Multilingual services to be offered to foreign workers

NEW GOVERNMENT outlines on the expanded intake of foreign workers to begin next April emphasises support for foreign residents’ livelihoods, such as by providing multilingual driver’s licence written tests nationwide and dispatching medical interpreters to hospitals also in non-urban areas, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

The government compiled the outlines to help Japanese people better coexist with foreign people.

The government plans to formalise the outlines at the end of this year after deliberating their contents with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito.

The establishment of new residence statuses – the pillar of a bill to revise the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law enacted at a recent extraordinary Diet session – will bring about the expanded intake of foreign labourers. Foreign workers will be granted a residence status commensurate with their work skills, with workers to be hired in designated industries, including some that only require basic skills.

There are two categories of residence status. Category 1 applies to workers in professions requiring relatively simple skills and allows them to live in Japan for up to five years. Category 2 applies to highly skilled workers and can lead to permanent residency in Japan. The new statuses will take effect next April.

The government estimates a maximum of 345,150 foreign workers will be accepted over the five years beginning in fiscal 2019.

Written driver’s licence tests are currently offered in such languages as Portuguese and Vietnamese in some localities, in addition to English and Chinese. In anticipation of the influx of foreign workers, mainly from Southeast Asian countries, the government will expand multilingual services nationwide.

To accommodate hospital visits by foreign people, the government will dispatch medical interpreters also to hospitals in non- urban areas that suffer serious labor shortages, and provide language interpretation services over the phone, among other measures.

The government will also help foreign people rent accommodations by creating a system that registers rental properties available to foreign residents and provides information on such properties.