Average per capita income up for fourth straight year

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The national average per capita income has increased for the fourth consecutive year, according to the Annual Report on Prefectural Accounts for fiscal 2007 released by the Cabinet Office.

The figure, averaged from prefectural averages, came to approximately 3.05 million yen, a 0.7 percent increase from fiscal 2006. While the variation coefficient dropped for the first time in six years, it still remained high, indicating wide disparities in income among prefectures; there was a nearly 2.5 million yen difference between prefectural per capita income in top-earning Tokyo and Okinawa Prefecture, which came in last place.

Twenty-nine prefectures experienced an increase from the previous fiscal year.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20100220p2a00m0na011000c.html

English school ordered to close / Court warned Fortress Japan last year over coercive sales practices

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The Consumer Affairs Agency and the Tokyo metropolitan government on Thursday ordered a Tokyo-based English-language conversation school chain operator to suspend operations due to its coercive method of selling its services to university students and others.

Fortress Japan talked customers into signing contracts for the purchase of English-learning programs, often telling students, “You’ll never be able to find work with your current English-language abilities.”

The authorities issued the order based on the Specified Commercial Transactions Law.

A consumer organization certified by the prime minister filed a lawsuit last year arguing that Fortress Japan’s way of soliciting customers was against the law. Last March, the plaintiff and the company reached the first settlement of its kind in the nation.

There are seven consumer organizations across the nation certified by the prime minister to file lawsuits against companies over aggressive sales schemes. The certifications were introduced to discourage dubious or illegal sales schemes before damages proliferate.

But the authorities said Fortress Japan continued to use unlawful sales practices after the settlement, leading to the stricter punishment by the agency.

According to Fortress Japan’s Web site and other sources, the company has operated English-language schools under various names, including Global Trinity, in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Sendai and Fukuoka.

The Kansai Consumers Support Organization (KC’s), an Osaka-based nonprofit organization that filed a lawsuit against the company, and the agency said Fortress Japan solicited students who gathered at job interview meetings, telling the students that they could attend the schools’ lectures any time at their convenience without any limit on the number of classes.

The company had the students sign contracts for eight-to 10-month courses for 500,000 yen to 600,000 yen.

But the lectures were offered only on limited dates and some students complained they could attend lectures only about once a month.

Also, employees of Fortress Japan obstructed students attempting to walk away from sales pitches, trying to persuade them to buy lesson packages by saying such things as, “You won’t be able to perform sufficiently when you start working for a company.”

The agency and the metropolitan government judged that the way Fortress Japan solicited customers constituted false explanations and harassment, which are illegal.

They intend to publicly censure Zenken Career Center–which was renamed as Linguage Corp.–a Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo-based company that was entrusted to manage the English conversation schools.

KC’s filed a lawsuit with the Osaka District Court demanding Fortress Japan halt its unlawful soliciting practices. Last March, the company admitted that its way of soliciting was unlawful and reached a settlement in which the company promised to cancel contracts and refund customers.

But KC’s said the company continued to unlawfully solicit students for business after the settlement, with at least 71 confirmed unlawful acts committed up to November.

In recent years, there has been an increasing number of consultations and complaints about similar vicious sales pushes on students during job searches.

In many of instances, students were told they would not be able to find jobs unless they had certain skills the salespeople were selling, making the students anxious.

According to the National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan, there were 948 inquiries from job-searching students about similar incidents over five years from April 2004.

In fiscal 2009, the center received 223 such complaints by the end of January.

Last April, a man in the Kansai region who was then a third-year university student was approached by a female employee of Fortress Japan in front of his university campus. She asked him to fill out a simple survey about English conversation and job-hunting activities.

He wrote his name and phone number on the sheet, and was frequently called about attending an introduction meeting.

He finally agreed to attend a meeting, but ended up being confined in a small room together with a male employee of the company for three hours and was cajoled into signing a contract for lessons.

When the student tried to refuse, the employee looked down at him and demanded he sign the contract, telling him, “You’ll never survive in the business world with such a carefree attitude.”

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20100219TDY02303.htm

Foreign trainees easily exploited as bosses take advantage of system

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The controversy should have heated up after last month’s ruling by the Kumamoto District Court, which found in favor of four female Chinese trainees who sued their employer and the agent that arranged for that employment. The trainees were awarded unpaid wages amounting to ¥12.8 million as well as damages to the tune of ¥4.4 million. The plaintiffs, who worked for a sewing company, said they were forced to work up to 15 hours a day with only two or three days off a month. They did not receive overtime pay.

Trainees are ostensibly in Japan to learn some sort of skill they can take back to their home country and make a living from. They are not supposed to work overtime because technically they aren’t here as employees, but no one has believed that lie for years now, and the JITCO official’s admission attests to the fact that the real reason for the trainee program is to provide Japanese businesses with cheap labor. This system has given rise to a racket involving semiprivate brokers who traffic in workers from Asia who want to come to Japan and make a lot of money in a short period of time.

