The second coming of Haken Mura (dispatched workers’ village), temporary holiday accommodation for Japan’s growing number of laid-off haken (dispatched) workers, attracted less public attention than its 2009 incarnation.
“Big” stories, such as the alleged corruption involving ruling party leader Ozawa Ichiro, or the US-Japan spat over where to put American Marine helicopters in Okinawa, pushed the plight of unemployed, homeless workers from the front pages. The news value of this year’s compassionate protest, which ended on January 18, was to some extent also diminished by involvement of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW).
A year ago, the ministry was embarrassed by the encampment just across the street from its offices. Aided by non-profit organizations and labor activists, 500 displaced temporary workers took up residence, receiving food, emergency shelter, and employment assistance during the New Year vacation. Ministry officials this year arranged a move to a less prominent location at the Olympic Center in Yoyogi Park.
Despite the diminished publicity, hundreds again took refuge and many more consulted with lawyers who staffed a phone hotline and consulted face-to-face with workers about abrupt lay-offs, contracts not honored, and salaries not paid. Reports quoted workers who said that they preferred to talk with lawyers because the MHLW bureaucrats were unable to answer their queries constructively.
Official Japan has been loath to reveal that its statistics show labor market liberalization contributing to increased inequality and poverty. Publication of MHLW-collected poverty data had previously been left to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. But, with the effects of labor deregulation becoming too obvious to disown, the MHLW this week published poverty statistics for the first time.
They verified earlier surveys indicating that one-sixth of Japanese live below the poverty line; 59% of those in poverty are single parents, the majority of them “working poor”, employed in the second tier of Japan’s labor force, which is made up of dispatch temporary workers and others who comprise the category of “non-regular employees”.
Dispatch workers
Dispatch labor was first deregulated in 1985. Growth of the temporary staffing industry was slow at first but picked up dramatically after layoffs and reduced hiring of new graduates following the collapse of the Japan’s economic bubble and the start of the decline of so-called lifetime employment. Today, nearly four in 10 Japanese workers are “non-regulars”. Their salaries and benefits are typically estimated at half of regular workers’ total compensation and their jobs are much less secure. Haken are leading the way to a lower wage floor, more-unstable working conditions, and greater social divisions.
The problem became more visible after 2004, when another round of labor deregulation allowed dispatch workers to be used in manufacturing, the backbone of Japan’s export-based economy. Previously, manufacturing had been carried out by full-time, regular workers, whom companies and their affiliated subcontractors took some care to train and retain. Pressured by more than a decade of economic stagnation, and influenced by neoliberal examples set forth in position papers issues by the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, key Japanese business leaders embraced “flexibility” and “diverse 21st century ways of working”, and moved away from Japan’s putative tradition of long-term, in-house human capital development.
The 2004 deregulation allowed manufacturers to cut costs by legally using dispatch temporary workers. Moreover, when work dries up, such non-regulars, who seldom have union representation, have the added advantage to employers of being easily, if controversially, dismissed, pulled off the line like surplus tools. Labor leaders and social activists argue that dispatch temporary workers are not machines but human beings, who need regular incomes for stability.
This haken issue has aroused strong passions about the future direction of Japanese labor practices and the shape of society in general. Firms claim they need flexible employment to survive and prosper. Advocates for workers argue that without respect and stability, the workforce cannot survive humanely or afford to raise families. The treatment of haken workers is the visible tip of a much larger iceberg of unstable, non-regular employment.
Who is responsible for haken?
Companies that use dispatch labor have contracts with staffing agencies that supply temporary labor. On paper, the workers are employed by the agency, which takes a cut of the fee paid by the firm as compensation for finding and dispatching the worker. The agency is responsible for pay and benefits, as well as for directing the work of the dispatched workers. In practice, once agency temporary workers enter a workplace, particularly in factories, they often take orders directly from the company and face pressure to work like regular employees. This includes pressure to work unpaid overtime.
Such violations of the law have become clearly visible only recently. A spate of lawsuits and protests, such as the haken village, industrial accidents involving inadequately trained haken factory workers, and homeless haken workers sleeping in Internet cafes and 24-hour fast-food restaurants, have made the problems clear.
When firms that use haken labor face harsh economic conditions, they can terminate their contracts with the suppliers of the labor under specified conditions. The workers, many of whom are living hand-to-mouth in company-supplied dormitories, have no recourse against this sudden termination, which may come before the expiry of their personal contracts with the temp agency. Upon termination, they are obliged to leave their company lodgings. Individual contract workers face the same dilemma.
