Japan to allow stranded Filipino, other foreign tech interns to switch jobs

Kyodo News Posted at Aug 25 2020 02:29 PM TOKYO - Japan will allow foreign trainees, that include Filipinos who are unable to return home amid the coronavirus pandemic even after their technical internship programs have ended, to switch jobs and stay in the country from early September, the government said Tuesday. The Immigration Services Agency (ISA) said around 24,200 foreign trainees were stranded in Japan as of Friday and the number of such interns is expected to grow, either due to travel restrictions in place globally due to the pandemic, or workers unable to afford the airfare home. Most of the foreign trainees under Japan's technical internship program are from other Asian nations. At the end of last year, Vietnamese accounted for more than half of the total at 218,727, followed by Chinese at 82,370, Filipino at 35,874, and Indonesian at 35,404, according to the Justice Ministry. In April, the ISA made it possible for foreign interns who lost their jobs due to the impact of the novel coronavirus to find jobs in industries other than originally designated. As part of efforts to support the virus-hit foreign trainees, the government decided in April to allow those who are stranded here to work in the same field for an additional year by granting them a visa for "designated activities." Now they will be able to find jobs in other industries as it is difficult for them to land new jobs in the same sectors amid the deteriorating economic conditions in Japan, according to the ISA. From Sept. 1, the Foreign Residents Support Center in Tokyo will offer a free hotline service for those who have problems because of the virus pandemic, the agency said. The telephone consultation service will be available in 14 languages, including English, Vietnamese and Chinese, and offered from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays at 0120-762-029. The center opened last month to give foreign nationals in Japan advice on employment, visas, laws and humanitarian issues. The government-sponsored internship program established in 1993 is intended to promote international cooperation by imparting skills and knowledge in Japanese industries to developing countries. Trainees are only allowed to work for up to five years in designated fields under the current regulations. ==Kyodo

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PCG: China’s bullying in West Philippine Sea undermines international law --- Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — Letting China sustain its aggression in the West Philippine Sea would make other countries doubt the strength of international law currently being asserted by the Philippines, Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said. “Allowing China to blatantly disregard the established rules-based order threatens the very foundation that we all depend on,” he wrote in a post on X last Tuesday. He added, “If we permit this, countries worldwide may forget why this order was created in the first place. Nations could begin to doubt the significance of adhering to international law if powerful bullies can easily violate it.” Tarriela also said defiance of other countries to a rules-based order would result in the prevalence of cruelty. He wrote, “This could lead us back to a time when might makes right, undermining the global structures that keep human greed, savagery and barbarism in check. Such a scenario would not only invite challenges from aggressive ...
Read more

China ships maintain presence in key West Philippine Sea areas --- Michael Punongbayan - The Philippine Star

STAR / Michael Varcas MANILA, Philippines — While Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) have decreased in number, they have maintained a presence in three key land features where naval and coast guard ships have intensified operations in the past seven days, according to the Philippine Navy. Latest monitoring by the Philippine Navy showed armed ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) maintaining a menacing presence around the grounded BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, Panatag Shoal and Escoda Shoal. According to the Philippine Navy, there are 17 Chinese military vessels and 28 China Coast Guard (CCG) boats spotted inside the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between Sept. 23 and 30, or one vessel more than in the previous week Sept.17-23. Five of the warships were seen roaming around the vicinity of Escoda Shoal, along with 10 CCG vessels and 12 maritime militia vessels (MMVs). There are also two PLAN ships in Ayungin Shoal as well as 10 CCG boats and 12...
Read more

Social media seen as cause of rising intermarriages --- Helen Flores - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) sees social media as the main reason for the rising number of Filipinos marrying or becoming partners of foreign nationals. In 2022, the CFO recorded 6,854 marriages or partnerships with foreign nationals, a 40.1 percent increase from the 4,891 “intermarriages” recorded in 2021. “First of all, what we see in the increase in the marriage rate of Filipinos or Filipinos with foreign partners is because of social media, (that) is number one; matchings; letters, introduction of their friends,” CFO chairperson Romulo Arugay said at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing yesterday. Arugay said the agency has been registering a high number of intermarriages since 2007, but the figures went down during the COVID-19 pandemic. From over 6,500 Filipinos who married foreign nationals, only 600 are men, he said. Most of them are married to Americans, Japanese, Germans, Canadians and Australians, Arugay said. Arugay warned Fi...
Read more