Continuing yen depreciation prompts foreign technical interns to return home in Yamanashi Prefecture

The continued depreciation of the yen casts a shadow over the foreign technical intern trainees working in Yamanashi.

Phan Linh Dang (25), a foreign technical intern from Vietnam who works for an automobile parts manufacturing company, sends home 100,000 yen to her family in the region from her monthly take-home pay of around 130,000 yen.

He says that the yen's continued depreciation has hovered around the high 130 yen level, and remittances have fallen by about 20% from last year.

In the workplace, orders have decreased due to the corona crisis, salaries have decreased, and living expenses have been cut due to soaring prices. After returning home, Dan said he will look for a job in a country with a higher salary, such as Australia.

According to the Fuji Exchange Service Cooperative Association, which introduces technical intern trainees to companies inside and outside the prefecture, if the yen continues to depreciate, technical intern trainees will leave Japan and move to the Tokyo metropolitan area, where salaries are higher.