News

Power harassment plaguing Japanese workplaces more than ever before

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Power harassment, in which someone in a superior position takes advantage of their power to cause distress to others, is now rampant in the workplace in the form of bullying, pestering and persistent reprimands, amongst other behavior. It has even become a way for failing companies to drive employees to quit.

One out of every three people who consulted the Labor Standards Bureau in fiscal 2008 about being pressed to resign complained of emotional problems, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has found. Those citing harassment in the workplace as the cause of their emotional problems exceeded 30 percent, which was significantly higher than those who were affected emotionally by bankruptcy and other challenges. The statistics confirm that the large numbers of lay-offs that have resulted from the current economic slump have had major emotional impact on workers.

According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, of the consultations made by workers with prefectural labor bureaus in fiscal 2008, 22,433 cases were regarding “encouragement to resign,” while 32,242 cases were concerning “bullying and harassment.” Both figures were the highest they have ever been.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/
20090622p2a00m0na021000c.html

Lower House passes bill revising foreign residency rules

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The Lower House passed bills Friday making it easier for the Justice Ministry’s Immigration Bureau to keep tabs on foreigners who have overstayed their visas as well as others residing legally in the country.

A new form of identification, called a “zairyu” (residence) card, will replace alien registration cards, with the information on them kept by the Justice Ministry.

Foreign residents will be listed on the Juki Net resident registry network, a computer network linking municipalities that contains demographic information of Japanese residents.

Visas, typically good for three years, will be extended to five. Also, foreign residents will no longer be required to obtain re-entry permits if they return to Japan within a year.

On the other hand, the punishments for failing to report one’s address and other personal information will become harsher. In order to curb fake marriages, the bills give the justice minister the authority to revoke the spousal visas of those who fail to conduct “activities spouses normally do” for six months. Special consideration would be given to spouses who live separately because of mitigating circumstances, including abuse.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090620a3.html

Immigration revision set to be passed

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Compromise paves way for state-issued foreigner cards

 The ruling and opposition camps have revised a contentious set of immigration bills in a way that increases government scrutiny of both legal and illegal foreign residents while extending additional conveniences, according to a draft obtained Thursday by The Japan Times.

Legislators from the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc and the Democratic Party of Japan hammered out the bills to reach a balance on how the estimated 110,000 undocumented foreigners living in Japan should be tracked. Currently, municipalities issue alien registration cards and provide public services to foreigners, even if they know they are overstaying their visas.

The revised bills, expected to be passed Friday by the Lower House, will abolish the Alien Registration Act and revise the immigration control and resident registration laws with sweeping changes that put information on foreign residents completely in the hands of the central government.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090619a1.html

Foreigners stage a sit-in outside Diet to protest immigration bills

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About 20 foreign workers [including members of NUGW Tokyo Nambu] and their supporters staged a sit-in Tuesday in front of the Diet to demand that bills to revise the immigration law be scrapped.

The bills, now before the Lower House Judicial Affairs Committee, would put a greater burden on foreign workers and violate their rights, participants at the sit-in argued.

“The government says the immigration law revision would make administrative procedures more convenient for foreigners living in Japan legally, but the realities would be vice versa,” Catherine Campbell said in Japanese.

The revision would impose a fine of up to ¥200,000 on people who fail to notify the government of a change in address within 14 days, and their residency status could be revoked if they fail to report the change within 90 days.

Kunio Ozwaldo Hiramoto, 46, a second-generation Japanese-Brazilian from Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, said the purpose of the revision is to increase control over foreign workers. “I want the Japanese government to stop xenophobia and treat foreigners warmly,” he said.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090603a4.html

Nova chief admits skimming funds

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In April 2007, the Supreme Court ruled the way the company calculated its cancellation policies was illegal and ordered Nova Corp. to repay about ¥310,000 to a Tokyo man who received no refund when he canceled his contract.

Faced with mounting debts, Sahashi in July 2007 allegedly diverted nearly ¥320 million from an employment benefit fund to the affiliate’s account.

The money was then supposedly used to reimburse students who had canceled their contracts. Nova officially declared bankruptcy in October 2007 and much of its operation was taken over by Nagoya-based G.Communications.

Sahashi argued he had the employees’ welfare in mind when he used the funds to pay the cancellation fees.

“Use of the money is not a violation of the funds’ purpose. The defendant thought it was money in an account with his name to be used for the welfare of the employees,” Sahashi’s lawyers said in a statement to the court. “Unless the cancellation fees were paid, the company was facing bankruptcy. Because there were no other funds, the money was used to avoid this worst possible case, and to maintain a minimal (amount) of welfare for the employees.”

Sahashi faces not only a lawsuit over the diversion of the employee benefit funds but also a suit by former students seeking ¥16 million in damages.

An attempt by [NUGW Tokyo Nambu sister union] the Osaka-based General Union, which represents many ex-Nova employees, to get prosecutors to indict Sahashi for nonpayment of wages failed last year. But in March, after the union pushed the local labor bureau to get prosecutors to probe their decision, auditors for the prosecutor’s office ruled the initial decision not to charge Sahashi was unjust.

