Photo/Illutration A former technical intern speaks about her experiences online during a news conference in Kumamoto on Oct. 15. (Hideoki Kozuki)

KUMAMOTO--A Filipina technical intern who said she was told to quit and return home when she became pregnant filed a lawsuit against a social welfare corporation in Fukuoka Prefecture and a supervisory organization in Oita Prefecture.

The 26-year-old woman is seeking about 6.2 million yen ($41,700) in the lawsuit, filed at the Yukuhashi branch of the Fukuoka District Court on Oct. 12.

The welfare corporation manages where she worked as an intern while the supervisory organization played the part of an intermediary.

The woman arrived in Japan in September 2019 on a visa status as a technical intern, according to legal documents.

After a training program, she started interning at a nursing home in Fukuoka Prefecture from the following month, assisting in the bathing and feeding of residents.

She became pregnant in April 2021.

The following month, she told a board member of the supervisory organization and others that she would return to the Philippines to deliver her child and return to her job afterward.

The woman was implicitly told to have an abortion, according to the documents.

“Your internship is over,” she was also told, along with, “You are no longer allowed to stay here.”

She was told the reputation of Filipinos would suffer because of her.

The woman was then forced to sign a letter of consent to return to the Philippines.

A support group in Kumamoto gave her shelter, but she did not receive work after June. At the end of August, she quit and left Japan.

The woman joined a news conference online held in Kumamoto on Oct. 15. She said when she had been removed from the shift schedule, she had felt “threatened” and “hopeless.”

She said she repeatedly told the two entities she wanted to continue to work, but she did not find anyone to support her.

Hiroki Ishiguro, a lawyer representing the woman, said at the news conference that he hopes the lawsuit will “cause a stir to improve the harsh environment that surrounds pregnant technical interns.”

The social welfare corporation declined to comment on the case because it said it had not received the complaint, but it said the organization “took care of her the same way as it would a Japanese.”

The supervisory organization also declined to comment.

The Organization for Technical Intern Training, a corporation authorized by the central government, said supervisory organizations and places that take in technical interns are not allowed to unilaterally terminate a technical internship because of a pregnancy.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Law bans an employer from firing an employee or give detrimental treatment to an employee because of a pregnancy or childbirth.

In 2020, a Vietnamese technical intern who was pregnant and afraid of being forced to leave Japan gave birth on her own to stillborn twins and was convicted of abandoning the corpses of the infants.

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