According to a Vietnamese company that uses the insurance service, with the new health insurance regime, Vietnamese workers’ relatives such as parents or spouses will pay only 10% of the medical check-up and treatment costs.
A representative of the Yamanashi government said for companies that provide insurance support for workers, the prefecture will subsidise a certain amount.
Yamanashi prefecture of Japan has launched the first health insurance program for family members of Vietnamese guest workers, part of efforts to attract foreign labourers amid the shrinking population and growing global competition for human resources.
Japan is facing an aging population and an increasingly severe labour shortage. It has taken various solutions, but many businesses are still struggling with the problem. In that context, foreign workers are important to Japan, including Yamanashi prefecture, Yamanashi Governor Nagasaki Kotaro told a press meeting held on June 12 to introduce the scheme.
He expressed his hope that Japan and his prefecture will become attractive destinations for foreign workers. Therefore, Yamanashi is striving to create a favourable environment for foreigners to work and live here.
Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan Pham Quang Hieu appreciated the insurance scheme, noting that Yamanashi is taking the lead in issuing policies to attract and retain Vietnamese workers.
Hieu said he believes the programme will be carried out on a large scale and in the long term to retain Vietnamese workers and attract more labourers from Vietnam and other Japanese localities to this prefecture.
The diplomat called on Yamanashi and local businesses to devise more welfare policies so that Vietnamese people, including guest workers, can feel secure when staying here.
The prefecture informed that to help ease guest workers’ concern about the health of their family members in the homeland, Yamanashi cooperated with the Tokio Marine Insurance Viet Nam company to develop a health insurance scheme for the workers’ relatives in Viet Nam.
This regime is applied to all hospitals in Viet Nam. Accordingly, when the workers’ family members suffer from injuries or illnesses, after paying medical expenses at any hospital in Viet Nam and applying for compensation from Tokio Marine Insurance, they will receive insurance benefits from this company covering up to 90% of their paid medical expenses.
It targets Vietnamese citizens working at the companies or organisations involved in the network for promoting the improvement of the working environment for foreigners in Yamanashi.
Under this scheme, those companies or organisations must pay for at least three-fourths of insurance premiums. To assist them, Yamanashi formed a subsidy system which provides a maximum support of 50% of the financial aid for the companies.
Explaining why Vietnamese workers are the first groups of foreign labourers to benefit from this regime, a representative of the local administration said 3,019 Vietnamese people are working in Yamanashi, accounting for 26.9% of the foreign manpower and also forming the largest foreign guest worker community here. Another reason is the strong friendship between Viet Nam and Japan, as well as between Yamanashi with such Vietnamese provinces as Quang Binh and Yen Bai.
Replying to the Viet Nam News Agency’s question, Ambassador Hieu said many localities and businesses in Japan now have demand for Vietnamese workers. He believed that their policies and regimes will help enhance Japan’s attractiveness to labourers from the Southeast Asian nation.
Irikura Yukiko, head of the department of gender equality and promotion of foreigners' activities in the prefecture, affirmed that the locality wants to create an environment where Vietnamese people can work without worry, thereby helping to resolve its labour shortage.

Vietnamese nationals account for 50% of Japan’s total foreign worker population
War Invalids and Social Affairs said that over the past three decades since Japan has instituted many technical training internship programmes for Vietnamese interns, and has hosted more than 400,000 young Vietnamese technical interns.
The number of Vietnamese interns to Japan has increased sharply, from 10,200 in 2013 to 82,700 in 2019 (before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic) an eight-fold increase.
The figures were estimated at around 68,000 and 40,400 in 2022 and in the first half of 2023, respectively.
In recent years, the number of Vietnamese workers to Japan has accounted for more than 50% of the number of workers sent overseas to work. this is a very positive result of Japan’s intern training programmes for Vietnamese interns.Vietnamese interns in Jap

an are regarded as hard-working, diligent and inquisitive people who have developed a strong affection for Japanese land and culture. 
Vietnam is willing to coordinate with the Japanese side in in considering amending the regulations related to the programme on receiving foreign interns and workers to Japan.
According to the Japanese official, the revised programme will provide skills for interns to find a job after returning home, and solve the labour shortages of Japanese enterprises.

It will improve transparency and predictability through unions, employers, and relevant agencies in order to create an improved working environment and protect the interests of foreign interns.

In addition, it will also strengthen the functions of trade unions such as contacting and comprehensively supporting foreign workers in Japan, eliminate unqualified intermediaries and labour export firms, and prevent the collection of unnecessary intermediary fees.