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Yomiuri: Firms no longer allowed to confiscate foreign trainees’ passports

Today’s Yomiuri reported that the Ministry of Justice “looks set to stop companies” from continuing the practice of seizing passports belonging to foreign nationals who work for those firms under the foreign worker trainee program.

For an introduction to what the foreign trainee program is, here is a description from the Association for International Manpower Development for Medium and Small Enterprises.

We also learn from the Yomiuri that these firms will no longer be allowed to restrict the movement of such employees during their non-working hours. After describing these two new guidelines, the Yomiuri gives us the understatement of the week:

The foreign trainee system was designed to enhance international relations by introducing foreign trainees to new technology and skills, but it often has been misused as an excuse to bring unskilled workers into the country.

Other media sources have used other terms: ‘Slave labor’ case makes Japan rethink foreign trainee program from Bloomberg, and Constant trouble haunts Japan’s foreign trainee program from Kyodo.

One would assume that confiscating passports has to violate some form of law - most likely an international agreement. And confining the movements of workers on their off hours is at best childish, at worse a violation of human rights.

For those of us hoping to see Japan grow into a model of leadership for the region, the necessity of such measures is another black eye on the image of the nation. Once the Ministry of Justice revises its regulations, we’ll be interested to see if any punitive measures are included, or if not confiscating passports of foreign nationals simply remains a ‘guideline.’

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