Asahi: Fish processing dangers climb for foreigners
Accidents involving foreign laborers have risen sharply in fish processing plants in this Honshu port area that boasts the country's largest annual catch. Most workers who lose fingers to spinning band saws or other sharp implements are young, unskilled foreign workers, according to a local labor standards office. Their inexperience and inability to read Japanese safety manuals are to blame, officials said. The statistics are grim. In 2003, 208 foreign workers were injured in Shizuoka Prefecture. Of those, 70 worked in fish processing, mostly in Yaizu and neighboring Oigawa, both fish processing centers on the coast on the western side of Suruga Bay...more...
