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Japan to Extend Visa Limit to Five Years From Three, NHK Says

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Japan plans to extend long-term visa permits to five years from the current three when it changes the registration system for foreigners living in Japan, public broadcaster NHK reported.

The Justice Ministry also plans to simplify the re-entry process for returning foreign residents, NHK reported on its English-language Web site, without saying where it obtained the information.

The government plans a new registration system for foreign residents that requires them to report a change of address to local government offices and requires schools and organizations that sponsor foreigners to update their information.

Legislation for the changes is expected by the end of March to be submitted to parliament next year, NHK said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=a8kewymPpSIg

McDonald’s told to pay overtime to manager

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McDonald’s Co. (Japan) on Monday was ordered to pay 7.5 million yen to a branch manager who had often worked more than 100 hours of overtime a month without being paid.

In a landmark ruling, the Tokyo District Court agreed with the argument of Hiroshi Takano, 46, that the fast-food giant’s policy of making outlet managers ineligible for overtime pay violates the Labor Standards Law.

[McDonald’s manager] Takano joined McDonald’s in 1987 and started working long hours in 2004 after he became manager of an outlet that had no other regular full-time workers under the company’s cost-cutting policy.

He clocked in around 5 a.m., and his overtime hours totaled up to 137 hours a month, Takano said.

The hard work caused Takano to suffer a minor stroke in April 2005, prompting him to sue his company, he said.

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200801290098.html

McDonald’s ‘manager’ wants ‘human’ life

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[McDonald’s manager Hiroshi Takano] became especially busy after being transferred to an outlet in Higashi-Matsuyama in July 2004. He had no permanent staff working under him, and was in sole charge of operations there. A worker he trusted moved to a different outlet in December that year, leaving Takano to take on a number of extra duties.

Throughout that month, Takano, went into work just after 6 a.m. every day to take charge of preparing food and serving customers. Although he could take the odd nap and eat lunch, he also had to train part-time workers and deal with the takings, meaning that he was working daily until about midnight.

Working conditions also were tough at his current outlet in Kumagaya in the prefecture after he moved there in February 2005. One part-time worker was admitted to hospital for exhaustion due to overwork, and Takano often had to work to cover staff shortages.

Takano had to answer to a consultant, who issued instructions on managing outlets, and a general manager, who was in overall control. They constantly made demands, such as asking Takano to reduce personnel costs.

Takano began to feel his hands going numb and a doctor warned him that he was a candidate for a stroke.

Takano began to feel that his life was in danger.

However, no company labor union existed at the time, and so Takano joined a union for managers in the Tokyo area in May 2005.

He filed the lawsuit against the company that December.

The lawsuit was one factor that prompted the establishment of a McDonald’s labor union–one that managers of outlets could also join.

“It wasn’t about money. [Takano] wanted the hardships in the working conditions of managers to be recognized. It was almost a complete victory,” his lawyer said. “This is the first ruling that clearly shows the work of outlet managers across the country isn’t management work at all.”

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080129TDY02307.htm

McDonald’s ordered to pay overtime to outlet manager

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The Tokyo District Court on Monday ordered McDonald’s Co. (Japan) Ltd. to pay more than 7.5 million yen in unpaid overtime wages to the manager of an outlet in Saitama Prefecture, saying the man is not considered to actually be in a managerial position.

Presiding Judge Iwao Saito said McDonald’s outlet managers’ discretion is limited within outlets and the position is not considered a managerial post that integrally works with company owners.

Observers say the ruling is significant in that it would impact about 1,700 managers of the hamburger chain’s direct-run outlets and other management-labor disputes. Similar lawsuits have been filed by managers of chain bookstores and moneylenders, but this is the first ruling that would affect such a large number of employees of a single company.

Hiroshi Takano, the manager of McDonald’s 125 Kumagaya outlet in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture, was seeking about 13.5 million yen as compensation for two years of unpaid overtime plus damages.

Joining the company in 1987, Takano was promoted to outlet manager in 1999.

As outlet manager, Takano, 46, still has to work from early morning until late at night, cooking and attending to customers. Though his overtime exceeded 100 hours some months, the company stopped paying overtime wages, claiming that Takano was in a managerial position.

The issue in contention in the suit was whether McDonald’s outlet managers are considered to be in corporate managerial positions.

The Labor Standards Law obliges employers to pay overtime for those who have worked longer than eight hours a day or 40 hours per week, and on holidays. However, the stipulation is not applied to “those in managerial or supervisory positions.”

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080129TDY01302.htm

Japanese fluency could ease visa conditions

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SKILLED FOREIGN WORKERS TARGETED

Conditions for resident visa status of skilled foreign workers such as engineers may be relaxed if they attain a certain level of proficiency in Japanese, government sources said Monday.

The measures, including shortening the required number of years of work experience required, are being considered both to increase the variety of foreign workers being accepted in Japan and to encourage more foreigners to study Japanese, the sources said.

The relaxed conditions would be applicable to foreigners who want to enter Japan for specialist or technical jobs, they said.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080129a2.html

McDonald’s told to pay overtime to manager

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The Tokyo District Court ordered McDonald’s Holdings Co. (Japan) Ltd. Monday to pay ?7.55 million in overtime allowance and “additional pay” to a manager at one of its outlets.?

Presiding Judge Iwao Saito ruled that Hiroshi Takano, 46, who manages a McDonald’s outlet in Saitama Prefecture, does not qualify as a manager under the Labor Standards Law and thus deserves overtime pay.

The law stipulates that employers must pay overtime allowances to employees who work more than eight hours a day and 40 hours a week.

The ruling could deal a major blow to McDonald’s Japan, which has some 1,700 managers at its outlets directly run by the firm, like Takano, said Ichiro Natsume, one of his lawyers.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080129a3.html

Wage row erupts between strawberry farms, sacked Chinese apprentices

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A dispute has erupted between a group of Chinese apprentices and strawberry farms in Japan after one farm sacked a group of students and tried to force them to leave the country.A total of 15 apprentices have fled from the farm operators and are demanding a total of about 52.25 million yen in unpaid wages for the past three years.Sources close to the case said that the 15 male apprentices, from China’s Shandong and Heilongjiang provinces, came to Japan in the spring of 2005 as farm trainees. After one year of training, they got work at seven strawberry farms and expected to continue their jobs until this spring.

However, in December last year the Choboen strawberry farm in Tsuga informed five of the apprentices that they were being dismissed due to a poor harvest. The farm had a guard accompany them and put them on a bus to Narita Airport and tried to make them return to China, which caused a scuffle to break out.

The five apprentices contacted the Tokyo-based Zentoitsu Workers Union [an ally of NUGW Tokyo Nambu], which supports foreign trainees and skilled apprentices, and 10 foreign workers from six other farms joined up with them afterwards.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080129p2a00m0na022000c.html

McDonalds ordered to pay restaurant manager overtime

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In a Tokyo District Court ruling expected to reverberate around the nation’s fast food industry, McDonald’s Japan was Monday ordered to pay overtime wages to a restaurant manager.Presiding Judge Iwao Saito ignored the fast food giant’s claim that store managers were exempt from overtime payments because they are in managerial positions and ordered it to pay about 7.55 million yen to a man who headed one of its Saitama Prefecture outlets.

Of the food retailer’s roughly 4,700 full time employees nationwide, some 1,700 are store managers, so Monday’s ruling is expected to have far-reaching consequences.

“From their administrative authority and remuneration, it’s not possible to say that store managers are part of corporate management,” Saito said as he handed down the ruling.?

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080128p2a00m0na024000c.html

Shaping the future as an immigrant nation

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JAPAN’S POPULATION DECLINE

“By 2050, Japan’s population will have shrunk from the current 127 million to about 90 million, and to about 40 million by the end of the century. By my calculations, we need 10 million new immigrants by midcentury to survive as a nation,” Hidenori Sakanaka, former head of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau, said at a recent symposium in Osaka on Japan’s future as an immigrant nation.?

Over the past few years, as the reality of the combination of a declining birthrate and rapidly aging population set in, politicians, the Justice Ministry, and powerful business lobbies like the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) have offered various proposals on how certain numbers of skilled foreign workers might be admitted.

Estimates by the government, the United Nations and various human rights groups have shown that, in order to maintain current living standards and economic output, Japan will need up to 30 million foreigners by 2050.

But over the past few years, most government proposals for bringing in foreign laborers have emphasized limiting their numbers and the length of time they are allowed to stay.

Sakanaka and other immigration experts worry such thinking will lead to policies that will discourage ? rather than encourage ? foreign workers from coming to Japan.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080126f1.html

Foreigner registration system to be revised

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May lead to better services, more control

Under the new system, long-term foreign residents will get registration cards at airports and local immigration offices, which will then be used to register their information at local governments.

The data will be controlled in a similar manner as for Japanese citizens, and used to compile information for taxation, health insurance programs and census-taking. Special permanent residents, including those in Japan before the war and their descendants, are also expected to be listed in the new registry system.

Makoto Miyaguchi, an official of Minokamo, Gifu Prefecture, which has a large Brazilian population, said the current law is not sufficient to provide administrative services for foreigners in his city.

“Since the current system does not gather detailed information, we have often been unable to give adequate services for foreigners in the area,” including school guidance for parents and information on welfare services, he said.

Approximately 10 percent, or 50,000 residents, in Minokamo are registered foreigners.

Miyaguchi said that both his city and its foreign population will benefit from the overall detailed management, since it will be able to better track locations and the status of foreign individuals and households.

But while some suggest that the new system will view foreigners as legitimate residents instead of objects of supervision, others say it will only strengthen government control over foreigners while providing minimal improvement in their lives.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080126a1.html