In big metropolitan cities, it is becoming much more common to see foreigners walking around; it almost seems like there are more foreigners than there are Japanese. However there are some businesses that take advantage of this situation to trick foreign students to work, illegally, as part-timers in their stores.
The famous Japanese ramen shop,「一蘭」(Ichiran) has recently being accused of working international students illegally in their stores. In fact, he police has done a document submission on the president of the company, and labor personnel for working Chinese students for more than the set working hours of 28 hours a week in March.
During the months between January and June of 2017, around 4600 foreigners were arrested or had papers sent off to the Public Prosecutors Office for working illegally. According to labor economics expert professor Iguchi from Kwansei Gakuin, “A connection has been made between the concentrated amount of Japanese schools and lack of workers (in large cities)”.
Because there has been a dramatic increase in students coming into Japan from abroad, more and more Japanese schools started to open up to try and get students. As a result, many of the international students have heavy student loans, many of which also include plane tickets to get into Japan, which they try to pay off through getting a part-time job. These students are told that they can gain a couple months worth of pay through working just one day in Japan. However after paying for classes and living expenses, the students have almost nothing left on hand.
With students wanting to earn as much money as they can to rid themselves of their student loans, and large cities needing more workers, the interests matched. International students, other than the Chinese students in March, have actually been arrested for illegally working in Japan. It’s a sad reality that many international students get caught up in the education business on the premise of being in debt.
Professor Iguchi urges the board of education to review the ryugakusei program and fix some of the fundamental issues before the problem becomes worse.
For more info (Japanese): https://www.recordchina.co.jp/newsinfo.php?id=579559&ph=0
The famous Japanese ramen shop,「一蘭」(Ichiran) has recently being accused of working international students illegally in their stores. In fact, he police has done a document submission on the president of the company, and labor personnel for working Chinese students for more than the set working hours of 28 hours a week in March.
During the months between January and June of 2017, around 4600 foreigners were arrested or had papers sent off to the Public Prosecutors Office for working illegally. According to labor economics expert professor Iguchi from Kwansei Gakuin, “A connection has been made between the concentrated amount of Japanese schools and lack of workers (in large cities)”.
Because there has been a dramatic increase in students coming into Japan from abroad, more and more Japanese schools started to open up to try and get students. As a result, many of the international students have heavy student loans, many of which also include plane tickets to get into Japan, which they try to pay off through getting a part-time job. These students are told that they can gain a couple months worth of pay through working just one day in Japan. However after paying for classes and living expenses, the students have almost nothing left on hand.
With students wanting to earn as much money as they can to rid themselves of their student loans, and large cities needing more workers, the interests matched. International students, other than the Chinese students in March, have actually been arrested for illegally working in Japan. It’s a sad reality that many international students get caught up in the education business on the premise of being in debt.
Professor Iguchi urges the board of education to review the ryugakusei program and fix some of the fundamental issues before the problem becomes worse.
For more info (Japanese): https://www.recordchina.co.jp/newsinfo.php?id=579559&ph=0
