Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda urged companies Thursday to raise wages in a rare move by a government leader amid intensifying annual labor-management wage talks.
“I think now is the time when the fruits of reform should be passed on to the people and household budgets,” Fukuda said in a weekly e-mail magazine released Thursday.
Fukuda, who is facing sagging support rates, is apparently seeking to soothe public disgruntlement over hikes in crude oil and materials prices that are putting pressure on household budgets.
Noting that the economy has undergone a recovery in recent years, with major companies making record profits, Fukuda said, “These are the achievements of various structural reforms and the result of efforts by all of you people who struggled with and endured the pain of the reforms.”
Fukuda stressed that pay hikes “will lead to much bigger profits for companies as the economy will expand as a whole if consumption increases through higher wages.”
Companies and household budgets are closely connected, he said.
Fukuda told reporters in late January that improvements in labor conditions are a “plus factor” for household budgets and the nation’s economic situation.
Fukuda stressed that pay hikes “will lead to much bigger profits for companies as the economy will expand as a whole if consumption increases through higher wages.”Companies and household budgets are closely connected, he said.
Fukuda told reporters in late January that improvements in labor conditions are a “plus factor” for household budgets and the nation’s economic situation.
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Fukuda urges employers to raise workers’ wages
In a rare move, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has urged employers to raise workers’ wages as Japan’s economy continues to expand.
“Now is the time when the fruits of reform should be passed on to people as wages,” he said in his e-mail magazine delivered on Thursday.
“Japan’s economy has been growing over the past several years. Businesses, particularly major companies, are making big profits well above those during the ‘bubble economy.’ These are the results of efforts made by people who endured the pain of structural reform and worked hard,” he said.
Fukuda pointed out that companies will profit if they raise wages for workers and increase consumer spending. “I believe that business leaders also feel the necessity of wage hikes. The government has urged top business leaders to increase wages.”
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080306p2a00m0na005000c.html
SAITU Strikes Back at Simul International
This week marks the first week of industrial action at language school Simul International, the first in its history. Tony and his fellow members have shown tremendous courage with surgical strikes nearly every day on the demand to be enrolled in Shakai Hoken health and pension.
Foreign workers are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of enrollment in Shakai Hoken health and pension schemes. In addition to a legal obligation for both employer and employee, it is an important protection in the event of injury or illness. Employees in Shakai Hoken also tend to be treated more like real, permanent employees, meaning it provides a modicum of job security on top of income and health security.
McDonald’s faces fresh lawsuit on overtime pay
Two former managers of McDonald’s Co. (Japan) Ltd. plan to file a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court in March demanding the hamburger chain pay them ¥7 million in unpaid overtime allowances, sources close to the matter have said.
The move comes on the heels of a court ruling on a similar lawsuit filed by a McDonald’s manager from Saitama Prefecture. In late January, the court ruled that the manager had little authority as an managerial-level employee and deserved overtime pay in accordance with the Labor Standards Law.
Japan’s gender inequality puts it to shame in world rankings
When it comes to gender equality, Japan has no shortage of distressing figures.
The statistics that are most often used to illustrate the nation’s dismal status in this respect are the United Nations Development Program’s Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), which gauges equality by tracking women’s participation in politics and business.
In 2007, Japan’s GEM was ranked 54th out of 93 countries, compared with Australia’s 8th ranking, Germany’s 9th, Canada’s 10th, Britain’s 14th and the United States’ 15th. Among Asian peers, Japan’s rank was significantly lower than Singapore’s (16th), while China and South Korea both trailed Japan at 57th and 64th, respectively.
Women in power are particularly few and far between, with only 9.4 percent of parliamentary seats here being occupied by women, which puts the nation in the disgraceful position of being ranked 131st out of 189 countries surveyed.
English-language papers offer unique take on Asia
In the keynote speech, Michel Temman, Japan representative for Reporters Without Borders, the Paris-based defender of the freedom of the press, criticized the exclusive nature of Japan’s journalism culture.
