The Indonesian government has accused the Japanese authorities of not paying attention to the purpose of the internship program and asked them to cut the duration of the program to prevent the workers from being used as a source of cheap labor.
One of the most criticized aspects of Japan’s Technical Intern Training Program (TITP) is the alleged exploitation and poor working conditions of participants. Quite a number of these workers have claimed that they have received no proper technical training but have been forced to do repetitive work for low wages. Among these complainants are Indonesian workers.
According to Minister of Manpower Ida Fauziyah, Indonesia is indeed aware of how valuable this opportunity is for the locals to gain some practical knowledge in Japan. At the same time, she has also emphasized the need to be sure that such initiatives are simply not used as a trick to divert the labor force from the home country without them gaining any skills. “That is exactly what we want: Our workers to be educated and to come back home stronger with the knowledge and skills that they were able to learn during their stay abroad rather than being exploited,” said Ida.
Currently, the TITP allows foreign interns to work in Japan for up to five years. Indonesia is asking them to reduce the period to two years since they think that this change in the duration would better safeguard the educational purpose of the program and reduce the possibilities of abuse. Japan is going to review and reform its foreign labor systems, such as TITP and the new Specified Skilled Worker (SSW) program; hence, this call.
The issue is partly a matter of money. Japan has an aging population and labor shortages, and has been taking in more and more foreign workers to fill the gaps in the sectors of agriculture, construction, and manufacturing. Despite this, opponents of the program say that the design of the system makes it easy for companies to get their hands on cheap labor without going through the trouble of providing career growth for their workers.
Indonesia’s offer is one of the points that emphasize the protection of workers’ rights in the country, which is an important source of income for the national economy through the money they send home. The government expects that it would help the human capital development of the country and that individual career prospects would become stronger if overseas training programs were to be genuinely focused on workers’ skills.
A formal response letter to Jakarta’s proposal from Tokyo has not yet been delivered, but negotiations will go on, and both countries will try to figure out how Japan can meet labor market requirements without violating the principles of being fair and skill development for foreign participants.
