Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2025, published 114th ILC session (2026)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Japan (Ratification: 1932)

The Committee notes the observations of the All-Japan Shipbuilding and Engineering Union Kanto (AJSEU-Kanto), received on 28 August 2025. It also notes the observations of the Japan Business Federation (NIPPON-KEIDANREN) and the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (JTUC-RENGO), communicated by the Government with its reports.

Articles 1(1), 2(1) and 25 of the Convention. Technical Intern Training Programme (TITP). Following its previous comments, the Committee notes the Government’s detailed information, in its report, on the measures taken to ensure the protection of interns and technical interns in the TITP, including: (1) capacity-building for law enforcement officers; (2) on-site inspections by the Organization for Technical Intern Training (OTIT) of supervising and implementing organizations; and (3) strengthened complaint mechanisms for technical interns, including multi-language services (phone, email, Zoom), the Native Language Consultation Hotline for urgent cases (e.g., assault or intimidation), and provision of temporary protection.

The Government also reports data on violations, prosecutions and convictions related to laws and regulations governing the TITP for the period April 2021–March 2024. During this period, OTIT conducted 81,079 inspections (13,333 of supervising organizations and 67,746 of implementing organizations), detecting 54,839 violations and identifying 32,533 violators (7,034 supervising organizations and 25,499 implementing organizations). Among implementing organizations, the most common violations involved: discrepancies between planned and actual training (25.1 per cent); improper notifications and reporting (23.4 per cent); inadequate payment of remuneration (18.7 per cent); and substandard accommodation (13.5 per cent). Supervising organizations most frequently failed to properly manage or guide implementing organizations, or to adequately prepare, maintain or submit required documents and supervisory reports. 411 implementing organizations had their accreditation revoked and 6 were issued improvement orders, while 30 supervising organizations had their supervision licenses revoked and 30 received improvement orders. The Government further indicates that in 2023, the Prefectural Labour Bureau, Labour Standards Inspection Office and OTIT jointly investigated 42 organizations over suspected human rights violations of technical interns, including forced labour. They issued rectification orders in 40 cases for labour standards violations and improvement recommendations in 32 cases for breaches of technical intern training laws. In addition, between January 2021 and December 2023, Labour Standards inspection bodies provided supervision and guidance to 29,243 workplaces employing technical interns where labour standards violations were suspected. During the same period, 73 cases involving serious or malicious violations of labour standards laws and regulations were referred for prosecution. Six cases involving violations of section 5 of the Labour Standards Act (prohibition of forced labour) were referred to the Public Prosecutor.

The Committee notes that in its observations, JTUC-RENGO highlights that despite OTIT and Labour Standards Inspectorate inspections, administrative measures, and prosecutions, violations remain widespread. In 2023, approximately 70 per cent of implementing organizations were found to be in violation of labour standards laws and regulations, and 90 per cent of the notifications submitted by supervising organizations cited the circumstances of technical intern trainees. JTUC-RENGO therefore considers that stricter enforcement is necessary.

In light of the significant number of violations that continue to be detected in the framework of the TITP, the Committee requests the Government to ensure continued and strengthened inspections by OTIT and the Labour Standards Inspection Office, with a view to promptly detecting and addressing abuses. It urges the Government to ensure the application of effective and dissuasive sanctions against persons and organizations that violate the rights of technical interns, including penal sanctions in cases involving practices amounting to forced labour, so that penalties serve as a genuine deterrent. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide information on prosecutions, judicial proceedings and outcomes, including as regards the six cases involving violations of section 5 of the Labour Standards Act.

The Committee also notes that, following the 2023 report of the advisory panel of experts established by the Government, the Amendment Act of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act and the Act on Proper Technical Intern Training and Protection of Technical Intern Trainees (Act No. 60 of 2024) was enacted in 2024. The Amendment Act establishes the Employment-for-Skill Development (ESD) programme, which will replace the TITP in 2027. The Committee notes the Government’s information that the ESD programme is designed to promote skills development while strengthening protections for foreign participants. It will introduce a licensing system to supervise and support sending organizations, while excluding unqualified organizations; allow transfers of employers based on the worker’s will, when certain conditions are met; and reinforce the supervisory, guidance, support, and protection functions of the new Employment-for-Skill-Development Organization (ESDO), which will replace OTIT. The Committee also takes note of the Enforcement Regulations of the Act on the Proper Implementation of Training Employment of Foreign Nationals and on the Protection of Foreign Nationals in Training Employment (Ordinance of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare No. 4 of 2025), section 21 of which provides that foreign participants in the ESD programme may have to pay up to two months’ remuneration to sending organizations in recruitment fees.

The Committee notes JTUC-RENGO’s observations acknowledging that the ESD programme includes provisions to strengthen the elimination of pernicious dispatching organizations, ensure stricter oversight of administrative organizations, clarify conditions for both unavoidable and worker-initiated employer changes, and reduce loans borne by workers upon entry into Japan. JTUC-RENGO emphasizes that effective protection of foreign workers will require proper implementation, including legal reforms and enhanced capacity-building for OTIT staff following its reorganization into the Employment-for-Skill-Development Organization (ESDO), particularly regarding education on the relevant laws and regulations. The Committee also notes that in its observations NIPPON-KEIDANREN stresses that the ESD programme must be designed to fully protect migrant workers’ rights. It calls on the Government to ensure that the new programme imposes no undue restrictions on employer transfers and prohibits the charging of recruitment fees to migrant workers. While the ESD programme formally allows worker-initiated employer changes, NIPPON-KEINDANREN indicates that, by separating the seafood processing industry from the broader food manufacturing industries, transfer options for migrant workers engaged in seafood processing (where approximately 1,610 establishments employ migrant workers) will be severely limited. NIPPON-KEINDANREN also refers to a policy direction from the Government that would permit sending organizations to charge migrant workers fees equivalent to up to two months of wages, raising serious concerns from a business and human rights perspective by effectively allowing workers to bear recruitment costs under the ESD programme.

