The central government is conducting a survey to determine whether foreign technical trainees have been forced by employers or intermediary groups to leave the country because they became pregnant or gave birth.
The Immigration Services Agency and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare are working together on what appears to be the first survey of its kind, amid increased attention over a growing number of cases of harassment and abuse of trainees.
The survey aims to obtain responses from around 490 people on the government-sponsored technical internship program, asking respondents if they know of cases where women have been sent to their home country after becoming pregnant or having a child.