1Advisory Panel of Experts on Ideal Form of Technical Intern
Training Program and Specified Skilled Worker System
Interim Report (May 11, 2023) (Excerpt)
No. 4 Direction of Discussions
1. Introduction (Viewpoints of Discussions)
Amid the increasingly severe labor shortage, foreign nationals are living in Japan and serving
as integral pillars of Japan's economy and society. Given such circumstances, we must bear in
mind that we should realize a society of harmonious coexistence with foreign nationals, safeguard
their human rights, and strive to appropriately accept foreign nationals as important members of
our industries, economy, and local communities. This will realize a diverse, dynamic society in
which foreign nationals working in Japan can demonstrate their full potential and consequently
contribute to easing the serious labor shortage. From these viewpoints, we intend to resolve the
challenges facing the existing Technical Intern Training Program (hereinafter referred to as
"TITP") and Specified Skilled Worker System (hereinafter referred to as "SSWS") and gain
international understanding. To this end, we indicate the direction of discussions for each issue.
2. Regarding the purposes of TITP and SSWS
(1) How to design systems that reflect desirable purposes and actual needs
○しろまる The purpose of the current TITP is to make international contributions through human
resource development, and the program holds as a basic principle that it must not be used as
a way to cover labor supply and demand. Despite that, technical intern trainees are
contributing as a labor force of Japanese enterprises, etc., and it has been pointed out that
there is a gap between the purpose of the program and its actual roles. In light of such
circumstances, it is undesirable to continue accepting trainees as workers in the future while
stating international contributions through human resource development as the sole purpose
of TITP. Therefore, we should consider abolishing the current TITP and establishing a new
program aimed at securing and developing human resources. In other words, we need to
face the fact that TITP is actually performing the function of not only developing, but also
securing human resources, and thoroughly review the current program to reflect such reality
of its roles.
○しろまる We should consider positioning the human resource development function of TITP to also
be the purpose of the new program. This is because, by developing foreign nationals who
have been accepted as unskilled workers into workers with a certain level of expertise or2skills, the program makes contributions to the domestic industries and Japan's economy
through trainees continuing to work in Japan and playing active roles by making use of their
skills, and the program also makes international contributions through trainees returning to
their home countries and making use of their skills there.
○しろまる With regard to SSWS, we should conduct examinations from the direction of continuing to
use the current system while reviewing the system and making necessary improvements and
achieving a balance with the new program aimed at securing and developing human
resources, in order to respond to the severe labor shortage. In this process, we will keep
discussing the relationship with the new program, and also, considering that various
challenges including the support for foreign human resources have been pointed out, we will
discuss the details of how to decide the numbers of foreign nationals that can be expected
to be accepted and the industrial fields that will accept foreign nationals, how to provide
appropriate and effective support with a view to reviewing the roles of registered support
organizations, and how to improve the governmental supervisory function and the support
function for specified skilled workers, toward drawing up the final report.
○しろまる Regarding how individual-enterprise-type technical intern training should be handled and
how we should smoothly shift from the current TITP to the new program, we will discuss
the details toward drawing up the final report.
(2) Establishing a career-path that enables foreign nationals to continue to grow and to play
active roles over the medium to long term (including how the job categories of the new
program and SSWS should be designed)
○しろまる From the perspective of realizing an easy-to-grasp new program and SSWS through which
foreign nationals can work and play active roles in Japan while advancing their careers, we
should consider aligning the job categories of the new program with the industrial fields of
SSWS so that the foreign nationals can smoothly move on from the new program to SSWS.
○しろまる In that process, we will consider reviewing all job categories and industrial fields of the
current TITP and SSWS, after verifying the status of efforts being made for improving
productivity and securing domestic human resources on the premise of the demand from the
industries and the necessity of accepting foreign nationals, while basically adopting the
concept of the industrial fields of SSWS in terms of securing human resources, and will
discuss the details toward drawing up the final report.
