A government panel on Friday proposed scrapping Japan's controversial 30-year-old trainee program for foreigners and creating a new system to address alleged unpaid wages and other human rights violations, its interim report showed.
The panel called for the new system to clearly state that it is intended to "secure" human resources, unlike the existing program, which says its purpose is to transfer knowledge and skills to developing countries.
Critics say that in practice, the current program has been a cover for companies to import cheap labor as the working-age population in Japan shrinks.
The 15-strong expert panel of academics and representatives of local governments is finalizing proposals to submit to the government by fall this year.
In the face of a rapidly aging population and severe labor shortages, the government hopes to encourage foreign workers to take up long-term careers in Japan.
The panel will continue discussions on how to protect foreign workers, including from dishonest brokers, according to panel members.
Some brokers and supervising organizations have failed to prevent abuses against the trainees.
The interim report also calls for enabling workers to change their jobs within the same business category and transfer to different workplaces, which was not allowed in principle under the present system.
Established in 1993, the system, introduced primarily for the agriculture and manufacturing sectors, has been under scrutiny following multiple allegations of trainee harassment and abuse.
As of the end of 2022, around 325,000 foreign technical trainees were enrolled in the program.
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