Spotlight: Lies and abuses -- untold truths of Japan's inter

by Xinhua writers Wang Bowen, Liu Chang

TOKYO/BEIJING, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Tian is a Chinese woman in her forties who dreamt of learning valuable skills and making real money in Japan. Now, as she has been trapped in an endless cycle of forced overtime, that dream has become a nightmare.

Tian is from northwest China's Gansu Province and, fearing retaliation from her revelations, prefers her full name not to be made public.

Almost two and a half years ago, she came to work in a manufacturing factory in a landlocked prefecture in central Japan, under a government-sponsored program called Technical Intern Training Program with a three-year contract.

Tian's factory is tiny with only a total of seven workers -- three Chinese, three Cambodians and one Japanese.

Inside the workshop, her job is to process interior parts for vehicles. For her and her Chinese colleagues there, every day is like sitting in a hellish dungeon.

"We have to work unbearably long hours everyday," she told Xinhua. "We start to work at 7 in the early morning and only get off as late as 9 or 10 at night, with just one hour for lunch and supper. Overwork is just a daily routine."

Yet despite such a heavy work load, her wages and overtime pay are a pittance, roughly half the amount Japanese workers are paid for doing similar work. Meanwhile, she neither receives annuity nor has been covered by any insurance policy whatsoever.

"What I am doing everyday is to repeat the same procedures ... I have learned very little here," she said, adding that they had to pay for training lessons when they first started the job.

Things are no better for You, one of Tian's Chinese co-workers in the factory who is from east China's Zhejiang Province. She also prefers not to have her full name made public.

You said they have almost no time to rest, even on weekends, adding that the owner shows little respect for foreign workers, desperately forcing them to work even longer to increase output.

"We are like prisoners," she said. "You know what, the boss even forbids us to go to the toilet within the first hour of our work."

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