TozenAdmin

How does the employment insurance system work?

by

Question: About how much are the unemployment benefit payments?

Answer: The amount of compensation one can get through the employment insurance system depends on several factors. First, the system looks at a person’s income, minus bonuses and other benefits, over the six months before the person lost their job. This figure is divided by 180 to determine the person’s approximate daily wage. About 50-80 percent of this figure (those with low incomes receive a higher percentage) is set as the person’s daily insurance benefit, which the person can receive for a set number of days.

Q: How is the length of coverage decided?

A: The basic benefit period depends on how long a person has been a part of the employment insurance system. For example, if a person has been making contributions to the system for less than 10 years, then he or she can receive payment for up to 90 days. For those who have been part of the system for 20 years or more, insurance payments last for 150 days. For those who have some special difficulty in finding a new job, such as a physical disability, then insurance payments may last as long as 360 days. If someone finds themselves suddenly unemployed due to company bankruptcy or layoffs, and had no time to prepare to search for a job, then the rules allow for 90 days of unemployment benefits even if the worker has been part of the insurance system for less than a year. Benefits in these cases are typically greater than for those who leave their jobs voluntarily or because of mandatory retirement.

Q: Can temporary workers receive benefits?

A: The requirements for joining the employment insurance system are the worker must work 20 hours or more per week, and the worker can expect to be employed for a year or more. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry does not have exact statistics, but it is estimated that up to 10.06 million temporary workers are currently not registered with the employment insurance system. Calls for a revision of the requirements are getting louder. At present, the Diet is considering reducing the required time of expected employment from a year or more to a half-year or more as a way to help temporary workers.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20081224p2a00m0na007000c.html

Foreign temporary workers hit hard by layoffs speak out

by

Among the ranks of temporary workers, foreigners, who face a language barrier, are particularly vulnerable to Japan’s worsening economy, and on Sunday some 200 of those workers took to the streets of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture in an unprecedented demonstration. The protesters called for greater job security and decried the sudden layoffs of temporary workers, which can come without warning or explanation.

One of those laborers, a 32-year-old Brazilian who works at a Kosai, Shizuoka Prefecture auto parts plant, saw 40 co-workers laid off at the beginning of December. “I still have a job,” the auto worker says, “but who knows when I’ll get laid off? I’ve joined a labor union just in case.”

Some 100 of 150 members of Scrum Union Hiroshima are foreign laborers. Fifteen foreigners, most of them temporary workers at Mazda or related companies, came to talk to the Portuguese-speaking union counselors. Those who came to the session were of varying ages, from their 20s to their 50s. They all expressed the same fears: “If I lose my job, I don’t know how I will live.”

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20081222p2a00m0na0130
00c.html

Foreigners march for job security

by

About 250 non-Japanese staged a protest march Sunday on the streets of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, to call for employment and assistance for foreign temporary workers who have lost their jobs to the deepening recession.

They urged companies to stop firing temp workers. Manufacturers have announced plans in recent weeks to lay off large numbers of such “nonregular” employees.

“We have been treated as disposable, but we work in Japan legally and pay taxes. We want to be treated the same as Japanese workers,” said Moizeis Dias Mizuki, a 49-year-old Japanese-Brazilian from Komaki, Aichi Prefecture.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20081222a3.html

Politicians should not turn deaf ear to desperate cries of unemployed

by

An unemployment crisis is blowing violently through the Japanese archipelago. Many temporary workers have lost their jobs, their contracts suddenly terminated. Worse still, many have been thrown out into the cold with no place to live. The alarming scramble for personnel cuts by automakers and other large corporations who in the past had been Japanese economic leaders is unprecedented.

In addition to a response to the immediate employment crisis, there’s an urgent need for a fundamental re-examination of the Worker Dispatch Law. Most of the recent payroll cuts have taken place in the manufacturing industry, where a ban on temporary workers was lifted in 2004, leading to a shift of its workforce from full-time employees to temporary workers. As a result, when the economy suffers, temporary workers are dismissed without a second thought. Anyone can see now that non-full-time employees are considered disposable labor.