The government is worried about layoffs of such vulnerable workers and has made efforts to find housing for those who have lost jobs. It has also expressed concern that this style of work will continue to spread, increasing poverty and making family formation more difficult. There is fear that irresponsible treatment related to haken workers will become institutionalized. Illegal variants of haken are increasing and the number of companies being disciplined for violating the current law is growing.
At issue is a legal distinction about who bears responsibility for managing workers. The practice of treating workers like non-regular, haken workers when it comes to salary and dismissal, but treating them like regular workers when it comes to duties and hours is illegal. Workers at subcontractors (ukeoi) may remain employed by their firms even when contracts with larger firms are terminated. However, when haken contracts are terminated, the haken agencies seldom assume responsibility for workers. Indeed, haken agencies sometimes fail to pay all wages due. The agencies may also skim additional fees from workers’ pay or neglect to pay social insurance payments that workers must make in order to be eligible for unemployment benefits.
Laid-off haken workers thus fall into a gap where there is little or no safety net. Some workers have tried to fight dismissal, arguing that the firms in which they have been working have an obligation to keep them there. Some have worked beyond the statutory time limits for temporary labor, and many have been taking orders directly from the firm’s bosses just like the regular employees.
They have argued that in such a situation, a tacit contract between the worker and the firm exists and that it should take precedence over the dispatch agreement between the staffing agency and the firm. But officials in companies that use haken labor have refused even to accept worker petitions or meet with such dismissed haken workers. Firms say, “You don’t work for us so we are not responsible for you.”
Proposed reforms to protect haken workers
To stem the rising tide of inequality, the new government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is to introduce a legislative proposal to re-regulate the use of dispatch workers as part of an overhaul of the Labor Standards Law when parliament opens on January 26. The aim is to protect haken workers from sudden forced dismissal, and to redress the perception that bureaucratic inaction has transformed haken workers into the working poor.
The reform aims to strengthen worker protections and restore “regular” employment as the norm by eliminating loopholes currently exploited by employers, and providing swift and appropriate punishment of future violations.
Under the proposal, temporary staffing agencies that hire workers for a certain period (currently unspecified) will have a duty to make effort to shift those workers to “regular” employment status. When considering the wages of haken workers, equivalence with the salaries of the regular workers in the firms to which they are dispatched will be considered. The charges for dispatching workers will be made clear to workers and agencies will be required to make public the margin they take, that is the often sizable difference between the dispatch charges paid by the firm to the agency and the wages the agency pays to workers.
Under the proposed revisions, only dispatch for regular employment would be permitted. Dispatch for short terms of less than two months, dispatch of day laborers, and dispatch in manufacturing are to be banned “in principle”, as is dispatch for replacement of regular workers. So-called touroku-gata haken, the dispatch of workers who register with the agency and are called upon when there is work, will also be banned; however, there will be exceptions in 26 selected occupations. Clearly, the aim of the proposed revision is to increase regular employment and determine the locus of responsibility for worker welfare.
But the way forward is not clear. The 26 “specialized” occupations to be exempted currently employ about half of Japan’s 2.2 million dispatch workers, and lawyers say the vague definitions of the exempt occupations will invite abuse and undermine the effectiveness of the proposed law. Furthermore, some, mostly young, workers appreciate the freedom and relatively lucrative nature of haken. In consequence of the temporary nature of the work, it usually pays slightly more than working for subcontractors, which have higher fixed costs than temp agencies. Nor does haken entail the long hours or heavy demands of regular employment.
Furthermore, the proposal does not obligate firms to negotiate collectively with unions on issues related to dispatched workers, nor would firms that use dispatched labor be obliged to share responsibility for unpaid wages or benefits. Vague definitions and the as yet undetermined time period for implementation of the reforms are other likely sticking points.
As for sanctions, if firms knowingly violate the new law, treating haken labor as subcontract labor, the MHLW will regard the situation as an implicit labor contract. Workers treated thus will have the option of asking to be hired directly and firms will be obliged to hire them. However, it is important to note that the Supreme Court recently ruled against a worker in just such a case, establishing a precedent that poses a preemptive challenge to this portion of the revision. The ultimate form of the proposal will be shaped by debates in and out of the Diet, or parliament, over the coming months.
For their part, employers, too, find problems with the proposal. They argue that if touroku haken is banned, it will produce a flood of layoffs, increasing unemployment. They say that the proposal will be especially harsh for smaller businesses, which do not have enough steady work to justify hiring subcontractors and so depend on being able to bring in registered temporary workers on short notice when they need additional hands.
