An eight-week training seminar is being held for technical trainees and other foreign workers as part of measures to support those who lost their job during the COVID-19 pandemic and are stranded in Japan. The seminar is sponsored by the Japan Platform for Migrant Workers towards Responsible and Inclusive Society (JP MIRAI), a public-private framework launched last fall. The seminar secretariat is being run by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and a general incorporated association involved in business and human rights.

The seminar, which started in late July and runs for eight weeks, includes classes on Japanese language and culture as well as career building. The seminar is being attended by 22 people, including a Vietnamese trainee, who hopes to learn Japanese in the seminar and switch his visa to “specified skilled worker” visa. Agriculture and foodstuff manufacturing skills are also being taught. The participants are accommodated at JICA’s Tokyo Center for the duration of the program. Meals are provided for by nonprofit organizations. (Abridged)