Feb 21 (Japan Times) - A total of 213 firms and organizations in Japan were found to have mistreated technical trainees from abroad in 2017, down 10.9 percent from the previous year and falling for the second straight year, the Justice Ministry has said.
The number of cases of unfair practice totaled 299, the ministry said Monday.
The most common problem was unpaid wages with 139 cases. Document tampering and forgery cases, including falsifying withholding tax statements to conceal wage nonpayment, followed at 73. The number of labor law violations, such as illegal overtime, came to 24.
Illegal low wages and long work hours for foreign nationals working under the country’s Technical Intern Training Program have become a problem.