The first word Mr En learned when he started work on a construction site in Japan after moving from China was baka — idiot.
The 31-year-old farmer is one of 50,000 Chinese who have signed up for a scheme run by the Japanese government that promises to allow foreigners to earn money while they train on the job.
Like many of his compatriots, he hoped to leave Japan with cash in his pocket and a new set of skills that would give him a better chance of getting work in China.
“My Japanese colleagues would always say baka to me,” En said, who spoke to reporters on the condition that his full name was not revealed. “I am exhausted physically and mentally.”
His problem is not the bullying by Japanese colleagues, nor the two-hour each-way commute or the mind-numbing work that largely consists of breaking apart bits of old buildings.
It is the ¥1 million (US$8,400) he borrowed to take part in the program, apparently to cover traveling expenses and other “fees” charged by intermediaries — which has left him a virtual slave to Japan’s construction industry.
“I cannot go back before I make enough money to repay the debt,” he said.
Rapidly aging Japan is desperately short of the workers to pay the taxes needed to fund pensions and healthcare for its growing number of elderly, but it is almost constitutionally allergic to immigration.
Less than 2 percent of the population is classed as “non-Japanese,” the government says. By comparison, about 13 percent of UK residents are foreign-born.
The result for Japan, critics say, is ranks of poorly protected employees brought in through the backdoor, ripe for abuse and exploitation.
“This trainee program is a system of slave labor,” Solidarity Network With Migrants Japan director Ippei Torii said. “You cannot just quit and leave. It’s a system of human trafficking — forced labor.”
About a quarter of Japan’s population of 127 million is aged 65 or over, according to recent government figures. This proportion is expected to rise to 40 percent over the coming decades.
The heavily indebted government — which owes creditors more than twice what the economy is worth every year — is scrabbling to find the money to pay for the burgeoning ranks of elderly, who contribute little in tax but cost a lot in welfare and health.
A far-below-replacement birthrate of about 1.4 children per woman is heaping further pressure on the population.
In most developed nations, this kind of shortfall is plugged by immigration, but Japan allows no unskilled workers into the country, over fears they would threaten the culture of consensus.
However, in 1993 as the economy was on the way down from the highs seen in the 1980s, the government launched the Industrial Trainee and Technical Internship Program (TTIP).
The scheme allows tens of thousands of foreigners, mostly from China, Vietnam and Indonesia, to come to Japan and supply labor for industries including textiles, construction, farming and manufacturing.
However, the US Department of State’s annual Trafficking in Persons report has for years criticized “deceptive recruitment practices.”
“The government did not prosecute or convict forced labor perpetrators despite allegations of labor trafficking in the TTIP,” this year’s report said.
Past allegations include unpaid overtime, incidences of karoshi — death due to overwork — and many kinds of harassment, such as a company manager restricting the use of toilets or demanding sexual contact.
The Japanese government rejects claims the TTIP is abusive, but acknowledges there have been some problems.
“It is not a system of slave labor,” an immigration official told reporters. “It is true that some involved in the system have exploited it, but the government has acted against that.”
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