Swift actions urged to protect Vietnamese workers, apprentices in Japan
The Department of Overseas Labour under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs announced on January 4 that it has sent a document urging businesses which had dispatched workers and apprentices to the Japanese prefectures of Ishikawa (especially the Noto Peninsula), Toyama, Niigata, and Fukui to promptly take protective measures for them in earthquake-affected areas.
The document stated that at 4:10pm on January 1, an earthquake occurred on the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture, causing tremors in several prefectures and cities in Hokuriku region. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning and urged residents living near the coast, especially in Ishikawa, Toyama and Niigata prefectures, to evacuate immediately.
Coastal prefectures in western Japan, including Yamagata, Hokkaido, Tottori, Saga also received a tsunami warning. In the evening of the same day, a tsunami with a height of 1.2m struck Ishikawa, while smaller tsunamis hit Niigata, Toyama, and Hokkaido.
The department asked these enterprises to immediately contact apprentices and workers currently working in the earthquake-affected areas to assess the situation, compile data on the number of affected persons (if any) and the difficulties they are facing, requiring urgent assistance.
They must closely work with labour management unions, recipient companies and relevant stakeholders to grasp the situation of workers and come up with response plans; provide support for those facing difficulties due to the earthquake, ensure the safety of their lives and property by temporarily relocating them from old or earthquake-prone buildings.
They were also requested to keep contact with the apprentices and workers to promptly instruct earthquake prevention and evacuation measures in emergency cases, and share phone numbers of the labour management board in Japan: 81.70.1479.6888 and the Vietnamese Embassy in Tokyo: 81.80.3590.9136.
Any difficulties encountered during the support process must be promptly reported to the department and the labour management board in Japan.