The Kumamoto case wasn’t the first in which trainees allegedly have turned on their employers violently, and it wasn’t the first time somebody died as a result. Japanese courts seem to be coming around to the conclusion that these workers are being exploited unfairly. Presently, there are 13 lawsuits being heard in Japanese courts brought by representatives of disgruntled trainees, as well as three arbitration cases.

One that could attract attention involves a construction company in Kawasaki that sued some Chinese trainees who had joined a labor union so that the union could negotiate with the company for unpaid wages. The company sued for “confirmation” that it didn’t owe the trainees any money. The trainees then countersued. The lawyer for the labor union is confident that the ruling, due in May, will favor the trainees and expose the reality that they are here to work and thus deserve protection just like any other workers.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fd20100214pb.html

Survey: 14 prefectures against foreign suffrage

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Fourteen of the nation’s 47 prefectural assemblies oppose or have called for prudence in granting permanent foreign residents the right to vote in local elections, a recent survey by the National Association of Chairpersons of Prefectural Assemblies has found.

Of the 14, eight including Chiba and Ishikawa had previously voted in favor of enfranchising non-Japanese with permanent resident status.

Observers point out that the move represents a revolt by conservatives that control many local assemblies, as legislation granting foreign residents the right to vote grows ever more likely under the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) administration.

Muneyuki Shindo, professor of political science at Chiba University, suspects that the LDP headquarters have asked affiliated assembly members to oppose any legislation granting permanent foreign residents the right to vote in a bid to cause a split within the DPJ-led administration.

“LDP members and those supporting the LDP are dominant in many local assemblies. I suspect that the LDP headquarters is creating a trend in which many of the local assemblies are opposed to the move and trying to cause a split within the administration,” he said.

Among municipal assemblies, at least 13, including the Yamagata Prefecture city of Tendo, had adopted resolutions against giving permanent foreign residents in Japan the right to vote in local elections by the end of last year, according to a survey by the National Association of Chairpersons of City Councils.

On the other hand, the Koganei Municipal Assembly in western Tokyo voted in December in favor of voting rights for non-Japanese with permanent resident status. Only four of its 24 members are affiliated with the LDP.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20100212p2a00m0na001000c.html

14 Prefectures Oppose Allowing Foreigners to Vote in Local Elections

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Local assemblies in 14 of Japan’s 47 prefectures have adopted statements in opposition to giving permanent foreign residents in Japan the right to vote in local elections since the Democratic Party of Japan took power last year, a Kyodo News tally showed Monday.

Before the launch last September of the new government under Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama who supports granting local suffrage, 31 prefectural assemblies took an affirmative stance, but six of them have turned against it since then.

The results underscored growing opposition to the government’s policy, with local assembly members, including those belonging to the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party, pressing for the adoption of statements of opposition in prefectural assemblies.

The Japanese government is considering formulating a bill that will grant local suffrage to permanent residents in Japan, and DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa has expressed the hope that such a bill will pass through parliament in the current Diet session.

But reservations remain within the DPJ-led coalition government about the idea, with collation partner People’s New Party President Shizuka Kamei reiterating his opposition last week.

Explaining the reason behind the Chiba prefectural assembly’s opposition, Naotoshi Takubo, secretary general of the LDP’s local branch in Chiba, said the change of government made it more likely than before that a law will be enacted to accept local suffrage.

“The political situation has changed and we now have a sense of danger for the Hatoyama administration,” he said. The Chiba assembly adopted a supporting statement in 1999 when the coalition government between the LDP and the New Komeito party was launched.

An LDP member of the Ishikawa prefectural assembly expressed a similar view, saying the assembly had been supportive because giving permanent residents the right to vote was not “realistic” before.

The Akita prefectural assembly, which adopted its opposing statement after the change of government, said that “a national consensus has not been built at all.”

The Kagawa prefectural assembly says in its statement that foreign residents should be nationalized first to obtain the right to vote.

The issue of local suffrage for permanent foreign residents in Japan came under the spotlight in 1995 after the Supreme Court said the Constitution does not ban giving the right to vote to foreign nationals with permanent resident status in local elections.

Since 1998, the DPJ, the New Komeito party and the Japanese Communist Party have submitted local suffrage bills, but their passage was blocked by the then ruling LDP.

Japan does not allow permanent residents with foreign nationality, such as those of Korean descent, to vote in local elections, let alone in national elections, despite strong calls among such residents for the right to vote on the grounds that they pay taxes as local residents.

Residents of Korean descent comprise most of the permanent foreign residents in Japan.

Japan grants special permanent resident status to people from the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan who have lived in the country since the time of Japan’s colonial rule over the areas, and to their descendants.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9DO0E5O0

Temps again get short end?

