Burden of cost

Vietnamese workers in Japan are considered diligent, hardworking and make positive contributions to the socio-economic development of Japan. According to Mr. Pham Viet Huong, Deputy Director of the Department of Overseas Labor Management (Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs), cooperation in the field of labor and human resource development between Vietnam and Japan has been increasingly valued and has developed remarkably in recent years. Many programs and projects such as the Technical Internship Program, the Specific Skilled Worker Program, the Program to send Vietnamese nurses and caregivers to work in Japan under the Vietnam-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (VJEPA) have been implemented by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Vietnam in coordination with the Japanese side and are proving effective.

In recent years, the number of Vietnamese workers going to work in Japan accounts for more than 50% of the number of workers going to work abroad every year. Since Japan began accepting Vietnamese trainees, over the past 30 years, more than 350,000 young Vietnamese people have come to Japan for technical internships.

Vietnamese trainees in Japan. Photo provided by the Department of Overseas Labor Management

However, besides the achieved results, the program of sending and receiving Vietnamese trainees and workers to Japan in the past still has some problems such as: Some trainees and workers abandon their contracts and violate Japanese law.

The reasons for the above situation are: Some Vietnamese dispatching companies do not do a good job of selecting, training foreign languages, and providing orientation education for interns before departure; charge higher service fees than prescribed; interns lose money to intermediaries and brokers. Some Japanese partners require dispatching companies to pay commissions when receiving interns, require excessive hospitality when arriving in Vietnam, creating a financial burden on workers; do not pay management fees, dispatching fees as agreed...

According to Mr. Shishido Kenichi, special advisor to the President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the number of Vietnamese workers going to Japan to work is increasing rapidly. Currently, among the 15 countries sending trainees to Japan, Vietnam is the leading country in both the number of trainees entering Japan each year and the number of trainees currently practicing in this country.

However, the average cost that Vietnamese workers have to spend to go to Japan to work is higher than that of China, Cambodia and 4 times higher than that of the Philippines. Mr. Shishido Kenichi said that since the end of 2022, Japanese agencies have begun discussing a new mechanism so that foreign workers can go to Japan without paying any costs, feel secure in working and staying, and developing sustainably.

Fairness for workers

Ms. Ingrid Christensen, Director of the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Vietnam, shared that Vietnamese people account for the largest proportion of foreign workers in Japan, accounting for 25.4% of the total 1.82 million foreign workers working in Japan. However, according to Ms. Ingrid Christensen, Vietnamese workers working in Japan are facing quite high costs.

A recent study by the General Statistics Office with the support of the ILO on the cost of recruiting Vietnamese workers abroad shows that Vietnamese migrant workers actually have to pay up to 192 million VND (equivalent to 8,000 USD) to be recruited for their first job in Japan.

This is not in line with international standards on labor costs. Ms. Ingrid Christensen emphasized that workers paying recruitment fees increases the risk of forced labor, increasing the vulnerability of workers when they have to pay debts for several months and sometimes several years, even after the end of the recruited job. Therefore, Ms. Ingrid Christensen said that Vietnam and Japan need to make efforts to eliminate costs related to labor cooperation.

Vietnam needs to urgently eliminate the fee-based recruitment mechanism and promote the role of trade unions to ensure rights and fairness for workers and in accordance with international standards.

To reduce costs for workers going to work abroad, Mr. Pham Viet Huong said that the Law on Vietnamese Workers Going to Work Abroad under Contract (Law No. 69/2020/QH14) has added a number of prohibited acts such as: Taking advantage of activities to prepare resources and select workers to work abroad to illegally collect money from workers; collecting brokerage fees from workers; collecting service fees from workers not in accordance with the provisions of the law...

Supporting the idea that the cost of labor export to Japan needs to be improved, Mr. Doan Mau Diep, former Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Manpower Supply (VAMAS), said: "The path of zero cost for workers to work in Japan is a long one, but it will be shorter if recruitment agencies, businesses, and authorities join in, and efforts from all sides are made so that workers do not suffer from the disadvantage of too high costs. On the other hand, it is also necessary for Japan to participate, to count how many businesses are willing to participate in zero cost, how many businesses are willing to pay fees for workers... If the exit cost for workers is reduced to zero, a mechanism is needed to ensure that there is no discrimination between wages and benefits for those who go to work in Japan and pay fees to ensure fairness for workers."

DIEP CHAU

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