he number of construction workers who gained a temporary work permit in Japan increased to 24 as of July 31, says the Infrastructure Ministry, since Tokyo applied a new scheme in April that those who completed technical training are allowed to re-enter the country and work at the construction site. While workers from China are the most in number so far, there are some Vietnamese and Lao workers who returned to Japan.

The ministry and its counterpart of Vietnam exchanged MOU on cooperation in human resources development in April. As the number of designated supervising groups approved by the ministry has increased to 56 throughout the nation, it is likely that the construction industry will welcome more and more foreign labor. (2015/08/19)