12,700 foreign trainees go missing, return home+

TOKYO, Oct. 9 Kyodo - Some 12,700 foreign trainees involved in training programs promoted by the Japanese government ran away or returned to their home countries during their apprenticeships in fiscal 2006 and 2007, the Board of Audit of Japan said Thursday.

Under the programs, the trainees, mainly from developing countries, engage in
on-the-job training for up to three years after a one-year induction course.
The number of trainees who stayed in Japan for two or three years came to
92,000 in fiscal 2006 and 111,000 in fiscal 2007. Of these trainees, those who
went missing came to 1,668 and 2,125, respectively, and those who returned home
totaled 3,296 and 5,704, according to the board.
It examined the operation of the programs as they are sometimes criticized for
involving low-wage labor and unpaid wages for the trainees.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry paid some 730 million yen in the two
years to a foundation to which it has entrusted the operation of the programs,
and the board, based on its examination, urged the ministry to fully assess the
trainees' working conditions and make the programs more effective, board
officials said.
Around 60 percent of the companies that accept trainees have less than 50
employees, and the board officials said such small companies must have
difficulties in providing full support for the foreign trainees.
==Kyodo