TOKYO - Around 36 percent of brokers for a new foreign-worker training and employment program set to start in April have yet to secure the minimum number of certified Japanese-language teachers or identify enough candidates, a government survey showed Friday.
In the survey conducted by the Immigration Services Agency from Oct. 5 to Oct. 7, 14.6 percent said they had secured the required number of certified Japanese-language teachers, while 19.0 percent said they expected to do so and 30.5 percent said they were still coordinating.
Foreign workers under the Employment for Skill Development Program, set to replace the country's controversial technical intern training program next year, will be required to have at least Japanese-language proficiency at the most basic N5 level.
"We will work with relevant ministries and agencies to understand the actual situation and secure personnel," an agency official said.
The technical intern program has often been criticized as a source of cheap labor and human rights violations. The new program will allow workers to change jobs under certain conditions and encourage them to transition to the Specified Skilled Worker status after working for three years in principle.
The survey, which targeted 1,880 supervising organizations registered on a mailing list for the technical intern program, garnered responses from 348 planning to also act as brokers for the new program.