Temman said the “press club” system, set up in government offices and political party headquarters where only major media organizations are allowed to join, hinders foreign and freelance journalists from gathering information.
“Despite harsh criticism from foreign correspondents and other foreign organizations, the Japanese government shows no interest in reforming this archaic system,” Temman said.
Ex-NOVA teachers file complaint about getting laid off by new owners
About 20 foreign language teachers formerly employed by NOVA Corp. filed a complaint with a labor standards inspection office here on Friday, claiming that they were illegally fired by the companies that took over the failed language school chain.
“Unfair dismissal!” chanted the former NOVA teachers as they joined a prep rally held by [Tokyo Nambu sister union] the General Union in front of the Osaka Chuo Labor Standards Inspection Office in Osaka’s Chuo-ku on Friday before they filed the complaint with the office.
Nagoya-based G.communication Group bought out NOVA after it filed for protection from creditors in October last year, leaving NOVA under bankruptcy proceedings.
However, G.communication Group fired about 800 former NOVA teachers at the end of December, overturning an earlier agreement in November that the company would in principle hire all the former NOVA teachers who wanted to work for the new employer, according to the General Union.
Furthermore, the company refused to renew employment contracts for about 200 other teachers, leaving more than 1,000 teachers unemployed. The dismissed teachers claim that the company violated the Labor Standards Law.
“The company violated the law in that it did not sign employment contracts with the teachers when they started working in November. The company’s dismissal procedures also breach the law in that it notified the teachers of their dismissal via e-mail and without notice,” said a representative of the General Union.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080215p2a00m0na014000c.html
Police targeting ex-Nova president
Police are investigating the former president of the now-bankrupt language school chain Nova Corp. for possible breach of trust over a project that brought profits to an affiliate he controlled, sources said.
Nozomu Sahashi, 56, is suspected of having paid exorbitant prices for a server used in video-phone hookups for language lessons, sources said.
Police suspect he used his position to reap profits for his affiliated company, although the deal resulted in about a 500-million-yen loss to Nova, the sources said.
Investigators are trying to determine if Sahashi can be held for aggravated breach of trust stipulated under the corporate law, they said.
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200802130084.html
Employees win suit against Tochigi farms for unpaid wages, unfair dismissals
A group of strawberry farmers will have to pay a combined 30 million yen in unpaid and overtime wages, and reinstate five Chinese trainees [members of Tokyo Nambu allies Zentoitsu Workers Union] who were unfairly dismissed after losing a class action suit brought against them by their employees.
The farmers have also acknowledged that they took away some of the trainees’ passports and forced them to save their wages: which, if proved, would constitute an illegal act, barring the farmers from accepting future trainees, according to the Ministry of Justice.
The trouble began when the Choboen strawberry farm in Tsuga dismissed five Chinese trainees in December last year because of a poor harvest, and attempted to force them to go back to their home country.
The five joined 10 trainees at six other strawberry farms in demanding 52.25 million yen in unpaid wages and overtime allowances over the past three years.
The owners of the seven farms have apologized for forcing the trainees to work for long hours and paying overtime allowances below the legal minimum. They agreed to pay a total of about 30 million yen to the 15, and Choboen retracted its dismissals.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080211p2a00m0na009000c.html
Teachers win lost pay over ‘Kimigayo’
The Tokyo District Court on Thursday ordered the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to pay ¥27.5 million in lost wages to 13 former high school teachers who were denied postretirement re-employment because they refused to sing the national anthem.
The teachers had been reprimanded between November 2003 and March 2005 for disobeying a metropolitan directive issued in October 2003 that requires all teachers to stand and sing “Kimigayo” while facing the Hinomaru flag during official school ceremonies.
In bringing the suit, they had argued that being denied re-employment contracts was an illegitimate form of retribution by the metropolitan board of education and demanded combined compensation of ¥72.6 million for “emotional distress.”
Presiding Judge Shigeru Nakanishi ruled that the denial of re-employment, based solely on the teachers’ choice not to sing the anthem, was severely lacking in “justifiable reasoning.”