As the working class goes, so goes Japan
It is clear that the boom in temporary staffing agencies has been instrumental in widening the working-class divide. A class of non-regular workers, who often do the same work as regular workers but receive lower wages and enjoy less stability, has been the outcome. Consequences include the increase in dispossessed individuals, families living on the edge, damaged pride, increasing anger, a sense of real betrayal, and the stirrings of class conflict in a country that has long prided itself on keeping class differences obscure.
Rallies and study sessions are planned around the country in the coming months so that workers can study the proposal and voice their opinions. Labor advocates see the proposed haken reform as at best a piecemeal effort. If enacted, it will be impossible to repeal, and its loopholes will become part of the social fabric.
Workers who feel they are being used illegally will continue to have little choice or recourse. Penalties for labor law violations are generally limited to administrative guidance and warnings. These activists argue that fundamental reform is needed. They say that only guaranteeing all workers equal legal rights and status can neutralize employers’ current incentives to abuse both low-status workers and the law.
The revised law’s name and goal are the same: “Protection of Dispatch Workers”. However, at issue are not just conditions for haken workers but Japan’s system of employment in general. Many workers today are forced to accept unstable, non-regular employment even though they would prefer the long-term stability of regular employment. There are more than 3.5 million unemployed, many eager for any work at all. And there is a minority who favor non-regular work because it fits their lifestyle goals. They do not want the burdens of regular employment, but they may find their chosen occupation on prohibited haken list.
The debate over proposed haken and other labor reforms is of crucial importance to Japan’s future. The shape of the society is implicit in the outcome. It is a story that should be able to challenge the Okinawa base squabbles and the endless rounds of political corruption for front-page space.
TozenAdmin
Japanese language a barrier for Indonesian and Filipino nurses
The Japanese health ministry has rejected a plan to make it easier for Indonesian and Filipino nurses to qualify for work in Japan.
A 2008 Economic Partnership Agreement allows a number of Indonesian and Filipino nurses and caregivers to train and work in Japan. But the compulsory national exam and the level of language the overseas workers must pass is for most too difficult – no Indonesian nurses passed last year’s exam.
“The Japanese Nursing Association’s Shinobu Ogawa says a dependence on anything from overseas is risky and therefore a policy seeking foreign healthcare providers will never be supported by the Japanese people. Medical sociologist Dr Yuko Hirano has followed the success of the foreign worker program since the deal was signed in 2008. She says the JNA attitude reflects wider community values, which makes the obstacles for the Indonesian and Filipino workers even higher.”
“[A] huge argument’s been going on here. And many of those people are saying it’s too early for the Japanese society to acommodate those foreigners because we have a still strong stereotype against those foreign workers in Japan, easily connected to the idea that if you introduce the foreign labour to the health sector, then the health sector, or health-related labour will be spoiled.”
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/connectasia/stories/201001/s2800514.htm
Ward to give dogs resident cards
Itabashi Ward in Tokyo will start issuing residential cards for dogs on Monday in a bid to encourage more pet owners to officially register the animals, according to ward officials.
For registered dogs only, the cards will be issued free of charge at public health centers in the ward. The postcard-size residential card will bear the dog’s name, picture, address, birth date and other information such as inoculation records, the officials said.
“Issuing residential cards for dogs is rare in Japan,” said an official, adding that the move is aimed at encouraging dog owners to register their dogs and have them inoculation for rabies.
30% of Tokyo nursing homes use foreigners
More than 30 percent of nursing homes in Tokyo are hiring foreign caregivers, according to a survey by a social welfare body.
The Tokyo Council of Social Welfare found that 196 foreign workers are employed at 101 of the capital’s elder care facilities. The survey covered 389 facilities and drew responses from 316.
Japan recently began accepting foreign candidates seeking licenses to work in care-giving and other social services fields, but more than half the facilities surveyed cited the language barrier as a challenge.
“We need systematic language education programs to improve their professional vocabulary and daily conversations,” an official of the council said Wednesday.
By nationality, Filipinos comprised more than half of foreign caregivers, followed by Chinese, Taiwanese and South Koreans.
More than 90 percent of the workers are women, the survey said.
Immigration policy to favor wealthy, skilled
To prepare for the expected population decline, the Justice Ministry plans to welcome highly educated professional foreign workers, but it will make entry tougher for descendants of Japanese.
The planned new immigration policy, based on a point system, is intended to maintain Japan’s future economic growth by taking in more skilled foreigners, such as researchers, doctors, lawyers and entrepreneurs.
