Reexamination of ‘the Amendment of the Immigration Act’ in 2018 - Evaluation of “Specific Skills” as A New Status of Residence and Limits on Acceptance of Foreigners in Japan = Reexamination of ‘the Amendment of the Immigration Act’ in 2018 - Evaluation of “Specific Skills” as A New Status of Residence and Limits on Acceptance of Foreigners in Japan

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In 2018, the Japanese government amended the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act to accept semi-skilled foreigners as workers for the first time, which was enforced from April 1, 2019. The success of the acceptance of Technical Intern Trainees as a new category could not be determined due to the corona-virus pandemic. However, compared to the planned number of Technical Intern Trainees, only a small number of them have continued to work in Japan, with various problems becoming apparent.
In this paper, the following three points would be discussed in order: first, the industries that have labor demands for this new category of workers and the nature of the industries that create such demands. Second, how foreign workers are positioned in the new category under Japanese legal order. And finally, factors that have contributed to failures in the acceptance of semi-skilled foreign workers that are known at this time would be highlighted. The decision-making of the government’s acceptance of Technical Intern Trainees is a major first step. However, compared to Japanese nationals who have no restrictions on changing jobs or relocating their residences, foreigners face many restrictions, such as being unable to bring their families with them, even if they have a full-time labor contract with a company. Consequently, there is a grave divergence between Japanese nationals and foreign workers to date, with no change in the fundamental problems that the existence of foreign workers adds to Japan’s society.