Catherwood LibraryILR School

Japan has had one of the fastest aging populations for years, but increasing immigration has not made into public policy debate as a viable option to fulfill labor market demand and grow the economy. Some Japanese businesses have taken to using foreign technical interns to fill in the gap. The foreigners, 70% are Chinese, are promised that they will be trainees and develop valuable technical skills, but critics are saying that some companies are using them as cheap sources of labor, paying as little as $4 per hour for manual and menial tasks. A recent inspection by the Japanese government found that as much as 79% of companies who employ the 155,000 ?interns? were violating Japanese labor law. Many of the interns have not spoken out because of ?extortionate contracts?, ?restrictions on interns? movement, and the imposition of heavy fees if the workers leave.? Many Japanese companies have begun setting up internal or independent auditing systems to prevent such abuses.