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Japan
AsiaEast Asia

Vietnamese trainees told to undergo contraception to work in Japan, survey shows

  • A recent survey showed nine women were advised by local intermediary organisations to undergo contraceptive treatment before working in Japan
  • Japan is considering scrapping the current technical internship programme for foreigners, which began in 1993 to transfer skills to developing nations

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Visitors look out the Tokyo Tower from the observatory at the Azabudai Hills Mori JP Towe in Tokyo, Japan, on Tuesday, Dec. 26,. Vietnam sends the largest number of technical trainees to Japan under the programme, according to the Organization for Technical Intern Training. Photo: Bloomberg
Kyodo
Some female Vietnamese technical trainees have received contraception treatments based on instructions by organisations involved in a Japan internship programme, a Kyodo News survey revealed on Sunday, with the practice raising concerns that such trainees’ reproductive rights were not respected.
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The Japanese government is considering scrapping the current technical internship programme for foreigners, which began in 1993 to transfer knowledge and skills to developing countries. It plans to create a new programme taking into account the problems and rights violations observed under the current system, including issues such as unpaid wages and harassment.

According to a recent survey conducted via a support group for Vietnamese trainees in Japan, nine women were advised by local intermediary organisations, which gather trainee candidates and send them to Japan, to undergo contraceptive treatment. Five of them actually received such treatments, which included the use of internal birth control rings, the survey showed.

Vietnam sends the largest number of technical trainees to Japan under the programme, according to the Organization for Technical Intern Training.

In many cases, the intermediary organisations advised Vietnamese trainees that they would be sent home if they got pregnant.

The five Vietnamese trainees who underwent contraception treatment currently work in Japan, with one of them expressing in the survey that she thought she could not go to Japan without following the instruction.

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The other four trainees who did not receive contraception treatments cited its cost, among other reasons.

There have been cases involving Vietnamese trainees in recent years in Japan. One case involved a female trainee who was arrested for abandoning her baby’s body out of fear her employer would send her home if the pregnancy were discovered.

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