This video reports that many interns are underpaid, saddled with insurmountable debt, and forced into a form of indentured servitude. The section from 9.25 reprots on a case of sexual harrassment of a female Chinese trainee. Vice News, May 2015.
From across Asia, about 190,000 migrant trainees toil in Japanese factories and farms. Allegations of labor abuses against these workers are widespread. This video focuses on a group of Filipino female trainees in Hiroshima. New York Times, Jul 2010. See also this article on the same story, Japan Training Program Is Said to Exploit Workers, New York Times, 20 Jul 2010.
Foreign trainees in Japan face sexual harassment and abuse This article reports on sexual harrassment of women on the Technical Internship Training Program, looking at the story of one Vietnamese female trainee, and the work of Koshida Maiko san at Kakehashi supporting trainees that suffer sexual violence and harrassment . NHK World 14 Apr 2021.
Forbidden pregnancies lead Vietnamese workers to abandon dead newborns This article looks at the stories of women on the Technical Internship Training Program who fear they will lose their jobs and have to return to Vietnam if it is found out they have had babies. NHK World, 15 Feb 2021.
Why do some foreign trainees in Japan abandon their babies? There have been numerous incidents in which women who are in Japan as participants in the government's Technical Intern Training Program have abandoned their babies after giving birth. Mainichi 29 Dec 2020.
Japan warns firms not to fire pregnant foreign trainees, as interns fear impact on work status With many interns expressing concern about the impact a pregnancy may have on their employment status, with some women having been compelled to consider abortions or return home, the government on Monday told firms that accept and supervise foreign trainees that it would violate the gender equality law if the women are unfairly treated due to marriage, pregnancy or childbirth. Japan Tines, 14 Mar 2019.
Foreign workers hit hard by pandemic despite record number The article looks at the impact of the pandemic on the employment of foreign workers, and tells the story of Raquel Garcia, a Filipino worker at a Sharp Corporation factory who lost her job. It also summarises the different categories and numbers of foreign workers in Japan. Japan Times, 5 Feb 2021
Tokyo sex parlor heads accused of illegally hiring foreign trainees The article describes a sex parlour which used Vietnamese women to provides sexual services. The women came to Japan to work on the Technical Internship Training Programme but lost their jobs in that due to the pandemic and could not return to Vietnam so turned to sex work to survive. Asahi Shimbun, 10 Nov 2020.
ベトナム人女性が直面した債務労働と技能実習制度のひずみ＝コロナ以前から彼女が経験していた搾取と差別 – by 巣内尚子, Yahoo news, 19 May 2019.
No love for foreign trainees? Backstories about technical trainees in Japan, including how their personal freedom is limited. NHK World, 27 Mar 2019.
Special Report: Foreign interns pay the price for Japan's labor shortage This articles looks in depth at the case of three Chinese female interns working at the Kameda company in Hakusan, Western Japan, making clothes for the Burverry label. Reuters, 12 Jun 2014.
孤立する技能実習生（1）”奴隷労働”でも「相談先ない」、岐阜縫製のベトナム人女性が相談できない理由 - A story about female technical trainees from Vietnam, isolated in Japan. Yahoo, 6 Feb 2017.