(Photo: AFP)TOKYO — For a decade, Vietnamese worker Minh did tough jobs like sandblasting ships and welding steel, helping address rapidly ageing Japan's dire labour needs. Of the roughly 450,000 technical interns in Japan as of June, just under half were from Vietnam and worked across agriculture, construction and food processing. "Without foreign workers like us, there is no way Japan's economy can function," the 30-year-old said. That, along with dwindling salaries in real termsand higher living costs, has seen resentment towards foreign workers swell. Yoshimizu said that "some technical interns are stuck in conditions that they just have to flee".

Source: Bangkok Post January 07, 2026 08:05 UTC