Gov't bans intermediary body from introducing foreign trainees

The organization, Okayama Sangyo Gijutsu Kyodo Kumiai in Okayama Prefecture, western Japan, was prohibited from introducing foreign trainees to companies for five years under an administrative punishment issued by the justice and labor ministries.

The 41-year-old Vietnamese man, who came to Japan in the fall of 2019, sustained serious injuries, including a broken rib, in repeated assaults by his co-workers that began a month after he joined the construction firm, Six Create in the city of Okayama, according to the man and a labor union supporting him.

When he was taken to hospital for a broken tooth following a beating, an organization worker who accompanied him falsely told a doctor that the man had fallen off his bicycle, they said.

In punishing the intermediary organization, the Immigration Services Agency of Japan said the body had failed to properly oversee the construction firm, submit a report on the matter and implement necessary steps after it was consulted by the man.