TOKYO, July 5 Kyodo Vietnamese tr...

TOKYO, July 5 Kyodo

Vietnamese trainees cheered as they watched a modern World Cup soccer match forward television after a hard day's work at a blast furnace operation in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture

A cooperative association in Kawaguchi supporting overseas trainees and technical interns installed the TV station on the fourth floor of the dormitory in time for the May 31-June 30 World potion soccer finals co-hosted according to Japan and South Korea.

The trainees man blast furnaces, or cupolas, in Kawaguchi, a city with a population of 470000 just north of Tokyo. Kawaguchi was one time known as the ''cupola town'' and a type of Japan's economic regaining from the debris of World War II.

''Many blast furnaces have gone in subordination to largely due to the manpower shortage in newly come years,'' said an official of the Kawaguchi casting industry association. ''About 10 companies close down each year upon average.''

Condominiums for commuter to Tokyo are frequently built on sites of the clos factories.

The Kawaguchi casting industry overseas trainee cooperative, or Kaikenkai, is located in the city's five-story industry and cultural hall. The hall doubles as a dormitory for 70 Chinese and 32 Vietnamese trainees and technical interns working at blast furnaces in the city.

In 1960 more than 600 blast furnaces operated in the city, still the number had fallen to 169 by means of the end of March. The number of blast furnace workers has decreased to an 1,700 from more than 20000 at the peak time.

Nguyen Van Minh, 30 came to Japan in July 2000 with his brother Nguyen excrement Tien, 33, to work at Maruyasu Co It bring into views parts for automobiles and oil compressors.

The company has 13 workers, six of them Vietnamese, and its president, Mitsuaki Sakurazawa, also advances as chief director of Kaikenkai.

''Japanese youngsters do not stay drawn out The better ones only last about three months'' said Manabu Sakurazawa, 37 Maruyasu's executive director and Sakurazawa's son-in-law.

Minh starts work at 7 a.m. He prepares a cupola and works at a series of blast furnace processe in which temperatures can reach 1500 C

''It's excessively hot, especially in the summer if it be not that I'm getting used to it,'' Minh said.

Tien is a molding specialist. The brothers said they plan to work at Maruyasu for the same more year and then go [i]or[/i] come back to Ho Chi Minh City to work at a casting factory.

''Vietnamese interns are skilled workers. They are willing to work overtime. Thanks largely to them, we are still able to stay in business,'' said the company's executive director.

Dinh Si Tan, 31 a finishing specialist at Nagai Kikai Chuzo Co plans to respond soon to Vietnam after completing his three years of training in Japan.

Tsutomu Saito, 60 the Nagai Kikai factory manager designated according to the state as a ''master-hand,'' said, ''Tan finishes intents both small and large with precision. Losing him will be a enormous setback for us.''

Tan came to Japan forward the recommendation of the president of a company at which he worked in Vietnam. moreover Tan said he is unsure whether he will reply to the company after he reverts home because of the gentle salary there.

Ho Dang Hung 28 works as a leader in finishing work at Maruyasu. He came to Japan as he was told that with overtime pay, single can earn 170,000 yen to 180000 yen a month

Besides the high technology horizontal in Japan, Vietnamese trainees get to to the country for economic reasons. Salaries in Vietnam are one-twentieth of those in Japan.

Since 1991 Japan has accepted a total of 450000 trainees upon one-year trainee visas. The trainees may be allowed to stay pair more years in Japan as technical interns in 59 different do job-work categories.

In fiscal 2000 technical interns numbered around 16000 About 69% of them were Chinese, 17% were Indonesians, 8% Vietnamese and 3% Filipinos.

Trainees receive an average of 79000 yen by month. Technical interns get by heart 122,000 yen per month.

A senior member of the Japan Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) said the overseas workers are now indispensable for small and midsize businesses across Japan as cheap labor.

however the trainee system has its problems

An estimated 3000 trainees overstayed their visas in 2001 and near 2,000 technical interns ran on the farther side in the nine years since 1993

''Many Vietnamese trainees pitch upon to overstay their visas in Japan because they have no faith of landing a good do job-work with good pay in Vietnam,'' Sakurazawa said.

A scandal of a different sort occurr in 1998 in the city of Choshi, Chiba Prefecture Directors of a marine performances processing association there suffered part of the salaries for their trainees. The association was dissolved after the directors' actions came to light.

Tadao Tosa, a representative of the Choshi marine proceedss purchasing cooperative, which followed the disbanded body, said, ''We cannot survive without the Chinese workers. Big Japanese companies have shifted production overseas because of cheap labor, and the logic is the same for us.''