For the past years, the Land of the Rising Sun has been accepting technical trainees or interns with the goal of passing on to them valuable information, technical knowhow and important skill sets necessary for the continuous growth and development in relevant industries and sectors. These technical internship training programs are intended to help and empower third world countries by enabling the workers in these foreign countries to perform their duties and responsibilities efficiently.
Under the technical internship training program, foreign interns are allowed to work in Japanese companies including the industrial machinery manufacturing industry. A lot of foreign nationals have expressed their interest to avail of the program in order to help their country of origin. Some of them who have already experienced working in Japan would have wanted to stay in the country even after the expiration of their internship visa so as to look for a greener pasture. However, they can no longer continue to work in Japan at the end of the technical internship training program.
However, with the continuous labor shortage issues in Japan as a result of the country’s aging population, low birth rate and vast decline in inward migration, the Japanese government through its National Legislature has amended its immigration policies that used to provide for stringent requirements on foreign nationals who desire to work and reside in the country on a more or less permanent basis.
One of the major changes introduced in the New Immigration Control Act is the new visa category known as the “Specified Skilled Worker Visa” This novel visa category is intended to address the chronic labor problems of fourteen industries in Japan that are identified to suffer the most serious forms of workforce issues.
In fact the industrial machinery manufacturing industry is among the fourteen sectors in Japan that are deemed to suffer the worst problems in terms of labor shortage. The other remaining sectors include Care worker, Building Cleaning Management, Machine Parts & Tooling Industry, Aviation Industry, Electric, Electronic and Information Industries, Construction Industry, Shipbuilding and Ship Machinery Industry, Automobile Repair and Maintenance, Accommodation Industry, Agriculture Fishery and Aquaculture as well as Food and Beverage production.
In this visa category, former technical trainees may work in Japan without the need of taking and passing the Specified Skills Evaluation Test provided that they possess at least a conversational level in the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.
Reference: Specified Skilled Visa
