Japan firms used foreign trainees at Fukushima

TOKYO, Japan — Four Japanese companies made foreign trainees in the country to learn professional skills take part in decontamination work after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, local media said Friday.

The reports cited a Justice Ministry investigation, but the ministry declined immediate comment.

The reports are likely to revive criticism of the foreign trainee program, which has been accused of placing workers in substandard conditions and jobs that provide few opportunities for learning.

The misconduct was uncovered in a probe by the justice ministry conducted after a Vietnamese trainee was found in March to have participated in cleanup work in Fukushima, public broadcaster NHK said.

A powerful earthquake in March 2011 spawned a huge tsunami that led to meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing the world’s worst such accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

The justice ministry said after the March discovery that decontamination work was not appropriate for foreign trainees.

It was not immediately clear how many trainees were forced to take part in the decontamination work. Local media said one of the four companies has been slapped with a five-year ban on accepting new foreign trainees.