Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan Phạm Quang Hiệu and Yamanashi Governor Nagasaki Kotaro co-chair the press meeting held on June 12 to introduce the insurance scheme. — VNA/VNS Photo

TOKYO — Yamanashi prefecture of Japan has launched the first health insurance programme 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 Phạm Quang Hiệu appreciated the insurance scheme, noting that Yamanashi is taking the lead in issuing policies to attract and retain Vietnamese workers.

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

This regime is applied to all hospitals in Việt Nam. Accordingly, when the workers’ family members suffer from injuries or illnesses, after paying medical expenses at any hospital in Việt Nam and applying for compensation from Tokio Marine Insurance, they will receive insurance benefits from this company covering up to 90 per cent 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 per cent 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 per cent of the foreign manpower and also forming the largest foreign guest worker community here. Another reason is the strong friendship between Việt Nam and Japan, as well as between Yamanashi with such Vietnamese provinces as Quảng Bình and Yên Bái.

Replying to the Vietnam News Agency’s question, Ambassador Hiệu 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. — VNS