The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) approved a bill of amendments to the Act on National Strategic Special Zones at a general meeting of its policy research council on February 28.
The bill is to allow foreigners, who have completed a technical intern training program on farms, to work for agricultural management entities as dispatched workers only in special economic zones of the country.
The overseas workers will be also able to get jobs related to processing of farm products, which is not currently allowed in the technical training programs.
A new regulation permitting foreigners to work on farms will be put into the immigration control legislation as an exception.
The Japanese Government plans to approve foreigners, who have completed a Japanese program of “technical intern training (ii)” by working on farms more than two years, to stay in Japan more three or five years if they signs employment contracts with temporary staffing agencies in the country. The duration of the additional stays is still being considered.
It will be possible not only for the temporary staffing agencies to employ those overseas workers only during a busy season of farm works, but also for foreign workers to temporally come back to their home countries.