A total of 277,674 nonregular workers at 5,252 businesses will have lost or are expected to lose their jobs from October 2008 to this June, a labor ministry survey indicated Friday.
The figure, including people whose contracts with manpower agencies were not renewed, is up 2,660 from the previous survey taken in April, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said.
But a ministry official said things have improved.
“Employment conditions for nonregular workers have stabilized” compared with past periods when companies terminated contracts for dispatch workers, the official said.
By prefecture, Aichi, where the heart of the domestic auto industry is based, remained at the top of the list with 45,355 nonregular workers who have lost or are expected to lose their jobs, followed by Tokyo with 16,581 and Shizuoka with 11,342.
The survey was compiled with data available as of May 19.
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Japan must become ‘immigration powerhouse’
The size of a country’s population is a fundamental element of its government, economy and society. If the population keeps shrinking, it is self-evident that the nation’s strength will wane, the economy will shrink and the survival of society will be threatened.
Three elements contribute to demographic changes: births, deaths and migration across national borders.
In the face of Japan’s population problem, the government has focused on measures for boosting the birthrate. Huge sums of money have been poured into programs such as child allowances to help people raise children.
But will the nation’s population start growing just by continuing with these measures?
My view is that a low birthrate is unavoidable as a civilization matures.
Other industrially advanced countries have also turned into societies with low birthrates as they have matured. Advancements in education, increased urbanization, the empowerment of women and diversification of lifestyles also exemplify the maturity of a society.
Japan, a mature civilization, should expect to experience a low birthrate for at least the foreseeable future.
Even if the government’s measures succeed in increasing the birthrate sharply and cause the population to increase, any era of population growth is far away and will be preceded by a stage of “few births and few deaths,” where there are declines in both birth and mortality rates.
Accordingly, the only long-term solution for alleviating the nation’s population crisis is a government policy of accepting immigrants. Promotion of an effective immigration policy will produce an effect in a far shorter time period than steps taken to raise the nation’s birthrate.
We, the Japan Immigration Policy Institute, propose that Japan accept 10 million immigrants over the next 50 years.
We believe that to effectively cope with a crisis that threatens the nation’s existence, Japan must become an “immigration powerhouse” by letting manpower from around the world enter the country.
By allowing people from a wide variety of racial and cultural backgrounds to mingle together, a new breed of culture, creativity and energy will arise, which will surely renew and revitalize Japan.
If this proposal is implemented, the 10 million immigrants, most of whom will be young workers, will lessen the burden on young Japanese in funding social welfare programs for the elderly. The new immigrants will be “comrades,” not competitors in tackling the challenges of a graying society and a declining population.
Young Japanese workers will need to join forces with the immigrants to weather these difficulties.
Encouraging the acceptance of immigrants will not only help Japan out of the population crisis. The immigrants will also serve as a driving force in converting this homogenous and uniform society into one teeming with diversity, where a galaxy of talented people will interact to create a vigorous multiethnic society.
It also must be clearly stated that if Japan hopes to benefit by throwing its doors open to immigrants, it must become a place where immigrants have sufficient opportunity to fulfill their dreams.
Analysts at home and abroad have often declared the “sinking of Japan” because of its passivity over reform, but there can be no denying that transforming Japan into an immigration powerhouse should be the ultimate goal of any reform agenda.
If this country dares to implement the immigration policy we envision, the world will surely welcome the opening of this country’s doors to immigrants as a “revolution of Japan.” This, I believe, will boost the presence of the nation in the international community.
This is the “making of a new nation” that could develop into a change as radical as the Meiji Restoration.
The grand, revolutionary task of transforming Japan cannot be achieved without ambitious men and women in their 20s and early 30s, people like Sakamoto Ryoma and Takasugi Shinsaku at the end of the Edo period (1603-1867).
With this in mind, I plan to establish a school in July for young people to discuss what a desirable immigration policy should entail.
I hope this will help foster leaders for the Heisei era (1989- ) that will carve out a future for Japan.
Sakanaka, former head of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau, is executive director of the Japan Immigration Policy Institute.
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/columns/commentary/20100526dy01.htm
Top managers ordered to pay for employee’s death from overwork
The operator of major restaurant chain Nihonkai Shoya and its four top managers were ordered Tuesday to pay about 78.6 million yen in damages to the parents of an employee who the court recognized as having died of overwork in 2007.
