Japanese Minister Apologizes for Immigration Law-Linked Survey Errors

November 21, 2018

Tokyo--Japanese Justice Minister Takashi Yamashita apologized for errors in a government survey on missing foreign job trainees, at a parliamentary committee meeting on Wednesday.

"I offer a heartfelt apology as a person responsible for legal administration," Yamashita said at the House of Representatives Judicial Affairs Committee.

His comments came as the Lower House committee on Wednesday started deliberations on revisions to the immigration control law to allow the country to accept more foreign workers.

Yamashita admitted that based on erroneous materials, he answered to a question on the matter at a meeting of the House of Councillors Budget Committee on Nov. 7.

At the Nov. 7 meeting, Yamashita said that some 87 pct of foreign job trainees who disappeared left for higher wages. In reality, however, some 67 pct of such personnel went missing due to low wages.

The secretaries-general and parliamentary affairs chiefs of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, Komeito, Wednesday agreed to get the law revisions through the full Lower House by Tuesday.

The government aims to enact the revisions during the current parliamentary session set to end on Dec. 10.

In a planned revision to its guidelines for permanent residency, the government plans to exclude any working period under the type one resident status it plans to set up for foreign nationals with specified skills from the employment period required for permanent residency.

At Wednesday's Lower House committee meeting, Yamashita indicated that working time under the type 2 resident status for foreigners with higher skills than those of type one status may be counted as an employment period for permanent residency on the basis that they meet certain requirements.

The two new types of resident status will be created under the law revisions.

While noting that foreigners given the new resident status must be hired directly in principle, Kojiro Takano, parliamentary vice agriculture minister, said that the government is considering making it possible to allow them to be accepted as dispatched workers in the agriculture sector. Labor demand in the sector changes seasonally, he pointed out.

In response to an opposition demand that the government release the full results of its foreign job trainee survey, without disclosing personal information, Yamashita reiterated that the government opposes allowing the original documents to be photocopied or filmed. Jiji Press