Why This Topic Landed in Japan

An accusation out of Kyogoku, Hokkaido pulled an ongoing debate about foreign labor away from abstract policy and into a concrete, disturbing case. Myanmar nationals on Specified Skilled Worker visas — including four women — fled their workplace and were sheltered at a church, and a labor union announced plans to file a criminal complaint. They say a sitting town councilor in his 60s and his sons, who run the farming company, struck them with a metal rod, screamed at them, groped them, and made sexual remarks; the people accused have not responded to reporters. The accusations remain at the complaint stage and have not been tested in court, and the workers were on the Specified Skilled Worker track rather than the older technical-intern program — a distinction many commenters blurred. What drove the reaction was less the individuals than the system: commenters treated Japan's foreign-labor schemes as a way to buy cheap labor and, in their words, a de facto form of modern slavery.

Key Reaction Themes

  • Condemnation of the system itself — Many branded the technical-intern and Specified Skilled Worker schemes a "human-buying system" that exists only to beat down labor costs, and called for abolition or a fundamental overhaul.
  • Blame aimed at employers and the countryside — "Farms are especially nasty," "the landlord-type bosses out in the countryside are like this," reflecting disgust at receiving employers and rural labor conditions.
  • Fear of an international black eye — "Is this going to blow up internationally?" and "it will become a national disgrace," worrying about how the case looks from abroad.

What Japanese Netizens Are Saying

Abuse and harassment allegations at a Hokkaido farm

Myanmar workers on Specified Skilled Worker visas fled a Hokkaido farming company and, with a labor union, are pursuing a criminal complaint over alleged violence and sexual harassment by a sitting town councilor and his sons.

Sources: Yahoo! news, 2ch

Comments:

  • "You had to see this coming — that someone would mistake 'cheap labor' for 'slaves.'"
  • "There was a version of this with disabled people instead of foreign trainees — that was in Hokkaido too, I think."
  • "I live in Sapporo, and a lot of Hokkaido workplaces have a black-company streak."
  • "Is this going to blow up into an international problem?"
  • "This is exactly why they should scrap the technical-intern thing — a system that exists only to beat down labor costs."
  • "I've long thought that in factories and the like, yelling and sexual and power harassment are treated as normal even toward Japanese workers — some bosses think fists are 'discipline.' Japanese workers just quit or put up with it, but do this to foreigners and it's guaranteed to become an international incident."
  • "Just end the technical-intern program already."
  • "This 'technical intern' thing is a slavery system that will absolutely become a national disgrace someday. Not every case is like this, but the farms are just too nasty."
  • "The landlord-type bosses out in the countryside are often like this — that's why the young people leave."
  • "Enough with the slavery system. If you can't survive without it, then go under."