Japan's Replacement for the Technical Intern System Starts in April 2027 — In 8 of 17 Sectors, Changing Employer by Choice Takes Two Years

On 21 June 2024, the act amending the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act and the Technical Intern Training Act was promulgated[1]. It dissolves the Technical Intern Training programme and creates the Employment for Skill Development system in its place. Operation begins on 1 April 2027[1].

The stated purpose has changed. Technical Intern Training was framed as international contribution through the transfer of skills. The outline of the new system puts it as developing and securing workers in sectors facing labour shortages in Japan. The shift in the official framing was covered in the beginning of the end of "this is not immigration policy"（このサイトの記事）. This piece looks at the mechanics.

The residence path runs in three stages. Three years of skill development, five years of Specified Skilled Worker (i), and Specified Skilled Worker (ii) with no limit on the period of stay[1]. Seventeen sectors are covered by skill development, nineteen by the Specified Skilled Worker track, and eleven of those by stage (ii)[1]. As of July 2026, the only two of the nineteen not covered by skill development are road transport and aviation[1].

The largest departure from the old programme is that transfers are now allowed.

Under technical intern training, a trainee could not, as a rule, change workplaces of their own volition. Under employment for skill development, a transfer at the person's own request is permitted subject to conditions. There are five of them.

Two years in eight fields, one year in nine

The first is time served. The person must have worked at the same accepting organisation for a period set by field. Two years applies to nursing care, industrial product manufacturing, construction, shipbuilding and marine industry, automobile maintenance, food and beverage manufacturing, food service and resource circulation[2]. One year applies to building cleaning, linen supply, accommodation, railways, logistics warehousing, agriculture, fisheries, forestry and the timber industry[2]. Seventeen fields, split almost down the middle.

Nine fields have only one job category to move within

The second is job category. A transfer must stay inside the same category. How much that binds depends on the field.

Industrial product manufacturing has 17 job categories[2], running from metalworking to bag manufacturing and ready-mixed concrete. Railways have six, construction and shipbuilding three each[2].

Counting the job category column in the same document, nine fields have only one: nursing care, building cleaning, linen supply, accommodation, logistics warehousing, food service, forestry, the timber industry and resource circulation. For anyone working in those nine, the only place to transfer to is another company doing the same work.

The skill test is the entry-level grade

The third is skill. The person must pass the entry-level grade of the skill development evaluation test, or the basic grade of the national trade skill test[2]. Which one applies is set by field. Forestry uses only the basic grade of the trade skill test[2].

Japanese at A2.1, except in nursing care

The fourth is Japanese. The person must pass a test at A2.1 or above[2]. That level is set field by field, within a range running from A1 upward to the level required for the move to Specified Skilled Worker (i) status[2].

There is one exception. Nursing care alone requires A2.2 or above at transfer, one step higher than the other sixteen fields. Nursing care also requires A2.2 or above plus a Japanese study plan at the one-year mark, with the plan waived for those at B1 or above[2]. It also sits on the two-year side. Of the seventeen fields, nursing care puts transfer furthest away.

Railways split the conditions inside a single field

Fields split internally too. Railway transport staff must reach A2.2 at the one-year mark, A2.2 again at transfer, and B1 by the end of the training period[2]. Track maintenance and vehicle cleaning, in the same field, start at A1 and transfer at A2.1. Change job category and the height of the bar changes, even inside one employer.

The fifth condition is that the receiving workplace be appropriate.

A2.1 means "can handle limited, routine exchanges"

What A2.1 amounts to on a shop floor is spelled out. A2.1 is defined as having reached A1 on the Reference Framework for Japanese Language Education while making progress toward A2.2; A2.2 is defined as equivalent to A2[2]. It is a new line drawn between A1 and A2.

The same document reproduces a list of workplace tasks compiled by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. A1 covers work with no customer contact, performed alone on simple instructions from a supervisor or colleague: inspection, bagging and sorting, harvesting, cleaning and laundry[2]. A2.1 covers work with customer contact that can be done through limited, routine exchanges: machine operation, stocking shelves where few customers are present, cooking inside a kitchen[2]. A2.2 covers work that can be done provided a supervisor helps when something is unclear: till work and customer service, delivery, nursing care, cooking[2].

From working alone on instructions to handling exchanges of a fixed shape. That single step is the condition for transfer. On the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test scale, A1 corresponds to N5, A2.1 and A2.2 to N4, and B1 to N3[2].

The worse the workplace for learning, the harder it is to leave

Here is the structure. Transfer is written as an entitlement, but exercising it requires passing a test. The person studies Japanese while working and lifts themselves from A1 to A2.1. Throughout that period the workplace cannot change. Whoever lands in a workplace with poor conditions for study is least able to meet the condition for leaving it.

This structure was covered earlier in five structural reasons the freedom to transfer will not work（このサイトの記事）. The conditions listed there now appear as field-by-field figures in the July 2026 revision.

