moreover, the government announced last month a full-scale review of the program, intending to \u201cbring this long-standing issue to a historical conclusion.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>I am skeptical these\u00a0reforms will achieve\u00a0what is promised, which is basically to resolve the\u00a0ongoing\u00a0human\u00a0rights abuses which have always characterized the trainee system.\u00a0One reason for my doubts is because&#8230;<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n==================================<\/p>\n<p>Read the rest at <a href=\"https:\/\/shingetsunewsagency.com\/2022\/08\/22\/visible-minorities-reforming-japans-dickensian-foreign-trainee-program\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/shingetsunewsagency.com\/2022\/08\/22\/visible-minorities-reforming-japans-dickensian-foreign-trainee-program\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>======================<br \/>\n<em>Do you like what you read on Debito.org? \u00a0Want to help keep the archive active and support Debito.org&#8217;s activities? \u00a0Please consider donating a little something. \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13748\">More details here<\/a>. Or if you prefer something less complicated, just click on an advertisement below.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SNA &#8212; News Item: video footage surfaced in 2020 of a Vietnamese \u201ctrainee\u201d being physically abused by Japanese co-workers at a construction company in Okayama Prefecture, resulting in injuries including broken ribs and a broken tooth. Despite a criminal complaint, the Okayama Prefectural Police Prosecutor\u2019s Office declined to prosecute the four Japanese co-workers involved.  Here is the video footage that started it all. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PK1HhnvktOc&#038;t=76s <\/p>\n<p>This Vietnamese trainee is not alone. Despite the strict Covid border controls, currently 280,000 foreigners toil as temporary low-wage workers in Japan\u2019s farms and factories nationwide. Given Japan\u2019s often nasty work environments, which generally combine exploitative work ethics with a normalized bullying culture, this means that more than a quarter of a million foreigners are here and in harm\u2019s way under a system of unfettered abuse&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, there are some stirrings that reforms might happen. Even the conservative Yomiuri Shinbun\u00a0said in an August 20 editorial that reforming the system is \u201cunavoidable.\u201d Moreover, the government announced last month a full-scale review of the program, intending to \u201cbring this long-standing issue to a historical conclusion.\u201d  I am skeptical these\u00a0reforms will achieve\u00a0what is promised, which is basically to resolve the\u00a0ongoing\u00a0human\u00a0rights abuses which have always characterized the trainee system.\u00a0One reason for my doubts is because&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the rest at https:\/\/shingetsunewsagency.com\/2022\/08\/22\/visible-minorities-reforming-japans-dickensian-foreign-trainee-program\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,54,28,18,43,22,20,5,12,4,14,16,15,13,11,64,53,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-pinprick-protests","category-anti-discrimination-templates","category-academia","category-bad-business-practices","category-cultural-issue","category-history","category-human-rights","category-immigration-assimilation","category-japanese-government","category-japanese-politics","category-labor-issues","category-lawsuits","category-media","category-problematic-foreign-treatment","category-sitys","category-unsustainable-japanese-society","category-8"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17147"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17152,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17147\/revisions\/17152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}