Minister Nakayama resigns over offensive comments

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Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism Minister Nariaki Nakayama has resigned to take responsibility for his controversial comments that included his assertion that the lack of progress on plans to expand Narita Airport could be blamed on local residents who held out against expansion for personal gain [and that Japan was an “ethnically homogeneous state.”].

His resignation occurs less than five days since the inauguration of the new Cabinet on Sep. 24, calling into question the prime minister’s responsibility for appointing him.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20080928p2a00m0na002000c.html

Steps eyed for temps’ plight

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The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry may submit a bill to the Diet this fall that will urge, but not require, temp staffing agencies to pursue regular employment for the workers they dispatch in a bid to bring more stability to the lives of the underpaid.

Although experts welcome such an overture, they believe the measure will do little to improve the livelihood of so-called irregular employees unless it is binding.

The nation’s ranks of temp and irregular workers generally lead unstable lives with uncertain futures.

Such income instability, some argue, may have been a motivating factor behind a temp worker’s murderous vehicular and stabbing rampage in June in the Akihabara district in Tokyo. The suspect was reportedly frustrated by his employer’s restructuring plan.

Satoshi Kamata, a prominent journalist who follows labor issues, praised the ministry’s overall direction. The ministry may have realized the deregulation it has pursued helped create the income divide and it is now trying to close it, he said.

Dispatching workers was legalized in 1985, when corporations demanded professionals specialized in information technology and other fields. After the burst of the bubble economy, companies reduced their ranks of permanent full-time employees and tapped the temp workforce to slash labor costs.

The government initially limited the legal scope of dispatch worker professions. But in 1999, it legalized the dispatch of workers in most occupations. The number of dispatched workers nationwide jumped from 330,000 in 2000 to 1.3 million in 2007.

As temp employment became widespread, so, too, did the wage disparity between such workers and regular company employees. According to the ministry’s 2005 survey of 45- to 49-year-olds, regular workers in general earned ¥5.9 million a year, while temps earned only ¥3.1 million.

Irregular workers constantly face abrupt layoffs, leaving them insecure and even desperate, Kamata noted.

Corporations “have long continued to treat temp staff in a way that inevitably makes them feel desperate and unable to lead normal lives,” he said, adding this pushes some to commit crimes. “The situation has reached a critical point.”

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080827f1.html

Tourism minister apologizes for gaffes

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New tourism minister Nariaki Nakayama wasted no time putting his foot in it. The day after stating that Japanese do not like foreigners and that the country is ethnically homogeneous, Nakayama apologized Friday and retracted his statements.

“I am sorry for having caused trouble to the people,” the land, infrastructure, transport and tourism minister told a news conference. “I retract my remarks that I think fell too short (of an explanation) or went too far.”

Nakayama, who took up his post on Wednesday, added that he had no intention of resigning to take responsibility for his remarks.

Nakayama’s gaffe comes just ahead of the Oct. 1 launch of a tourism agency charged with drawing 10 million foreign visitors to the country by 2010.

Asked how more foreign travelers might be enticed to come to Japan in the face of opposition from some locals, Nakayama responded, “Definitely, (Japanese) do not like or desire foreigners.”

He added that Japan is extremely inward-looking and “ethnically homogeneous.”

However, he also said it is important for Japanese to open up the nation and their minds to welcome foreign travelers.

Nakayama is not the first politician to land in hot water for referring to Japan as a homogeneous nation. When in 1986 then Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone described Japan as a nation with a homogeneous race, he was met with a strong backlash mainly from the Ainu, an aboriginal people from north Japan.

Yukio Hatoyama, secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, called Nakayama’s remarks on homogeneity Thursday extremely rude and told reporters he “needs to give up his post, not the remarks.”

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080927a2.html

Gaffes by minister put Aso in a bind

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Barely 48 hours into the new administration, Prime Minister Taro Aso was facing his first crisis Friday with calls for the dismissal of transport minister Nariaki Nakayama over a stream of verbal gaffes.

When asked about what Japan should do to promote tourism, Nakayama said, “Japan is a very inward-looking nation, you could say it is a homogeneous race.”

While in itself not particularly shocking, the remark seemed to deny the existence of ethnic Chinese and Koreans in Japan, among others.

A similar comment by then Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone in 1986 led to protests from Ainu groups.

On Friday, Nakayama was forced to retract his comments.

“Since this is the first time I am working in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, there were many things I did not understand,” Nakayama said.

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200809260354.html

Foreign contract workers to sue Kubota over status

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About 10 foreign contract employees of major machinery manufacturer Kubota Corp. have decided to file a group lawsuit against the company claiming their employment status is unjustifiable and the company should continue to employ them after their contract expires next April, it has been learned.

In February 2006, the Osaka-based firm was warned that factory workers it used from staffing agencies were under the company’s direct control, effectively making them equal to dispatch workers. This type of practice is illegal.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080926TDY02306.htm

Panel pushes new temp work rules

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To better protect temporary workers, staffing firms should be banned from dispatching registered workers for day work or employment periods of 30 days or less, a subcommittee of the Labor Policy Council advised the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry on Wednesday.

