Japan Govt Drafts Details of New Work Visas

Tokyo, Dec. 17 (Jiji Press)--Japan's government has drafted details of two new visa categories designed to accept more foreign workers in the nation, planning to initially hold skills tests for visa applicants in the accommodations, nursing care and restaurant industries. The government presented the draft at a meeting of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's Judicial Affairs Division on Monday, aiming to formalize it as early as on Dec. 25. The move comes after the Diet, the country's parliament, enacted earlier this month a bill to revise the immigration control law to mainly introduce the two new visa categories for foreigners--one for people with designated job skills and the other for those with higher skill. According to the draft, the tests for the three industries under the visa category for lower-skilled workers will start in April 2019. Skills tests will be held from October the same year for the food and beverage production sector and as early as next autumn for the building cleaning sector. Skills tests for the nine other sectors subject to this visa category will start within calendar 2019 or fiscal 2019, which ends in March 2020. Meanwhile, a common Japanese language proficiency test for the 14 sectors will be held initially in nine countries from next year. Skills tests for the construction sector, and the shipbuilding and marine equipment manufacturing industries under the visa category for higher-skilled workers will begin in fiscal 2021. The draft does not mention tests for other sectors under this visa category. Also in the draft, the government reiterated its estimate that up to 345,150 foreigners will be granted new visas for lower-skilled workers in five years and clarified its stance of regarding the number as a ceiling on the country's acceptance of foreign workers under the category. The government also plans to take necessary measures to prevent foreign workers from concentrating in major cities. The draft also calls for making the Japan Meteorological Agency's website and emergency earthquake information available in 11 languages. Other planned measures include the launch of about 100 one-stop information centers for foreigners across Japan. END