English websites are important for foreigners to be aware of social problems that cannot be solved by Japan alone. Especially in Japan, there are many cases where social problems that cannot be solved only in Japan are solved by pressure from foreign countries.
For example, even before World War II, Japan was known to have low wages, but a minimum wage law had yet to be enacted, and Japan was criticized by foreign countries for "social dumping." The Minimum Wage Act was enacted in 1959, four years after Japan joined the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). However, it was not up to the standards under which Japan could ratify an ILO convention on minimum wages. In the end, it was decided to enact further legislation in order to ratify the convention.
It has been more than 100 years since a separate convention, ILO Convention No. 1, was adopted, but Japan has not yet ratified it. ILO Convention No. 1 is an international labor standard that limits the number of working hours per day to eight. In Japan, the Labor Standards Act stipulates that the upper limit of working hours per day is eight, but Article 36 of the law allows employees to work more than eight hours. This is why death from overwork is a problem in Japan. Low wages and long working hours are not only a social problem for Japanese people, but also have a great impact on foreign nationals working in Japan, including technical intern trainees.
There is a monument commemorating the start of the eight-hour...
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