The Japan Labor Flash No.68
Email Journal September 1, 2006
Statistical Reports
Main Labor Economic Indicators
Current Topics
Awareness of Issues among Newly Designated Corporate Directors and
Operating Officers
An Average Japanese Father Spends 3.1 Hours with his Children on
a Weekday
Public Policies
5% of National Civil Servants in Kasumigaseki Worry about Dying
from Overwork
NPA Calls for Adoption of Shorter Working-Hour System to Help
National Civil Servants Take Care of their Children
News Clippings
Over 100 Male Workers at Asahikasei Take Child-Care Leave in Six
Months
Tokyo Gas Co. Enables Employees on Leave to Access Internal
Information
Special Issue
Stopping False Labor Subcontracts
Statistical Reports
-Main Labor Economic Indicators-
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/estatis/eshuyo/200609/index.htm
Current Topics
-Awareness of Issues among Newly Designated Corporate Directors and
Operating Officers-
In August, the Japan Management Association (JMA) Group published
the findings of an opinion poll addressed to newly designated corporate
directors of listed companies. Regarding corporate mergers and alignments
of companies - which have frequently made the headlines in recent years
- one third of the respondents answered that the issue is a practical
question that their own companies should tackle actively. As for
corporate mergers, in particular, more than half agreed that in the
current situation "there is no particular problem at the moment but
anything could happen."
Asked about whose interest should be given priority, the majority
of the respondents (42.3 percent) cited "employees", exceeding
the
proportion of those who cited "shareholders" (25.1 percent).
At the
same time, more than 90 percent of the respondents replied that
effective use of female workers was essential. Where hopes for future
promotion are concerned, more than 20 percent of the directors surveyed
replied that they would like to reach the top of their companies,
whereas about 30 percent replied that they did not wish to have any
higher position.
The survey was carried out in July 2006 and aimed at 1,973 corporate
directors and operating officers newly designated this year. Effective
replies totaled 346 (a rate of 17.4%).
-An Average Japanese Father Spends 3.1 Hours with his Children on
a Weekday-
In March - June 2005, the National Women's Education Center, Japan,
conducted an international comparative survey on education at home.
This interview survey revealed that Japanese fathers spend extremely
little time with their children. It was addressed to approximately
1,000 parents living with their children aged 12 or under in Japan,
the Republic of Korea, Thailand, U.S.A., France, and Sweden.
It shows that an average Japanese father spends 3.1 hours on a
weekday with his children, the shortest time next to his Korean
counterpart, and only one-half of that of a Thai father, who spends
the most time, 5.9 hours, with his children. As for time spent by
mothers with their children, the survey ranks Japan first out of
the six countries surveyed. An average Japanese mother spends 7.6
hours with her children; the difference in the time spent by fathers
and mothers in Japan is the largest, 4.5 hours, among the six countries.
The proportion of fathers in Japan who worry about being unable to
spend enough time with their children is as high as 41.3 percent.
The Center, in its remarks on the findings of the survey on child
discipline and other issues, commented that the level of child
discipline and independence of children seem to be low in general
in Japan.
Public Policies
-5% of National Civil Servants in Kasumigaseki Worry about Dying from
Overwork-
According to Kyodo News on August 2, a questionnaire survey conducted
by the United Front Council of Kasumigaseki National Public Service
Employees' Unions showed that five percent of national civil servants
in the headquarters of the central bureaucracy in Kasumigaseki, Tokyo,
answered that they felt themselves in danger of karoshi (death from
overwork). The survey was conducted in March 2005 and responses were
given by approximately 4,600 national civil servants, accounting for
10 percent of national civil servants as a whole, except for those
in managerial posts.
It also showed that as many as 30 percent of the respondents had in
the past felt some risk or other of death from overwork. Average monthly
overtime totals 39 hours, but nine percent of the respondents work
overtime 80 hours or more per month, which is considered to be the
critical point in considering karoshi.
