Technical internship is a system where trainees enter into employment relationships with companies in Japan and acquire skills that are difficult to obtain in their home countries. Until 2016, most trainees were Chinese, but in 2017, Vietnamese overtook them, and in 2019, Vietnamese accounted for half of the total of about 370,000 trainees. Compared to Vietnamese students who can be seen at convenience stores and restaurants, Vietnamese trainees are a hidden presence with few opportunities to interact with society, but they are rapidly becoming more widespread.
Since the first case was confirmed in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019, the coronavirus (COVID-19) has had a significant impact on the daily lives and socio-economic activities of people around the world. Vietnam, which borders China, has a high population density but a vulnerable healthcare system, and has been fearful of the spread of the epidemic, which the WHO has declared a "pandemic."
For several months, the coronavirus has been the headline news in Vietnam. This time, we will go back a little and introduce an emergency survey (online responses from about 180 people nationwide) that we conducted in early February. At that time, Vietnam had a strong sense of crisis and took strong measures, such as extending the reopening of schools by two weeks after the Lunar New Year holiday in early February and restricting entry from China.