The decision by the Kyoto District Court was the first to find the top management of a major business corporation liable to pay damages in a suit involving the death from overwork of an employee, said lawyer Tadashi Matsumaru, the plaintiffs’ legal agent and a member of a group of lawyers involved in such suits.
The parents of Motoyasu Fukiage, who died at age 24 while employed at Nihonkai Shoya’s outlet in Shiga Prefecture near Kyoto, had filed a 100 million yen damages suit against Daisyo Corp. — a Tokyo-based listed firm — and its President Tatsu Taira and other managers.
Presiding Judge Shinichi Oshima said Daisyo had failed to properly take account of its employees’ working hours, noting that it set salaries under the premise that employees would work 80 hours of overtime a month, equivalent to the government criteria to designate death from overwork.
The three-judge panel also found that Fukiage died of heart disease caused by his duties, noting that he continued standing for long hours every day and suffered from huge physical strain.
Fukiage worked at a Nihonkai Shoya outlet in Shiga Prefecture after joining the company in April 2007. He died in August that year from acute heart failure while sleeping at home, after working on average 112 hours of overtime per month for a four-month period, the court found.
His death was recognized as related to work in December 2008 by the Otsu labor standards inspection office.
Founded in 1971, Daisyo operates some 980 outlets across Japan of such restaurant chains as Shoya, Nihonkai Shoya and Yaruki Chaya. Its stock is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s first section.
After hearing the decision, Fukiage’s father Satoru, 61, told a press conference he does not want money but wants his son back.
Daisyo said it would offer condolences again over Fukiage’s death and would look into the court decision fully before deciding whether to file an appeal to a higher court.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20100525p2g00m0dm033000c.html
Immigrants can buoy Japan
Japan is unique among economies that are highly developed and in demographic decline in having so few immigrants. In fact, even European states that are in much better demographic condition also have large numbers of foreigners and recently naturalized citizens in their labor force.
The domestic economic advantages of a more open immigration policy are well documented. What is less understood is how it can be used as a foreign policy instrument. If Japan were home to several million guest workers, the country would become the lifeline of tens of millions of individuals back in their homeland who would benefit from the remittances of their relatives in the archipelago. Its economic role in the lives of some of these countries would become second to none. Many individuals would start to study Japanese, in the hope of one day working in the country. Familiarity with Japan and its culture would also rise dramatically in these nations.
Immigrants would also gradually provide Japanese businesses with a pool of truly bicultural and bilingual employees whom they could hire and use to develop their overseas activities. Japanese universities would gain researchers who are not only well-trained but also better able to participate in international scientific projects and symposiums. Bringing qualified teachers from countries such as the Philippines and India could give Japanese students, for the first time in their lives, the experience of learning English with instructors who actually know the language fluently (unlike many Japanese who teach English) and who are trained to teach (as opposed to the many Westerners in “English conversation schools” whose blue eyes and blond hair are frequently their only qualifications).
All of these changes would benefit not only Japan’s economy but also its ability to be heard in the world. Thus, immigration is one of the most important tools Japan has if it wishes to build a new Asia where Japan will be at the center rather than the periphery.
Telling the other side of the Geos story
Thank you very much for printing the story regarding the Geos bankruptcy. As a former Geos teacher, I was glad to see that you told the other side of the story, as other media had made it appear that there weren’t any problems because G.communication had taken over the company in advance. This is not true.
I chose not to sign the vague contract with the new company, for the same reasons as the teacher mentioned in the article, and because I was due to leave the company in a matter of weeks.
I had been employed with Geos for more than 10 years when they declared bankruptcy in April. I had given the required four months’ notice and was due to leave the company in May, but had offered to extend my employment to help the school as they were having trouble finding teachers.
As I was on a very old-style contract, I was due a leaving allowance of ¥1 million — which I lost — in addition to April’s salary. I have also had to fight to be allowed to stay in my apartment until the end of the month, despite the fact I had paid May’s rent directly to the landlord.
Many teachers signed the new contract as they were worried about being left homeless and visa-less with no money in a foreign country. A letter in Japanese was sent to staff who chose not to sign the contract saying that the documents required to claim the unpaid salary would be sent by May 15, and that teachers should be out of their apartments by that date. As many ex-teachers are already having to leave the country, there is no way that they will be able to make a claim.
