In December 2020, Nguyen Thanh Mai, born in 2000, left his homeland for Okayama province in Japan. He arrived when it was winter and everything was white with snow.

Thinking about the difficulties his family was facing and vowing to work hard to support the family, the Kien Giang man was determined to get used to the bone-chilling cold in the foreign land.

Mai came to Japan with a visa for interns. As he landed in Japan at the time when the Covid-19 pandemic was raging, he took a temporary job of installing solar panels.

It was not dangerous work, but was hard, because he had to install solar panels on mountains. The temperature was very low and the snow was thick. 

Mai took a series of other jobs later, from tube installation to pipe welding. As he was careful and industrious, he was highly appreciated by seniors and bosses. Mai obtained a Tokutei Ginou visa, or Specified Skilled Worker Visa, and continued working in Japan.

Mai found a job at a mechanical engineering company in Okayama.

During the three years of working as an intern, Mai earned 130,000-140,000 yen a month (VND23 million). After a lot of effort, Mai now can pocket 200,000 yen a month (VND33 million).

“I remitted most of the money I could earn to my family in Vietnam. I just keep some money to cover my basic needs and spend on living expenses,” he said.

Japan is where Mai met his wife, who came to Japan one month later than Mai. They got married in late 2022 in Vietnam and both returned to Japan to work. However, his wife later returned to Vietnam to give birth. The child is now one year old and he lives with his grandparents.

Mai understood that there are always risks in his job and accidents may occur at any time despite efforts to protect himself.

In June 2024, when a steel bar rushed towards him, he tried to avoid it, but his left arm got stuck.

Despite the pain, Mai used his phone to shoot the scene and called his friends to ask for support.

“I did not dare call my family members. I just called a friend of mine, who I hoped would get support if I was dead,” he recalled.

After the surgery to remove his arm and install a prosthetic arm, Mai was discharged from the hospital. The treatment will last one year. He has to go to the hospital twice a week for check-ups. In addition, he is undergoing physical therapy and learning how to use a prosthetic arm.

Ngoc Lai