These measures were featured in a report submitted Tuesday to Justice Minister Keiko Chiba by an advisory group on immigration control policy. The group, the fifth of its kind, is chaired by Tsutomu Kimura, an adviser at the education ministry.
The Justice Ministry is expected to review the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law and related laws and ordinances, and submit a revision bill to the Diet as early as next year.
A point system for skilled workers has already been introduced in countries like Britain and Canada.
By grading would-be workers in Japan based on their education levels, professional skills, qualifications, work experience, incomes and other criteria, the Justice Ministry will recognize those above a certain level as highly skilled workers.
Those recognized will receive preferential treatment, such as longer periods of stay in Japan, as well as permanent resident status after five years of living in Japan, instead of the usual 10.
But the ministry plans to establish more rigorous entry requirements for foreign nationals of Japanese descent.
At the request of the business community in need of labor, the immigration control law was revised in 1990 to grant resident status–without employment restrictions–to second- and third-generation Japanese. That led to a steady inflow of unskilled workers, mainly from Brazil and Peru.
But now, unemployment has become a serious problem among these nikkeijin, as manufacturers have closed factories amid dwindling demand in the struggling economy.
In admitting foreign citizens of Japanese descent, the Justice Ministry plans to require “an ability to make a living in Japan on their own” by, for example, having secured employment beforehand.
The ministry later intends to demand of the nikkeijin “a certain level of proficiency in the Japanese language” through a certification exam or other measures.
Ueda against letting foreigners vote
Saitama Gov. Kiyoshi Ueda said Tuesday he is against a bill that would give permanent foreign residents the right to vote in local elections.
“I have long been opposed to such a bill. I don’t think it is a matter to be decided by a majority of votes (in the Diet),” Ueda said.
Nagoya to withdraw from Juki Net
Nagoya plans to withdraw from the nationwide online residency registry network known as Juki Net [aka the Basic Resident Registers Network], Mayor Takashi Kawamura said Tuesday.
Kawamura told internal affairs minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi he will reach his decision after he discusses the issue with city residents.
He also told Haraguchi the system should be abolished.
Only 3 percent of residents nationwide have applied for a card that allows them to access the Juki Net system, due in part to privacy concerns.
The city of Kunitachi in Tokyo and the town of Yamatsuri in Fukushima Prefecture have not joined the system.
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY201001190465.html
Born in Japan, but ordered out
Fida Khan, a gangly 14-year-old, told the court that immigration authorities should not deport him and his family merely because his foreign-born parents lacked proper visas when they came to Japan more than 20 years ago.
During the past two decades, his Pakistani father and Filipino mother have held steady jobs, raised children, paid taxes and have never been in trouble with the law.
“I have the right to do my best to become a person who can contribute to this society,” Fida told a Tokyo district court in Japanese, the only language he speaks.
But the court ruled last year that Fida has no right to stay in the country where he was born. Unless a higher court or the Minister of Justice intervenes, a deportation order will soon split the Khan family, sending the father, Waqar Hassan Khan, back to Pakistan, while dispatching Fida and his sister Fatima, 7, to the Philippines with their mother, Jennette.
Aggressive enforcement of Japanese immigration laws has increased in recent years as the country’s economy has floundered and the need for cheap foreign labor has fallen.
Nationality in Japan is based on blood and parentage, not place of birth. This island nation was closed to the outside world until the 1850s, when U.S. warships forced it to open up to trade. Wariness of foreigners remains a potent political force, one that politicians dare not ignore, especially when the economy is weak.
As a result, the number of illegal immigrants has been slashed, often by deportation, from 300,000 in 1995 to just 130,000, a minuscule number in comparison to other rich countries. The United States, whose population is 2 1/2 times that of Japan’s, has about 90 times as many illegal immigrants (11.6 million).
Among highly developed countries, Japan also ranks near the bottom in the percentage of legal foreign residents. Just 1.7 percent are foreign or foreign-born, compared with about 12 percent in the United States. Japan held a pivotal election last year and voters tossed out a party that had ruled for nearly 50 years. But the winner, the Democratic Party of Japan, has so far done nothing to alter immigration policy.
That policy, in a country running low on working-age people, is helping to push Japan off a demographic cliff. It already has fewer children and more elderly as a percentage of its population than any country in recorded history. If trends continue, the population of 127 million will shrink by a third in 50 years and by two-thirds in a century. By 2060, Japan will have two retirees for every three workers — a ratio that will weaken and perhaps wreck pension and health-care systems.
These dismal numbers upset Masaki Tsuchiya, who manages a Tokyo welding company that for seven years has employed Waqar Khan.
