The abuse of a Vietnamese worker in the western Japanese city of Okayama sparked outrage in Japan in January 2022. The incident once again turned the spotlight on Japan's treatment of migrant workers and the decades-old Technical Intern Training Program. Its initial aim was to bring in interns, also known as technical trainees, from developing countries, mostly from Southeast Asia. They would learn new skills and when they returned to their countries, they were expected to transfer these skills to their countrymen. But that concept is hardly alive anymore. Critics say technical trainees have become a cheap source of manual labour for farms, factories and other businesses in Japan.
But for Japan to be the top choice for foreigners to work and live in, this has to change. And the Japanese people must learn to be more accommodating to those who cannot speak Japanese and are of different cultures and values. As its demographic time bomb keeps ticking, there's no other option.