Technical intern trainee tells of low pay at wage council meeting
A Myanmar woman working in a technical intern training program in Japan called for a 'significant increase in the minimum wage' at a Regional Minimum Wages Council meeting held in Fukuoka on July 31.
According to the labor ministry, this was the first time that a technical intern trainee has testified at a Minimum Wages Council meeting.
The woman highlighted the wage disparity between foreign technical trainees and Japanese nationals performing the same work.
She spoke at the meeting at the encouragement of Union Kita-Kyushu, a regional labor union.
The union recommended that she explain the situation facing technical intern trainees, who don't have the freedom to change jobs and can be forced to work for low wages.
The 24-year-old woman from Myanmar works at a nursing home in Kita-Kyushu.
In the council meeting, she explained that she has to repay around 1 million yen ($6,640) in debt to the dispatch company acting as a broker in Myanmar, and she also has to send money to her family back home.
She said she works for the minimum wage in the prefecture, which allows her to send between 100,000 and 150,000 yen to her family each month, and lives on the remaining 50,000 yen per month.
'None of my Japanese coworkers work for just the minimum wage,' she said, pointing out the current situation that runs contrary to the equal pay for equal work concept.
She added, 'If the minimum wage increased to 1,500 yen, I would have 100,000 yen a month after sending money to my country. I could use it for my personal needs or to study for my future.'
According to this woman, she was forced to drop out of her university after studying for three years because of the military coup in Myanmar and her father losing his job. She had to start working.
She has been a fan of Japanese anime since high school. She also studied Japanese, so she came to Japan in the spring of 2023 as a technical intern trainee.
After the council meeting, she told reporters that, 'I was really nervous, but it was good to offer opinions on behalf of those in the same situation.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Kyodo News
24 minutes ago
- Kyodo News
Kyodo News Digest: Aug. 2, 2025
TOKYO - The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News. ---------- Japan PM Ishiba not to make WWII statement on 80th anniv. of its end TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has decided not to express his views on World War II on the 80th anniversary of its end on Aug. 15 but may do so later, government sources said Friday. Although Ishiba, believed to be relatively dovish, has already decided not to have a prime minister's statement approved at a Cabinet meeting, he remains eager to offer his perspective and may do so on another occasion, the sources said. ---------- Japan astronaut Yui heads to ISS on SpaceX craft on 2nd space mission CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida - A team of astronauts from Japan, Russia and the United States headed to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX craft from Florida on Friday, marking the second space flight for Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui. The Crew-11 mission, also involving two Americans and one Russian, will stay at the ISS for about six months, partly to conduct experiments in hopes of helping future lunar exploration. It is expected to reach the ISS in the early hours of Saturday. ---------- Japanese woman attacked in subway station in China, suspect detained SUZHOU, China - A Japanese woman was assaulted while walking with her child at a subway station in Suzhou, eastern China, sustaining a non-life-threatening injury, the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai and sources familiar with bilateral relations said Friday. Chinese authorities detained a suspect allegedly involved in the Thursday evening incident in Suzhou, the same city in Jiangsu Province where a Japanese mother and child were injured and a Chinese woman was killed in a knife attack in June last year. ---------- Extra Diet session begins, PM faces emboldened opposition after poll TOKYO - Japan's parliament convened Friday for its first session since the ruling coalition's recent major election setback, as the opposition camp seeks to leverage its increased strength to push for the removal of a temporary gasoline tax while Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is on the defensive. During the five-day session, Ishiba will engage in debates with opposition lawmakers over the recently reached Japan-U.S. tariff deal, all the while his standing as ruling party head and prime minister remains precarious amid pressure to resign. ---------- Vietnamese man acquitted of smuggling fake yen banknotes into Japan KUMAMOTO, Japan - A Japanese court ruling that acquitted a Vietnamese former technical intern of smuggling