A Vietnamese worker who overstayed his visa is now targeted by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's crackdown on illegal labor in Japan. Minh, who arrived in 2015 under the Technical Intern Training Program, performed demanding jobs for a decade to address Japan's aging workforce shortage. The program is designed to teach skills that foreign workers can bring back to their developing home countries.
Japan has expanded its intake of foreign workers to combat a severe labor shortage amid rapid aging of its population. Vietnamese worker Minh (a pseudonym to protect his identity) arrived in 2015 under the Technical Intern Training Program (TITP), which allows workers from developing countries to acquire skills in Japan for transfer back home.
For a decade, Minh took on grueling tasks such as sandblasting ships and welding steel, contributing to Japan's workforce needs. However, having overstayed his visa, he now falls under the scrutiny of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's pledged crackdown on illegal workers.
This initiative seeks to curb the rise in visa overstays and maintain order in the labor market. While Vietnam-Japan relations benefit from such worker exchanges, cases like Minh's highlight gaps between the program's intended skill-building goals and the harsh realities of on-the-ground employment.