○しろまる From the viewpoint of human resource development, we should conduct discussions in the
direction of developing and assessing the essential skills and knowledge foreign nationals
are to acquire, thereby visualizing the improvement of their skills, and creating a system
under which they can engage in a wide range of work from a perspective of acquiring
systematic capabilities with an eye to moving on to SSWS. As it is important to objectively3measure the proficiency level of the skills acquired, in this process we will discuss the details
on how such assessment should be conducted, while also taking into account the status of
operation of the trade skills test and technical intern training evaluation examination, etc.,
toward drawing up the final report.
○しろまる In addition, we will also discuss the details of creative efforts of accepting companies, etc.
to provide incentives for foreign workers to continue working for the companies, etc. along
with efforts to improve the treatment of the foreign workers and improve frameworks for
their appropriate and efficient development in the companies, etc., toward drawing up the
final report.
○しろまる In order for Japanese companies, etc. to be chosen as attractive workplaces, there is a need
to create a mechanism whereby foreign nationals can make further use of the skills and
knowledge they acquire in Japan. From such a viewpoint, we should consider applying the
status of Specified Skilled Worker (ii) to other industrial fields and discuss how these
industrial fields should be selected based on the necessity of such industrial fields, as an
incentive for both foreign nationals and accepting companies, etc. If independent foreign
workers who have acquired high skills live in Japan in the medium to long term with peace
of mind and work while demonstrating their capabilities, it will contribute to Japan's
industrial and economic development. Thus, toward drawing up the final report, we will
discuss the details of how Japanese companies and other workplaces will be chosen as
attractive workplaces, including the aspects of treatment such as the wage, and effective
acquisition/assessment of skills, while taking into account the government's policy on
acceptance of foreign workers.
○しろまる Moreover, in order to help foreign human resources advance their career, we should also
consider whether measures could be taken to enable foreign human resources to play active
roles in their home countries by capitalizing on the skills they have acquired in Japan.
(3) How to decide the numbers of foreign nationals that can be expected to be accepted
(including the current treatment under SSWS)
○しろまる In order to appropriately respond to the domestic labor shortage under the new program
which is also aimed at securing human resources and SSWS, toward drawing up the final
report, we will discuss the details in the direction of increasing transparency and
foreseeability by, for example, introducing a system whereby the efforts of ministries and
agencies in charge of industrial fields are assessed, the status of labor shortage and the
impact on the domestic labor market are assessed, and the numbers of foreign nationals that
can be expected to be accepted and the industrial fields that will accept foreign nationals are
decided based on opinions of various stakeholders, such as labor-management organizations,
and evidence.43. Regarding prevention of human rights violations and other measures for creating a
mechanism that is beneficial for both foreign nationals and Japan
(1) How employer changes should be handled (for technical intern trainees)
○しろまる Under the current TITP, foreign nationals are trained by a single employer, in principle, so
that they can acquire skills and knowledge systematically and efficiently within a limited
time. With regard to the new program, however, we should conduct examinations in the
following direction: while retaining to some degree the restrictions on employer changes
specifically aimed at human resource development, we should enhance the rights of foreign
nationals as workers because of the inclusion of securing human resources as a purpose of
the program, and should ease the overall restrictions on employer changes in order to fulfill
the purport of the new program and protect the target foreign nationals.
○しろまる As for how restrictions on employer changes should be designed, we will discuss the details
toward drawing up the final report from a comprehensive viewpoint that takes into account
the relationship with the purpose of the new program to secure human resources and human
resource development, such as the time required for human resource development at the
accepting companies, etc., the costs borne by the accepting companies, etc. at the time when
foreign nationals come to Japan and during the human resource development, the securing
of human resources and human resource development in the respective industrial fields and
rural areas, the relationship with Japan's labor legislations, and the impact on the exercise
of rights by workers.
○しろまる In addition, we will discuss the details on a relief mechanism for facilitating foreign nationals
to exercise rights when there are human rights violations or law violations and measures for
promptly securing a new employer, while taking into account the current operation status.
In this process, given that a certain number of disappearance cases of foreign nationals could
occur either under the new program or SSWS, we should conduct examinations by also
giving consideration to the viewpoint that foreign nationals would neither become offenders
nor victims of crime.
