A Muslim woman from Indonesia came to Japan on a Specified Skilled Worker visa to work at a farm in Kagoshima.
The farm told her not to wear a hijab while working. Their reason was simple:
“It narrows your field of vision, and with agricultural machinery running, sometimes you can’t hear instructions clearly. While you’re in Japan, it would be better to take it off.”
She refused and later quit. After quitting, she claimed she was treated badly — saying even during a company trip she was told not to wear the hijab, and that the founder’s daughters yelled at her to “stop dawdling” and made her run to the fields.
The farm’s response was straightforward:
“She didn’t even join that company trip. And we never told anyone to run to the fields.”
This is the kind of friction that’s already happening when people who refuse to adapt to basic workplace safety rules are brought in.