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RI-Japan to start talks on migrant worker framework
Japan and Indonesia will start talks on a new framework allowing Indonesia to send more skilled workers to Japan in 14 new sectors including agriculture and construction, a Japanese diplomat has said, as aging Japan suffers from a labor shortage
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span>Japan and Indonesia will start talks on a new framework allowing Indonesia to send more skilled workers to Japan in 14 new sectors including agriculture and construction, a Japanese diplomat has said, as aging Japan suffers from a labor shortage.
The Japanese Embassy’s deputy chief of mission, Keiichi Ono, said officials would work on the details of the framework, which was a follow up to his government’s recent decision to open up the labor market to foreign workers.
Officials of the two countries are expected to begin meeting in April.
“The Japanese and Indonesian government are now talking about the new framework on Indonesian workers and we hope that it can be concluded very soon,” he said on the sidelines of an event at the embassy
on Monday.
With the revised Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law passed last year, starting April 340,000 more foreign nationals are expected to arrive over the next five years, Japan News reported.
Ono said his government did not set any kind of quota on how many foreign workers Japan would take from Indonesia, but it was expected that there were 14 industries that would require foreign workers.
The 14 sectors include agriculture, fisheries, beverages, restaurants, care, materials, construction, shipbuilding, mechanics and hospitality.
The regulation allows for a new residence status for incoming foreign workers, in a measure expected to alleviate acute labor shortages in these industries.
“From Indonesia, we have accepted many carers based of the framework of the EPA [Economic Partnership Agreement] and we expect that more Indonesian workers will come [to Japan] based on the [new] framework in those areas,” he said.
Indonesia sent 329 prospective nurses and caregivers last year after undergoing months of intensive language training in Indonesia as a part of the EPA signed by Indonesia and Japan in 2008.
Last week, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said she had received a draft of the memorandum of cooperation on labor cooperation from Kentaro Sonoura, the special advisor to Japan’s prime minister, in a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the High Level Dialogue on Indo-Pacific cooperation.
“The fields mentioned are, among others, health, agriculture and fisheries,” Retno told reporters at that time, adding that a Japanese delegation would later visit Indonesia to start negotiations.
Labor cooperation was also on the table during a meeting between Retno and Japan’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs Toshiko Abe in Tokyo over the weekend.
Ono said his government was also discussing the same kind of framework with other sending countries, including Vietnam and China.
Under the existing EPA framework, prospective nurses and caregivers still need to take six months of language training before undergoing an internship in a healthcare facility. After undergoing these procedures, workers can take the national test for caregivers or nurses.
According to the Japanese Embassy’s data, since 2008 Japan had received 2,116 prospective nurses and caregivers, but only 551 passed the national tests.
Migrant CARE executive director Wahyu Susilo said with the new framework, Indonesia should boost its vocational education system to ensure Indonesian workers qualify to work in Japan and compete with workers from other sending countries.
“The government must make use of polytechnics, especially those affiliated with Japanese companies here,” he told The Jakarta Post.