(2) How supervisory and support functions should be provided
A. How supervision and support should be provided by supervising organizations and
registered support organizations (including whether they should continue to exist)
○しろまる In order to smoothly accept unskilled foreign human resources with insufficient Japanese
language proficiency from overseas and carry out appropriate human resource
development, etc., functions of supervising organizations under the current TITP,5including the international matching function, function to supervise and support accepting
companies, etc. for properly accepting foreign nationals, and function to provide overall
protection and support, etc. for foreign nationals spanning their working lives to everyday
lives, as well as the function of the registered support organizations under the current
SSWS to support foreign nationals are important.
○しろまる However, more than a small number of supervising organizations under the current TITP
are incapable of preventing and addressing human rights violations and improper working
conditions at accepting companies, etc., and it is necessary to strictly regulate or eliminate
such organizations. In addition, registered support organizations under the current SSWS
can be registered irrespective of whether they are corporations or individuals, and more
than a small number of them are incapable of providing overall support for foreign
nationals spanning their working lives to everyday lives. Therefore, we should consider
reviewing how support should be provided by registered support organizations, and again
strictly regulate or eliminate organizations that cannot fully perform their functions.
○しろまる In order to ensure that only excellent organizations that can appropriately perform the
international matching function and the function to support the accepting companies, etc.
and foreign nationals are approved as supervising organizations under the new program,
we should conduct discussions in the direction of securing supervising organizations'
independence from the accepting companies, etc. and their neutrality and tightening the
requirements concerning supervision, protection and support. Moreover, in order to
ensure that only excellent organizations that can appropriately perform the function to
provide necessary support for foreign workers are approved as registered support
organizations, we should conduct examinations in the direction of tightening the
requirements concerning support. Toward drawing up the final report, we will discuss the
details of these requirements, including how expenses should be collected from accepting
companies, etc., while taking into account the current operation status.
○しろまる In order to enable accepting companies, etc. to use excellent supervising organizations
and registered support organizations with peace of mind, we should conduct examinations
in the direction of disclosing assessments of such organizations' business activities, and
providing incentives to excellent organizations particularly in the areas of supporting
accepting companies, etc. and protecting foreign workers.
○しろまる We should discuss how roles should be appropriately shared between support by
supervising organizations and registered support organizations and support by local
governments, etc. under the new program and SSWS, in terms of support for accepting
companies, etc. and support for foreign nationals.6B. How the State should be involved and how the Organization for Technical Intern
Training should be (including whether it should continue to exist)
○しろまる As support such as supervision, guidance, and consultation services which the
Organization for Technical Intern Training has provided based on laws and regulations
have certain effects and are indispensable for proper acceptance of foreign nationals, we
should conduct examinations in the direction of continuing to use the organization by
providing it with necessary resources according to its roles.
○しろまる Similar to technical intern trainees, foreign nationals who are Specified Skilled Workers
(i) also need certain support spanning their working lives to everyday lives due to the
level of their Japanese language proficiency and skills and knowledge, but there are limits
to expecting accepting companies, etc. to provide all of such support. In addition, there
are cases where it is appropriate for the State to provide guidance and supervision to
accepting companies, etc. based on laws and regulations from a neutral standpoint.
Accordingly, also with regard to SSWS, we should continue to discuss how appropriate
and effective support can be provided by registered support organizations and how the
governmental supervisory function should be carried out, while identifying and analyzing
the actual conditions of acceptance and support.
○しろまる We should conduct discussions in the direction that under the new program ministries and
agencies in charge of industrial fields would play the role of supporting a better
acceptance for foreign nationals in consistency with Japan's foreign worker acceptance
policy and other policies, based on circumstances specific to the respective industries,
from the viewpoint of industrial policy, while giving consideration to the costs to be borne
by accepting companies, etc. Specifically, we will discuss the details toward drawing up
the final report bearing in mind that ministries and agencies in charge of industrial fields
will mutually coordinate with industrial associations under their initiatives, and play roles
including the following: assessing the efforts for improving productivity and securing
domestic human resources made in each industry and the status of labor shortage after
such efforts are made; providing support so that the accepted foreign workers would
choose to work in Japan and be able to live and work with peace of mind; and ensuring
appropriate acceptance within each industry. In addition, we should discuss further
strengthening of these efforts by ministries and agencies in charge of industrial fields also
with respect to SSWS.