The union hopes Sahashi will be tried separately for nonpayment of wages to 5,000 dismissed employees.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090602a1.html

Ex-Nova president pleads not guilty

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According to the indictment, in July 2007, Sahashi conspired with a 50-year-old Nova executive in charge of finance to embezzle the reserve funds of a mutual aid organization for Nova Group employees chaired by Sahashi.

The money was transferred to a bank account of an affiliate company.

The prosecutors said that on the night before the transfer was made, Sahashi had convinced the executive, who was reluctant to take part in the scheme, that repaying the students was a necessity and urged him to spend as much money as possible.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20090602TDY01302.htm

The issue that dares not speak its name

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In Japanese, “racial discrimination” is jinshu sabetsu. That is the established term used in official translations of international treaties (such as the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, or CERD) that Japan has signed up to.

However, the Japanese media won’t couch the discussion in these terms. This was visible during the nationwide debate generated by the Otaru onsen case (1999-2005), where public bathhouses refused entry to customers because they didn’t “look Japanese.” If you read the oodles of non-tabloid articles on this case, you’ll see the debate was conducted in milder, misleading language.

For example, it was rendered in terms of gaikokujin sabetsu (discrimination against foreigners). But that’s not the same thing. The people being discriminated against were not all foreign (ahem).

Or else it was depicted as gaiken sabetsu (discrimination by physical appearance). But that’s not “race,” either. Nor is “physical appearance” specifically covered by the CERD.

This term particularly derails the debate. It actually generates sympathy for people afraid of how others look.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090602ad.html

Nova founder faces trial

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The founder of Japan’s failed language school chain Nova went on trial on Monday charged with embezzlement over a scandal that left thousands of foreign teachers without jobs.

Nova, whose schools were once ubiquitous across Japanese cities, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2007 after the government ordered it to halt part of its operations over insufficient refunds for students.

Founder Nozomu Sahashi was then accused of siphoning off 320 million yen (S$4.8 million) from a benefits fund set up through employee contributions.

At his first court hearing, Sahashi, 57, admitted to using the funds but only said: ‘I cannot make a judgement on whether it should be considered embezzlement.’

His defence lawyer, according to a report by Jiji Press, said Sahashi had ‘no intention of embezzling money’ and had spent more than 1.1 billion yen of his private money to run the company.

Before its collapse, Nova had an estimated 400,000 students and 6,000 employees, some 4,500 of them foreigners. Many teachers were young people looking to spend a few years in Japan.

Some foreign teachers even offered to give lessons for food after Nova’s collapse left them unemployed in one of the world’s most expensive countries.

Sahashi established Nova in 1981, tapping into a Japanese passion for language study by setting up schools with trademark blue-and-yellow signs across major cities.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_384477.html

Ex-Nova president admits to embezzling, but counsel pleads not guilty

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The former president of English conversation school operator Nova Corp. admitted to embezzling employment benefit funds shortly before the company went bankrupt at his first court hearing Monday at the Osaka District Court.

But defense counsel for Nozomu Sahashi, 57, claimed his actions were in the interest of the employees and do not constitute the crime of professional embezzlement, pleading not guilty.

“It cannot be judged whether it is embezzlement or not,” Sahashi said.

According to the indictment, Sahashi diverted about 320 million yen from an employment benefit fund on July 20, 2007, transferring the money to the bank account of an affiliate company.

He is believed to have used it to reimburse tuition fees to those who canceled their contracts for language lessons.

“I apologize for causing students and employees great trouble,” Sahashi said at the beginning of the hearing.

Nova went bust in October 2007, leaving thousands of employees jobless and its students without refunds.

Nagoya-based G.communication Co. took over some of Nova’s operations in November that year.

Separate from the criminal case, former Nova students filed a lawsuit at the Osaka District Court seeking a total of 16 million yen in damages from Sahashi, the former management team and the audit corporation over their prepaid lesson fees.

Sahashi launched English conversation classes in Osaka in 1981 and set up Nova in 1990. His venture grew into Japan’s largest chain of English schools, with some 480,000 people taking its language lessons at its peak, before going bankrupt.

http://www.pddnet.com/news-ap-lead-ex-nova-president-admits-to-embezzling-but–053109/

Ex-NOVA president admits diverting funds but says it wasn’t embezzlement

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[Former Nova President Nozomu] Sahashi is under indictment on charges of embezzlement in the conduct of business for transferring 320 million yen from the account of the employees’ mutual assistance association into another account in July 2007, exchanging the money for a check and placing the funds in an affiliate’s account.

A prosecutor said in the opening statement that Sahashi embezzled the funds because NOVA was pinched for money. “The defendant committed the crime after his firm became hard-pressed for cash and had difficulties repaying tuition fees to students who cancelled their contracts.”

The prosecutor said that on July 19, 2007, the day before the alleged crime, Sahashi instructed an accountant in the firm to use money from the association to refund tuition fees.

The accountant told him that the money in the association cannot be used that way. However, Sahashi said, “I know that, but we have no choice because we have no other funds,” according to the opening statement.

Moreover, apart from the 320 million yen, prosecutors accuse Sahashi of misappropriating approximately 30 million yen from the mutual assistance association between March 2004 and March 2007.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20090601p2a00m0na010000c.html