he government wants to send thousands of Indonesians to Japan for work experience under a program that promises mutual benefits but that critics say is not without economic risks.
“We want transmigrants to learn and undertake internships in Japan under various schemes lasting two, three, five or even 10 years, so they can be empowered and later return to develop the transmigration regions [in Indonesia],” Transmigration Minister M. Iftiah Sulaiman Suryanagara, who oversees the program, said during a visit to Osaka, Japan, on Sept. 28, as quoted in a press release.
Iftiah explained that the interns would work in Japanese firms investing in Indonesia, potentially yielding “double benefits” for the two countries.
Upon completion, the interns are expected to return home to help develop poorer and often relatively sparsely populated regions of the country under a new approach to what was known in the past as the transmigration policy.
Read also: Fresh grads pin hopes on new internship program amid poor job prospects
The idea is to expand job opportunities for the so-called transmigrants to work abroad, with more than 100 Indonesians currently working in various sectors in Japan under separate initiatives and earning monthly salaries ranging from Rp 25 million (US$1,506) to Rp 55 million, depending on their expertise.
The Transmigration Ministry recently offered the internship opportunity to 300 soon-to-be military reservists (Komcad).
