ベトナムからの建設技能実習生の送り出しをめぐる実態 : 積極的勧誘期における中間組織の役割に着目して

Abstract

Japan’s parliament passed a controversial immigration law on December 25, 2018. This law will create new visa statuses that will enable general foreign workers to be employed in a wide variety of jobs in Japan. This action marks a major departure from Japan’s past policy of admitting a limited number of workers through multiple “side doors.” However, most of the specific measures such as exact numbers, exact tasks, skill levels, tests, and social infrastructures are subject to confirmation by ministries and agencies. The precise manners in which the newly introduced plans will incorporate immigrant workers through this political method is heavily dependent on the role of the intermediate agencies. These organizations tend to comprise the industrial associations in each trade. This framework is not new for Japan’s immigration policy; it actually presents a continuity with the logic of the present system, especially the technical intern training program advanced by the government since the 1990s against the wide critique of substantial labor exploitation. In order to examine the characteristics of such immigration policy in Japan, trans-border relationships previously established under the disguise of the acceptance of workers must first be scrutinized. This paper aims to examine the current state of the Vietnam-Japan transborder recruiting system. To accomplish the study, focus is placed on the specific sector of the construction industry while taking the changing national and industrial policies pertaining to development, skill formation, and labor relations into consideration. The argument presented in the paper comprises three aspects: the incidence of migrant construction workers worldwide and the challenges pertaining to this phenomenon; Japan’s national policy and the role of intermediate agencies in the creation of a trans-border recruiting system between Vietnam and Japan; and the future implications of this practice.