Zhen Kai, a native of China who came to Japan 31 years ago and now serves as head of the foreign workers' branch of the Gifu Prefecture labor union, has long supported foreign technical interns, and every day interns from all over Japan reach out to him for help via WeChat or by phone. His home is also a safe haven for interns; at the time of the reporter's interview, 11 interns who had disputes with their employers and nowhere to turn were living with him.

"The people who really come to me have all been driven to the end of their rope. Interns have a strong fighting spirit inside, and it is actually very hard for them to take that first step." He further explained that the vast majority of interns sign contracts with brokerage companies before going abroad; even if the contracts contain unreasonable provisions such as "not allowed to join any organization" and "not allowed to have contact with the outside world," they sign anyway in order to come to Japan. On top of that, they bear high brokerage fees, so even when interns encounter problems they do not dare to resist.

Interns whose Japanese is not good enough and who do not understand Japan's employment-related regulations are often in a weak position. "Many companies do not follow the procedures," he said. "For example, the government stipulates that foreigners must also join national health insurance and the pension system, but employers think it is only short-term and a waste of money and unnecessary, and even the cooperatives give guidance like that." Once a work-related injury occurs, often no one takes responsibility.

The China-Japan gap is gradually narrowing, and Japan may lose its competitiveness in the international labor market

With problematic employment relationships, a labor term of only three years (to be extended to five years in the future), and a gradually shrinking wage gap, Japan's appeal to foreign workers may already be far less than before.

Zhen Kai believes that China's basic wages are rising, "especially for construction workers, and the gap with the wages Japan is willing to pay is getting smaller and smaller." In recent years there has even been a phenomenon of agriculture being unable to recruit interns, and brokerage companies have had to recruit from more remote rural areas. He speculated: "In China, even farmers are unwilling to do agriculture and want to go to the cities to work, unless the salary you offer is attractive enough."

When he went to Vietnam last year, he happened to meet a Taiwanese broker: "The people from Taiwan told us, 'We can't win against Japan; Japan's wages are high,' but I actually think that is not necessarily so. Japanese operators only look at immediate interests and only want to control interns. Now that human resources are tight in every country and labor resources are internationalized, if you do not value them, there are plenty of other countries eager to take them."

Zhen Kai believes that human resources are more complex than other resources. "Can you simply regard a person as a 'resource'? A person has the right to live. While enjoying human resources, there must also be some giving in return. Without this kind of give-and-take, it is very hard to sustain." Zhen Kai gave an example: "If a barrel of crude oil is 70 US dollars, and you offer 75 US dollars, everyone will probably sell it to you, but the labor market is not like that; you cannot measure 'people' that way." How labor resources should be traded is a question worth thinking about.

He believes that since Japan needs overseas labor resources, it should give workers the right to choose their jobs. When faced with illegal situations such as wages not being paid on time, arbitrary dismissal, or forced repatriation, they should be able to choose to resign and switch to another company. "But right now it is impossible to freely change employers; Japan does not give interns this right." If they do not submit to control, they face punishments such as forced repatriation, and they are not paid according to Japan's minimum wage standard. This is a very unequal system. "When one side holds absolute power, it is absolutely impossible to have a sound labor-employer relationship."

"Japan needs to come up with a system that takes workers' interests into account, otherwise it will ultimately be the loser in this labor competition," Zhen Kai said. (The series continues)

To read the complete "Japan Migrant Workers" series, please click here