Underlining the challenges presented by the rising influx of foreign workers, it has been learned that foreign-language consultation services are unavailable at public labor advisory counters in 20 of Japan's 47 prefectures.
Labor advisory counters, established by the government at labor bureaus or labor standards bureaus in all prefectures, allow people to get advice on such problems as nonpayment, overwork and power harassment.
But in the 20 prefectures cited, no multilingual services — even in English — are provided, officials from the labor ministry and labor bureaus said Monday.