The recent arrest of Tadao Koseki, former president of KSD, a mutual-aid society for small business, on bribery charges has turned the spotlight on problems involving foreigners working here as "trainees." Koseki was also director of an agency called IMM Japan that takes care of trainees from Indonesia.
Investigators say he bribed a Liberal Democratic Party legislator to promote the KSD. In addition, he is said to have used a KSD affiliate to buy 150,000 music CDs (worth more than 100 million yen) by his favorite female singer and put his relatives on the boards of associated companies.
Problems involving Indonesian trainees, who come here through IMM Japan, were cited in a survey released last March by a private research group. Here are the key findings: