Aichi Technical Intern Guide 2026: Life in Japan's Car Heartland

If you have just been assigned to a factory in Toyota, Kariya, Okazaki, or Toyohashi — or you are still waiting in Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, or China for your placement — this guide is written for you. As a technical intern (技能実習) or specified skilled worker (特定技能), you usually do not choose your city: your employer and the supervising organisation (監理団体), or for skilled workers a registered support organisation (登録支援機関), pick it and typically arrange your first dormitory or apartment. So your real question is not "which city should I choose?" but "I have been placed in Aichi — how do I live well, protect my pay, and plan my next step?"

Aichi is the industrial engine of Japan, built around the car industry, and it employs more foreign workers on these two statuses than any other prefecture. This guide walks through who lives here and where they work, what your dorm and pay slip should look like, the rights you keep even when your company arranged everything, the big 2027 change to the training system, and the daily-life basics — driving, sending money home, health insurance, and the pension refund — that every new arrival asks about.

Aichi by the numbers: Japan's car-industry heartland

Aichi ranks third among all prefectures, with 345,900 foreign residents (8.74% of Japan's total) as of 30 June 2025, equal to 4.64% of the prefecture's population. But on the two working statuses that this guide covers, Aichi is not third — it is first. As of the same date it counted 39,711 technical interns and 26,246 specified skilled workers, both the highest of any prefecture. That is 8.8% of every technical intern in Japan — roughly one in eleven — out of a national total of 449,432 interns and 336,196 specified skilled workers.

Where you work shapes where you live. Nagoya, the capital, holds about a third of the prefecture's foreign residents (108,540 people), but its profile is urban — Chinese, Vietnamese, and Nepali — rather than factory-worker. The intern and skilled-worker population clusters instead in the Mikawa car belt to the east and south of the city: Toyota (23,402 foreign residents), Toyohashi (22,957), Okazaki (15,441), and smaller towns such as Chiryu, Kariya, and Nishio. Toyota City is home to Toyota Motor's headquarters, and nearby Kariya hosts major parts makers such as Denso and Aisin, which is why the jobs — and the dormitories that come with them — sit where they do.

Aichi has two overlapping foreign communities, and it helps to know which one you are joining. The older layer is the Japanese-Brazilian (nikkei) community that has worked the car plants since the early 1990s and has largely settled: the prefecture's second-largest nationality is Brazilian (61,003), just behind Vietnamese (67,842) and ahead of Filipino (47,765) and Chinese (47,656), and many Brazilians now hold permanent or long-term status. The newer layer is the intern and skilled-worker workforce, drawn heavily from Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Both layers sit side by side in the same towns: in Toyota City, the city's own residence-registry count for 1 May 2025 recorded about 3,015 technical interns and 1,112 specified skilled (No.1) workers living alongside 7,081 permanent residents and 4,292 long-term residents. If you are moving with family or thinking long-term, our Aichi foreign family guide covers the settled side, you can see how Aichi ranks nationally in our best prefectures for foreigners comparison, and neighbouring manufacturing prefectures are covered in our Mie and Shiga guides.

What "being placed" really means: your dorm and first weeks

In the technical-intern and specified-skilled-worker systems, housing is usually arranged for you. Your supervising organisation or employer — for skilled workers, often a registered support organisation — typically signs the lease and puts you in a company dormitory or a shared apartment near the plant, sometimes with other workers from your country. You rarely have to deal with a guarantor, key money, or a rental agency yourself at the start, which removes the single biggest barrier foreigners usually face when renting in Japan. It also means you should read carefully what you are agreeing to.

In your first weeks you (often with help from your organisation) will register your address at the city or ward office, receive your residence card, get a My Number, and open a bank account for your salary. Ask for the Japanese and, ideally, your-language version of every document you sign: the employment contract, the housing agreement, and the list of what is deducted from your pay. Keep copies of everything.

Housing here is cheap by big-city standards, which matters because your dorm fee should sit in a similar, reasonable range — not far above the local market. As of 10 July 2026, SUUMO listed the following typical monthly rents:

City / ward	1K (single)	2LDK (family)
Toyota	¥5.2万 (¥52,000)	¥6.8万 (¥68,000)
Toyohashi	¥4.0万 (¥40,000)	¥5.9万 (¥59,000)
Nagoya (Minato ward)	¥4.6万 (¥46,000)	¥6.2万 (¥62,000)

Minato ward is one of Nagoya's most affordable and most international districts, and Toyohashi and Toyota are cheaper still. If your dorm deduction is much higher than a normal 1K in the same city, that is worth questioning — which brings us to your pay slip.

