TozenAdmin

Population probably shrank even more in 2009, ministry estimates

by

Japan’s population probably shrank further in 2009 as births fell by roughly 22,000 to about 1,069,000, the health ministry said in estimates released Thursday.

“The trend of increasing population decline is expected to continue in the future as the number of deaths rises due to the aging of the population, while the number of women at childbearing age is decreasing,” a ministry official said.

Although the national fertility rate — the number of children a woman would have if she followed the birthrate of each generation in a given year — rose for three consecutive years until 2008, past data suggest the rate in 2009 was around 1.37 — the same as 2008.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100101a1.html

Pensions body faces tough test

by

Japan Pension Service, an organization set up to take over the work of the Social Insurance Agency, will start operations Friday. Though the new entity will attempt to regain trust of the public by tackling problems such as the pension records fiasco, it faces many hurdles.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama met the 13 people chosen to be directors of the new entity at the Prime Minister’s Office last Friday.

“One of the driving forces behind the shift of power [the election of the DPJ-led government] was the pension record fiasco,” Hatoyama said. “I want this entity to be one that gives priority to the interests of subscribers.”

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20091231TDY03105.htm

Piecemeal temp jobs at agencies face ban

by

An advisory panel to the labor minister issued a report Monday recommending that staffing agencies be prohibited from registering workers on individual contracts for specific jobs that pay only when work is available.

The report, which also proposes banning the practice of sending workers for short-term manufacturing jobs, comes in line with a government plan to submit a bill to the Diet to improve the working conditions of temporary staff by tightening the law regulating their dispatch.

About 2.02 million people worked as temp staff as of June 2008, and some 440,000 of them would likely be subject to the proposed regulations, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

The move, aimed at stabilizing employment, signifies a policy shift to tighten control on the temporary worker system, which has experienced gradual deregulation in staffing services since the law took effect in 1986.

The subcommittee’s report recommends prohibiting the dispatch of temp workers on a registration basis, except for 26 types of jobs that require professional skills and expertise, including secretarial work and translation, and jobs involving the dispatch of elderly workers.

It also seeks a ban on dispatching temporary workers for manufacturing jobs, except in cases where staffing agencies conclude long-term job contracts with workers.

For clarification, the regulations will be put into practice on a date set by ordinance within three years after the revised law is promulgated.

Among registration-basis temp jobs, those that match the needs of workers and face few problems, including clerical jobs, will be prohibited after five years at the latest.

Conditions of so-called registered temp workers – those who register with staffing companies and get an employment contract only for the duration of a job – are particularly poor, critics say.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20091229a1.html

Revision to dispatch law

by

The global recession that started in autumn last year has dramatically highlighted the vulnerability of temporary and other nonregular workers at this time of economic contraction.

In response, the government started reviewing the worker dispatch law at the Labor Policy Council, which advises Akira Nagatsuma, the minister of health, labor and welfare. The council has come up with an outline of a bill to revise the law.

According to the outline, the revision would, in principle, ban companies from using registration type of recruiting, in which employment contracts are drawn up only when there are jobs for dispatched workers. The ban would not be applied to 26 job categories that demand a high level of skill, such as interpreters. The ban would not apply to aged dispatched workers as well.

Supplying haken dispatched workers for manufacturing jobs would be allowed only for positions for what is essentially regular work in which individuals have a reasonable chance of winning a relatively long-term labor contract with the companies that recruit them. This is a key issue because of the large number of dispatched workers in manufacturing who lost their jobs after economic conditions slid and manufactures moved to trim their payrolls.

Supplying temps for day-labor jobs–the most unstable form of employment–would also be prohibited, except for limited categories. The revision would also require companies to stop treating subcontractors as effectively dispatched workers who are subject to company supervision. If such practices are found, the new regulation will regard those firms as having hired these workers.

There is strong opposition to the proposed steps within the business community. Critics say banning the registration system to recruit dispatched workers and the supply of temps on a daily basis would raise unemployment by making it harder for companies to use haken workers.

Others argue that tightening the regulation on supplying dispatched workers to manufacturers would prompt more companies to shift production overseas, causing further jobs losses. These arguments, however, don’t present a strong case for allowing nonregular workers to bear the brunt of the economic downturn as people who can be brought in or laid off more easily than regular employees.

Past revisions to the worker dispatch law have basically eased the regulations on the dispatched-worker industry to promote labor liquidity. The new proposals are significant in that they would change policy by protecting workers.

The envisioned change, however, would leave some problems unsolved. Even the hiring of people on a dispatched basis–for less than a year, for instance–could be regarded as almost regular employment. Workers under subcontracts who are treated effectively as temps would be regarded as employees directly hired by the companies that use them, but only for the period of their contracts with the companies that supplied them. This could lead to a situation where companies that use temps would not take sufficient responsibility for the well-being of these individuals. The bans on the registration-type recruitment of dispatched workers and the supply of temps to manufacturers would take effect only three to five years after the revised law is proclaimed.