The Committee notes the Government’s reply that, as regards the separation of the fishing and seafood processing industries from the broader food and beverage manufacturing sector, this distinction is necessary due to the specific and advanced skills required in the former sector. It notes that the fishery processing industry includes more than 350 categories of processed fishery products and employs approximately 25,000 technical intern trainees nationwide, making the sector sufficiently large to avoid unduly restricting job transfers.

The Committee strongly encourages the Government to ensure that the ESD programme will be effectively implemented and that it will strengthen the protection of all foreign workers and prevent any conditions that could give rise to forced labour. It requests the Government to provide detailed information on the functioning and implementation of ESD programme, such as: (i) the number of workers participating in the new programme, disaggregated by sector; (ii) the licensing, supervision and disciplinary measures applied to sending and receiving organizations; (iii) the inspections, guidance and protection activities undertaken by the ESDO; and (iv) any measures taken to ensure that transfers of employment based on the worker’s will are not unduly restricted in practice, including for those employed in the seafood processing industry, and to prohibit any recruitment fees or related costs being imposed on migrant workers.

2. Wartime industrial forced labour and sexual slavery. The Committee notes the observations of the AJSEU-Kanto, according to which issues related to Japan’s wartime sexual slavery and industrial forced labour remain unresolved. AJSEU-Kanto states that the Government has taken no meaningful action in the past year and condemns what it characterizes as the Government’s approach of “waiting for the victims to die”. AJSEU-Kanto states that the Government has intensified its denial of historical facts relating to wartime sexual slavery in recent years and recalls that although the Government continues to deny legal responsibility, United Nations treaty bodies have repeatedly recommended that Japan address this issue. As for victims of industrial forced labour, AJSEU-Kanto notes that the 2018 rulings of the Supreme Court of South Korea, ordering Japanese companies accused of forced mobilization to compensate victims, were civil lawsuits in which the Japanese Government was not a party, and that the defendant companies have not complied with the final judgments. AJSEU-Kanto further states that, under the 1965 Japan–South Korea Claims Settlement Agreement, both governments acknowledged that “individual claims have not been extinguished”, and thus victims retain the right to seek redress through the courts. Regarding the third-party compensation scheme proposed by the Government of the Republic of Korea in March 2023, AJSEU-Kanto asserts that it does not provide genuine relief because the Japanese companies responsible for forced mobilization are not involved and therefore not held accountable. AJSEU-Kanto also notes that the Foundation for the Support of Victims of Forced Mobilization by Japanese Imperialism, which pays the equivalent of the compensation amount to the victims on behalf of the defendant companies, does not have sufficient funds to compensate all successful plaintiffs, making the scheme unsustainable. AJSEU-Kanto therefore urges the Government to fulfil its responsibilities regarding redress for victims of forced labour.

The Committee notes the Government’s reiteration that it has addressed issues of reparations, property, and claims relating to victims of industrial forced labour and sexual slavery during the Second World War through bilateral treaties, agreements and related instruments, and that individual claims have been settled under these arrangements. It recalls the Republic of Korea’s March 2023 announcement of a third-party compensation scheme for South Korean victims of forced labour during the Japanese occupation, funded by voluntary private sector contributions in the Republic of Korea, and notes that many plaintiffs (former civilian workers from the Korean Peninsula (CWKs)) accepted these measures. The Government informs that, as of November 2025, payments have been made by the Foundation thus established to 26 plaintiffs who are CWKs and that Government of the Republic of Korea has stated that it will continue to make efforts to gain the understanding of the plaintiffs. The Government welcomes this initiative as a step toward improving bilateral relations strained by the Republic of Korea’s 2018 Supreme Court ruling and states that it will continue close communication with the Government of the Republic of Korea.

Regarding the issue of “comfort women”, the Government stresses that it has sincerely dealt with the issue and taken measures to recover their honour and provide remedies for them. The Government recalls the 2015 bilateral agreement confirming that the issue was “finally and irreversibly” resolved. It further recalls its 1-billion-yen contribution to the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation established by the Republic of Korea in 2016 and notes that the Government of the Republic of Korea later unilaterally announced the dissolution of the Foundation. The Government states that it has fully implemented its commitments under the 2015 agreement and that the Republic of Korea bears responsibility for its steady implementation.

While noting the Government’s recent measures to compensate some more former civilian workers from the Korean Peninsula, the Committee regrets that the issues of wartime industrial forced labour and sexual slavery during the Second World War are yet to be fully resolved. It notes that, while commending Japan’s efforts with regard to addressing the rights of “comfort women”, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, in its concluding observations of October 2024, considered that such efforts need to be sustained and expanded to ensure the rights of victims and survivors to truth, justice and reparations (CEDAW/C/JPN/CO/9).

The Committee recalls the seriousness and long-standing nature of this case and strongly encourages the Government to continue to make every effort to achieve reconciliation with the surviving victims. It once again calls on the Government to ensure, without further delay, that adequate measures are taken to meet the expectations and resolve the claims of the elderly surviving victims of wartime industrial forced labour and military sexual slavery, whose numbers continue to diminish with each passing year.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.