Your pay slip: wages, deductions, and dorm fees

You are entitled to at least the Aichi prefectural minimum wage, and by law you must be paid the same as a Japanese worker doing the same job — this "equal pay" principle is built into both programs. Your monthly pay slip (給与明細) will show gross pay minus deductions: income tax, resident tax, health insurance, pension, employment insurance, and usually your dorm rent and utilities.

Two things deserve close attention. First, deductions for housing, food, or utilities must be reasonable and agreed in advance; an employer cannot quietly inflate your dorm fee to claw back wages. Second, check that your health insurance and pension are actually being paid — they should appear as deductions, and they protect you. If the numbers do not add up, do not assume it is normal. Our guide to wages, deductions, and equal pay breaks down exactly which items should appear on your slip and what an employer is not allowed to take, and our overview of reading a Japanese employment contract explains the terms before you sign.

Your rights at work — and what to do when something goes wrong

Being placed by a company does not shrink your labour rights. You are covered by the same Labour Standards Act as any worker in Japan: limits on working hours, overtime premiums, paid leave, and protection from having your passport or bank book held by an employer, which is illegal. Our plain-language guide to worker rights for foreigners is worth reading before you start. If you are injured on the job — a real risk on a manufacturing line — workers' accident compensation insurance (労災, rosai) covers your treatment and lost wages regardless of your visa; our guide on claiming rosai explains how to file.

When something is wrong — unpaid overtime, unsafe conditions, or pressure not to quit — you have places to turn that are free and often multilingual. The Labour Standards Inspection Office (労働基準監督署) handles wage and safety violations; see our step-by-step guide to filing a labour complaint and, if wages are simply not being paid, how to recover unpaid wages. Technical interns can also call the native-language consultation line run by OTIT, the national body overseeing the program. Before you sign anything, quit, or accept a change your employer proposes, it helps to get a second opinion first. On LO-PAL you can put your exact situation to a local resident and get a straight answer in plain language before you commit to anything.

Your visa future: Ikusei Shuro (2027) and moving to Specified Skilled Worker

The 2027 switch to Ikusei Shuro

The Technical Intern Training program is being replaced. A new status called Ikusei Shuro (育成就労, "employment for skill development") is scheduled to begin in April 2027 and will phase out the current 技能実習 system, with the stated aim of developing workers toward Specified Skilled Worker status rather than treating them as short-term "trainees." The system is still being finalised, so always confirm the latest details with official sources. Our Ikusei Shuro 2027 guide tracks the plan, and if you are already an intern, what happens to existing interns after April 2027 explains how the transition is expected to work.

The new right to change employers

The biggest practical change is mobility. Under the current intern program you generally cannot switch employers, which is what leaves some workers stuck in a bad workplace. Under Ikusei Shuro, workers are expected to be allowed to move to another employer in the same field after a set period, under certain conditions — a major shift, and one that matters especially in a prefecture with as many placements as Aichi. The exact rules are still being decided; our guide to job-transfer rights under Ikusei Shuro keeps up with the details.

Stepping up to Specified Skilled Worker

Many interns move on to Specified Skilled Worker (特定技能), which allows longer stays, job changes within the same field, and — for the higher "No. 2" tier — the possibility of bringing family and heading toward permanent residence. Passing a skills test and a Japanese-language test is the usual route, and time completed as an intern can count toward it. With 26,246 specified skilled workers already in Aichi as of mid-2025 — more than any other prefecture, this is a well-worn path here. Our Specified Skilled Worker guide walks through the requirements and the switch.

Daily life in a car prefecture: driving, money, health, and pension

You will probably need a car — and a Japanese licence

This is the prefecture the car built, and outside central Nagoya the layout assumes you drive. In the manufacturing towns — Toyota, Kariya, Okazaki, Toyohashi — public transport is thin, and many residents rely on a car, or at least a scooter, to reach work, the supermarket, and city hall. If you already hold a licence from home, you can often convert it to a Japanese one (外免切替) rather than start from zero; our Aichi licence conversion guide covers the testing-centre process and documents, and our national guide to converting a foreign licence explains which countries have to take a practical driving test.

