Japan: Toyota discloses survey results on recruitment fees paid by foreign technical intern trainees
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"As Japan accepts more foreign workers, Toyota official reflects on human rights," 18 January 2024
Against the backdrop of labor shortages, the employment of foreign workers is growing in Japan...
To avoid [human rights] risks, some businesses have started to actively disclose information. The Mainichi Shimbun spoke with Yosuke Okuyama, former head of the global labor policy office at Toyota Motor Corp., which has been investigating the employment conditions of foreign workers within its group and business partners, and releasing that information...
Toyota surveyed the status of these foreign technical intern trainees, and collected evidence from trainees from Vietnam, Indonesia and China about whether they'd had to pay fees when they came to Japan. It confirmed 27 cases in which the trainees had to pay "relatively high fees." All 27 of the cases involved trainees from Vietnam, who paid the money to the dispatching organization in their home country...
High fees have been singled out as a factor preventing trainees from escaping workplaces with low wages, long hours and other serious problems...
Okuyama, who was in charge of the survey, said of the decision to publicly announce the information, "Fees have been criticized by various countries as a seed of forced labor. We think it's important to convey to those in Japan and abroad that we are continually monitoring the situation regarding the acceptance of trainees and the fees."...