The panel also said the government should be allowed to recommend companies to directly employ temporary workers sent from staffing agencies if these companies are held responsible for illegal treatment of the workers.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20080925a4.html

Will open-door immigration plan die after Fukuda?

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The hope was provided by a group of lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who drafted a bold proposal to create a new immigration policy that would raise the population of foreigners in Japan to 10 percent of the overall population in the next 50 years.

The proposal was handed to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, but his sudden resignation announcement Sept. 1 is raising concerns the proposal will be buried by the next prime minister.

“I am disappointed,” said lawmaker Hirohiko Nakamura, who helped draft the proposal. In a recent interview with The Japan Times, Nakamura said Fukuda was instrumental in getting the proposal off the ground.

“We got this far because it was Fukuda. . . . Fukuda was willing to listen to the proposal and it was about to move forward.”

Japan’s immigration policy largely depends on its leader, but when the prime minister keeps changing, consistency goes out the window.

The group’s report is titled “Proposal For a Japanese-style Immigration Policy.” It aims to address the problem of Japan’s shrinking population by raising the number of foreign residents. Nakamura was secretary general of team, which was was chaired by former LDP Secretary General Hidenao Nakagawa.

“The only effective treatment to save Japan from a population crisis is to accept people from abroad,” the proposal says. “For Japan to survive, it needs to open its doors as an international state passable to the world and shift toward establishing an ‘immigrant nation’ by accepting immigrants and revitalizing Japan.”

The group’s definition of “immigrant” is consistent with that of the United Nations: individuals who have lived outside their home countries for more than 12 months. This includes people on state or corporate training programs, exchange students and asylum seekers.

One major aspect of the proposal, Nakamura explained, is protecting the rights of foreigners in Japan so they can work safely and securely.

“Japanese people are pretending not to see the human rights situation of foreign laborers,” Nakamura said. “In a world where even animal rights are protected, how can we ignore the human rights of foreign workers?”

“What are politicians doing to solve this problem?” Nakamura asked. “They are at the beck and call of the bureaucrats who are just trying to protect their vested interests.”

Nakamura faulted the bureaucrats for not creating a warmer society for foreigners. For example, they don’t bring up the poor labor conditions for foreign workers, but when a foreigner is suspected of a crime, the information is spread immediately, Nakamura said.

“Bureaucrats don’t want (many foreigners in Japan),” Nakamura said. “Otherwise, it would be so easy (for bureaucrats) to start an educational campaign on living symbiotically with foreigners.”

Admitting that lawmakers have also dragged their feet, Nakamura said the key to breaking the vertically structured bureaucrat-led administration is to establish an official “immigration agency” to unify the handling of foreigner-related affairs, including legal issues related to nationality and immigration control.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080919f2.html

Number of foreign workers at Japanese firms leaps over previous figures

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Back in March of 2007, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare reported that the number of foreigners working at Japanese firms had hit a record high of 222,929 at the end of May 2006. Looking at the growth in figures at the time, it seemed reasonable to assume that the number of foreigners working at Japanese companies would hit the 250,00 mark sometime in mid-2008.

However, according to a report released by the ministry last week, the number of foreigners working at Japanese companies as of June 30, 2008 has hit 338,813. This is obviously a massive increase on what was seen in 2006, and MHLW has an explanation for that. The survey method itself has changed a bit, as the Japanese government now requires all firms with foreign employees to report their name, nationality and visa status to the ministry whenever a hiring or dismissal takes place.

We will most likely see a further boost in these numbers, as compliance with the new rules does not take total effect until October 1. At any rate, the figure show that 44.2% of foreign workers at Japanese firms are from China (149,876), 20.9% are from Brazil (70,809), 12.4% are listed as ?other? (42,046), 8.3% are from the Philippines (28,134), 7.1% are from the G8 plus Australia and New Zealand (24,210), and 3.9% are from Korea (13,106). In the case of Korea, ?? is the kanji used, which implies that special permanent residents are excluded from this survey. Finally, 3.1% of the workers hail from Peru (10,632).

Of the 338,813 foreign workers in Japan, 120,601, or 35.6%, are listed as being heads of household who hold contract worker or temporary worker status.

http://www.japaneconomynews.com/2008/09/13/number-of-foreign-workers-at-japanese-firms-leaps-over-previous-figures/

Employers told to scam pensions

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SIA worker admits having firms low-ball required premium levels

The scandal-hit Social Insurance Agency admitted Tuesday that a staff member had instructed companies falling short on premiums for the government-run pension program to falsely claim their employees’ monthly incomes were lower so the firms could pay less.

Corporate subscribers to the pension scheme must pay premiums equal to about 15 percent of their workers’ monthly incomes. Half of the premiums are put up by the firms and the remainder by the employees.

If a company reports its employees’ monthly incomes ? the benchmark to calculate premiums ? are lower than their actual incomes or the employees’ subscription periods are reported to be shorter than they really are, the firm’s premium burden is reduced.

The practice benefits both employers and the agency. The SIA can achieve a better record on premium-payment rates by member firms if their payment burdens are reduced.

Pension account holders whose entries are found to have undergone suspicious changes in income levels will be notified, according to the agency.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080910a1.html