In the school where I used to teach, the instructor who replaced me left after only a few days’ teaching, and the other teacher is due to work until only the end of May. However, the students are not being told about this when they sign and agree to continue their lessons, losing the right to a refund if they cancel their contracts. Students who do not want to continue under these conditions are being told that they will not be able to obtain a refund.
I agree with the article that the large eikaiwa school models are on their way out. In the area where I live, smaller schools that allow students to pay monthly are seeing an increase in students.
I hope that you will continue to print articles showing the other side of the story.
Labour Ministry: Wages fell 3.3% in FY2009
According to a report released today by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, wages in Japan fell 3.3% to 315,311 yen per month in fiscal 2009. This is the strongest drop seen since the ministry began issuing data in 1991, while 2009 was the third consecutive year in which average wages fell in Japan according to the ministry’s data.
Basic compensation fell 1.1% to 245,278 yen while bonuses slumped 10.8% to 53,046 yen per month. Other payments such as overtime fell 7.9% to 16,987 yen.
According to the breakdown by industries, workers in the electricity and gas sectors received the highest average remuneration, at 585,439 yen per month (down 0.6% from the previous year). Coming in second were workers in the finance and insurance industry, at 467,081 yen per month (down 2.4% from the previous year). They were closely followed by workers in the telecommunications sector, who brought home an average of 460,793 yen per month (down 1.8% from the previous year).
The lowest average monthly wage was found amongst retail and wholesale workers, at 259,070 yen, down 3.8% from fiscal 2008. The largest drop, of 5.5%, was seen amongst workers in manufacturing, whose wages fell to 351,965 per month.
http://www.japaneconomynews.com/2010/05/17/labour-ministry-wages-fell-33-in-fy2009/
Inmates on hunger strike in Japan immigration centre
Scores of foreigners in a Japanese immigration detention centre have been on hunger strike for more than a week, demanding to be released and protesting the mysterious death of an African deportee.
Some 70 detainees — many of them Sri Lankans and Pakistanis — have refused food since May 10, also seeking to highlight suicides there by a Brazilian and a South Korean inmate, say their outside supporters.
The protest comes after UN rights envoy Jorge Bustamante in March raised concerns about Japan’s often years-long detentions of illegal migrants, including parents with children as well as rejected asylum seekers.
“Those in the centre suffer such mental stress from being confined for so long,” said Kimiko Tanaka, a member of a local rights group, about the East Japan Immigration Centre in Ushiku, northeast of Tokyo.
Japan keeps tight control on immigration and last year, despite generous overseas aid for refugees, granted political asylum to just 30 people.
Human rights activists, lawyers and foreign communities have complained for years about conditions at Ushiku and Japan’s two other such facilities, in the western prefecture of Osaka and in southwestern Nagasaki prefecture.
At Ushiku, about 380 people are detained, with eight or nine inmates living in rooms that measure about 20 square metres (215 square feet), said Tanaka, a member of the Ushiku Detention Centre Problem Study Group.
“They are crammed into tiny segmented rooms that are not very clean, and many contract skin diseases,” she told AFP.
The hunger strike protesters said in a statement that “foreigners are the same human beings as Japanese” and claimed that conditions are severe and their freedom to practise their religions is being curtailed.
“The Immigration Bureau has forced asylum seekers to leave voluntarily by confining them for a long time, making them give up on their religion, weakening their will and torturing their body and soul,” they said.
“Japan, a democratic country, must not do such a thing, no matter what.”
The protest erupted weeks after a Ghanaian man, Abubakar Awudu Suraj, died in unexplained circumstances in March as Japanese immigration officials escorted the restrained man onto an aircraft bound for Cairo.
“Police conducted an autopsy but could not find out the cause of his death,” a Narita Airport police spokesman told AFP about the 45-year-old, whose Japanese widow has challenged authorities to explain.
Rights activists believe he was gagged with a towel, recalling a similar but non-fatal case in 2004 when a female Vietnamese deportee was handcuffed, had her mouth sealed with tape and was rolled up in blankets.
The protesters on hunger strike argue two recent suicides by hanging — a 25-year-old Brazilian, and a 47-year-old South Korean — also illustrate Japan’s harsh treatment of inmates.
