JAPAN’S justice minister ordered the immigration agency to investigate violent workplace abuse allegedly suffered by a Vietnamese intern today, in a case that has heightened scrutiny of a state-sponsored training programme.

A video showing the victim being punched, kicked and battered with a stick by his co-workers at a construction company sparks outrage after it was released by the labour union and went viral this month.

The 41-year-old man, who came to Japan in 2019 under the internship scheme, has spoken out about his ordeal, saying he does not want other Vietnamese trainees in Japan to go through the same.

Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa said he has instructed the immigration agency to “swiftly deal with” the case.

“Human rights violations against foreign technical interns, such as abuse, are absolutely unforgivable.”

More than 350,000 trainees live in Japan under the state-sponsored scheme, which has been running for decades.

The scheme’s stated aim is to help workers from less developed economies gain skills in industries such as agriculture, construction and food processing.

But critics said some employers use it as a cheap source of labour that puts interns at risk of abuse and exploitation.

The Vietnamese man described the alleged physical assaults as “so aggressive and brutal” at an online news conference today.

His name is withheld at the event, where he spoke via an interpreter alongside Mitsugu Muto, chair of the labour union that now shelters him.

Muto said persistent assaults against the victim once involved co-workers throwing a piece of equipment at him, resulting in his teeth being knocked out and his lip lacerated, at the company in western Japan.

He said the trainee also separately suffered a rib fracture after a colleague kicked him with safety boots in the chest, adding that the case is under police probe.

The man’s case is extreme, but stories of harassment, low wages and verbal abuse are all too common among foreign trainees, he added.

“We believe it is rooted in a lack of human rights awareness… and there is an element of racism as well.”

A 2021 United States State Department report said foreign-based and domestic traffickers “continue to abuse the government-operated Technical Intern Training Programme to exploit foreign workers”.

The Japanese government “does not hold recruiters and employers accountable for abusive labour practices and forced labour crimes”, said the Trafficking in Persons Report. – AFP, January 25, 2022.