The government will help foreign residents master the Japanese language in order to improve their quality of life, its basic guideline on the issue showed Tuesday.
“Foreign residents in Japan have difficulties in finding jobs due to their insufficient language capabilities, and more people have faced hardships in their lives,” the guideline, compiled by a Cabinet Office panel, noted.
As solutions, the panel proposed improving the quality of Japanese-language teachers and providing vocational training in line with language capability.
It also called for continued provision of multiple-language counseling and information services for foreign residents in pension and medical fields.
Based on the guideline, government ministries and agencies will compile their own action programs during the current fiscal year through next March so they could be implemented in around 2012, officials said.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20100831p2g00m0in055000c.html