過疎地域における外国人技能実習生と受け入れ企業の相互依存関係

──コロナ禍における国際移動の制限がもたらしたものとは何か──

抄録

　This study focuses on the relationship between foreign technical intern trainees and companies that employ them in depopulated areas in Japan. It aims to determine the significance of international labor migration for foreign technical trainees and companies, analyze how regional characteristics affect their relationship, and examine how strict immigration restrictions to control the COVID-19 pandemic influenced their relationship.

　While population and capital are primarily concentrated in Tokyo, smaller local governments in mountainous areas are experiencing a severe decline in population and local economy. Companies in seriously depopulated regions, such as Mimasaka City, Okayama Prefecture find it, challenging to secure an adequate workforce without relying on foreign technical intern trainees.

　Contrarily, due to the monetary economy penetration in Vietnam, numerous young people have been seeking employment in Japan as technical interns in recent years. Vietnamese technical intern trainees employed by companies in mountainous area use various livelihood strategies to earn much income. They also work hard to pay off their large debts to the placement agencies in their home countries. This situation reveals the interdependency of companies in underpopulated areas and technical interns.

　Border closure as a pandemic control measure prevented many technical intern trainees from entering Japan. Simultaneously, many technical intern trainees who had finished working in Japan could not return home.

　Under the government's special measures, technical intern trainees who could not return to their home countries were provided the right to choose to continue work at the companies where they were employed, or wait for their return without working. Some technical intern trainees switched their visa statuses and continued working in Japan.

　Even before the pandemic, technical intern trainees had the right to select their place of employment. Nevertheless, with the COVID-19 pandemic, it become more clearly apparent that Japanese society and companies were not in a position to choose foreigners, but to be chosen by them.