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Labor bill loopholes may let manufacturers still have ‘disposable’ ranks

The Hatoyama administration is working on an amendment to the job dispatch law in an effort to provide greater security to temporary workers hit by the economic slump.

But observers worry that the Democratic Party of Japan-led ruling coalition is backing away from a campaign promise to drastically overhaul the law. This threatens to leave nonregular workers out in the cold.

The dispatch law, which regulates employer use of temporary workers, was loosened in recent years under Liberal Democratic Party-led administrations. Until 1999, only a few job categories, including clerical and translation work, could be filled by temps. That year, the law was revised to open up nearly all industries other than manufacturing and health care to temporary workers. Then in 2004, the law was amended to allow temps to work at manufacturers.

These changes allowed manufacturing firms to replace regular workers covered by costly job protections and welfare benefits with cheaper, and discardable, temps, who drew their pay from temp agencies.

When the global financial crisis struck in 2008, many temp workers were suddenly jobless, and, in many cases, homeless, especially those who had been provided company housing.

Masamichi Kondo, an Upper House member of the SDP who is working on the amendment, said Wednesday that negotiations with Ritsuo Hosokawa, senior vice labor minister and a DPJ member, have not gone smoothly.

“(The DPJ) doesn’t seem to want to agree on completely banning the dispatch (of temps) to the manufacturing industry because it is being pressured by business leaders,” Kondo said.

Kondo wants the law enacted as soon as possible. The report calls for the ban on temps at manufacturers to take effect within three years.

“We will stand firm in order to change the dispatch law, as that was the promise we made before the election and citizens supported us,” he said, adding the coalition plans to submit a revised bill on the dispatch law to the current Diet session in March.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100212f2.html

College collapse angers overseas students

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Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology deputy chief executive Elaine Bensted said the State Government’s priority was the students and ensuring they could continue their study in Adelaide.

Meanwhile, a former director of GEOS Adelaide said the company acted as cash cow for the Japanese parent company.

Gary Maserow, who resigned in October, said he had “no idea” why GEOS Adelaide and eight other Australian GEOS companies went into voluntary administration.

Six of the nine companies recorded profits in the last financial year, according to financial reports completed by BDO Kendalls.

Mr Maserow, who was also regional co-ordinator for all GEOS colleges in Australia and New Zealand, said there was “enormous pressure” placed on the company to send Australian profits to Japan.

“Japan demanded and demanded,” Mr Maserow said.

Dharmadasa Ratnayake Mudiyanselage, a director of the nine Australian companies, said the companies had liquidity problems.

Mr Maserow said he had “no idea” why all of the companies went into voluntary administration.

“What happened in the last six months?” Mr Maserow said. “Because the audit was fine.”

Mr Maserow dismissed suggestions the global financial crisis had contributed to the collapse.

The Australian GEOS companies had two other directors at the time of the collapse: David Emert and Japan-based Tsuneo Kusunoki, who founded GEOS in 1973.

Mr Emert and Mr Kusunoki did not respond to calls.

Administrators Ernst & Young are continuing to investigate the collapse.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/college-collapse-angers-overseas-students-in-adelaide/story-e6frea83-1225827435778

Unions seek standard pay hikes

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Key corporate labor unions filed their wage demands for the year with management Friday, kicking off the year’s “shunto” spring wage negotiations.

Their demands focus on maintaining regular pay hikes amid the country’s economic conditions and tough employment situation. Under a regular wage hike system, workers have so far been granted an automatic pay increase as their seniority advances.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20100206a4.html

Japan Wages Slump at Near-Record Pace of 6.1% as Bonuses Slide

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Japan’s wages slumped at a near- record pace in December as employers pared workers’ bonuses, an indication that consumer spending is unlikely to drive the economic recovery.

Monthly wages including overtime and bonuses slipped 6.1 percent from a year earlier to 549,259 yen ($5,056), the Labor Ministry said today in Tokyo. Paychecks slumped an unprecedented 7 percent in June.

“You have to weigh the improvements in jobs against the plunge in wages,” [Azusa] Kato, an economist at BNP Paribas in Tokyo, said before the report was released. “As long as workers’ incomes keep plummeting like this, households won’t feel the benefits of this economic recovery firsthand.”

The decline in paychecks was the 19th in a row, extending the longest losing streak since 2003. Today’s report also showed that average monthly wages slid a record 3.9 percent to 315,164 yen last year, the lowest level since the government started tracking the data 1990.

Large businesses cut winter bonuses by 15 percent to 755,628 yen, the steepest drop since the survey began in 1959, a separate report by the Japan Business Federation showed last month. The money is typically paid in December and is often equivalent to several months of pay.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-01/japan-wages-slump-at-near-record-pace-of-6-1-as-bonuses-slide.html