Japan's Internship Program Will Be Removed, Indonesian Embassy In Tokyo Urges Indonesian Citizens To Follow The Rules

Deputy Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Japan John Tjahjanto Boestami. (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia (KBRI) Tokyo appealed to Indonesian citizens (WNI) to follow the Japanese Government regulations that plan to remove internship programs for workers from developing countries. " “ Now we can suggest that all provisions related to visas and residence permits here, the mechanism is of course if it can be followed properly," said Deputy Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Japan John Tjahjanto Boestami when met in Tokyo, Antara, Thursday, May 4. According to him, unclear status due to work visas or inappropriate residences will cause various obstacles to problems in the future. “ If the status is not clear here, they are the ones who lose, who will feel that. Of course, it can bring problems not only for themselves but also for others, "” he said. John also emphasized to Indonesian citizens to act like guests in the new country and still comply with local government regulations. “We, however, are guests here. After all, we need to keep us here orderly in our activities, ” he said. After the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 67,000 Indonesian citizens in Japan, which had previously decreased to around 60,000 at the start of the pandemic. However, based on the Japanese Immigration report in June 2022, the number of Indonesian citizens in the country has reached 83,000 people. Of these, interns or kenshusei were recorded to have increased to 44,000 people, previously only 34,000. Meanwhile, for the category of workers with specific skills (SSW), the number reaches almost 10,000 people. The Japanese Government Panel proposed the removal of the internship program on April 10 because it was considered controversial due to a lot of harassment and discrimination. There are at least five important points in the panel's results, namely removing the internship program and replacing it with a human resource procurement and development program (HR), adjusting the field and type of new work with SSW fields and work to make it easier for participants to transfer status to the program, providing concessions for participants to change companies in the same type of work.

Then, the role of supervisory organizations in the apprenticeship program will continue to be adopted by providing stricter certification requirements and revoking the permits of supervisory organizations that do not carry out their duties properly and fulfilling the mechanism for monitoring participant abilities and expertise.