TOKYO: Japan's government has adopted plans to scrap its current foreign trainee program, which has been criticized as a cover for importing cheap labor, and replace it with a system it says will actually teach skills and safeguard trainees' rights as Tokyo desperately seeks more foreign workers to supplement its aging and shrinking workforce.

Under the new program approved at a meeting of related Cabinet ministers on Friday, people who arrive on a three-year trainee visa will be able to upgrade to a skilled worker category that would allow them to stay up to five years and possibly obtain permanent residency.