Photo/Illutration A government survey found that 26 percent of female foreign technical interns were told they would be dismissed if they became pregnant. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

A quarter of female foreign technical interns in Japan said they were told they would be dismissed if they became pregnant, according to an Immigration Services Agency survey, the first of its kind.

The finding, released on Dec. 23, comes after a guilty verdict against a Vietnamese trainee for abandoning the bodies of stillborn twins. Like many other trainees, the woman feared she would be dismissed or forced to return to her home country if her pregnancy comes to light.

The Supreme Court signaled in December it might overturn a high court’s three-month prison sentence, suspended for three years, against the defendant.

Foreign technical interns are covered by the Equal Employment Opportunity Law, which prohibits dismissals of pregnant workers.

“We will carry out necessary surveys and consider administrative punishments for malicious cases,” said an Immigration Services Agency official.

The Organization for Technical Intern Training, commissioned by the agency to carry out the survey, interviewed technical interns between August and November and received responses from 650 individuals from Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and elsewhere.

Of them, 172 people, or 26 percent, said they were told words to the effect that a pregnancy would result in their dismissal or return home.

Seventy-four percent of those respondents said they received such caution from trainee-dispatch organizations in their home countries, while 15 percent cited supervising organizations that accept trainees in Japan and 11 percent mentioned Japanese companies that accept trainees.

In addition, 34 people, or 5 percent of all respondents, said they even signed a contract agreeing to quit if they become pregnant.

Of them, 70 percent said they signed the contract with trainee-dispatch organizations, while supervising organizations were cited by 22 percent. Companies accounted for 8 percent.

Foreign technical interns are eligible for maternity leave and can continue working after they become pregnant if they so choose. However, nearly half of the respondents said they had no idea the option existed.

The immigration agency and other authorities instructed 3,600 or so supervising organizations across Japan to explain to technical interns that assistance and counseling are available about having a child.

Officials said 637 foreign trainees discontinued their internship programs due to pregnancy or childbirth between November 2017 and December 2020.

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