and using over 170 forged 10,000 yen ($66) bills was finalized Friday, after prosecutors did not appeal the verdict. The man, 38, was accused of working with an unknown party from late June to mid-August 2023 to smuggle forged 10,000-yen old banknotes last issued in the 1980s into Japan. ---------- JR East gets OK to raise fares for Yamanote, other lines in March TOKYO - East Japan Railway Co. said Friday it has received government approval to raise fares by an average 7.1 percent from March, the company's first blanket hike since 1987 when it was created from the privatization of the national railway company. The fare hike comes as the operator of Tokyo's busy Yamanote loop line and other train routes seek to secure funds for maintaining its railway services amid a falling population and rising prices. ---------- Japan experienced hottest July for 3rd year, 2.89 C above average TOKYO - Japan logged its hottest July for the third year in a row, with average temperatures 2.89 C above normal, the weather agency said Friday. The average temperature was the highest since comparable records started being kept in 1898, exceeding the previous record set in 2024 by 2.16 degrees. ---------- Japanese man's acquittal of 1986 schoolgirl murder finalized NAGOYA - The acquittal of a Japanese man who served seven years in prison for the 1986 murder of a junior high school student was finalized on Friday after prosecutors waived the right to appeal. The Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court acquitted 60-year-old Shoshi Maekawa over the murder of a teenage girl in Fukui, central Japan, in a retrial last month, dismissing the credibility of the testimony of his acquaintances that led to his initial guilty verdict. ---------- Video: Morioka Sansa dance festival in Iwate Prefecture
Japan Times
an hour ago
- Japan Times
Attacker wounds another Japanese national in China's Suzhou
An "unknown assailant" attacked and wounded a Japanese national accompanied by a child in the Chinese city of Suzhou, Tokyo's Embassy said Friday, calling on Beijing to prevent such incidents. According to Japan-China diplomatic sources, the victim was a woman. Local authorities have detained the suspected attacker, but the motive and other details of the incident remain unclear. The incident comes a year after a Japanese mother and child were wounded in a knife attack in the same city. A Chinese woman had died trying to stop the assailant. In Thursday's attack, "a Japanese national walking with a child was struck by what appeared to be a rock by an unknown assailant inside a Suzhou, Jiangsu province subway station," Tokyo's Embassy in Beijing said in a statement. A spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry said that "the suspect has been apprehended." The victim was "promptly taken to hospital for treatment, and there is no threat to life." China and Japan are key trading partners, but increased friction over territorial rivalries and military spending has frayed ties in recent years. Japan's brutal occupation of parts of China before and during World War II remains a sore point, with Beijing accusing Tokyo of failing to atone for its past. In June last year, a Japanese mother and child were attacked in Suzhou on the anniversary of the 1931 Mukden incident, known in China as a day of national humiliation. The 1931 explosion of a railway in China was used by Japanese soldiers as a pretext to occupy the city of Mukden, now called Shenyang, and invade the wider region of Manchuria. And in September, a Japanese schoolboy was fatally stabbed in the southern city of Shenzhen. Media reports about the latest attack in Suzhou were censored on the Chinese messaging app WeChat. "The Japanese government has urged the Chinese government to ... severely punish the suspect, prevent similar incidents, and ensure the safety of Japanese nationals," Tokyo's Embassy said Friday. Beijing's Foreign Ministry said "China will continue to take effective steps, to protect the safety of foreigners in China." Thursday's incident occurred at a time when anti-Japanese sentiment is seen as rising in China, fueled by recent films and dramas themed on the past war against Japan. To celebrate the 80th anniversary of China's victory in the war, a military parade is scheduled to be held in Beijing in September.
Nikkei Asia
2 hours ago
- Nikkei Asia
Foreign entrepreneurs fuel innovation in Kyoto
Number of funded startups in Kyoto nearly doubled to 79 last year from 44 in 2014, according to a report by Initial Inc., a Japanese startup information platform. (Photo by Toshiki Sasazu) Nikkei staff writers TOKYO -- Foreign entrepreneurs are blending tradition and technology in Kyoto, as Japan seeks to attract international talent and boost its startup ecosystem. The nascent trend suggests a model for how traditional industries can find new relevance through technological integration.
