Foreign technical interns have an average of ¥547,788 in ‘debt" before coming to Japan

Debt is 547,788 yen. This number is the average amount of debt that "foreign technical intern trainees " borrowed in their home country before coming to Japan. More than 50% of trainees have debts. Many cases of disappearance in search of higher income to pay off debts have become a problem.

I had interviewed Chung (24), a Vietnamese technical intern trainee who came to Japan two months ago. Recently, he started working at a construction site in Shizuoka Prefecture.
He said, “The salary in Vietnam is too low. I want to save money in Japan and start my own business in Vietnam."
Even though his salary is around 180,000 yen a month, he is still worried.

“It cost me $7400 to come to Japan, 100% of which I borrowed. I borrowed from the bank."
This is the amount that he paid to the agency that introduced him to jobs in Japan. This includes the cost of learning Japanese in his home country, travel expenses, as well as dispatch fees.
'I was scared and worried about borrowing about 1.01 million yen. What if I don't make as much money as I want in Japan and can't pay it back?'

According to the results of a survey released by the Immigration and Residence Management Agency on 26 June, more than 50% of all technical intern trainees like Mr. Chung are in debt, with an average amount of more than 540,000 yen. By country, Vietnam has the highest debt at ¥670,000, followed by Cambodia and China.

Source: Yahoo ニュース