Japan sets up panel to review foreign trainee program

The Japanese government set up Tuesday a panel of experts mainly composed of academics, municipal government chiefs and lawyers who will review the country's problematic foreign technical intern program and propose ways to improve it.An increasing number of cases of harassment and abuse of foreign trainees has resulted in mounting criticism at home and abroad for the decades-old program, with claims that it is a cover for companies to import cheap labor rather than a program to transfer skills to developing countries.Akihiko Tanaka, president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, a…READ FULL ARTICLE