Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2010, published 100th ILC session (2011)

Employment Injury Benefits Convention, 1964 [Schedule I amended in 1980] (No. 121) - Japan (Ratification: 1974)

With reference to its previous comments, the Committee takes note of the information supplied by the Government, received in October 2008, concerning the application of Articles 10(2) and 26(1) of the Convention, as well as the comments made in this respect by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (JTUC–RENGO). The Committee notes that the Government continues to consolidate the number of occupational injury hospitals, which number 30 as of 2008, in consequence of its “scrap-and-build policy for efficiency”, and that the Government reports it gives full consideration to securing relevant medical care and promoting industrial health activities as part of its policy.

Articles 4(1) and 27. Equality of treatment of foreign trainees. The Committee notes the new comments made by the JTUC–RENGO and the Government’s reply concerning the conditions of employment of foreign trainees by private and public institutions in Japan. The JTUC–RENGO alleges that labour legislation does not apply to foreign trainees as they are not considered to be employed and, consequently, they are not eligible for employment injury benefits in case of an accident at work. The JTUC–RENGO emphasizes that because most trainees who enter Japan under the industrial training and technical internship programme are subsequently performing jobs as workers, there is an urgent need for measures to ensure that trainees are covered by workers’ accident compensation insurance. The Government reports that it undertakes information campaigns regarding the implementation of proper training practices, conducts investigations on the conditions of work of foreign trainees, takes actions and imposes sanctions against practices by employers qualified as “improper conduct”. According to the Government’s report, it developed the “Guidelines Concerning Entry and Residence Management of Trainees and Technical Interns” and revised the Guidelines in 2007. With respect to the review of the training and technical internship programme within the “Three-Year Programme for the Promotion of Regulatory Reform (revised)”, a related bill was supposed to be passed in 2009 to strengthen the legal protection of trainees and their inclusion under the scope of labour legislation. The Committee requests the Government to indicate whether the abovementioned bill was adopted and what provisions in the legislation and the Guidelines mentioned by the Government ensure that foreign trainees in Japan can benefit from the protection offered by the labour and social security legislation. Please provide yearly statistics on the number of inspections and investigations of the proper training practices carried out since 2007, the number of cases of “improper conduct” by the employers registered, and the sanctions imposed.