"実習先から逃亡した「失踪者」向け求人の厳しい実態　暴力、不払い…それでも働くのはなぜか," 12 July 2026

[Unofficial description by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

A Vietnamese man, "Dung" (45, pseudonym), came to Japan as a technical intern trainee after borrowing approximately ¥800,000 to pay recruitment and placement fees. Despite this significant debt, he encountered working conditions that differed from what he had been promised before arriving in Japan, as well as physical abuse. Eventually, he left his assigned workplace and became classified as a "disappeared" technical intern trainee.

After leaving, Dung found unauthorised job postings through social media and paid brokers to arrange employment and housing. At his seventh workplace, a parts manufacturing factory, he worked 12-hour shifts standing throughout the day for an hourly wage of ¥900. Although his take-home pay as a technical intern trainees had been about ¥120,000 per month, his earnings increased to around ¥250,000 per month in unauthorised employment.

However, unauthorised workers remain in an extremely vulnerable position. They face wage theft, sudden dismissal, and lack of access to social insurance, forcing workers to bear the full cost of medical treatment themselves.

According to the Immigration Services Agency of Japan, 38,321 foreign trainees/interns disappeared from their training sites between 2020 and 2024 due to reasons including poor working conditions. A new Employment for Skill Development Programme is scheduled to replace the Technical Intern Training Programme in April 2027, but concerns remain that the issue of disappearances may continue because restrictions on job transfers will remain in some cases.

Dung calls to avoid viewing those who disappear simply as “illegal workers” and instead address the underlying systems and working environments that contribute to these cases.