The Japan Labor Flash
No.18
Email Journal July 1, 2004
Statistical Reports
Main Labor Economic Indicators …etc
Current Topics
Total birthrate drops to 1.29 …etc
Public Policies
Increase in dismissals because of pregnancy and childbirth …etc
News Clippings
Toyota awards each company director an average 38.96 million yen
in FY2003 …etc
Special Issue
The true profile of the elderly in Japan
Statistical Reports
-Main Labor Economic Indicators-
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/estatis/eshuyo/200407/index.htm
-TANKAN-
Short-term Economic Survey of Entreprises in Japan
-July 1, Thursday, released by the Bank of Japan
http://www.boj.or.jp/en/stat/tk/tk0406.htm
Current Topics
-Total birthrate drops to 1.29-
The 2003 vital statistics announced in June by the Ministry of
Health, Labour and Welfare show that the total birthrate, or the
average number of children a woman gives birth in her lifetime,
dropped further from last year's 1.32 to 1.29, posting an all-time
low. From 1965 to 1974, the rate remained at around 2.1. Ever since
it fell below 2.00 for the first time in 1975, however, it has shown
a downward trend, and fell below 1.30 last year. The highest birthrate
in Japan was 1.72, recorded in Okinawa in southern Japan, and the
lowest was 1.00, recorded in the Metropolis of Tokyo.
The bill for the new Pension Reform Act was passed on June 4
despite fierce protest by the opposition parties. The Act assumed
that the birthrate in 2003 would remain the same 1.32 as the year
before, but that it would rebound to 1.39 after hitting bottom at
1.36 in 2007. These figures were used to estimate future population,
which provided the basis for calculating pension benefits and premium
payments. With estimation errors such as these being detected so soon,
the new Act, which has had to be modified almost at its inception,
is off to a shaky start.
-Male office workers have even less spending money-
A survey conducted by consumer finance firm GE Consumer Finance
targeting 500 male corporate employees throughout Japan (average
age: 39.8 years) found that their monthly spending money averaged
38,300 yen this year. This was 4,400 yen less than last year and
the lowest in 22 years. Back in 1990, they had a monthly allowance
of 76,000 yen, which means that their spending money has shrunk to
one-half its peak level.
Married men had an average of 14,700 fewer yen per month to spend
than single men, and men who had children had close to 8,000 fewer
yen than those who did not.
Many of these men tended to economize on lunch. The daily average
they spent on lunch was 710 yen in 2001, but this has continued to
drop by 20 yen each year to 650 yen this year. They ate out after
work on an average of 3.8 times per month, spending less than 4,500
yen each time on average.
US$=\108 (July 1, 2004)
Public Policies
-Increase in dismissals because of pregnancy and childbirth-
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare recently compiled their
findings on the implementation status in FY2003 of the Equal Employment
Opportunity Law between Men and Women.
Of the consultation cases sent to the Equal Employment Office of
the various prefectural labor bureaus, the largest number pertained
to sexual harassment, accounting for approximately 40% of all the
consultations made. Meanwhile, consultations on mandatory retirement
age, retirement/resignation, and dismissals are on the rise. The Equal
Employment Office helped to resolve a total of 157 individual dispute
cases, or 35 more than FY2002. Consultations concerning pregnancy-
and childbirth-related dismissals increased sharply.
-Minister Sakaguchi discusses future employment strategies-
At a discussion meeting on industrial labor issues (a private
advisory organ to the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare) held
in June, Minister Chikara Sakaguchi presented a 10-year employment
strategy to prepare for the anticipated reduction in the workforce
resulting from aging and low birthrate.
If no employment promotion programs were enforced, the current
workforce of 66.7 million is estimated to decrease by 3.7 million
to 63 million in 2015. However, Minister Sakaguchi stated that, by
reinforcing employment promotion measures targeting the elderly,
women, and youths, Japan can expect to see an increase in the
workforce of 3 million, which will cut the anticipated decrease of
3.7 million workers to 700,000. Specifically, (1) "building a society
in which people can continue working until the age of 65," a program
made possible by mandating companies to adopt the continuous employment
system, can create approximately 1.6 million more jobs; (2) "assisting
people to work and raise families at the same time," a program to
assist people who have left the job market to raise children, to
return to work at an early stage, can create approximately 1 million
more jobs; and (3) "establishing an environment where young people
can work freely and actively," a program made possible via skills
development using the Japanese-version "dual work system" (a
practical
human resource development and educational program for young people),
can create approximately 500,000 more jobs.
News Clippings
-Toyota awards each company director an average 38.96 million yen
in FY2003-
Toyota Motor was revealed to have paid a total sum of 1.013 billion
yen in FY2003 to its company directors as remuneration. If this sum
were divided equally among the 26 members of the Board of Directors
as of the end of that fiscal year, each had received approximately
38.96 million yen, up 17.79 million yen from FY2002. Although the
company's brisk business is behind this increased pay, the fact that
it introduced the executive (operating officer) system last June and
eliminated directors ranked below managing directors from the board,
in principle, is also believed to have helped raise the average amount.
At its annual shareholders' meeting held in June 2003, Toyota
disclosed for the first time the total sum provided in FY2002 as
directors' remuneration, with each director receiving approximately
21.17 million yen on average. This created news at the time because
the amount was only one-seventh the sum Nissan Motor had awarded their
officials, which was approximately 146 million yen per person, a high
level according to Japanese standards and comparable to that of Europe
and the US.
(Asahi Shimbun, May)
-Companies to interview job-seeking college seniors on weekends and
even during the summer vacation-
Major companies have begun recruiting new college graduates by
taking the latter's academic schedules into consideration. Sony will
apply this new program to university seniors hoping to join the
company next April, and interview them during the latter's summer
vacation in addition to the usual spring season to prevent these
activities from conflicting with the applicants' class schedules.
Sony will accept job applications in early July and interview the
students in August. Company officials feel that spring is not a good
time to recruit college students, because that is when they must
decide on their graduation thesis and register their subjects.
Itochu Corporation, meanwhile, will conduct employment examinations
on weekends and on weekday evenings. Until last year, companies'
recruitment activities were concentrated on weekdays during the day.
This made it difficult, in spring, for many universities to conduct
their seniors' classes. In March 2003, the Federation of Japanese
Private Colleges and Universities Associations called on Nippon
Keidanren (the Japan Business Federation) to urge its member companies
to take university students' academic programs into consideration
in their recruiting activities. In response, Nippon Keidanren enlisted
companies that had agreed to this plan, and demanded that its members
refrain from prematurely hiring university students. Companies that
will recruit additional students to fill up the usual spring quota,
include Dentsu, IBM Japan, and Canon, while Toshiba, Kirin Brewery,
All Nippon Airways, Honda, Matsushita Electric Industrial, Fujitsu
and other companies will conduct recruiting activities on weekends
as well.
(Nihon Keizai Shimbun, June)
Special Issue
-The true profile of the elderly in Japan-
In June, the Cabinet Office published the 2004 edition of the White
Paper on the Aging Society, an annual report which the government has
been submitting to the Diet since 1996 in line with the Basic Law on
Measures for the Aging Society.
The White Paper reports that, as of October 2003, there were 24.31
million elderly people over the age of 65 in Japan, accounting for 19%
of the total population. Of these, 10.26 million were men, surpassing
the 10 million mark for the first time. In addition, as of September
2003, there were a little over 20,000 people throughout Japan who
were aged 100 and above. This number has doubled in only 5 years.
The White Paper revealed some interesting findings that shed light
on the real image of today's Japanese elderly. Here is a brief summary.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2004/no.18/elderlyinjapan.html
