Companies in rural areas are struggling to stem the flow of skilled foreign workers to urban centers since a new visa system introduced in 2019 allowed them to switch jobs and work anywhere.

These employers cannot afford to match the pay scales offered in such places as Tokyo.

In autumn 2021, Pham van Manh, 31, from Vietnam, told his company in Saga Prefecture that he wanted to quit.

He had been working at the construction firm for five years as a technical trainee and then qualified for the “specified skilled worker” visa in the construction field.

A wood processing company in Osaka Prefecture offered him a job with a monthly salary of 260,000 yen ($1,770).

Pham’s higher-ups tried to persuade him to stay in an hourlong meeting. He said he couldn’t reveal the salary offered because he knew the Saga company could not match it.

He said he is grateful to the construction company, which hosted a Japanese language class for foreign workers and taught him not only about carpentry skills but also about field management.

“I felt bad. They taught me a lot,” he said. “But I’m in Japan to make money.”

Three other trainees who had been working at the Saga company moved to Tokyo or Fukuoka after they qualified as specified skilled workers.

Pham said he likes his new workplace because it offers fixed hours and he can work inside a factory instead of outdoor sites.

He intends to take a paid leave of absence during the year-end and New Year holidays and return to Vietnam for the first time in four years. He is already buying souvenirs.

After Pham left Saga Prefecture, the president of his former company decided to raise salaries for promising foreign workers to encourage them to remain on the payroll after they qualify as specified skilled workers.

But the company is unable to offer salaries on a par with Tokyo firms.

“There is a difference in salaries between Saga (Prefecture) and Tokyo, obviously,” the president said.

The foreign technical intern program started in Japan in 1993 to help people from developing nations acquire skills that they could use after returning to their home countries.

But the program has been used by some companies facing worker shortages as a way to secure cheap labor for menial or dangerous tasks.

The interns are allowed to work in Japan for up to five years. But they don’t have the freedom to switch workplaces, in principle, and they cannot bring their families with them to Japan.

The specified skills working visa system was introduced in April 2019 to accept foreign workers in a more practical manner. For example, they can change jobs with this visa.

If technical interns can gain three years of experience in a field, they can qualify for the specified skilled visa without having to take language and technical examinations.

A survey conducted by the Kagoshima prefectural government showed that 597 former technical interns had moved out of the prefecture by the end of April after becoming eligible for the specified skilled visa or other qualifications.

The work force loss is significant, considering that 831 non-Japanese specified skilled workers were living in the prefecture at the end of March.

The technical intern program is expected to undergo drastic revisions.

In October, the Kagoshima prefectural assembly received a petition from a related industry association asking for the continuation of the program. The association also called for the central government to pay serious attention to both technical interns and their employers.

Hoen Ko, 38, head of Torise Japan, which serves as a mediator for specified skilled workers mainly in nursing care in Awara, Fukui Prefecture, said his company helped about 70 technical interns qualify as specified skilled workers.

Nearly 10 percent of them changed jobs within three months, followed by about 30 percent within a year.

Many of their new workplaces are located in large cities where they earn higher wages, he said.

“The system for specified skilled workers gives too little consideration to small and midsized companies in outlying regions suffering from the most severe manpower shortages,” Ko said. “It feels like local regions are being used as a stepping stone.

“We are asking companies to enhance employee benefits to prevent them from switching jobs, but there is a limit in what small and midsized firms in local areas can do.”

(This article was written by Takuya Asakura and Taro Tamaki.)