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The story
The Tokyo Shimbun reports that JICA has notified all Afghan staff stationed at its Kabul office that their employment contracts will be terminated at the end of September. Staff at the office have handled on-the-ground work for Japan’s ODA projects, such as infectious disease prevention and agricultural water infrastructure, but they warn that losing this affiliation could expose them to persecution by the Taliban government. On 5ch, opinions were divided: some argued that an employment relationship should be recognized even without a written contract, while others raised concerns about the need for evacuation support and the diplomatic cost of abandoning local partners.
[Exclusive] JICA Notifies All Afghan Staff of Employment Termination… “Being Discarded Over a Single Piece of Paper Is Unacceptable”: Tokyo Shimbun Digital
September 18, 2026, 11:30 AM — Article for paid subscribers only
It has come to light that the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the independent administrative agency responsible for Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA), has notified all Afghan staff stationed at its office in the Afghan capital Kabul that their employment contracts will be terminated at the end of September.
Source: tokyo-np.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Even the Taliban is scared of JICA… (´･ω･`)
Is that actually true, though?
Would simply having worked for JICA
be a reason for the Taliban to kill someone?
Wouldn't they instead be seen as people who contributed to Afghanistan's development?
It's a stable, well-paying job in poverty-stricken Afghanistan.
Of course people are going to gloat "serves you right" (ざまあ) once they lose it.
"Cases like this"?
Is that claim actually true, though?
Would simply having worked for JICA
be a reason for the Taliban to kill someone?
Wouldn't they instead be seen as people who contributed to Afghanistan's development?
You're an idiot if you just swallow one-sided claims like that.
Is there any evidence?
If a single piece of paper isn't good enough for a termination notice, then a single piece of paper isn't good enough for a contract either, right?
Okay then — there was never a contract in the first place. Done.
That won't fly, since there was ongoing work performed and wages actually paid.
Even without a written contract, a real employment relationship existed.
Honestly, companies that actually issue a paper contract are probably the minority anyway.
No, what they want is severance pay.
the employer's right.
This isn't even a dismissal to begin with — it's just the non-renewal of a fixed-term contract that expired lol
Not refugee status in Japan, but evacuation support to a safe neighboring country — that sounds like a reasonable compromise.
That said, the idea that JICA's aid work keeps them safe because the Taliban still needs it, but that quitting would suddenly get them persecuted as "associates of a foreign government," doesn't quite add up.
If working for JICA actually benefited the Taliban too, then don't go persecuting people over it.
> The idea that quitting would get them persecuted as "associates of a foreign government" doesn't quite add up
That's not really plausible — it's probably more like "let me work for that nice, wealthy country that's helping Afghanistan" (that kind of image).
If anything, the real risk is falling victim to money-motivated crime from the bottom rung of society, nothing to do with the Taliban.
What kind of privileges do they even have?
So let's scrap that "Hometown" program or whatever and use the money to keep employing them instead.
> These people have been working for the Japanese government
Actually, they've been working for Afghanistan (´･ω･`)
> They've handled the practical work — infectious disease prevention, agricultural water development, etc. — of aid that the Japanese government provides through UN agencies
Isn't this an issue that goes beyond skills to begin with? 🤔
Are the people granted refugee status actually working and becoming self-sufficient in Japan?
Surely they're not using their refugee status as an excuse to leech off taxpayer money, right?
Even if someone is recognized as a refugee and lives in Japan,
once their home country becomes safe again, refugee status gets revoked and they're sent back.
That's about to happen soon.
Once someone is recognized as a refugee, their living expenses and other costs are covered by Japanese taxpayers' money.
They can live without working.
You can't complain if you've got two pieces of paper, right?
You're clearly not taking this seriously.
To actually help them find their next job, you'd need to present the local staff with a gold-bordered, A3-sized certificate printed on plastic film so it won't get wet or torn — otherwise they won't be satisfied.
So I guess we just write "Well done!" on it in red pen with a little flower stamp (hanamaru, the flourish Japanese teachers give for good work)?
But how many of them are there, anyway?
That's a lot of hassle they're putting us through…
Even if you don't want them clinging to you forever, the best approach is to arrange a move to a third country or otherwise let them go on good terms, rather than just tossing them aside.
If cooperating with you just gets you discarded in the end, nobody will cooperate anymore, good guy or bad guy alike.
This has already become a news story, and diplomatically, this is about as bad as it gets.
Are they really "partners," though? Given the nature of the work, they're just local staff hired for pay — so if there's no budget, isn't letting them go reasonable?
I'd get it if the Japanese government were negotiating resource deals with Afghanistan, but that's not happening — they're just a drain on money.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
JICA is the independent administrative agency that carries out Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA), and its Kabul office has continued to support humanitarian projects — such as infectious disease prevention and agricultural water infrastructure — through the practical work of its locally hired staff, even after the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. In the US and Europe too, the treatment of local partners such as interpreters and office staff has repeatedly become a diplomatic issue during withdrawals from occupation or deployment, and this contract termination is an extension of that same pattern. The headline’s phrase “a single piece of paper” reflects staff frustration that an employment relationship which had largely functioned on a verbal, informal basis was ended with nothing more than a single notice. Within the thread, opinions were divided over whether a written employment contract existed and over the merits of severance pay and evacuation assistance, while some comments conflated the issue with debates over the tax burden of people already granted refugee status in Japan — a separate matter from the Kabul-based staff being let go here, and one that should be read as distinct.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Express+) thread “JICA Notifies All Afghan Staff of Employment Termination… “Being Discarded Over a Single Piece of Paper Is Unacceptable”.”
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