Nagano

Changes to Skilled Worker Program

Akira Iida & Kentaro Mikami from The Mainichi:

The new training and employment system that is expected to take effect in 2027 aims to foster foreign workers to achieve the specified skills visa level over three years once they've entered the country. Meanwhile, more attention will be paid to their rights as workers, and rules on job-changing are being eased to allow transfers over the course of one to two years. The retention of this workforce is an issue that will persist under the new system.

This is a good on-the-ground story about the actual lives of foreign workers trying to integrate into local communities. Also a good example of how local governments are picking up the slack from Tokyo and actually doing the hard work of making a flawed immigration system work for new immigrants and for local businesses.