One of America's virtues is its willingness to dispense candid advice even to its closest ally in the name of justice and humanitarianism. One good example is in recent comments by Dr. Mark P. Lagon, director of the U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
According to a July 5 article in the Yomiuri Shimbun, he told reporters in Tokyo that he had suggested to the Japanese government that it abolish its Training Program for Foreigners, which he said has created a major social problem of foreign workers being paid unreasonably low wages.
Lagon's visit to Japan came on the heels of the publication by the State Department early last month of the "2008 Trafficking in Persons Report," which accused the Japanese government of not fully enforcing laws to prevent human trafficking in the labor market.