The Japan Labor Flash No.12
Email Journal April 1, 2004
Statistical Reports
Main Labor Economic Indicators
Current Topics
Over 30% of employees at supermarkets work more than 45 hours of
overtime per month …etc
Public Policies
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare draws up guidelines in
March for the proper introduction and implementation of teleworking
News Clippings
Major electric appliance manufacturers to hire more new college
graduates next spring for the first time in 3 years; Toyota also
decides to hire more people …etc
Special Issue
Results of a fact-finding survey on wages based on ability and
type of work
Statistical Reports
-Main Labor Economic Indicators-
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/estatis/eshuyo/200404/index.htm
-TANKAN-
Short-term Economic Survey of Entreprises in Japan
-April 1, Thursday, released by the Bank of Japan
http://www.boj.or.jp/en/stat/tk/tk0403.htm
Current Topics
-Over 30% of employees at supermarkets work more than 45 hours of
overtime per month-
The Saitama Labor Bureau released the findings of their voluntary
inspections on the working conditions of employees in 291 supermarkets
run by 10 companies whose head offices are located in Saitama, a
prefecture adjoining Tokyo. The response rate was 100%.
The Bureau found that 97% of the stores had adequately drawn up
Employment Regulations, presented working conditions clearly, and
established scheduled work hours. As regards overtime work, however,
79 stores had employees working for more than 45 overtime hours per
month. Eight stores even had employees with overtime work exceeding
80 hours. Thus, 30% of all these supermarkets had employees working
overtime for 45 hours or more.
The most recent trend in the Japanese retail industry is the
lengthening of store opening hours. The inspections revealed that,
although about 38% of the stores said that their employees worked
till late at night, only 72% conducted the legally stipulated physical
checkups once every six months.
-Number of job-hopping part-time workers ("freeters") to increase
to 4.76 million by 2010-
The UFJ Institute released its estimate that the number of job-hopping
part-time workers will reach 4.76 million in 2010.
According to the Institute's trial calculation, full-time workers
are expected to earn an average annual income of 3.87 million yen,
but "freeters" will earn only 1.06 million yen. Moreover, lifetime
earnings will be 215 million yen for the former and 52 million yen
for the latter; and the amount of monthly pension benefit provided
is 146,000 yen for the former and only 66,000 yen for the latter.
Besides the difference in earnings, a substantial difference will
also be seen in the amount of tax they will pay.
Since "freeters" earn lower incomes on average than full-time
employees, they contribute less to individual personal consumption.
Because of this, they reportedly have the potential to depress Japan's
nominal GDP by approximately 1.9 points in 2010. The Institute also
predicted that, by 2020, the proportion of these "freeters"
in the
youth population would reach 30.6%.
US$=\104 (April 2004)
Public Policies
-The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare draws up guidelines in
March for the proper introduction and implementation of teleworking-
Teleworking is a style of work in which data communication equipment
is used to allow all or part of a person's job at home. Unlike working
inside business offices, teleworkers find it difficult to separate
their working hours from ordinary home life. Identifying the actual
status of their work is not easy, either.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2004/no.12/teleworking.htm
News Clippings
-Major electric appliance manufacturers to hire more new college
graduates next spring for the first time in 3 years; Toyota also
decides to hire more people-
With their business showing signs of strong recovery, Hitachi, Ltd.
and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation decided to increase their hiring
of new college graduates in 2005 for the first time in three years.
Hitachi will hire 700 people, fifty more than the number they hired
for FY2004. Along with the recovery in business results, the company
has begun hiring college graduates for its strategic departments.
To fortify technical staff in the data and energy departments, for
example, the company will also increase the number of researchers to
be hired. To determine the type of job a researcher will do, the
company will use the "job matching method" in which the applicant's
preferences are fully considered.
Mitsubishi Electric will hire a total of 530 people next spring,
a 1.6-fold increase over the number hired this spring (340).
Although there was no hiring of technical personnel in FY2004, it will
be resumed next year.
Similarly, for the first time in 6 years, Toyota Motor will hire
over 2,000 people. Their aim is to resolve their manpower shortage,
a problem that has persisted for the past few years because of their
brisk business performance.
(Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun, February)
-Canon spearheads an original "new Japanese-style" labor system-
Major corporations are progressively abolishing annual wage increases
and boosting the merit-based system. As a result, this year's spring
joint labor negotiations are increasingly focusing on non-wage issues.
In the context of these trends, Canon has recently been advocating a
"new Japanese style."
In April 2002, Canon completely abolished all employee allowances
such as family allowances. The company also abolished the annual wage
increase program. They replaced these with a new system that evaluates
employees' abilities and job performance. For each occupational grade,
the level of skills/capabilities that the company wants achieved is
presented, and employees are evaluated based on their test scores and
work performance. They discontinued conducting wage negotiations during
the spring wage round and replaced them with "year-round negotiations"
in which labor and management discuss various issues throughout the
year, including improvements in the efficacy of the new system, such
as personnel evaluation methods.
Meanwhile, the company guarantees lifetime employment. No mandatory
retirement age is set for executive posts, and employees have opportunities
to earn pay hikes associated with promotions up to the mandatory retirement
age. Since many employees saw their wages go up in FY2003, though, an
element of "seniority" still remains.
In FY2001, major electric appliance manufacturers were hit hard by
the bursting of the IT bubble. They were forced to cut their workforce
drastically, and posted the worst red-ink figures ever registered.
Even then, Canon kept their workforce intact and continued to register
record-high profits for four consecutive years until FY2003 that ended
December.
President Fujio Mitarai criticizes the American way where employees
routinely switch jobs between companies. "Worker mobility has not
taken root in Japan. Our society has no system to support it, either.
Bringing in the American system will not work," he says.
(Asahi Shimbun, March)
Special Issue
-Results of a fact-finding survey on wages based on ability and type
of work-
On March 4, the Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development
released the results of their fact-finding survey of wages by ability
and type of work. The survey, carried out in response to the increasing
fine-tuning to individuals of personnel treatment systems, aimed at
sorting out new wage-related information that can replace the conventional
seniority criteria for determining employee wages, such as age, number
of years of service, sex, educational history, etc.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2004/no.12/abilityandtype.html