The same shape appears in schooling. As 9,699 of the 84,759 children needing Japanese-language instruction receive none（このサイトの記事） shows, provision can exist as a system while reaching people unevenly. Under employment for skill development, that unevenness becomes the difference between being able to change jobs and not.

The binding period differs by a factor of two

The split into one and two years deserves attention. Nursing care and construction sit on the two-year side; agriculture and fisheries on the one-year side. The field-specific operational policies were adopted by cabinet decision on 23 January 2026[2].

The longer period can be explained by the heavier training burden on the accepting side. Seen from the worker's side, the time before a change of workplace becomes possible differs by a factor of two under one system. Nursing care carries two years plus A2.2. Length and height compound.

The intake ceiling is set by an estimate of shortfall

Numbers are capped as well. Field-specific operational policies set an expected intake for each field based on the shortfall remaining after productivity improvement and domestic recruitment, and that figure operates as the upper limit on intake[2].

An estimate of shortage becomes the ceiling on admission. Those producing the estimate and those seeking the labour sit inside the same industry. The problem of how a number is constructed determining who gets in runs through how the shortfall of care workers is counted（このサイトの記事） as well.

The sending and supervising sides were altered too

Other changes sit alongside the transfer provision. Memoranda of cooperation are to be concluded with sending countries, with arrangements to keep fees paid to sending organisations from becoming unreasonably high; as a rule, intake occurs only from countries with such a memorandum[2]. Supervising and supporting organisations require a licence, and a supervising organisation under the technical intern training system cannot conduct supervision and support without obtaining one[2]. Each person's training plan requires certification by the Organization for Employment for Skill Development, and must state the period (up to three years), the skill and Japanese-language targets, and the content[2].

Support for transfers is written in as well. Public employment security offices are to support transfers in cooperation with supervising and supporting organisations and with the Organization for Employment for Skill Development[2]. The job of finding the next workplace is placed with public placement services rather than left to the individual. Whether that machinery actually runs determines whether people who meet the conditions can in fact move.

Preparations are already under way

The system starts on 1 April 2027, but the paperwork has begun. The basic policy was adopted by cabinet decision on 11 March 2025, the ministerial ordinance was promulgated on 30 September 2025, the cabinet order on 1 October, and the field-specific operational policies on 23 January 2026[2]. Applications for certification of training plans ahead of the start date opened on 15 April 2026, and applications for supervising and supporting organisation licences open on 1 September 2026[2].

Recruitment on the accepting side is moving this year. That is also the period in which people get signed up before the details of the system are settled.

Technical intern training will remain after April 2027

The changeover takes time. Anyone in technical intern training on the start date continues under the technical intern training rules and cannot move across to employment for skill development[2]. A first-stage trainee can move to the second stage; movement to the third stage is limited to those who, on the start date, have spent at least a year in the second stage[2].

Someone who applied for certification of a training plan before the start date may still enter as a trainee afterwards, provided the plan begins within three months of that date[2]. Conversely, someone who completed technical intern training and left Japan before the start date cannot re-enter as a trainee[2].

For some years, technical intern trainees and skill development workers will stand side by side in the same workplaces. People who can transfer and people who cannot will be doing the same job next to each other.

Without counting, the system cannot be judged

The mismatch between international contribution as the stated purpose and labour shortage as the reality, covered in the structural contradiction of the technical intern training system（このサイトの記事）, has been resolved by rewriting the purpose. What remains is a question of design: how to divide the training period from the freedom to move.

Being able to transfer and being able to reach the state where transfer is possible are different things. What fills the gap is the chance to study Japanese inside the workplace, and that lies in operation rather than in the text of the law.

As whether the effects of vocational training can be measured（このサイトの記事） sets out, results in training are not measured unless someone sets out to measure them. Whether the number who transferred, and the number who gave up because they could not meet the conditions, are published by field will decide how this system can be judged.

Further Reading

• Ijuu Roudousha no Nihongo Shuutoku wa Susumu no ka (Do Migrant Workers Acquire Japanese?)（外部サイト、新しいタブで開きます） by Yutaka Fukihara (Hituzi Syobo). A study following one Indonesian community in Oarai, Ibaraki, to see how migrant workers actually acquire Japanese. Useful for weighing what it means to place a language test in the path of a job change.

References

Outline of the Employment for Skill Development System (revised July 2026) — Immigration Services Agency and Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (2026). Immigration Services Agency

Employment for Skill Development System: Outline and Related Legislation — Immigration Services Agency (2026). Immigration Services Agency

Basic Policy and Field-Specific Operational Policies for the Employment for Skill Development System — Immigration Services Agency (2026). Immigration Services Agency

Report on the Reference Framework for Japanese Language Education — Agency for Cultural Affairs (2021). Japanese Language Subcommittee, Council for Cultural Affairs