A Japanese legal firm has taken hold of a Filipino woman’s passport and has refused to return the document, Kyodo News reported.
The Yokohama-based company says that under an employment contract signed earlier this year, she is prevented from seeking a new job or returning home.
It is illegal for employers to keep passports of foreigners who are technical trainees living in Japan.
However, Japan has no penal regulations concerning those of other foreigners. There is only the labor ministry’s guidelines advising employers not to keep them.
The woman started work in the firm in May.
However, based on the employment contract, the firm would keep her passport and the woman would need permission to retrieve it after making a written request.
The office would also determine the manner and period of withholding her passport.
She stopped working at the firm in July but her passport was not released to her.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare as of posting has not acted on the matter.
The labor committee in Kanagawa Prefecture’s recognized that the firm’s refusal to negotiate with workers about their passports was unfair practice.
The firm has declined to respond to inquiries from Kyodo News.
