A Temple of Refuge: Thich Tam Tri / Buddhist Nun

The number of Vietnamese people working in Japan has been on the rise in recent years. And when a Vietnamese person in Japan is in need, Buddhist nun Thich Tam Tri is there to help, day or night.

Transcript

00:02

"Direct Talk"

00:08

Our guest today is Thich Tam Tri,

00:11

a Buddhist nun from Vietnam who lives in Japan.

00:16

She provides a lifeline to fellow Vietnamese people in Japan

00:20

who are facing hardship.

00:24

About 160,000 Vietnamese nationals

00:27

currently work blue-collar jobs in Japan.

00:31

They are brought over as "technical interns",

00:34

but are often treated simply as a source of labor.

00:39

Many young people caught up in this system have come to Tam Tri's temple for help.

00:46

I didn't know what I should be doing. I was yelled at when I messed up.

00:53

We speak with Tam Tri about Vietnamese workers in Japan,

00:57

and what she is doing to help them.

01:01

A temple of refuge

01:06

We in Japan enjoy convenient, comfortable lives.

01:10

But what supports that, behind the scenes,

01:13

are the multitude of sacrifices made by the many foreign workers living here.

01:19

Why aren't the Japanese government and the Japanese people

01:22

taking care of this class of society?

01:26

Tam Tri is the head nun of Daionji Temple in Honjo,

01:31

a city in Saitama Prefecture.

01:35

She freely gives out her personal phone number,

01:38

and answers calls 24 hours a day.

01:45

You might think that the faster you work, the better

01:48

but Japanese people may not see things the same way.

01:52

So stop and reflect.

01:54

The Japanese do things carefully and methodically.

01:59

She shows the astounding number of calls and texts she receives.

02:07

In 1993, Japan launched the "Technical Intern Training Program."

02:12

It places large numbers of young foreigners, many from Southeast Asia,

02:17

mainly in jobs on farms and in factories.

02:21

But the life of a technical intern comes with harsh restrictions:

02:25

interns cannot change jobs,

02:29

and they cannot bring family to Japan.

02:32

Abuses within the system are common,

02:34

and critics both in Japan and abroad have charged

02:38

that the interns' human rights are being violated.

02:43

Some of the technical interns are not as lucky as others.

02:49

Some end up in a bad union or working for a bad company.

02:54

And these interns face violent or abusive language,

02:58

beatings, bullying, retaliation.

03:01

We've also seen people being underpaid and forced labor.

03:07

Daionji Temple takes in Vietnamese interns

03:10

who can no longer endure their working conditions.

03:14

Tam Tri lives right alongside these young people.

03:20

And she assists them in figuring out the next chapter in their lives:

03:24

negotiating with former workplaces, acquiring visas to stay in Japan,

03:29

or securing passage home.

03:33

Smells great. You all are good cooks!

03:39

Let's eat.

03:42

Make sure to take a lot. And take it with those chopsticks!

03:54

This is Ha, a single mother with a four-year-old back in Vietnam.

03:58

She came to Daionji a few days ago.

04:03

She had been working at a food processing plant in Osaka

04:06

but the work wore her down physically and mentally.

04:12

I was taking sleeping pills, and I was just falling apart.

04:17

The company wouldn't let me quit.

04:21

She fled the internship and was put up by a friend.

04:25

Then, she became pregnant unexpectedly.

04:29

I had bad morning sickness.

04:33

I couldn't work, so I couldn't make money.

04:39

Ha was in dire straits. That's when a friend told her about Daionji.

04:46

I'd like to stay here.

04:48

I want to work in Japan and make money to provide for my child.

04:56

First, you need to take care of yourself.

05:01

You can only help your child when your body and mind are healthy.

05:10

Tam Tri is helping Ha make preparations for giving birth

05:14

and will help her through the visa process

05:17

so that she can start work again once she's had her baby.

05:22

I've always loved Japan.

05:24

But people often come to me with terrible stories.

05:28

Japan is such an advanced country.

05:31

How could it have such bad companies?

05:34

It seemed unbelievable.

05:38

I felt very torn. I could sense this conflict.

05:45

Today, a man has come from Vietnam to visit Tam Tri.

05:51

His brother-in-law recently died in Japan.

05:55

He had only just begun work as a technical intern.

05:58

On his first day of work, he went swimming in the river with friends.

06:03

There were six of them. Only my brother-in-law died.

06:06

I would like for you to arrange his funeral.

06:10

That's all I ask.

06:12

Allow me to express my sincere condolences.

06:17

The man asks Tam Tri to arrange a funeral service.

06:24

Holding services for Vietnamese who have died in Japan

06:27

is one of Tam Tri's most important duties.

06:34

Throughout her years of service,

06:36

she has overseen memorials for more than 400 Vietnamese nationals in Japan.

06:53

Recently, many technical interns who have had abortions

06:57

have asked the temple to perform memorial rites.

07:00

That's the most common request we receive.

07:04

We've also seen sudden deaths, strokes, suicides, illnesses,

07:09

as well as some work-related accidents.

