The JIL Labor Flash Vol.26
Email Journal 02.09.2002

   Statistical Reports
     Recent Statistical Survey Reports
   Current Topics
     Attitudes of new employees have changed dramatically in the past
     decade
   Public Policies
     A sharp rise in young people not deciding to take up work;
     the government's employment measures
   News Clippings
     Tax burdens on individuals changing: More taxes imposed on
     the elderly...etc
   Special Issue
     The National Personnel Authority recommends for the first time
     a cut in monthly salaries of national public employees
   [What's New in our English website]

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Statistical Reports

   -Recent Statistical Survey Reports July 2002-
  
   Features
    Wage Survey of Private Corporate by Occupation (2002)
    Statistical Survey on Establishments and Enterprises (2001
    Provisional Report)
    Survey on Situation of Needs Toward Work (Provisional report
    in April, May)
   
     http://www.jil.go.jp/estatis/e2002-07.htm
    

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   Current Topics

   -Attitudes of new employees have changed dramatically in the past
    decade-
   
    The attitudes of new employees have been changing dramatically in
  recent years. As discussed in last year's July and September issues
  of JIL Labor Flash (Volumes 1 and 3, respectively), recent surveys
  of the attitudes of new corporate employees conducted by the Sanno
  College (the Sanno Institute of Management) revealed that new recruits
  did not mind having a non-Japanese individual as their superior, but
  did object to having a female as their superior. The surveys also
  showed that an unexpectedly large number of young people support the
  seniority-type wage system.
 
   Continued on;
     http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2001-2003/2002b/vol.26/attitude.html
 

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   Public Policies

   -A sharp rise in young people not deciding to take up work; the
    government's employment measures-
  
    According to a flash report on the School Basic Survey published
  by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology,
  about 280,000 of graduates from universities, junior colleges, and
  high schools this spring did not advance to higher educational
  institutions or join the workforce. These jobless individuals accounted
  for 21.7% of all university graduates, the second highest percentage
  in past history, and 10.5% of all high school graduates, an all-time
  high.
 
    This sharp increase in the number of young people having no immediate
  plans to join the workforce carries the risk of reducing Japan's
  economic competitiveness and jeopardizing our financial infrastructures
  of social security. To rectify the situation, the Ministry of Health,
  Labor and Welfare has decided to implement in FY2003 a program targeting
  young people, the Comprehensive Plan for Choosing an Optimal Occupation.
 
    The Plan will mainly comprise job experience programs, in which
  junior high and high school students can take advantage of their
  "Integrated Study" period to experience working in offices and other
  workplaces; an internship program conducted in cooperation with the
  public employment security office; and the promotion of trial employment
  whereby companies employ young people for a set period on a trial basis.
 
    The Ministry also took note of the recent trend whereby 70% of middle
  school graduates, 50% of high school graduates, and 30% of university
  graduates leave their jobs within three years of starting work. It
  therefore decided to launch a support program to provide "pre-training"
  to teach graduates what is expected of them in terms of attitudes and
  behavior, and other matters.

    In spite of these government efforts, companies continue to reduce
  the number of new graduates they are hiring. High school graduates,
  in particular, are being affected the most seriously by the recent
  trend for companies to place emphasis on hiring part-time workers
  instead of regular employees. As a result, of male high school students
  expected to graduate in 2003, the number hired as part-time employees
  overtook those hired as regular employees.

    There is now an even greater need to create more attractive jobs
  and occupations, and to implement extensive and comprehensive programs
  and measures that include not only schools and the administration but
  also companies and regional communities.

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   News Clippings

   -Tax burdens on individuals changing: More taxes imposed on the
    elderly-
   
    The Japan Institute of Life Insurance, a survey organ covering the
  life insurance sector, conducted a survey in FY2001. In the survey,
  two-member (husband and wife) households earning annual incomes of 5
  to 7 million yen cited 376,000 yen as the amount of money needed per
  month to maintain a comfortable lifestyle after retirement. They also
  cited 234,000 yen as the minimum post-retirement monthly living expenses.
 
    The Japanese elderly are said to be affluent, holding 70% of the
  country's total personal financial assets. Still, many older individuals
  are concerned about their future. They are especially worried about the
  risk to public pension benefits as a result of the fewer number of
  children who will support such systems in the future.
 
    In its basic policy outlined in June of this year, the government's
  Tax Commission proposed a revision of the public pension exemption
  system that entitles a pension recipient to receive tax exemptions
  according to their pension income amount. Since this would apply to
  all elderly individuals with pension incomes, the revision would
  translate into a virtual cut in pension benefits. A system of
  introducing a commodity price sliding scale for public pension benefits
  in FY2003, which decreases the amount of public pension benefits in
  line with drops in commodity prices, is planned to be reinstated.
 
    According to a Basic Survey on National Life for FY2001, households
  of elderly individuals earned an average annual income of 3,393,000 yen.
  However, a hefty 64% of these households earned less than this average
  annual income. Moreover, 25% of households earning less than 1 million
  yen have no cash savings. These figures are evidence that a large number
  of elderly households are existing under economically straitened
  circumstances.
  
    1US$≒\118 (September 2002)
                                              (Sankei Shimbun, August)

   -Sixty-five percent of companies are considering increasing their R&D
    expenditure-
   
    Companies are maintaining a positive attitude toward R&D. According
  to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun's survey on R&D activities, R&D expenditures
  for FY2002 rose 2.98% over the previous year on a consolidated basis,
  and 186 out of 286 companies surveyed, or 65%, planned to increase
  their R&D expenditures. Close to 60% of the companies surveyed responded
  that they planned to expand their cooperation with Japanese universities,
  reflecting their growing hopes of industry-university alliances.
 
    The actual amounts of R&D expenses that the surveyed companies cited
  for FY2001 rose by 4.32%, an increase for two consecutive years. As
  of March 31, 2003, the companies also planned to increase the number
  of researchers by 0.48% over that of the previous year. This shows a
  trend in which, while the total number of employees continues to drop,
  companies are opting to retain personnel in their research departments.
 
    As reasons for this trend, about 40% of the companies cited the
  need to conduct R&D to survive intensifying competition. This greatly
  surpassed the number of companies that cited "expansion of business
  fields and the need to launch or develop new business projects" as
  their chief reason, showing how companies are vigorously working to
  develop their business to survive.
 
    Sectors that showed particularly marked increases in R&D expenditure
  included pharmaceuticals (12.9%), foods (8.1%), automobiles (6.1%),
  chemicals (5.7%), and others.
                                          (Nihon Keizai Shimbun, July)

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   Special Issue

   -The National Personnel Authority recommends for the first time a cut
    in monthly salaries of national public employees-
   
    On August 8, the National Personnel Authority submitted to the Diet
  and the Cabinet their recommendation to revise the wages of national
  public employees for FY2002.
 
    The system of the National Personnel Authority was described in JLF
  Vol. 3.
 
   Continued on;
     http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2001-2003/2002b/vol.26/npa.html
 

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   [What's New in our English website]
  
   -Japanese Working life Profile 2002 (Newly Updated!)-
   
     http://www.jil.go.jp/english/workinglifeprofile/2002.pdf (PDF:3.48MB)