THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
May 23, 2021 at 14:35 JST
Foreign technical intern trainees work at a farm in Hokota, Ibaraki Prefecture, in June 2019. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
ITAKO, Ibaraki Prefecture--Public health officials here withdrew an advisory warning farmers not to dine with their foreign workers as an anti-coronavirus precaution after the contents drew fire for being inappropriate.
The advisory was in the form of an email sent May 19 by the Itako public health center in Itako to the Hokota city government in the prefecture and Hokota's local agricultural cooperative.
The intention was to share it among farmers hiring foreign workers.
Citing numerous COVID-19 cases in foreign communities and farms where many foreign nationals worked, the document urged farmers to remember “to wear masks when conversing with foreigners” and “not dine with foreigners.”
After being alerted to the advisory on May 21, officials in charge of infectious diseases at the prefectural government urged the Itako public health center to cancel the guidance.
“The advisory may cause misunderstandings because it targeted foreigners,” a prefectural official said.
Hokota, with a population of 48,000, had a high ratio of foreign nationals among its residents. Most of them work as technical intern trainees who came to Japan from developing countries.
The city is famed for its melons and other fruits, as well as agricultural produce.
(This article was written by Kazumichi Kubota and Keiji Maruyama.)
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