Imabari hit by overseas recruitment ban

At a time when it needs overseas help more than ever before, Japan’s largest shipbuilder has been hit with a five-year ban on accepting foreign trainees.

Imabari Shipbuilding has lost its official certification for foreign technical intern programs through to the end of the decade for violating the industrial safety and health law, the Immigration Services Agency has said. Moreover, all trainees currently working at Imabari will be transferred to other companies.

Details of what Imabari has done wrong to receive such a penalty have not been revealed.

Japan was the largest shipbuilding nation at the start of the century but has seen its position eroded by China and South Korea over the last 25 years, with local demographics playing against the sector and forcing changes in immigration laws to get in overseas workers to help out.