Japan's labor ministry says it has found that more than 7,200 business establishments violated laws last year regarding their foreign technical trainees.

Japan has a system designed to enable trainees from developing countries to learn skills, technologies, and expertise while working in the country. As of last December, Japan had about 325,000 such trainees.

The ministry conducted on-site investigations of 9,829 establishments across the country last year.

Officials found that 7,247 of them, or 73.7 percent, committed some legal violations.

These are both the most inspections and violations since the ministry began tracking statistics in 2003.

Most of the violations were related to insufficient safety management in the workplace. There were 2,326 such cases, or 23.7 percent of the total.

The second-highest number of violations were regarding failure to pay extra wages, including for overtime work. There were 1,666 such cases, or 16.9 percent of the total.

The ministry says it also found cases where overtime exceeded 110 hours a month, or trainees were not allowed to punch in for work until after morning meetings.

The ministry says it will work to supervise and instruct business operators to ensure that technical trainees receive proper working and safety conditions.