Japan moves to let foreign workers change jobs under new trainee program

Flexibility and relaxed stay requirements proposed to improve troubled system

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Japanese companies have used the international trainee program as a source of labor in fields such as construction. (Photo by Eri Watanabe)

TAISHU YUASA, Nikkei staff writer

TOKYO -- Foreign workers in the system replacing Japan's troubled international trainee program could change jobs after a year if they meet certain requirements, such as basic Japanese language knowledge, under a proposal released Wednesday by a government panel.

The new program outlined in the draft report would allow trainees to move on to a different employer in the same field after spending more than a year at one company, if they pass a basic skills test and the Japanese Language Proficiency Test at N5, the lowest level.

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