In the meantime, 22 percent of the respondents said that they were
unable to have dinner together with their family at all on weekdays.
Twenty-three percent complained of poor physical condition: 17 percent
replied that they were taking medication of some kind, and seven
percent attended hospital regularly, that is, two out of five persons
were found to be in bad shape.
-NPA Calls for Adoption of Shorter Working-Hour System to Help National
Civil Servants Take Care of their Children-
On August 8, the National Personnel Authority (NPA) submitted to
the Diet and the Cabinet its comments on the adoption of a shorter
working-hour system for national civil servants who need to take care
of their children. In the report, the NPA calls for the establishment
of a system enabling workers with preschool children to work shorter
hours, such as four hours per day (20 hours per week) or three days
per week (24 hours per week). It also suggests that an administrative
leave program for self-education or other purposes should be established,
so that national civil servants are able to concentrate on voluntary
skill development, or to participate in volunteer activities abroad.
To facilitate proper operation of such a program, the NPA also suggests
that temporary, shorter-hour workers should be hired on a fixed-term
employment basis, and that a "dual-designation system" should
be adopted
whereby two civil servants working shorter hours would share a single
post.
Regarding urgent measures to deal with the decline in the birthrate,
the NPA recommends supporting child-rearing among national civil
servants without incurring additional labor costs or affecting the
capacity of civil servants as a whole, and requests revisions to the
current Child-Care Leave Law.
News Clippings
-Over 100 Male Workers at Asahikasei Take Child-Care Leave in Six
Months-
At Asahi Kasei Corp, ranked ninth in the category of "consideration
of childcare" in the 2006 Survey on Firms Offering a Comfortable
Working Environment (see the previous issue of the Japan Labor Flash),
the number of male employees who took child-care leave exceeded 100
during the period of January-June 2006.
The company, seeking possible measures to increase male participation
in its child-rearing leave program, arranged a series of labor-management
meetings under the title, "The New Papa Project," for two months
starting
in May 2005. The participants found that major obstacles preventing
male workers from taking child-care leave are: (i) lack of a strong,
pressing need; (ii) stoppage of wages during leave; and (iii) difficulty
in asking superiors to authorize leave. They also stated that the
meetings served as a good opportunity for them to reverse their own
way of thinking: they now believe that they must create a workplace
atmosphere in which all workers can take leave when they need to.
They also said that revisions to various schemes, campaigns to promote
taking of leave, and other activities, as well as patient efforts to
change the attitudes of employees, had all proved effective.
(Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, August)
-Tokyo Gas Co. Enables Employees on Leave to Access Internal
Information-
In fiscal 2006, Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. is to complete the establishment
of a system whereby employees on child-care leave can access, via the
corporate intranet, internal company information on their personal
computers at home. The company is aiming to make it easier for workers
on leave to resume work smoothly once their leave is finished. The
system will enable workers, many of whom feel anxious about their
career development after returning to the workplace, to share the
same information as their colleagues at work.
Tokyo Gas has received a number of complaints from employees who
have taken child-care leave in the past regarding their confusion
about changed work environments which they found on their return.
The company, though it sends copies of company magazines, has decided,
after serious requests for real-time provision of company information
from employees on leave, to make the intranet accessible from outside
the company.
Tokyo Gas Co. has a little over 9,000 employees, of whom currently
96 are on child-care leave. They are entitled to take leave until
the April after their children reach the age of three, which is the
maximum amount of time allowed. The company also has a scheme which
allows employees to reduce their working hours by two hours per day
until their children enter primary school.
(Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, August)
Special Issue
-Stopping False Labor Subcontracts-
Since late July, the term "false labor subcontracts" has frequently
made the headlines. The term refers to labor practices in which
manufacturers and other companies accept temporary, dispatched workers
from manpower agencies but falsify their labor contracts, claiming
that they are subcontracted workers, so as to evade various obligations
involved in their employment. More than a few of Japan's leading
companies are among firms recognized as violators by labor bureaus.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2003/no.68/68_si.html