“Those were very unfortunate incidents,” said an official at the Ushiku immigration centre who declined to be named.
“We recognise the largest problem is that an increasing number of foreigners here refuse to be deported, despite legal orders,” he said.
The official also said the number of asylum seekers had doubled since 2008 mostly because of turmoil in Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
Last year 1,388 people, including 568 Myanmar and 234 Sri Lankan nationals, sought refuge in Japan.
Japan’s immigration authorities have faced protests before. Two months ago, 73 foreigners at the Osaka centre staged a two-week hunger strike.
“We would have seen suicides like in Tokyo if they had waited longer,” said Toru Sekimoto, who leads the local support group TRY, which successfully won the temporary release of most of the protesters.
Hiroka Shoji of Amnesty International Japan said: “The immigration facilities are supposed to be places where authorities keep foreigners for a short period before deportation.
“But some people have been confined for over two years as a result. The government must introduce a limit to detentions.”
A Justice Ministry official who asked not to be named said: “The government will interview protesters at the centre and take appropriate measures.”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jf1HRDmVvn_yJNlK6g94oQVTwDCg
National health insurance a basic universal safety net
HEALTH INSURANCE
All Japanese citizens are required by law to be covered by public health insurance.
Because of this universal system, most medical treatment is covered and the costs are reasonable.
The first health insurance law took effect in 1927 to protect laborers, and in 1938 the umbrella was extended to farmers, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
After World War II, many organizations stopped providing health insurance. To make sure every citizen was covered, the government revised the national health insurance law in 1958.
Here is some basic information about how the system now works:
What types of public health insurance are available?
There are basically four types. Company employees are mostly under “kenko hoken” (health insurance), also known as Kenpo, managed by the national health insurance association or health insurance unions. Civil servants are covered by mutual aid insurance. Sailors and fishermen have seaman’s insurance, while farmers and other self-employed people must apply for the Kokuho national health insurance managed by local governments.Can nonregular workers, including temporary employees and day laborers, also be insured by Kenpo?
Yes. If temporary workers have a contract exceeding two months and if they work at least 30 hours or four days a week, they can be covered by the insurance provided by temp staff dispatching agencies.
Day laborers with a contract of two months or less are covered by special insurance for day workers, according to the Social Insurance Agency.
Do people on welfare also have to pay into the health insurance program?No. Their medical costs are fully covered by medical aid, which is a part of public assistance.
Are dependents of the insured also covered?
Yes. Relatives in the first, second and third degree benefit from the insurance if they are financially supported by the insured.
How about foreigners?
Foreigners whose length of stay is more than a year and who are not covered under Kenpo need to apply for the Kokuho coverage. Foreign students should be covered by Kokuho even if they stay in Japan for less than a year.
Foreign residents are required by law to join one of the health insurance schemes, but some opt out because they have their own insurance contracts with private firms or they do not want to pay the fees. [In many cases, employers refuse to enrol foreign employees in Kenpo.]
There is no penalty for not joining public insurance. But the Justice Ministry’s Immigration Bureau asks foreign residents to show their public health insurance cards when applying to renew their visas to urge them to join the health care system.
Are there people who are not under any public health insurance?
Yes. For example in Saitama Prefecture, 36.4 percent of 962 workers who answered a questionnaire from the prefecture in March were not covered by public health insurance because they didn’t apply for Kokuho for financial or other reasons.
In 2009, a survey by the city of Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, found 24 percent of 473 Brazilian residents in the city had not applied for health insurance because they couldn’t afford the fee. Yokkaichi is known for its high population of foreign factory workers.
How much are the individual monthly premiums?
They vary a great deal depending on the type of insurance. The monthly Kenpo fee is based on income. For example, in the case of Kenpo coverage managed by the national insurance association, the workers’ share of the burden — 50 percent of the total fee — in Tokyo ranges from about ¥2,700 to ¥56,000. The rest is paid by their employers.
How about for medical treatment?
Patients under 70 years old are required to pay 30 percent and those between 70 and 74 have to pay 10 percent of medical costs, including fees for checkups, treatment and medicine at a hospital or pharmacy.
People aged 75 and above also pay 10 percent of their medical costs, but the expenses are deducted from their pensions.
