The JIL Labor Flash Vol.17
Email Journal 15.04.2002
Statistical Reports
Recent Statistical Survey Reports
Current Topics
A draft of the government-labor-management agreement on worksharing
finalized
Public Policies
A new system of support gets under way with the enactment of the
revised Child Care and Nursing Care Leave Law
News Clippings
College students' annual living expenses now exceed 2 million yen
...etc
Special Issue
Women's work patterns and the M-shaped curve
Statistical Reports
-Recent Statistical Survey Reports-
Features
National Accounts (The 1st Preliminary Estimates of Expenditure
in Oct.-Dec. and 2001)
Report on Employment Service (February)
Family Income and Expenditure Survey (February)...etc
http://www.jil.go.jp/estatis/e2002-03.htm
Current Topics
-A draft of the government-labor-management agreement on worksharing
finalized-
For some time, officials of the government, the Japanese Trade Union
Confederation (Rengo), and the Japan Federation of Employers' Association
(Nikkeiren) have been studying the issue of worksharing. On March 29,
2002, the draft of an agreement was announced as scheduled.
The proposed agreement defines worksharing as "a means of reducing
work time and for reexamining the balance among employment, wages and
work time, with the purpose of protecting employment and creating jobs."
It divides worksharing into two types, and proposes basic rules which
the labor, the management and the government should follow. According
to the proposed agreement, worksharing may be used either as (1) an
emergency measure lasting two to three years which companies suffering
from deteriorating business may opt for as a way to temporarily safeguard
jobs, or (2) a medium-term measure to diversify work aiming at enhancing
management efficiency through reviewing work styles and adopting flexible
employment formats.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2001-2003/2002a/vol.17/worksharing_final.html
Public Policies
-A new system of support gets under way with the enactment of the
revised Child Care and Nursing Care Leave Law-
The Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare revised the so-called
Child Care and Nursing Care Leave Law, and launched a "Child Nursing
Care Leave System" on April 1 (official name: "Law Concerning the
Welfare of Workers who Take Care of Children or other Family Members
including Child Care and Family Care Leave").
The system permits workers to take vacations to take care of their
preschool children who suffer sudden illness or injury. Until now,
these workers generally used their annual paid leave to cope with
these emergencies. Under the new system, they need not worry about
using up their paid leave. Many companies are still in the process of
establishing the necessary setup, however, and, to give them time,
the revised law demands that they make "maximum efforts." The system
will be reviewed in 2005, three years after the enforcement of the
revised law.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2001-2003/2002a/vol.17/childandnursingcare.html
News Clippings
-1,000 people will be hired to produce maps in Okinawa, which is
suffering from a high unemployment rate-
Nihon Computer Graphic Co. (NCG), a company engaged in the manufacture
and sale of electronic maps, will begin producing in April a three
-dimensional digitized map in Okinawa Prefecture.
The company will set up a system allowing contract employees to
exchange data over the Internet and work mostly at home. Before hiring
contract employees, NCG will conduct a test to check their abilities
and performance. Those whose test scores exceed a certain level will
be hired; those who fail will be given opportunities to study map
making via the Internet. Contract employees living in Ishigaki and
other remote islands with underdeveloped telecommunications systems
will be given mobile phones.
Okinawa's unemployment rate of 8.4% in 2001 is the highest of all
the prefectures in Japan. NCG took note of this, and concluded that
it was possible to cut personnel fees by about 30%. In the initial
year, the company plans to hire 1,000 people.
Meanwhile, as part of the "Multimedia Island Project," the Okinawa
prefectural government is currently building telecommunications
infrastructures that will enable the efficient exchange of large
volumes of data. NCG felt that these infrastructures would make Okinawa
suitable for the production of digitized maps, which incorporate huge
volumes of data.
(Nihon Keizai Shimbun, April)
-College students' annual living expenses now exceed 2 million yen-
According to a survey the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology carried out in November 2000, targeting about
44,000 university and graduate school students (68% of whom responded),
university students spent a total of 2.058 million yen in fiscal 2000
on living expenses and tuition fees. This was 129,000 yen more than
in the survey conducted two years ago, showing a substantial increase
of 6.7%.
Incomes of students at daytime universities averaged 2.15 million yen
a year, up 99,000 yen from two years ago. Of this amount, the parents
provided 1.556 million yen (up 54,000 yen). Both scholarships and part
-time work incomes rose by 40,000 yen and 7,000 yen, respectively.
Expenditure rose from two years ago, with tuition fees totaling 1.12
million yen, up 43,000 yen, and living expenses totaling 937,000 yen,
up 86,000 yen. The Ministry attributes the rise to increased communications
expenses, pointing out that "cellphones and personal computers have
become an essential part of a student's life."
By way of comparison, annual household income totaled 9.53 million yen,
down 50,000 yen from the previous survey on account of the recession.
This survey shows that families are finding ways and means of raising
their children's education costs out of their already tight household
finances.
1US$≒￥131(April 2002)
(Tokyo Shimbun, April)
Special Issue
-Women's work patterns and the M-shaped curve-
The Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare released its March 27,
2001 edition, "White Paper on Women's Labor (Actual Status of Working
Women)."
The White Paper first identified the number of full-time employees
in 2001. As a result of the growing number of workers becoming non-regular
employees, the number of male workers fell by 150,000 to a total of 32.01
million. In contrast, the number of female workers continued to increase
by 280,000 to a total of 21.68 million, accounting for 40.4% of the total
number of workers in Japan.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2001-2003/2002a/vol.17/womenswork.html
