The JIL Labor Flash Vol.19
Email Journal 15.05.2002
Statistical Reports
Recent Statistical Survey Reports
Current Topics
May Day Programs in 2002...etc
Public Policies
Recommendations for Promoting Positive Action...etc
News Clippings
Changing Employment and Wage Systems...etc
Special Issue
Five-Day School Week Begins at Public Schools
Statistical Reports
-Recent Statistical Survey Reports April 2002-
Features
FY 2001 National Survey on Lifestyle Preferences
Private Use of Internet in workplace (WEB Survey on Enterprises)
Basic Survey of Business Structure and Activities (2000)...etc
http://www.jil.go.jp/estatis/e2002-04.htm
Current Topics
-May Day Programs in 2002-
Last year, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), Japan's
largest confederation of labor and trade union organizations, surprised
many when they held their central May Day rally on the first day of
the "Golden Week" holidays instead of on May 1 (see the Special Issue
section below for more information on Golden Week). Rengo decided to
follow this precedent and held their 73rd annual May Day rally this
year on Saturday, April 27. The two other national labor confederations,
the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) and the National
Trade Union Council (Zenrokyo), as well as the regional chapters of
Rengo, continued to hold their May Day programs on May 1. About 710,000
people participated in the May 1 rallies held at some 460 venues nationwide.
Rengo, through their May Day activities, sought to remove some of
the prejudices attached to labor and trade unions as organizations
that are dedicated only to working for their members, and positioned
the May Day activities as a forum for reaffirming their solidarity
and commitment to peace, human rights, better labor conditions, and
the environment, and declared that they will work to build a society
that offers better welfare to working people and ensures greater
security and freedom for all. Rengo also invited, for the first time,
representatives of NGOs and NPOs to take part in the organizing committees
for their May Day activities.
Zenroren, for their part, reaffirmed their commitment to protecting
the livelihood and rights of workers and to creating a peaceful,
democratic, and politically neutral Japan at its May Day rally as a
backdrop to their strong opposition to Prime Minister Koizumi's policies.
Slogans seen at the May Day rallies voiced workers' fears about
unemployment and the recession, or declared opposition to Japan's
health care "reform" and "national emergency legislation", both of
which, proposed by Prime Minister Koizumi's government, are under
deliberation.
Public Policies
-Recommendations for Promoting Positive Action-
The Council for Promoting Women's Activities (comprising 14 corporate
CEOs, six academic representatives, and one government representative)
presented its recommendations for ensuring that corporations will take
a more active role in "positive action." The Council based its recommen
-dations on studies and discussions that it has conducted since last
July.
The recommendations defined "positive action" as programs designed
to eliminate the differences that still exist between male and female
workers despite laws that stipulate equal rights, and to build an
environment that will allow women to live up to their full potential.
The recommendations outlined why corporations must take part in positive
action and what advantages they may gain from such activities.
The Council also interviewed representatives of companies that are
actively promoting positive action as well as women at the heads of
their professions to identify the most important steps for promoting
such action. To corporate managers, project team members, personnel
managers, immediate workplace superiors, working women, working men,
the Council itself, and the government, the Council presented clear
tasks on what they should do to promote positive action.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare received the Council's
recommendations and undertook to implement the recommendations through
women's activity promotion councils organized by prefectural labor
bureaus as well as through cooperation with employers' associations.
-Telephone Center for Providing Employment Referral Information-
The Prefecture of Okinawa has established a telephone center for
providing the addresses and telephone numbers of the nearest employment
referral organization to people seeking employment from throughout Japan.
The telephone center began operation in late April.
Thirty operators at the telephone center handle calls from 0800 to
2200 on weekdays to offer information on employment referral organizations
as well as public organizations that provide services for developing
better work skills.
News Clippings
-Changing Employment and Wage Systems-
(1) Daiei Introduces its Unified Personnel System for Both Full-time
and Part-time Employees
The major supermarket chain Daiei has decided to remove the differences
in the way it manages its full-time and part-time employees, and began
implementing a new integrated system in May.
The new system affects all 11,000 full-time and 55,000 part-time
Daiei employees. Under the new system, Daiei employees will be bound
to one of three types of employment contracts based on their work hours
and their acceptance of workplace transfers. The three contracts are
as follows:
* Type A, offered to employees who can work full-time and who would
agree to being transferred;
* Type B, offered to employees who can work full-time but who would
refuse to be transferred; and
* Type C, offered to employees who work part-time and who would refuse
to be transferred.
(Nikkei Shimbun, April)
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2001-2003/2002a/vol.19/daiei_celestica.html
-Half-Day Work Hours for Assisting Child Care and Nursing Care Activities-
This month, Tokio Marine Life Insurance, a subsidiary of Tokio
Marine and Fire Insurance, introduced a system of offering shorter
working hours for employees who wish to take more time off work to
devote themselves to child raising and nursing care activities.
Under the new system, employees can choose to work from 1000 to
1500 instead of the regular 0915-to-1700 a day and also take about
four extra days off each month, thereby cutting their work hours by
half.
The new system will be offered to some 70 of the 170 employees
responsible for clerical and computer work who have worked for three
years or more. Employees on the professional track (as distinct from
those on the management track) will also be able to switch to the
general clerical track to take advantage of the new system for a
maximum of three years, then return to their original track. Men
whose spouses are not full-time homemakers may also take advantage
of this system.
Many companies offer child-care leave programs, but the leave
offered under these plans tends to be non-paid. Furthermore, employees
that take these leaves often find it difficult to fit in again once
they come back from leave. The new system of half-day work hours
offered by Tokio Marine Life Insurance looks like an imaginative
solution to this problem.
(Asahi Shimbun, April)
Special Issue
-Five-Day School Week Begins at Public Schools-
The period from the end of April to early May is called Golden Week
in Japan, because many statutory holidays are concentrated over this
span, and many companies simply choose to close down for the entire
period. It is also a time of pleasant spring weather, causing an exodus
from the cities to the countryside. Long traffic jams along the major
expressways have become an annual sight, as have scenes of families
attending May Day rallies with their children.
Not only grown-ups look forward to the holidays. Children who spend
their evenings at cram schools studying for entrance exams also welcome
this break from their studies..., which takes us to a new subject.
This April, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology designated a five-day school week for public schools, giving
children all their Saturdays and Sundays off. By means of this change,
the Ministry hopes to create a shift in educational emphasis from
"cramming in information" to "gaining real knowledge." Under the new
system, children will be expected to learn about 30% fewer "facts"
and concentrate more on "problem solving" and "life skills."
However, questions remain on whether the change will have the desired
effect.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2001-2003/2002a/vol.19/fivedayschool.html