○しろまる From the viewpoint of small- and medium-sized enterprises and micro businesses in rural
areas securing and developing the needed human resources, not only ministries and
agencies in charge of industrial fields, but also local governments should consider making
efforts for developing environment where foreign nationals can work and live with peace
of mind.7C. What sending organizations should be like and how foreign nationals should be sent
based on the actual conditions and mechanism of the international labor market
(including measures to reduce the burden of debts incurred before entering Japan and
measures to further enhancing Memorandums of Cooperation [MOC])
○しろまる In the international labor market, job recruiters and job seekers are far apart. Therefore,
there is a reality that a brokerage function works in the market through the intervention
of supervising organizations and sending organizations, etc. with the parties concerned
such as the accepting companies, etc. and foreign nationals themselves bearing the costs
for employment placement. If unscrupulous brokers or sending organizations intervene
in this process, and foreign nationals themselves bear unreasonable costs and incur
substantial debts, it could have adverse effects on the foreign nationals' activities after
coming to Japan. Therefore, further response measures such as eliminating unscrupulous
brokers and sending organizations should be considered.
○しろまる Regarding this point, there have been indications that, even if a governmental organization
itself were to perform the function of international employment placement, this will not
eliminate the possibility that an unscrupulous broker will intervene before the
governmental organization is reached. While taking that point into account, we will
discuss the details of the brokerage function of the new program toward drawing up the
final report from a comprehensive viewpoint, including international rules on the bearing
of costs in employment placement, consistency with the sending system and relevant laws
and regulations of the sending countries, the operation status of acceptance systems in
other countries, cost-effectiveness, and the matching mechanism incorporating a
significant information asymmetry between job recruiters and job seeker in the
international labor market, so as to reduce the burden on foreign nationals in the
international employment placement process as far as possible.
○しろまる Toward preventing collection of excessive fees, eradicating unscrupulous sending
organizations, and ensuring appropriate operation of sending organizations, we should
conduct examinations in the direction of strengthening international efforts for proper
acceptance of foreign human resources, such as preparing an effective MOC with the
other country, also under the new program.
(3) Efforts to enhance the Japanese language proficiency of foreign nationals (including
how the costs should be borne)
○しろまる As it is important that foreign workers have a minimum level of Japanese language
proficiency necessary for leading everyday lives and working lives when they come to Japan,
we should discuss measures to ensure that foreign nationals have the necessary Japanese8language proficiency before starting work in Japan, such as setting Japanese language
proficiency requirements for the test upon entry to Japan and post-entry lectures, while
sufficiently considering the extent of burden caused to foreign nationals for the Japanese
language study before coming to Japan and the impact on stable securing of human resources.
○しろまる As it is important for foreign workers to enhance their Japanese language proficiency even
after coming to Japan and while continuing to work and live in Japan, and as such
proficiency is also required for enabling appropriate skill formation and long-term work, we
should conduct discussions in the direction of establishing a system that can help them
gradually enhance their Japanese language proficiency, including creation of incentives for
the accepting companies, etc. and foreign workers to voluntarily participate in Japanese
language education.
○しろまる As for the costs and necessary support associated with post-entry Japanese language
education for foreign workers, we should conduct examinations in the direction that while
having the accepting companies, etc. bear the costs instead of foreign workers, in principle,
the State and local governments should appropriately provide support such as development
of a Japanese language education environment and increase the opportunities for Japanese
language education, from the perspective that smooth working and skill formation of foreign
workers contribute to the accepting companies, etc. as well as to the local industries and
economy, and also from the perspective of providing livelihood support to foreign workers
and enabling them to live in harmony with the other residents of their communities. On such
basis, toward drawing up the final report, we will discuss the details of how roles should be
shared and burdens should be borne between the accepting companies, etc. and the State or
the local government, while taking into account the requirements and mechanisms
concerning Japanese language proficiency under the new program.
End of Document