Furinkazan

Youngsters from the countryside want to improve their economic conditions by striving for a higher salary rate than Indonesia’s average pay rate through joining an abroad internship program in Japan.

In a rural environment with an average economic level of medium to low, the professions of the community members are varied. One of my childhood memories that is quite attached to where I lived in Bungas Village, was the widespread phenomenon of people working in Japan.

After the 2006 earthquake in Yogyakarta, when I was still about 8 years old, one of my neighbors had just returned from Japan. In the midst of difficult conditions, he even bought a new motorbike. Seeing this, I immediately concluded that working in Japan would definitely bring in a lot of money. So, the questions that arise are, “what is the job like in Japan?”, “how do I go to Japan?”, and “do you have to go to Japan to be successful?” The phenomenon of people going to Japan in the neighborhood where I live is still ongoing even now, and there is even one former Japanese intern named Primandaru Wijanarko who is currently establishing his own pioneering Private Job Training Institute (LPK Furinkazan).

Through the LPK, I was intrigued to start finding out again, because there were many questions that had not been answered since I was little. When I met several students studying at LPK Furinkazan to share some conversations, I heard many stories from them and began to understand the problems they faced. On average, they come all the way from various cities where the Regional Minimum Wage is low, such as Yogyakarta itself, the city where Bungas Village that I live in is located. This film will be an “answer” and at the same time a challenge of how problems that are rooted in my environment are raised via documentary medium. Through this film, the story about the phenomenon of “better life” from my environment becomes an effort to get closer to the root cause.

After the neighbors who were “ex-Japanese” returned home, I often asked them so many things, whether it was asking about their stories from their time in Japan or about the time when they underwent training and education before going there. Their stories felt complete when they showed a lot of their personal archives when they were in Japan, but there was one thing that I felt they didn’t tell me enough which was regarding their story during their time at the training institute. Stories about the hard work, confusion and challenges they faced.

Until the time when I visited LPK Furinkazan student dormitory, I heard a story that there had been several students who were suddenly expelled for various reasons. Apart from that, there were also many stories of students who were simply taken in or incited by “success stories” of people who had previously gone to Japan via social media and then decided to apply for the program. There were also students who had fallen several times for the false promises of previous irresponsible LPK advertisements.

As a young man who has just graduated from college and has the same anxiety about work and the future as them, this prompted me to make a film about the phenomenon of young people at LPK Furinkazan who pin their dreams and hopes on Japan.