The Japan Labor Flash No.2
Email Journal October 15, 2003
Statistical Reports
Recent Statistical Survey Reports
Current Topics
The current status of people's financial assets: household savings
and loans
Public Policies
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare decides on a Government
-Ministerial ordinance on the Revised Labor Standards Law
News Clippings
ANA to cut employee salaries ...etc
Special Issue
Rengo President Sasamori re-elected
Statistical Reports
-Recent Statistical Survey Reports September 2003-
Features
Survey on Labor Economy Trends (August 2003)
Survey of Salaries in Private Sector (FY2002) ...etc
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/estatis/esaikin/2003/e2003-09.htm
Current Topics
-The current status of people's financial assets: household savings and loans-
The Central Council for Financial Services Information of the Bank of Japan's Public Relations Department recently announced the results of their public opinion poll on household financial assets for 2003.
The poll was conducted from June to July of this year, targeting 6,000 households throughout Japan with two or more members. Responses were sent in from 4,158 households (collection rate: 69.3%).
The average per-household savings of those who said that they "had monetary savings" amounted to 14.6 million yen. This was 380,000 yen more than the previous year's average and the highest since the surveys began in 1963.
Meanwhile, 21.8% of total households responded that they "had no monetary savings," the second highest share ever. These figures clearly show that the status of people's savings is becoming increasingly polarized.
The share of households whose balance of savings had decreased over a year ago rose year-on-year for three consecutive years, to 51.1%. As the reasons, slightly fewer than 60% (59.6%) said that they had used the savings to make up for falling income, reflecting the general fall in incomes resulting from the sluggish economy.
A staggering 83.2% of households were worried about their life after retirement, revealing that an overwhelming number of people are concerned about their life in old age. About 40% of the households had debts. This share has shown a declining trend after peaking in 1996. Average household debt amounted to 12.47 million yen.
Public Policies
-The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare decides on a Government -
Ministerial ordinance on the Revised Labor Standards Law- The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare decided on a revised draft of the Government-Ministerial ordinance for the Revised Labour Standards Law that is planned to go into effect on January 1, 2004. (For the main aims and contents of the Revised Labour Standards Law promulgated in July 2003, see the Special Issue section, JLF Vol. 47.)
Continued on; http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2003/no.2/revised_lsl.html
News Clippings
-ANA to cut employee salaries-
All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd. (ANA) has unveiled a plan to cut the basic wages of all employees by five percent beginning next April. This is the first case in the airline industry for the basic wages of full-time employees to be reduced.
The airline industry has suffered from a worsening business environment because of sharp reductions in numbers of international flight passengers due to the U.S. terrorist attacks, the war in Iraq, and SARS, among other factors. Companies are under tremendous pressure to strengthen their management and business structure.
Over the past two years, ANA resorted to zero basic wage hikes because
of slumping business performance. The company proposed to the ANA Labor
Union (whose members comprise ground staff and flight attendants) an
approximately five percent cut in basic pay and an expansion of the
merit pay system. Under this system, an employee's salary will increase
if he or she performs well. The categories of evaluation rankings will
be subdivided, which means that differences among the employees in the
amount of pay hikes could widen.
(Asahi Shimbun, October)
-A Ministry of Finance survey shows medium-sized companies predicting a shortage of employees by next spring-
A Ministry of Finance survey revealed that medium-scale companies predict to see staff shortages by the end of March next year. The Ministry is hoping that, with the economy showing signs of bottoming out and picking up, a ray of light is beginning to be seen in what is currently a tough employment situation.
According to the Ministry's survey of business forecasts, the index for determining the appropriate number of employees (the share of companies that felt that the number of employees was insufficient minus the share of companies that felt that it was excessive; seasonally -adjusted values) of medium-sized companies whose paid-in capital is between 100 million and one billion yen is expected to be 0.7 on March 31, 2004, the first positive value since June 30, 2001. This is in sharp contrast to the index value for major corporations (-4.1) and small and medium-sized companies (-1.6), who felt that they would continue to be overstaffed.
As the reason, a chief researcher at Mitsubishi Research Institute
points out that medium-sized companies require less time than large
companies to dispose of excessive investments made during the bubble
years, making them quicker to adapt to the economic climate than small
and medium-sized companies.
Attention is now focused on whether the severe employment situation
will show a positive turnaround, driven by successful and expanding
medium-sized companies.
(Nihon Keizai Shimbun, September)
Special Issue
-Rengo President Sasamori re-elected-
In our previous issue, we reported that the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) was going to hold a presidential election. As a result of the election on October 3, Kiyoshi Sasamori, the incumbent President, was re-elected.
As the main policy initiative over the next two years, Rengo aims to expand its organization. The goals are to reform the organizational activities at regional confederation meetings and provide even stronger personnel and financial assistance to regional councils. Moreover, since small- to medium-scale labor unions find it difficult to convene according to industry, Rengo plans to fundamentally strengthen regional unions where these small- to medium-scale labor unions gather.
Continued on; http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2003/no.2/rengo.html