Sending money home

Most interns and skilled workers send a large share of their pay home. Banks are the most familiar option but often the most expensive; specialist transfer services usually beat them on both fees and exchange rate. Compare before you commit — our guide to the cheapest ways to send money from Japan lays out the real costs for Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, and more.

Health insurance and seeing a doctor

If your employer enrols you correctly, you are on employees' health insurance (or otherwise National Health Insurance), which covers about 70% of most medical costs — do not skip it. See our overview of health insurance for foreigners. Language is the harder part, and Aichi has unusually strong support: the Aichi Medical Interpretation System dispatches trained medical interpreters in 12 languages and offers telephone interpretation in 7, covering Portuguese, Spanish, Vietnamese, Filipino, Chinese, and more — booked through the hospital, so ask your clinic in advance.

The pension refund when you leave

You pay into the Japanese pension system every month. If you leave Japan without qualifying for a pension, you can claim a lump-sum withdrawal payment (脱退一時金) for part of what you paid in, and there is a separate process to reclaim the tax withheld from that payment. Plan this before you fly home, and keep your pension documents. Our guide to the pension lump-sum and tax refund explains who qualifies and how to file.

Getting help in your language: NIC and your community

Aichi runs two strong multilingual desks. The Nagoya International Center (NIC) offers foreign-resident consultation on 052-581-0100 in 11 languages — Japanese, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Vietnamese, Nepali, Indonesian, and Thai — with Japanese and English available Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 to 19:00. The prefecture's own Aichi Multicultural Center, run by the Aichi International Association, adds a consultation line on 052-961-7902 in 14 languages, open Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 18:00.

For visa paperwork, Aichi falls under the Nagoya Regional Immigration Bureau in Minato ward, Nagoya, which covers seven central prefectures including Aichi. Beyond the official desks, your own community is often the fastest help. Vietnamese is now the prefecture's largest foreign nationality, and Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Filipino networks run through Toyota, Toyohashi, Kariya, and Nagoya; the long-established Brazilian community around Toyota and Toyohashi means daily life in Portuguese is realistic in parts of Mikawa. Learning some Japanese still pays off fastest — see our list of free Japanese classes. For country-specific advice, see our guides for Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Filipino workers.

Whatever the question, you do not have to guess your way through it. On LO-PAL you can ask a Japanese resident your specific question and get a real-world answer in your language — a useful backstop when the official desks are busy or you simply want to know how something works on the ground.

Frequently asked questions

Do technical interns in Aichi choose their own apartment?

Usually no. In the technical intern and specified skilled worker programs, your employer or supervising organisation typically arranges a company dormitory or shared apartment near the workplace and handles the lease, guarantor, and move-in. You should still read the housing agreement and confirm that the dorm fee and utility deductions are reasonable compared with the local market.

How much does an apartment cost in Aichi if I move out of the dorm?

Rents are low outside central Nagoya. As of 10 July 2026, SUUMO listed about ¥4.0–¥5.2万 per month for a 1K in Toyohashi, Toyota, and Nagoya's Minato ward, and roughly ¥5.9–¥6.8万 for a family-size 2LDK in the same areas. Renting on your own usually adds a deposit, key money, and a guarantor requirement.

Can I change employers as a technical intern in Aichi?

Under the current technical intern program you generally cannot. This is set to change: the new Ikusei Shuro status, scheduled to begin in April 2027, is expected to let workers move to another employer in the same field after a set period. The rules are still being finalised, so confirm the latest with official sources before you count on it.

What can I do if my employer in Aichi is not paying me correctly?

You have free options. The Labour Standards Inspection Office handles unpaid wages and overtime, workers' accident insurance (rosai) covers workplace injuries regardless of visa, and technical interns can call OTIT's native-language consultation line. The Nagoya International Center can also point you to the right place in your language at 052-581-0100.

Where can I get help in my own language in Aichi?

Call the Nagoya International Center at 052-581-0100, which handles foreign-resident consultation in 11 languages including Vietnamese, Portuguese, Filipino, Chinese, Indonesian, and Nepali. The prefecture's Aichi Multicultural Center adds a 14-language line at 052-961-7902, and the Aichi Medical Interpretation System helps with hospital visits.

Can I get my pension contributions back when I leave Japan?

Partly. If you leave Japan without qualifying for a pension, you can apply for a lump-sum withdrawal payment for part of what you paid in, and separately reclaim the tax withheld from it. File before you leave and keep your pension documents; a pension guide for foreigners explains the steps and who qualifies.