The Diet should discuss these and other related issues, including arguments by employers, during the regular session to be convened in January. The revision of the law would not address all the problems concerning nonregular workers. There is still a basic problem facing the government and society as a whole.

The wide disparity in incomes between regular and nonregular workers due to the lack of recognition of dispatched and other nonregular positions as legitimate options to increase diversity in workstyles has become a major issue. The principle of the same pay for the same work is the norm in Europe. It may be unrealistic to expect an early introduction of this principle in Japan. But serious efforts should be made to establish this rule.

There should be limits to the renewals and periods of contracts with nonregular workers to reduce the benefits for companies of depending on such workers as a buffer against a downturn.

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200912290117.html

Public schools turn to non-Japanese teachers

by

Third-grade students at Osaka municipal Kita-Nakajima Primary School get insights into culture on the Korean Peninsula that many others do not.

Their homeroom teacher is Lee Chi I, 31, a third-generation South Korean living in Japan. Lee’s grandfather came from South Korea’s Gyeongsangnam-do, but she was born and raised in Aichi Prefecture.

Students at the school in Yodogawa Ward include children of Koreans living in Japan, but Lee introduces musical instruments such as the chango, a Korean drum, to all the pupils in her music class.

Lee is one of an increasing number of foreign nationals teaching at public primary, middle and high schools across the country. An estimated 200 non-Japanese teachers, mainly Koreans living in Japan, teach at schools in 25 prefectures, including Osaka, Hyogo, Kanagawa and Kyoto.

The government approved the hiring of teachers with a foreign nationality at public schools in 1991.

According to the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, foreign national teachers can be “full-time lecturers with unlimited tenure,” but they are not eligible to hold management positions, such as being the senior classroom teacher. They have the same educational authority as Japanese teachers, and can be homeroom teachers.

The Osaka prefectural and municipal governments started hiring foreign national teachers on their own accord in the 1970s. Although they stopped this practice in 1982 in line with an instruction from the central government, they resumed hiring non-Japanese in 1993 following the abolition of the Japanese nationality requirement. This academic year, 135 non-Japanese were teachers in the prefecture.

Lee had gone by the Japanese name Chisato Miyamoto until she graduated from university.

“I felt deep down as if I was hiding my true self,” she said of those years.

Lee decided to identify herself by her real Korean name following advice from members of the Osaka Municipal Board of Education and the principal who hired her as a teacher six years ago.

“They told me children who have roots on the Korean Peninsula would be encouraged if I used my real Korean name,” Lee said.

Lee now teaches children about Korean culture and has explained her ethnic background to students and their parents.

An estimated 60 percent to 70 percent of foreign national teachers in Osaka Prefecture have revealed their ethnic roots in their schools.

Fifty-two foreign national teachers from 11 cities in the prefecture shared their experiences at the inaugural meeting of a network of teachers with roots in foreign countries, held in Osaka on Nov. 7. They plan to hold meetings to discuss their ethnic backgrounds and educational issues.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20091229TDY03105.htm

Interac and pregnancy; Part Two – The Michael Collison Case::

by

I am not sure what it is about Interac and pregnancy, but they really don’t seem to be on the same page as the rest of the work force in Japan. The case in point is concerning Michael Collison and I first learned about his case on the website of a Japanese activist named Arudou Debito. Fortunately for Interac, I did not hear of the case until several months after the fact and it seems that Mr Collison has simply chosen to put the matter behind him rather than to pursue legal action. A very brief synopsis here is followed by a link to Arudou Debito’s original post.

Synopsis:
1) Mr Collison is an excellent teacher and has the reviews to prove it.
2) Mr Collison’s wife has a miscarriage.
3) Mr Collison has to take some time off of work to deal with funeral arrangements
4) Mr Collison is fired, Interac claims it is for “performance issues and missing work” (the performance claims are disproven by his excellent reviews).
5) Interac attempts to force Mr Collison to sign resignation papers, going so far as to tell him that he could not leave the office until he signed them (this is horribly illegal).

I really wish that Mr Collison had contacted us when this happened because I can garantee you that this kind of thing will NOT happen to any union member. A strong union can prevent this kind of thing from happening to its members, and can right these kinds of labor issues even after they have begun to go sour, all it takes is the initiative to contact us and the willingness to fight. This is not a criticism of Mr Collison, I certainly cannot imagine the pain he and his family have had to deal with, I just wish we would have had the oppurtunity to try and help. Workers in Japan are all garanteed to have time off for bereavement, and it seems that Interac is unaware of this fact.

A link to the original post:

http://www.debito.org/?p=2993

Bar hostesses form union to combat workplace exploitation, sexual harassment

by

A group of women working as bar hostesses have formed their own labor union, complaining about unpaid wages and sexual harassment.

