The Asahi Shinbum | 26 January 2019
Two leading companies, Panasonic Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp., have had their plans for technical intern training programs revoked due to legal violations.
The measure announced Jan. 25 by the Justice Ministry and labor ministry means that Panasonic and Mitsubishi Motors will not be able to hire foreign technical trainees for the next five years, nor will they likely be allowed to hire foreign workers granted a new visa status from April.
The government’s message appears to be that no labor law violations are allowed as hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals are expected to work in Japan under the new visa status.
While Mitsubishi Motors was found to have directly violated the Technical Intern Training Law by having foreign technical trainees handle tasks not included in the training program plan, Panasonic was punished because it was found to have violated the Labor Standards Law involving a Japanese employee.