“If Khan is deported, it will not be possible to find anyone like him, as many Japanese workers have lost their hungriness,” said Tsuchiya, who has urged Japanese immigration officials to rescind the deportation order for the Khan family. “When the Japanese population is declining, I believe our society has to think more seriously about immigration.”
At the Ministry of Justice, immigration officials say they are simply carrying out rules politicians make. The rules, though, are not particularly precise. They grant wide leeway to bureaucrats to use their own discretion in deciding who stays and who gets deported. Last year, immigration officials granted “special permits” to 8,500 undocumented foreigners, with about 65 percent of them going to those who had married a Japanese citizen.
Exercising their discretion under the law, immigration authorities last year offered Noriko Calderon, 13, the wrenching choice of living with her parents or living in her homeland. The girl, who was born and educated in the Tokyo suburbs, could stay in Japan, the government ruled. But she had to say goodbye to her Filipino mother and father, who were deported after living illegally in Japan for 16 years. Following tearful goodbyes at a Tokyo airport, Noriko remained in Japan with an aunt.
Japan’s growing need for working-age immigrants has not gone unnoticed by senior leaders in government and business. Slightly relaxed rules have admitted skilled professionals and guest workers. The number of legal foreign residents reached an all-time high of 2.2 million at the end of 2008, with Chinese accounting for the largest group, followed by Koreans, Brazilians (mostly of Japanese descent) and Filipinos.
Still, experts say these numbers are far too low to head off significant economic contraction. A group of 80 politicians said last year that the country needs 10 million immigrants by 2050. Japan’s largest business federation called for 15 million, saying: “We cannot wait any longer to aggressively welcome necessary personnel.”
Yet the treatment of foreign workers already in Japan is unpredictable. The government opened service centers last year to help foreign workers who lost their jobs to recession. For the first time, it offered them free language training, along with classes on social integration. As that program got underway, however, the government began giving money — about $12,000 for a family of four — to foreign workers, if they agreed to go home immediately and never come back to work.
The Khan family’s troubles began two years, when a policeman nabbed Waqar Khan on his way home from work. He was detained for nine months. Police in Japan often stop foreign-looking people on the street and ask for residency documents.
The letter of the law was clearly against Khan and his wife. He had overstayed a 15-day tourist visa by 20 years. She came into the country on a forged passport.
But they have refused to sign deportation documents, arguing that although their papers are bad, their behavior as foreigners has been exemplary. Under Japanese law, foreigners are eligible to become naturalized citizens if they have lived in the country for more than five years, have good behavior and are self-sufficient.
The Khans also argue that their children, who regard themselves as Japanese, are assets for Japan. “It is a bit weird that the country needs children, but it is saying to us, go away,” Khan said.
The family’s lawyer, Gen’ichi Yamaguchi, has tried — and so far failed — to convince immigration officials and judges that the Khans are just the sort of hardworking, Japanese-speaking immigrants that the country should embrace for the sake of its own future.
“During the bubble years, the number of illegal workers increased a lot and the police looked the other way,” Yamaguchi said. “Japan has always looked at immigrants as cheap but disposable labor.”
An appeals court is scheduled to rule on the Khan case in the first week of February.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/16/AR2010011602639.html
Tokyo snubs call to keep shelter, services for homeless
An antipoverty citizens’ group is asking the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to continue providing shelter and life-counseling services to hundreds of jobless and homeless people staying at a temporary shelter due to be shut down Monday.
The group, called one-stop no kai, is made up of activists who set up a tent village in Tokyo’s Hibiya Park for jobless and homeless people during the yearend period last year.
Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said Jan. 8 the Jan. 18 deadline for shutting down the Ota Ward shelter stands.
Officials said 542 jobless and homeless people were in the shelter as of Tuesday, and the metro government will end the job counseling service the same day the shelter is closed.
Tokyo library reaching out to foreign community
Whether to read a Pulitzer Prize-winning author in English, flick through global editions of Vogue magazine or delve into foreign encyclopedias, the Tokyo Metropolitan Library wants more foreigners to visit and take advantage of its free multilingual resources.
The library, whose central branch is in Minato Ward, is running a campaign to make non-Japanese residents aware of its wide range of resources in foreign languages, both online and in print.
“We have a lot of foreign-language materials, but not many foreigners know that,” said Akiko Yoshida, who oversees the library’s foreign-language resources.
Even though the library doesn’t keep a record of who enters its building, staff at the central branch have observed that given the large foreign community in the surrounding area of Hiroo, not many foreigners drop by, she said.