2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
The Institutionalizing Process of Foreign Workers' Acceptance : Ten Years' Experience for Foreign Workers' Technical Internship Program
| Project/Area Number |
16530344
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Sociology
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| Research Institution | Hosei University |
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Principal Investigator |
KAMIBAYASHI Chieko Hosei University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Professor, 社会学部, 教授 (30255202)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2004 – 2005
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| Keywords | foreign workers / immigration policy / technical internship program / industrial sociology / temporary immigration |
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| Research Abstract |
Foreign Workers' Technical Internship Program has been established for more than 10 years, and meanwhile its purpose and the role are subject to change due to the globalization of world economy as well as to the changes of Japanese labor market. The technical Internship Program was set up in order to transfer Japanese technology to neighbor countries, but recently, it is tacitly admitted as one form of securing cheap labor, very close to dispached workers or contract workers.
Small-and-medium-sized enterprises, where those foreign trainees and technical inters work, belong to marginal industries, they are obliged to compete mainly Chinese industries such as garment, automobile appliances. Recently farming industry also tend to rely on this program. For anyone who see their work in their workplaces, it is not difficult to understand those interns' jobs are mainly low-skilled jobs. Around 140,000 trainees and interns work under this program in 2006, this number is too big to ignore the fa
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ct that they work under the lowest condition in Japanese labor market. Plus it affects labor condition of Japanese workers, especially among the youth.
A hidden purpose of this program is to secure low-skilled workers. Any developed or developing countries in Europe or Asia do not accept low-skilled workers stay more than a few years. Some kinds of rotation system for immigrants are usually the only system to receive low-skilled workers. As Japanese government insists not to accept any unskilled workers from outside of Japan, the Technical Internship Program serves as a functional equivalent of introduction system of low-skilled workers. Now the time has come to admit that our Japanese society needs some unskilled workers and those foreign interns are indispensable for both small-and-medium sized enterprises and for aging Japanese society. From this viewpoint, this program should be put to an end sooner or later. The interns then are able to work under formal working status same as Japanese workers. Less
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