There have been increasing calls to ban temporary workers in manufacturing. Although an amendment to the Worker Dispatch Law banning daily hires has been submitted to the Diet, this is not enough. It is time for a comprehensive reassessment of the Worker Dispatch Law, including the possibility of prohibiting temporary workers in the manufacturing industry and a discussion of the pros and cons of the registration-based worker dispatch system.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/perspectives/news/20081220p2a00m0na022000c.html

Move to give foreigners same resident registration as Japanese

by

A bill to allow foreign residents to have the same resident registration as Japanese will be submitted to the regular Diet session early next year at the earliest, a government panel has announced.

A meeting on the basic resident register for foreigners, which is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the Justice Ministry, drafted an outline for the new system on Thursday.

The basic idea is to introduce a system for foreign residents that is akin to the basic resident register for Japanese residents. The new system will replace the current alien registration system.

The new system will be put into practice three years after the bill is passed into law, the meeting said.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20081219p2a00m0na018000c.html

New registry rules for foreigners proposed

by

A government panel Thursday recommended creating a new system by 2012 to register foreign residents on a household basis, replacing the current individual-basis system, to better oversee their living conditions.

Japanese nationals are registered on a household basis.

In a report, the panel of experts under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications also recommended scrapping the current two-tier system in which the Justice Ministry handles immigration and stay permits, while local governments handle registrations of foreign residents, and called for a unified control system.

Based on the recommendation report, the internal affairs ministry will submit a bill for the envisaged foreigner registry system to an ordinary Diet session next year, ministry officials said.

The proposed steps are expected to help improve the welfare, education and other public services for foreign residents, but critics warn it could lead to increased surveillance.

The number of non-Japanese residents has topped 2 million, more than doubling in the past 20 years.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20081219a4.html

Nippon Keidanren weakens commitment on job security

by

Revised guidelines have put members of the nation’s largest business group on a collision course with their labor unions during talks next spring over job security and pay hikes.

Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), in its guidelines for the 2009 shunto spring labor-management negotiations released Tuesday, simply said employment is an “extremely important issue” and that companies will “make efforts” to maintain jobs.

The expression marks a retreat from an earlier draft that said “the top priority” should be placed on job security.

The guidelines also ruled out an across-the-industry hike in the pay scale. Nippon Keidanren approved pay increases during shunto negotiations last spring.

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200812180053.html

Asylum claims nearly double

by

Swamped, the Foreign Ministry is running out of support funds

The number of people seeking asylum in Japan is surging toward a new record, and the government is grappling to deal with the flood, a nonprofit support organization has warned.

Due to the rapid increase, to almost double the number of last year’s applicants, the government’s budget for supporting the refugees, many of whom have no means of support, is close to drying up, the Foreign Ministry admitted Wednesday.

According to the Japan Association for Refugees, 1,450 people had applied for refugee status as of the beginning of this month, after exceeding 1,000 in September.

The previous record for applications is 954, set in 2006.

[Eri] Ishikawa [secretary general of JAR] said the amount of money a refugee is entitled to is even lower than what a Japanese citizen would get from welfare.

“The support should be designed to cover two years, or the government should allow people waiting for their status to work,” she said.

“Without a job or any financial support, these people cannot live.”

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20081211a1.html

Masukawa concedes importance of English-speaking ability

by

Toshihide Masukawa, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics, delivered a speech in Japanese at the Nobel Lectures 2008 held in Stockholm on Monday, but later admitted the importance of English speaking ability.

Apparently frustrated at being unable to communicate with other Nobel Prize-winners, Masukawa, 68, said ruefully: “As a scientist, I want to communicate with people around the world. I could have done that [in my lecture] if I was able to speak English.”

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20081210TDY02302.htm

Minimum wage far below cost of living for men in 20s in metropolitan area: survey

by

Men in their 20s in and around Tokyo need to earn 1,345 yen an hour to maintain the minimum standard of living — far more than the current minimum wage of 766 yen, figures from a labor think tank have shown.

For men in their 20s living by themselves, the institute found that they needed 39,564 yen for food, 54,167 yen for rent, and 18,273 yen for education and entertainment each month. Altogether, the total monthly amount reached 233,801 yen. When this figure was divided by 173.8 working hours per month — the figure used by the minimum wage deliberation council — it emerged that they needed to earn a minimum of 1,345 yen per hour.

“A major increase in the minimum wage is necessary,” said Bukkyo University Professor Seiichi Kanezawa, who participated in the survey.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20081209p2a00m0na008000c.html