Photo/Illutration An area in Fukuoka where the former technical intern trainee lived, is lined with many apartment buildings. (Yuta Torio)

Increasing arrests for theft and other crimes among Vietnamese technical intern trainees who come to Japan for a better life point to deeper issues below the surface.

The Vietnamese trainees make up nearly half of the 400,000 foreign trainees working in Japan and support key industries such as construction and agriculture.

In late July, Fukuoka prefectural police sent a 32-year-old Vietnamese man living in Fukuoka to prosecutors on suspicion of repeatedly stealing from vacant houses. He is currently on trial for theft and other crimes.

According to the prefectural police, the man is accused of breaking into an abandoned house in Fukuoka Prefecture between July and December 2023. He allegedly accessed online banking accounts from a stolen laptop and withdrew around 7.18 million yen ($49,700) in cash.

The police said the suspect has admitted to the charges.

According to investigators, the man came to Japan in May 2015 as a technical intern trainee.

He was doing welding work in Nagasaki Prefecture. However, after his employer criticized his work attitude, he feared being sent back to Vietnam and disappeared from his job.

He appeared to have engaged in farming and dismantling cars while overstaying his visa.

Police quoted him as saying, “I began committing thefts around March 2023, mainly in Fukuoka Prefecture, after being encouraged by a Vietnamese acquaintance.”

According to investigators, the man had borrowed more than 1 million yen to pay fees to a dispatching agency when he came to Japan, but he was unable to repay the debt.

The police suspect that he lived alone in an apartment and went out at night to commit thefts.

“I sent the stolen money to my family in Vietnam,” he told police.

DEBT DRIVES MANY TO CRIME

The number of Vietnamese nationals detained by police on suspicion of involvement in crimes has been on the rise in recent years.

According to the National Police Agency, 1,608 Vietnamese were apprehended nationwide last year, up 27 from the previous year. They account for around 28 percent of all foreign nationals and marked the highest number for four consecutive years.

As of the end of last year, roughly 565,000 Vietnamese lived in Japan, up 76,000 from the same period the previous year. Thirty-five percent of them were technical intern trainees.

Many Vietnamese trainees struggle to pay the fees to their dispatching agencies.

According to a 2022 survey by the Immigration Services Agency, the average fee to such agencies was around 650,000 yen and the average debt was roughly 670,000 yen. About 80 percent of trainees were in debt, with some even taking on larger amounts before coming to Japan.

According to the labor ministry, the technical internship program does not allow trainees to change workplaces during their first three years, in principle.

Even if they struggle to fit in at their workplace, they cannot transfer to a different one and must bear the burden of debts incurred to come to Japan.

Some experts pointed out that these factors are driving Vietnamese trainees to commit crimes.

INADEQUATE REFORMS

In June, the revised Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law was passed by the Upper House plenary session and enacted. The revisions abolish the technical intern training system and establish a new system aimed at securing and fostering foreign workers.

The revised immigration law will take effect within three years of its promulgation.

It will allow foreign trainees to change workplaces after one to two years of employment.

If requested by trainees, private organizations handling oversight and supporting trainees will assist with the transfer by coordinating between the dispatching countries and receiving companies.

However, Shinichiro Nakashima of the Kumusutaka Association for Living Together with Migrants, a citizens’ group that support foreign residents in Japan, criticized the new law, saying, “It is just an extension of the old system.”

“What doesn’t work for Japanese youths (such as restrictions on changing jobs) does not work for foreign nationals either,” he said. “We must seriously pursue policies that better support permanent residency and family accompaniment.”

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