Japan’s Yamanashi Governor Nagasaki Kotaro was q quoted by the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) as announcing at a press conference on June 12 that Yamanashi prefecture has launched the first health insurance program for family members of Vietnamese guest workers, as part of efforts to attract foreign laborers amid the shrinking population in Japan and growing global competition for human resources.

Japan is facing an aging population and an increasingly severe labor 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, Governor Nagasaki Kotaro said, while introducing the program at the press conference.

He expressed his hope that Japan and his prefecture will become attractive destinations for foreign workers. Therefore, Yamanashi is striving to create a favorable environment for foreigners to work and live in this prefecture of Japan.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan Pham Quang Hieu was also quoted by VNA as appreciating the insurance program, noting that Yamanashi is taking the lead in issuing policies to attract and retain Vietnamese workers.

Ambassador Hieu was quoted as saying that he believes the program will be carried out on a large scale and in the long term to retain Vietnamese workers and attract more laborers 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 in the prefecture.

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 Vietnam company to develop a health insurance scheme for the workers’ relatives in Vietnam.

This regime is applied to all hospitals in Vietnam. Accordingly, when the workers’ family members suffer from injuries or illnesses, after paying medical expenses at any hospital in Vietnam 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 organizations involved in the network for promoting the improvement of the working environment for foreigners in Yamanashi.

Under this scheme, those companies or organizations 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 laborers 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 in the prefecture. Another reason is the strong friendship between Vietnam and Japan, as well as between Yamanashi with such Vietnamese provinces as Quang Binh and Yen Bai.

Replying to VNA’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 laborers from Vietnam.