Japan Firms Punished for Using Foreign Trainees for Nuke Decontamination

October 19, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's Justice Ministry said Friday it has imposed punishments on three construction companies for their inappropriate treatment of foreign trainees, including having them do nuclear decontamination work.

The three--two in Fukushima Prefecture and one in Chiba Prefecture--have been banned from receiving foreign trainees under the country's technical intern training program for three years.

The companies accepted a total of eight nationals of Vietnam and Indonesia for training mainly as construction workers handling reinforcing steel.

Their training plans did not include the work to remove materials contaminated with radioactive substances from Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s meltdown-hit Fukushima No. 1 power plant.

The Japanese government totally bans technical trainees from abroad from carrying out work to decontaminate areas tainted with radioactive materials.

In July, the Justice Ministry imposed a five-year suspension on a company in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, from accepting technical trainees for its inappropriate treatment of such trainees, including engagement in radioactive cleanup work. Jiji Press