The Japan Labor Flash No.9
Email Journal February 16, 2004
JILPT Information
The Japan Labor Flash Reader Questionnaire
JILPT Foreign Researcher Invitation Program
Statistical Reports
Recent Statistical Survey Reports
Current Topics
December 2003 unemployment rate drops below 5% for the first time
in 2.5 years; rate of job availability continues to increase to
0.78-fold ...etc
Public Policies
Submission to the Diet of a bill to reform the public employee
system is again postponed ...etc
News Clippings
Corporate housing and dormitories to be closed down due to cuts
in welfare spending ...etc
Special Issue
A string of lawsuits concerning treatment of employee inventions
are being wound up with corporations ordered to pay huge sums of money
JILPT Information
The Japan Labor Flash Reader Questionnaire
Dear Readers,
As we informed you earlier, we hereby send a questionnaire to all
of you. The main purpose of the survey is to improve the quality of
this newsletter. Please take part in the questionnaire.
Your cooperation will be highly appreciated.
http://db.jil.go.jp/emm/questionnaire.htm
Information on JILPT Foreign Researcher Invitation Program
1. Purpose
This program invites foreign researchers to Japan and provides
them with opportunities for conducting research on labor policy
and labor issues in Japan, with the ultimate goal of improving
the quality of labor policy research in Japan.
2. Programs
Program types:
1) Long-term invitation program: 1-12 months
2) Short-term invitation program: Less than 1 month
Expenses
Travel and living expenses will be covered.
Requirements:
1) Must conduct research on Japanese labor policies or other labor
issues.
2) Must submit a research report to the JILPT at the end of their
stay.
3) Must be affiliated with a labor research institute or university
(excluding graduate students)
4) Must possess adequate command of Japanese or English
5) Must conduct research and remain with the JILPT
6) Must be in good enough health to carry out and complete intended
studies
3. Application deadline
Applications are accepted annually. We are currently accepting
applications for 2004 (April 2004 to March 2005). If you would
like to apply for this year, please submit your application documents
by February 20, 2004.
For more details, please refer to:
Application Process for the Long-term Foreign Researcher Invitation
Program
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/documents/longtermFRIP.pdf
Application Process for the Short-term Foreign Researcher Invitation
Program
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/documents/shorttermFRIP.pdf
Application Form for the Foreign Researcher Invitation Programs
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/documents/application_000.doc
※You can view PDF files with Acrobat Reader which's available at
no cost from Adobe's Web site.
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
Statistical Reports
-Recent Statistical Survey Reports January 2004-
Features
The Seventh World Youth Survey
Survey on Situation of Official Job Offer for New Graduates in Mar.
2005 …etc
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/estatis/esaikin/2004/e2004-01.htm
Current Topics
-December 2003 unemployment rate drops below 5% for the first time
in 2.5 years; rate of job availability continues to increase to 0.78
-fold-
According to the Labor Force Survey (flash report) announced on
January 30 by the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts
and Telecommunications, the unemployment rate calculated on the basis
of people actively looking for a job ("overall unemployment rate")
was
4.9% in December 2003, 0.3 percentage points lower than the previous
month. This is the first time it has dipped below the 5.0% recorded
for two and a half years since June 2001.
The number of jobless people who are actively searching for full
-time work ("totally unemployed persons") decreased to three million,
which was 310,000 fewer than in the same month of the previous year.
Showing the same trend, the average overall unemployment rate for 2003
was 5.3%, or 0.1 percentage points lower than the record-high rate of
2002. This was the first time in thirteen years since 1990 that the
rate fell below that of the previous year.
Meanwhile, according to the December 2003 Report on Employment
Service, which the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare released at
the end of January 2004, the rate of registered job openings to
registered job applications ("rate of job availability"; seasonally
-adjusted value) was 0.78-fold, surpassing that of the previous month
by 0.04 points.
The average rate of job availability for 2003 improved to 0.64-fold,
up 0.10 points over the previous year.
-JILPT monitor survey gives an outline of today's young full-time
workers-
Last fall, JILPT conducted an Internet survey to investigate the
status of young office employees under the age of 30 (in non-managerial
posts) at their workplaces, and to study the awareness of labor unions
and corporations pertaining to this and their countermeasures, if any.
The survey targeted 110 companies representing 64 business categories,
58 enterprise owner organizations, 43 independent unions and 29
industrial unions. Responses were sent in from 104 private companies,
52 enterprise owner organizations, 39 independent unions and 24
industrial unions.
The survey revealed the following:
1. Corporations have shown a tendency to reduce the hiring of new
regular, full-time employees over the past five years.
