The Japan Labor Flash
No.29
Email Journal December 15, 2004
Statistical Reports
Recent Statistical Survey Reports …etc.
Current Topics
Japan and the Philippines reach an agreement in principle on
economic partnership …etc
Public Policies
Companies pay unpaid overtime work after being charged by the
authorities with non-payment and subjected to corrective guidance
News Clippings
Mitsui & Co. joins other companies to launch a business to train
nurses and nursing care workers dispatched from overseas …etc
Special Issue
Japan in 2004
[A Letter from the Editor]
Statistical Reports
-Recent Statistical Survey Reports November 2004-
Features
Survey on Preliminary Job Offer for New Graduates in Mar.,2005
Report on Employment Service (October) ...etc.
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/estatis/esaikin/2004/e2004-11.htm
-TANKAN-
Short-term Economic Survey of Entreprises in Japan
-December 15, Friday, released by the Bank of Japan
http://www.boj.or.jp/en/stat/tk/tk0412.htm
Current Topics
-Japan and the Philippines reach an agreement in principle on
economic partnership-
Negotiations between Japan and the Philippines on economic
partnership focusing on free trade were concluded in principle in
late November. Regarding the free flow of people, Japan has decided
to allow entry of candidates for qualified nursing and nursing care
worker positions, although on a limited basis. Attention is focused
on whether or not this decision will provide the opportunity for the
government to change its conventional policies and begin actively
accepting non-Japanese workers into the country. The two countries
reached agreement after prioritizing the conclusion of the FTA and
making a round of compromises. Japan will open its markets on a limited
basis only, and is said to have left problems unresolved for future
negotiations with various Asian countries.
-Labor unions confirm their 2005 spring joint labor negotiation policy-
Rengo, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, led by President
Kiyoshi Sasamori, held a meeting of its Central Executive Committee
in Tokyo on November 25, where it confirmed its policy for the 2005
spring joint labor negotiations, "shunto". As in the previous
year,
Rengo will not demand across-the-board basic wage increases: it will
instead leave the decisions on specific wage hikes to individual
industrial and independent unions. However, Rengo's basic approach
to the shunto will be to aggressively demand basic wage increases
where possible and work to ensure that these demands are met. As for
small- to medium-scale as well as local unions, Rengo decided to set
up a unified goal standard surpassing that of this year's shunto and
try to narrow the gap with those of large-scale unions.
Meanwhile, at a general meeting held in October, the Liaison Committee
of Part-time and Temporary Workers' Union of Zenroren, or the National
Confederation of Trade Unions, confirmed their plans for next year's
shunto, including major efforts to raise part-time workers' hourly
wages at all places of work, and to conclude intra-firm minimum wage
agreements.
Public Policies
-Companies pay unpaid overtime work after being charged by the
authorities with non-payment and subjected to corrective guidance-
Kyodo News revealed that the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(JCCI) received in late April an on-site inspection by the Central
Labour Standards Inspection Office, at which attention was drawn to
their nonpayment of overtime work. The JCCI voluntarily paid a total
of approximately 10 million yen to its roughly 70 employees for unpaid
overtime work covering the period from January to July. Hiroshima
University, meanwhile, was charged by its teachers' union with failure
to pay for some of the staff's overtime work, and received instructions
on improvement of working time management by the Hiroshima Central
Labour Standards Inspection Office. In November, the university paid
approximately 36 million yen worth of backdated wages to cover the
overtime work of its approximately 280 staff members. The university
authorities explained that, although their organization had been
converted into a national university corporation, this did not
necessarily induce changes in their perception of overtime work.
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), moreover, publicized on
November 18 the results of their in-house survey on labor-hour
management. Their findings showed that, during the past two years,
approximately 2,800 of their Head Office employees worked a total
of 412,700 hours overtime for no pay, and that the value of unpaid
overtime work totaled 1.441 billion yen. The unpaid wages were
settled at the time of November salary payments. TEPCO received
individual instructions on working hours by the Labour Standards
Inspection Office and subsequently carried out a fact-finding survey
on overtime work.
As reported in JLF No.27, two issues before this No.29, the
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare designated November as the
Unpaid Overtime Work Elimination Campaign Month, and set up a toll
-free phone line for consultations on November 23. A total of 1,053
requests were received nationwide for consultations on unpaid wages
for overtime work. Of these, 442 calls pertained to consultations on
100% nonpayment of allowances for overtime work, and 144, to nonpayment
of allowances for overtime work exceeding 100 hours per month.
1US$=\105 (December 15,2004)
News Clippings
-Mitsui & Co. joins other companies to launch a business to train
nurses and nursing care workers dispatched from overseas-
Mitsui & Co. will launch a joint business to train nurses and nursing
care workers from other countries. This is a four-company joint venture
that includes corporations which run schools that issue professional
qualifications and certifications. Based on a general economic
cooperation agreement that Japan had reached in principle with the
Philippines, nurses and other personnel will be sent to Japan from
the Philippines. Mitsui and its partners will launch, during FY2005,
courses to teach the Japanese language as well as nursing skills. In
the future, the companies hope to expand their operations to include
selection of candidates and their placement in hospitals in Japan.
Under the bilateral agreement, the Japanese government is expected
to provide Japanese language training and look for hospitals that will
welcome the nurses. The four companies, however, determined that the
private sector could handle these operations, and submitted a request
for deregulation to the Cabinet Office.
Initially, the four companies plan to set up a study course to
prepare Philippine nurses to take national license examinations for
nurses in Japan. They will also offer a course to teach the Japanese
language and provide tips on living in Japan to make it easier for
them to work in Japanese hospitals.
(Nihon Keizai Shimbun, November)
-Canon to automate one-fourth of its domestic production-
It was revealed that Canon will begin fundamentally upgrading
their domestic production setup before the end of 2007, focusing on
completely automating factory assembly lines.
The company will first automate the assembly process, which accounts
for 25% of its domestic production output, amounting to approximately
1 trillion yen, to dramatically boost productivity. Approximately
5,000 assembly personnel will be subjected to rationalization. However,
the company will reportedly make maximum efforts to avoid transfer of
posts that would entail relocating to other areas, and focus instead
on transferring posts within individual factories.
To prevent manufacturing technologies from draining out of Japan
and to maintain the domestic factories' competitive edge over the
medium to long term, Canon plans to rapidly increase its number of
production technicians from the current 400 to 1,000.
It is unusual, anywhere in the world, for a manufacturing company
to automate their assembly process. Canon's new move, which marks a
new phase in all factory automation, is likely to be a focus of
considerable interest on the part of manufacturing industries both
in Japan and abroad.
(Nihon Keizai Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun, November)
Special Issue
-Japan in 2004-
Let us look back on 2004.
The second Koizumi reshuffled cabinet and administration, advocating
structural reforms, still appear bullish, although administrative and
financial reforms are by no means showing dramatic results or proceeding
in the direction that many Japanese people were hoping to see.
Rengo and other labor unions have concluded that, under the current
administration, there is little hope of seeing reforms that would
benefit workers. This year, therefore, saw them intensifying their
confrontational stance.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2004/no.29/29_si.html
[A Letter from the Editor]
Dear Readers,
Thank you for subscribing to JLF. We hope you all had a good year.
This will be our last issue for 2004. The first issue for 2005, No.30,
will be delivered to you on January 15.
We plan to conduct the second readership survey next year, to
improve the quality of this news letter.
We hope you will kindly assist us by taking positive part in the
questionaire then.
On behalf of the Editors at JLF, we wish you all a very happy and
fruitful New Year.