07:14

Suicide is much less common in Vietnam.

07:17

But interns come to Japan and find that the working and living conditions are brutal,

07:22

and in the end, they choose to take their own lives.

07:27

Every time I get a phone call like that,

07:30

two thoughts immediately jolt into my mind,

07:33

"Why?" and "Another young life lost."

07:37

I feel it so strongly.

07:40

Before COVID-19,

07:42

we could return to Vietnam with the urn and present it to the family.

07:47

Once, when we arrived at the airport,

07:50

the bereaved family grabbed on to my feet,

07:53

and they began praying to me.

07:56

They said, "Thank you, sister.

07:59

Thank you for bringing our child home.

08:02

Although, who wants to see their child coming home like this?"

08:07

Then they burst out crying.

08:11

Being a part of those situations brought so much pain to my heart.

08:18

Thich Tam Tri was born in 1978.

08:22

She grew up poor, the youngest of nine siblings.

08:27

They were raised by their mother, a devout Buddhist.

08:33

When she was seven, Tam Tri decided she wanted to be a nun.

08:39

As a university student, she met a Buddhist priest from Japan.

08:45

She came to Japan to study Japanese Buddhism.

08:51

In 2011, Tam Tri was studying and living in a temple in Tokyo

08:56

when the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred.

09:04

The event changed the course of her life.

09:09

I wanted to finish graduate school and go back to Vietnam to teach.

09:14

But then, the Great East Japan Earthquake happened.

09:18

In the Tohoku region,

09:20

84 Vietnamese exchange students and technical interns were affected.

09:26

With the help of the Vietnamese embassy, we took three buses to Tohoku

09:31

and evacuated these victims back to a temple in Tokyo.

09:37

I realized in that moment that there were a lot of Vietnamese people in Japan.

09:42

And I decided not to return home.

09:45

I continued on with my graduate studies.

09:49

And I have remained here in Japan to this day.

09:53

The number of Vietnamese nationals in Japan has increased more than eightfold

09:57

over the past ten years.

09:59

Technical interns form a growing percentage of this population.

10:04

But the COVID-19 pandemic has made life for some interns even harder.

10:11

When the pandemic began in 2020, lots of interns lost their jobs

10:16

but there were no flights out of the country. They had nowhere to go.

10:22

So our temple set up four shared homes for these interns.

10:28

We gave them food and a roof over their head.

10:31

So they didn't need to sleep in parks, internet cafes, or at friends' houses.

10:38

They had their own space.

10:40

We hosted 2,600 people in total

10:44

and helped support their return home to Vietnam.

10:50

The temple helps Vietnamese people through various difficulties.

10:56

Tam Tri says that many people come to Daionji with mental health troubles.

11:03

The first few months they're here, it's really tough.

11:09

There are three of us sisters, and three employees.

11:13

It's difficult to always know how people are feeling inside.

11:20

Anxiety, depression, confusion, and fear

11:24

can lead to a mental breakdown, or to paranoid episodes.

11:29

They're acting self-destructively, and we can't always get through to them.

11:34

Some have even tried to kill themselves

11:36

by throwing themselves out a window or grabbing a knife.

11:42

When this happens, we try to respond with compassion,

11:45

we try to understand how they're feeling.

11:49

You just have to speak softly, calmly,

11:51

and find a way to make things better however you can.

11:55

The important thing is to help them calm down.

12:01

Tam Tri rents a piece of farmland,

12:03

where she grows vegetables along with the interns.

12:10

She says that doing work out in nature helps to heal the body and mind.

12:23

Sweet and juicy.

12:26

Daionji receives donations of both money and goods from across Japan.

12:35

Some of these donations come with letters.

12:41

You two, come here.

12:43

I want to translate this letter for you.

12:45

It's very moving.

12:48

It says, "The other day, I saw a report on TV

12:51

about how Vietnamese people are experiencing all sorts of hardships.

12:56

I learned that many Vietnamese people have died here in Japan.

13:01

When I heard about this technical intern training program,

13:05

it seemed like the interns face so many challenges.

13:10

I believe we must work harder to respect and protect their lives.

13:16

That is my sincere hope."

13:20

A moving letter, isn't it?

13:23

- A Japanese person wrote it?
- Yes. And there are many more like this.

13:30

I show them that a lot of people care about them.

13:34

I think this approach can help to lessen their disappointment in Japan

13:39

and bring their souls a measure of love and peace.

13:44

There are still so many people in this situation who are suffering.

13:49

In order to alleviate the suffering of these foreign workers,

13:53

I feel I must continue my work and do everything in my power to do so.

14:00

This is the idea I focus on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

14:07

I want to be a nun that helps everyone find peace and happiness.

14:12

That's my goal.

14:14

(Do you have any words to live by?)

14:25

"The healthy leaves protect the ragged leaves."

14:29

It means you should help people who need help.

14:34

This is a traditional Vietnamese value:

14:37

having a spirit of solidarity.

14:41

We should all care for each other, support each other,

14:44

love each other, help each other.

14:47

That's the meaning of this expression, and that's why I chose it.