2. Paradoxically, corporations are concerned about the problems
arising from the lopsided employee age distribution that results
from their reduced hiring of new regular employees.
3. Many independent unions are questioning corporations' reduction
of hiring of regular, full-time employees.
4. In the majority of corporations, burdens placed on young full
-time employees are on the rise in terms of the volume, extent, and
quality of work assigned to them. Their psychological burdens are
also increasing.
5. Compared with corporations, labor unions feel even more strongly
that the burden of work on young full-time employees has increased.
Their awareness of employees' increased burden in terms of work
volume, work hours, and psychological aspects surpasses by more
than 20 points that held by corporations.
With workplace environments becoming tougher than ever before, and
with the rapid decline in birthrates and increasing proportion of
elderly people in the Japanese population, young people are becoming
more stressed than ever before.
Public Policies
-Submission to the Diet of a bill to reform the public employee system
is again postponed-
As we have reported in a previous issues, the Koizumi Administration,
under the banner of "Carrying out reforms boldly," adopted at
its
Cabinet Meeting in December 2001 an outline for the reform of the
public employee system. They decided on a basic policy regarding the
introduction of a merit-based system, etc., and planned to submit a
bill by the end of 2003.
In response, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) filed
a complaint to the ILO, saying that such a move would boost the
government's authority over personnel issues while restricting basic
labor rights as before. The ILO, for its part, issued a recommendation
in December 2002 to the Japanese Government to revise and improve said
outline.
The plan to transfer the authority of personnel management from
the National Personnel Authority to the Cabinet and various ministries
and agencies was opposed by the former. Rengo also opposed the plan
for the above reasons. Even some members of the LDP objected to it.
The government therefore abandoned the plan to submit a bill to the
regular July 2003 Diet session, and instead attempted to have it
submitted to the current January 2004 regular Diet session.
However, at his meeting with Rengo officials in mid-January, the
Minister for Administrative Reform stated his wish to reach an
agreement after mutual discussion, with or without the outline, and
clearly declared his intention to postpone submitting the bill.
The general public's level of interest in the reform of the public
employee system is still not as high as that in other reforms, such
as postal affairs, the Public Highways Corporation, and pension
programs, although there was a public outcry on hearing that elite
bureaucrats, supposedly after retiring, were being lucratively
re-employed in the private sector while also receiving huge retirement
allowances. This withdrawal of the submission of the bill shows that
enthusiasm is not that great inside the government, either.
News Clippings
-Corporate housing and dormitories to be closed down due to cuts in
welfare spending-
A survey targeting Nippon Keidanren's member corporations (with
responses sent in from 700 mainly large-scale companies) and other
entities revealed that, concerning companies' welfare spending not
actually stipulated by law, expenses related to medical treatment,
health, and weddings/funerals, etc., increased, but those related to
housing, culture, physical exercise, and recreation decreased. The
latter was attributed to companies' efforts to cut costs by, for
example, selling off their resort facilities.
Canon have decided to abolish their corporate housing and dormitory
systems beginning this spring. This translates into a reduction of
approximately six billion yen in expenses per year. The company
abolished family and housing allowances in 2002, and is stepping up
a review of their welfare programs. In April 2002, they switched their
wage system to a merit-based structure and, among other measures,
abolished the annual wage increase system. Closure of their corporate
housing and dormitories will be part of this cost-cutting process.
(Mainichi Shimbun and Nihon Keizai Shimbun, January)
-Working women thinking carefully about their "delivery month"-
A growing number of working women are thinking carefully about the
month in which to give birth. They have a variety of preferences:
some choose early spring, since that is the time for enrolling their
children in day care facilities, while others opt for summer to reduce
the burden placed on the people around them.
Their reasons are equally varied. Some take their childcare leave
period into account, while others think about facilitating their
return to the workplace, or complain that they cannot enroll their
children in day care facilities, even if they apply for mid-term
enrollment, because of the long waiting list to get into such
facilities.
(Nihon Keizai Shimbun, January)
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2004/no.9/deliverymonth.html
Special Issue
-A string of lawsuits concerning treatment of employee inventions are
being wound up with corporations ordered to pay huge sums of money-
As we reported in our Vol. 4 issue, Japanese companies have so far
placed utmost priority on lifetime employment, and have rewarded most
of their employees' inventions with "awards" or "bonuses/lump
sum
payments" or "promotions." We also reported how problems
concerning
this issue have undergone dramatic changes since last year, and that
these changes are heralding the arrival of a new era.
Recently, however, a series of rulings have been issued that order
corporations to pay huge amounts of money to inventors in their employ.
They are making headline news and becoming a hot conversation topic.
At the same time, the situation is showing a dramatic turnaround.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2004/no.9/lawsuits.html
