Vietnamese workers in Japan in debt due to online gambling

Many Vietnamese workers in Japan borrow money to play online games, gamble, get into debt, borrow from gangsters and are threatened to flee back to their home country or have their families send money to ransom them.

Seeing Ngoc Huy (24 years old) continuously borrowing money from many people, making payment appointments and then delaying payment, with a worried look on his face, his colleagues reported it to the company in charge of sending people to Japan in Vietnam. Upon receiving the news, Ms. Nguyen Thuy Dung, an employee of Bien Dong Labor Export, Service and Trade Joint Stock Company (Estrala), immediately called to ask, but Huy hid it, affirming "nothing happened".

Ngoc Huy was sent to Japan by Estrala Company for nearly 3 years, working in a mechanical engineering company. Each month he receives a salary of about 20 man (1 man equals 10,000 Japanese yen), equivalent to 32 million VND at the current exchange rate. At first, Huy sent money home. However, for nearly half a year, his family has not received any money. The reason Huy gave was to keep it waiting for the yen to increase in value, so he could exchange it for more money.

"If he kept the yen, there would be no reason to borrow money from his colleagues," Dung questioned. At the same time, the company received feedback from the Japanese factory that Huy's productivity had recently decreased and he was not focused. After much persuasion, Huy admitted that he was borrowing more than 150 million VND at high interest rates to deposit into his online game account. The lender had withdrawn almost all of his monthly salary, leaving only a small portion for him to spend.

Huy is trying to find ways to pay off his debt. However, due to the high interest rate, he cannot completely settle the loan. After understanding the situation, Estrala's board of directors worked directly with the factory in Japan, suggesting creating conditions for Huy to work more overtime to earn more income to quickly pay off the debt.

Vietnamese workers working at a factory in Japan. Photo: Thai De

Huy is not an isolated case. Mr. Nguyen The Dai, Deputy General Director of Estrala, said that recently there has been a rise in the situation of workers borrowing money to deposit into online game accounts and gamble online. Many people "get stuck" and have difficulty getting out, falling into debt.

"Not only do workers burn their salaries, they also borrow money from illegal lenders at high interest rates," said Mr. Dai. The company has recorded cases of people quitting their jobs and trying to return home because they were threatened by lenders. Some families received images of their children with knives held to their necks and had to borrow money to "save their children's lives."

For many years, Japan has been the main market for Vietnamese labor exports. According to data from businesses, in the first 9 months of 2023, the total number of Vietnamese workers working abroad was more than 111,500, of which Japan had nearly 55,700 workers, accounting for about 50%. By the end of this year, it is expected that 75,000-80,000 workers will go to Japan to work, exceeding the number of 68,000 workers in 2022.

Mr. Phan Viet Anh, author of the autobiography "I go to Japan", administrator of the Japanese Internship Community group with more than 21,000 members, also recorded many cases of online gambling workers falling into debt.

According to Viet Anh, if previously workers gathered to play directly on holidays and in groups of a few people, since 2019 they have switched to playing online. There are two factors leading to this: when Covid-19 appeared, workers were able to stay at home more and online betting and gambling sites exploded.

"Many people who go to Japan bring back hundreds of millions of dong, but it's not uncommon for families to sell land and borrow money to redeem their children," Viet Anh said. Most recently, a worker sent a message to the group saying that his identity papers were held by gangsters because he owed 200 million dong, while his work contract had expired and he had to return home. Three years ago, his family borrowed 150 million dong to send their child to Japan, and now they're borrowing money to send to redeem their child.

According to Mr. Phan Viet Anh, workers involved in gambling can borrow from colleagues and fellow countrymen. When they run out of connections, they will turn to loan sharks. Male workers write loan papers, submit personal documents, bank cards, company addresses and family information in Vietnam. Women who borrow are also required to film their own "hot" clips for evidence. The interest rate is about 5% per day. For example, if you borrow 100 yen, you have to pay 5 yen interest per day.

"The gambler's mentality is that when they are in debt and have interest rates on their backs, they will gamble even more in hopes of recovering their debts, but the more they gamble, the more they lose," said Viet Anh. As a result, when they are in too much debt, workers try to escape and work abroad, hoping to find a job with a higher income and to erase their traces with the loan sharks. However, according to Viet Anh, once they have borrowed money, it will be very difficult to escape. Many workers borrow money from Japan, but some people come to their families in Vietnam to terrorize them and demand their debts.

Training class for workers to work in Japan in Hanoi , May 2023. Photo: Ngoc Thanh

Realizing that the number of workers involved in gambling is increasing, recently the professional department in charge of labor in Japan of Estrala Company has been given the additional task of investigating and preventing gambling behavior early.

"When employees see that their social media accounts are unusually anxious, they will take the initiative to investigate immediately. The first thing is to call their families to see if they are sending money home regularly," said Mr. Dai. The company is trying to detect and prevent it as soon as possible so that employees do not fall deeper. However, the most important thing is that employees must be aware that online gambling and betting can lead to loss of money, debt, and even danger to their lives.

According to Mr. Dai, workers involved in online gambling, debt and absconding are new problems in the Japanese market. If this situation increases, many workers will borrow money and abscond, which will affect the whole market. Therefore, it is necessary for companies sending workers to Vietnam to pay attention, correctly assess the situation and work together to prevent it.

Mr. Vo Anh Tuan, Director of Haindeco Saigon Company, said that to limit the risk of workers being lured into online money-making games, since the training in Vietnam, the company has included the content in the curriculum. Workers will be instructed on how to recognize forms of online fraud, betting sites, online money-making games, etc.

In addition, students are prohibited from playing games in any form, and if they violate the rules, their families will be notified. Workers who show signs of being addicted to money-making games or online gambling will not be interviewed and will lose their job opportunities. "This is better for the family because they do not have to spend money to send them to Japan and then earn money to return home," said Mr. Tuan.

Le Tuyet

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