英字新聞

April 09, 2014
EDITORIAL: Labor policy message to foreigners; Thanks. Now go home
（社説）技能実習拡充　これでは出稼ぎ労働だ

In a nutshell, the thinking behind the government’s emergency policy for the construction industry is: Despite the nation’s serious labor shortage, young people don’t want jobs, which forces us to rely on foreigners. But we don’t want them to settle in Japan permanently. So we will extend the period they can work in Japan up to double the current limit. But we will ensure they go home after the period expires.
　人手不足は深刻なのに、若者らは就職してくれない。ならば外国人に頼るしかない。ただ、定住してもらっては困る。日本で働ける期間を最長２倍に延ばすが、必ず帰国させる。
　政府が建設分野で決めた緊急対策は、突き詰めればそういうことになる。

Will such an impromptu measure work?
　こんな場当たり的な対応でうまくいくだろうか。

Central to this policy is the Technical Intern Training Program for foreigners. The purpose of this program is to aid newly emerging nations and developing countries by developing their personnel resources through work experience in Japan for a maximum of three years.
　対策の中心は、外国人技能実習制度である。人づくりを通じて新興国や途上国の発展を支援することが目的で、３年を上限に働いてもらう仕組みだ。

The government also combines this program with the visa residential status named “Designated Activities,” which is issued to foreign nationals, such as amateur athletes, domestic servants employed privately by diplomats, and those in the Technical Intern Training Program.
Under this visa status, foreigners who have completed the program will be able to stay in Japan for an additional two to three years. The government says this is a temporary arrangement that will remain in effect until fiscal 2020, the year of the Tokyo Summer Olympics.
　そこに「特定活動」という在留資格をからませる。在日外交官の家事使用人やアマチュアスポーツ選手らに出してきたビザで、技能実習を終えた人にも２〜３年の滞在を認める。東京五輪が開かれる２０２０年度までの限定措置という。

About 150,000 foreign nationals are currently working under the Technical Intern Training Program in all fields. But the original purpose of “aiding developing nations” has become blurred, and the program now serves in reality as a means to cover the domestic labor shortage with foreigners.
　技能実習制度で働く外国人は全分野で約１５万人。「途上国支援」という目的はかすみ、国内の人手不足を埋める手段になってきたのが実態だ。

Under this program, many problems have come to light, such as illegally long working hours, nonpayment of wages and human rights violations, including physical abuse.
　法律を無視した長時間労働や賃金の不払い、暴力などの人権侵害もたびたび明らかになっている。

The Diet has discussed these matters, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has issued directives to the parties concerned, and the International Labor Organization and the U.S. Department of State have issued reports, all repeatedly urging the Japanese government to fix the situation.
国会での議論や総務省の勧告、国際労働機関（ＩＬＯ）や米国務省の報告書など、内外から対策をとるよう繰り返し促されてきた。

The government has finally decided that only reputable organizations and companies should be allowed to join the program, and that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and the construction industry should exercise greater oversight.
　政府は今回、受け入れ窓口となる団体や実習先の企業を優良なところに限ったり、国土交通省や建設業界による監視を強めたりすることを決めた。

But we believe the government’s foremost priority now should be to eradicate the problems. The move to accept more foreigners is not limited to the construction sector.
だが、まずは問題の根絶に全力をあげるべきではないか。
　外国人の受け入れを拡充しようという動きは、建設分野にとどまらない。

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has come up with a set of proposals, including extending the duration of the Technical Intern Training Program from the current three years to five years, raising the foreign trainee quota, which is currently determined by the number of employees on each company’s payroll, and expanding the sectors subject to the program to other fields, including nursing care.
　技能実習の期間を３年から５年に延ばす。企業の従業員数に応じて決まる実習人数の枠を広げる。対象業種を増やし、介護分野などを加える――。

The government’s Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy and the Industrial Competitiveness Council are now studying these proposals.
自民党はこんな提言をまとめ、政府も経済財政諮問会議や産業競争力会議で検討を始めた。

However, the government is reluctant to accept foreigners as workers on a full-scale basis and allow them to settle permanently in Japan as immigrants, insisting that the matter has nothing to do with immigration and that the issue needs to be further debated by the public.
　一方で、労働者の本格的な受け入れと定住、いわゆる移民問題には及び腰だ。「移民は考えていない」「国民的な議論が必要」などというだけだ。

By overseas standards, the argument can be made that anyone who works in a foreign country for five or six years is none other than an immigrant. Given the reality of the work performed by foreign nationals under the Technical Intern Training Program, the Japanese government’s claim that they are basically “trainees” will not be accepted by the international community.
　海外の基準に照らすと、５年も６年も働く外国人は移民にほかならないという見方がある。働き方の実態をみれば、「実習が基本だから」という理屈は国際的に通用しないだろう。

As for the government’s haste to expand the Technical Intern Training Program in disregard of the many problems this entails, a concerned source offered this criticism: “It looks as if the government is simply trying to increase the number of migrant workers.”
　多くの問題を放置したまま技能実習の拡充を急ぐ政府に対し、ある関係者は「まるで出稼ぎ労働の拡大だ」と批判する。

We wonder how the Abe administration will respond to that criticism.
　安倍政権は、この指摘にどう答えるのか。

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 6