Exploitation, wage arrears, improper job assignment: Vietnamese workers' woes in Japan

By Duc Trung, Minh Nga   May 14, 2025 | 08:02 pm PT
Many Vietnamese workers in Japan with the high-skilled "Gijinkoku" visa complain about wage arrears and being assigned to jobs outside their area of expertise, without clear support mechanism.

In December last year dozens of them gathered at the Nekuseru employment agency headquarters in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, to demand unpaid wages for September and October, according to Yonhap.

On learning about the situation, Phan Tien Hoang, first secretary and head of labor management at the Vietnamese embassy in Tokyo, traveled to Chiba to meet with the affected workers, representatives of Nekuseru, the recruiting company, and Toyota City officials.

Hoang said 150 Vietnamese workers are owed wages by Nekuseru.

The embassy has since worked with the Toyota Labor Standards Inspection Office to resolve the issue.

According to NHK, the total unpaid amount is estimated at 48 million yen (US$330,000).

The workers also allege that the company requires them to perform tasks not required by their visa.

The company has run into financial trouble and ceased operations, leaving many workers without jobs, compensation or support.

While the Japanese media initially described them as "trainees," the workers are actually in Japan under the "Engineer, Specialist in Humanities, International Services" visa (Gijinkoku), a long-term visa granted to candidates with advanced skills in fields such as engineering, translation and business management.

Gijinkoku, associated with "high-level human resources," though not legally defined as such, is one of the most common working visas for foreigners in Japan.

It can lead to permanent residency if the worker continues to renew their contract and meet residency criteria.

Over the past decade the number of foreign workers with this visa more than tripled from 121,160 in 2015 to 411,261 in 2023, according to the Ministry of Labor.

There are more than 570,000 Vietnamese nationals working in Japan, the highest among the 15 countries sending guest workers, Japanese ambassador to Vietnam, Ito Naoki, said at a meeting in Hanoi last year.

But issues for foreign workers, particularly Vietnamese, have been increasing, as NHK reported in a feature aired on April 16.

The Japan Vietnam Tomoiki Association, a nonprofit in Tokyo supporting Vietnamese workers, confirmed a rise in complaints from Gijinkoku visa holders.

Yoshimizu Jiho, the association's representative director, said a recurring issue is that some companies assign workers to roles unrelated to their registered occupations.

One case involves a worker who paid over $7,000 to a broker to secure a skilled job and was instead assigned to clean restaurants and hotels, and later left without a job or income.

Yoshimizu said such work should fall under the technical intern training program, not the skilled worker visa, and that the practice could be "illegal."

Jiho Yoshimizu cries while she comforts a Vietnamese migrant worker who is crying for the job loss after arriving at the Buddhist temple. Photo by Reuters

Yoshimizu Jiho (L), representative director of Japan Vietnam Tomoiki Association, comforts a Vietnamese worker who lost her job in Japan in 2020. Photo by Reuters

Yoshimizu added that more Gijinkoku workers are being forced into roles not matching their qualifications.

Many are hired as regular employees on paper but treated as temporary workers and paid no bonuses and significantly lower wages than their Japanese counterparts.

Language remains a major barrier.

In March the association helped a Vietnamese man who had not been paid for three months after abruptly losing his job.

He told NHK that language was his "biggest challenge" as he could barely speak Japanese and could only understand conversations "to some extent."

Yoshimizu said: "Some companies end up taking advantage of them, and there is no place within the working visa system to provide the support they need.

"If something happens, it ends up becoming a major problem."

To qualify for a Gijinkoku visa, workers must hold a university degree or have at least 10 years of relevant experience.

Once a worker meets a company's requirements, employment agencies can sponsor their visa applications.

With the Japanese government planning to overhaul the technical trainee program by 2027, more companies are turning to the Gijinkoku visa to fill labor shortages.

"Some businesses struggling with serious labor shortages are taking advantage of a loophole in the system for skilled workers," Ikebe Shoichiro, a consultant on foreign labor issues, said.

He said many Vietnamese workers pay large broker commissions only to be assigned to roles unrelated to their expertise.

The Gijinkoku visa is seen by some companies as a simpler alternative to the intern program, with fewer requirements and less regulatory oversight.

As Japan increasingly relies on foreign labor to address workforce shortages, experts say more oversight is urgently needed to protect these workers.

In response, Japan's Immigration Bureau has acknowledged the growing issues and pledged to ramp up inspections and take action against companies violating labor laws.

 
 
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