The Japanese Government held a meeting of an advisory council on national strategic special zones to begin considering a new regulation for allowing overseas skilled workers to work in an agricultural sector in special economic zones of the country.
Under an existing system, technical intern trainees from developing countries are only allowed to work in the Japanese agricultural sector.
The Government now decided to consider inviting foreign workers skilled to a certain extent so as to ease the shortage of workforces in local farming communities.
At the advisory council, a representative of Ogata-Mura village, Akita prefecture, a newly developed area by a governmental land reclamation project in 1950s-60s, made a proposal to Prime Minster Shinzo Abe that his government should allow foreign skilled workers to work for Japanese farmers in order to revitalize agricultural production.
“We have received an extremely important proposal for taking on our challenges to vitalize local regions as well as to realize the dynamic engagement of all citizens. We will speed up the debate for putting the proposal into practice,” Shinzo Abe told the meeting of the advisory council.
The Prime Minister also mentioned that he will plan to submit bills on legislative amendment regarding immigration control to the ordinary Diet session set to convene next January.
Around 24 thousand foreigners are now working in the agricultural sector under the existing system of technical intern trainees. A number of local farmers are facing a severe problem of labor shortages in the face of rapidly graying farm population. Shinzo Abe’s administration intends to find a solution of the problem through the intake of agricultural skilled workers from developing countries.