JILAF | Japan International Labour Foundation

The program was held online from Monday, October 25 to Friday, October 29.

From October 25 to 29, 11 promising young trade union activists (including 6 women) from Asian countries, where many Japanese companies have established operations, took part and completed the entire program.

JILAF has been implementing its programs through "online programs" via the Internet in place of training programs that invite overseas trainees to Japan due to the restrictions on entry into Japan caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
The online program consisted of five days, with two days spent watching on-demand videos on labor-management relations and labor policy and three days of real-time online sessions where participants exchanged opinions with JILAF officers and followed lectures.
On the fourth day, during the online exchange of opinions, in addition to hearing about each country’s employment situation, Japanese university faculty members were invited and participants heard about issues of interest to their countries. After listening to these presentations, a lively discussion was held about the kind of initiatives to develop in the invitees’ countries in the future.


Participants mainly proposed the following action plans.
（１） There is still a lot of room for improving the rights of youth and women in these countries, which is considered a challenge. We would like to move ahead with organizing activities targeting these segments of the population, and to undertake activities that will help improve their rights, with reference to Japanese labor laws and regulations. (Sri Lanka)
（２） New business models such as e-commerce are increasing, and existing labor-management relations are unable to keep up. In addition to organizing unions, it would be ideal like to build labor-management relations in these types of companies by referring to the Japanese legal system and precedents. (Indonesia)
（３） We would like to use online resources to more broadly educate union members about what was learned during this event, especially about building systems and initiatives to ensure compliance with Japanese labor laws. (India)