There are basically no medical charges for children whose parents pay into public health insurance, and each local government sets its own age limit. In Tokyo, children aged 15 or younger are eligible for free medical treatment in many municipalities, according to the metropolitan government.
What happens if people covered under Kokuho fall behind on their premiums?
According to the metropolitan government, local governments first send a reminder. If they still do not pay the fee, they will receive an insurance card valid only for several weeks to months. They will also be charged in arrears.
Does public health insurance cover all types of checkups, treatment and medicine?
No. Periodic health checks, vaccines for influenza, mumps, chickenpox and some infectious diseases, and advanced medical treatment conducted at authorized university hospitals, are not covered.
Health insurance also doesn’t cover the cost of birth control pills.
What if a person has really high medical costs?
If the actual medical cost exceeds the fixed upper limit patients have to pay, an insurance organization refunds the difference. In average, the monthly limit is ¥80,100 for patients under 70. If their income is particularly high, the limit is ¥150,000. Patients who are 70 or above have to pay up to ¥44,400.
How about births?
Regular checkups and the costs for childbirth must come out of pocket. However, local governments provide various ways to offset these costs. Prefectures offer ¥420,000 in childbirth assistance, and local governments have their own financial aid for checkups and births on top of this amount. In the event of a Caesarean section, the cost is covered by insurance.
Is it true relatives of the insured or their dependents can receive burial fees?
Yes. In the case of Kenpo, ¥50,000 is provided. For those under Kokuho, the amount of payment varies depending on the local administration.
Is Japan becoming more insular?
With so much talk of globalization, it might seem counterintuitive to suggest that Japan is turning inward, but that’s what some have concluded.
Take Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, where the local government last year made what seemed like a coldhearted offer to Latin American immigrants: It would pay them to go back home — as long as they agreed not to look for work here again. Some had invested 20 years in this country and had children who knew nothing about Brazil or Peru.
I’ve written about immigration a lot because Japan is still an anomaly in the developed world. Despite a string of signals from the business and political worlds that a population crisis will force immigration policy past its tipping point, the government shows no sign of taking the padlocks off “fortress Japan.”
Roughly 2 percent of the population here is foreign, far below most OECD countries. And the Hamamatsu case, while isolated, seemed to show that the state might take away the welcome mat when the economy darkens.
It’s not that I don’t understand how Japan feels. In my native Ireland, the foreign population went from almost zero to about 10 percent in the 15 or so years since I left. That’s a major adjustment for native Irish people. And there have been tensions: When I was at home in April, racist thugs murdered a young black boy in the capital, Dublin.
But immigration is in my view changing Ireland immeasurably for the better, bringing in new influences, cultures and food, broadening our perspectives on the world and contributing to our economy. And immigration is payback: the Irish, after all, have gone all over the world. Why shouldn’t we give something back?
I wonder if Japan will ever feel the same?
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/perspectives/news/20100521p2a00m0na003000c.html
Bar association supports woman’s claim that prefecture denied her promotions due to gender
A bar association here has found the Gunma Prefectural Government’s reluctance to promote a female employee to a higher position to be discriminatory and made a request to the government office to improve its promotion practices.
The request was made Thursday by the human-rights committee of the Gunma Bar Association.
According to the committee, it received a complaint from a 58-year-old woman who works at the prefectural office claiming that she was being held at the position of section chief, a position below the level of assistant division manager, because of gender discrimination at work. The committee proceeded to investigate the job promotion situation among men and women aged between 50 and 60 at that prefectural office.
The results of the investigation found that as of April 1, 2008, 84.9 percent of male employees at the office were at the assistant division manager level or higher, in contrast to 44.1 percent of female employees.
The committee also quoted the woman as saying that her boss at the division she had belonged to for four years from fiscal 2004 told her he had suggested to the personnel division that they promote her for her good work performance.
The committee believes that the personnel division’s treatment of the woman should be considered as a human rights violation, but their request for improved practices is not legally binding.
“There is no gender discrimination in our promotion system. We evaluate employees’ abilities in a comprehensive manner,” a personnel division official at the prefectural office says. “The reality is that there is a limit to how many versatile, experienced female employees there are at that (woman’s) age.”
It is unusual for a municipal government to be accused of denying an employee’s promotion on the basis of sex.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20100521p2a00m0na019000c.html