Photo/Illutration A foreign technical intern takes a Japanese language test on the first day of a training camp in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward. (Mari Fujisaki)

Government-affiliated organizations have been assisting foreign technical interns struggling here amid the novel coronavirus pandemic by offering to retrain them to transition from lost jobs and provide other support.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) organized a technical training camp this summer targeting people staying in Japan from abroad who lost their jobs due to the pandemic but cannot return home, leaving them scrambling to make ends meet.

A total of 22 Vietnamese men and women applied online to participate in the project.

A 32-year-old former technical intern, who has worked in painting metal in the Kanto region around Tokyo for three years, said he hopes to improve his Japanese through the camp and find employment with better conditions under the “specified skills” visa status.

“I want to get a job where I can do things like cook meals,” he said.

The eight-week program started in late July. It offers lessons on business language skills and Japanese culture, as well as career building. Trainees are also expected to learn techniques in agriculture and food manufacturing.

The students stay at the JICA Tokyo Center while their meals and other support are provided by a nonprofit group.

The camp is supervised by the Japan Platform for Migrant Workers toward Responsible and Inclusive Society (JP-MIRAI), a public-private partnership introduced last fall. The JICA and the Global Alliance for Sustainable Supply Chain, a group tackling business and human rights issues, jointly serve as JP-MIRAI’s office.

Since the JICA’s core objective is aiding developing countries, some argue that such projects in Japan fall outside the scope of its activity and are opposed to the efforts.

But at the same time, there are calls for the government-affiliated body to extend its support within Japan because domestic support is currently largely provided by the private sector.

And this is not the first time it has helped out like this.

JICA temporarily assisted Japanese-Brazilians deprived of their jobs in the aftermath of the 2008 collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers.

That happened under the leadership of Sadako Ogata, the late president of the organization, who had called for an integrated system that would allow them to provide support regardless of where the recipients are located.

Officials will examine the results from the latest trainee camp program as it looks to offer future assistance packages.

The Organization for Technical Intern Training (OTIT), a state-designated entity tasked with protecting technical interns no longer eligible for support from their supervisory groups, likewise accepted 71 interns who contacted the organization between April 2018 and March 2020.

The OTIT said it offered not only accommodations, food and other support but also job-transition consultations at facilities commissioned nationwide to help foreign trainees.

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