Working at so-called “kyabakura” — a portmanteau of “kyabare” (cabaret) and “kurabu” (clubs) — bars as a hostess is becoming increasingly popular among young women in Japan. However, the group, which announced the formation of the “Kyabakura Union” at a press conference at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on Tuesday, warned hostess wannabes it’s no easy job.

After [Kyabakura Union representative Rin] Sakurai reduced the number of her workdays per week due to poor health, the bar reportedly stopped paying her. Sakurai, who had been sexually harassed by the bar manager, also found unjust payroll deductions for services she had never used, such as 3,000 yen per day for welfare expenses, and 1,500 yen for hair styling and makeup. [An] investigation revealed illegal wage deductions and falsely imposed penalties.

“Some think unpaid wages and sexual harassment are normal in the nightclub industry, but that’s not true,” says Sakurai.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20091223p2a00m0na010000c.html

More seek, fewer win status as refugees

by
The number of people granted refugee status by the government between January and September was less than a third of the figure for the same period last year, according to Justice Ministry documents.

Considering that applications for refugee status during the nine months surpassed the record number set for the period in 2008, people who support refugees expressed concern that the situation in Japan, which is already seen as having a “closed door” for refugees, is deteriorating.

According to the documents, 1,123 people applied for refugee status between January and September, up from 1,100 the year before, but only 15 people were approved during the period, compared with 46 in 2008.

However, the number of people who were denied refugee status but granted special permits to remain in Japan due to humanitarian considerations increased during the period to 399 from 293 last year, the documents show.

Since October, the number of applications appears to have slowed, while there seems to have been an increase in the number of people granted refugee status, according to sources.

“We determine whether an applicant qualifies for refugee status on a case-by-case basis, so there are years in which we have many (approvals) and years in which we have few,” an official in the Justice Ministry’s Immigration Bureau said.

“It takes one year or more on average for us to conclude whether to grant (refugee status), so even if the number of applicants increases, that is not immediately reflected in the number of applications approved,” the official said.

In 2008, the number of people applying for refugee status increased to 1,599, about double the figure for the year before, likely due to deteriorating public security abroad, including in Myanmar.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20091222a3.html

Too innocent for prejudice?

by

Are kindergarteners racist? Do they discriminate between children with different skin colors?

“Children are too innocent,” one Japanese mother told me in a survey of parents’ views. Her conclusion: “They do not hold racial prejudices.”

As innocent as children may be, extensive research conducted in the United States and Europe has shown that children as young as three have the capacity to discriminate against others based on race. However, little research on this topic has been conducted in Japan, a more culturally homogeneous society than most in the West.

The issue of prejudice among children is particularly relevant for Japan, a country projected to have the world’s oldest population by 2025. With this demographic reality looming, there are concerns the Japanese economy will be unable to sustain itself without the help of millions more immigrant workers. Some economists believe it will be necessary to allow 610,000 immigrants into the workforce per year for the next 50 years to counter the effects of the declining birthrate. With unprecedented diversity in Japan looking increasingly inevitable, issues of racial prejudice are bound to bubble to the surface more often — even among young children.

All this begs the question: to what degree are Japanese children racially biased? Are there differences in the attitudes of Japanese children attending international schools and those that study in less diverse environments? If a kindergarten-age child is prejudiced, how did this come to be? Understanding the answers could suggest ways of reducing bias and preparing Japan to meet the challenges of demographic change.

I worked with over 60 children, and amidst long stretches of answers that extended no further than “yes” or “no,” there were occasional moments when students opened up and elaborated expressively on their answers.

“This boy has dark skin. I’m scared of that,” said one child.

“I want to play with everybody because everyone is my friend,” said another.

While these individual comments were enlightening in themselves, the overall results were much more intriguing. Children from different types of schools did have different attitudes.

In the U.S., people of all different races identify themselves as American and not an eyebrow is raised. But in Japan, people who look or speak differently are often labeled a “gaijin,” an outsider. No matter how “Japanese” a person might feel, this label acts to set them apart from the Japanese people at large. This is harmful and unfair.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20091222zg.html

Year-end bonuses make sharpest drop ever

by

The average year-end bonus at major Japanese companies this year plunged by 15.01 percent to 755,628 yen, the sharpest year-on-year drop since the records began in 1959, the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) has announced.

It is also the first double digit decline for winter bonuses, with the figure standing at the lowest level since 1990, when the average amount was 748,872 yen.

The average payment in the manufacturing industry dropped by 18.46 percent to 728,589 yen, while it declined by 4.77 percent to 834,020 yen for non-manufacturing companies, with both recording their worst slide ever.

Above all, export-oriented businesses were hit hard by the global recession, with the decline standing at 22.81 percent for automakers, 22.14 percent for non-ferrous metal manufacturers, and 21.29 percent for the textile industry. The only exception was the food industry, which marked a slight increase of 0.51 percent.

The survey was conducted on 253 companies with 500 or more employees listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The data was collected from 164 corporations that provided the amount of winter bonuses settled after labor-management negotiations.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/business/news/20091219p2a00m0na006000c.html