The JIL Labor Flash Vol.38
Email Journal 03.17.2003
Statistical Reports
Recent Statistical Survey Reports
Current Topics
Major banks drastically cutting their pension and retirement benefits
Public Policies
A Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Study Group proposes that
short-time workers working 20 hours or more per week subscribe to
their employee pension program
News Clippings
Survey on Outstanding Companies for FY2002 ...etc
Special Issue
Today's Japanese teenagers are pessimistic and introverted
Statistical Reports
-Recent Statistical Survey Reports February 2003-
http://www.jil.go.jp/estatis/esaikin/2003/e2003-02.htm
Features
Indices of Industrial Production (Preliminary Report for January)
Report on Employment Service (January)
Labor Force Survey : Detailed Analysis (Preliminary Report Oct.-Dec.)
Current Topics
-Major banks drastically cutting their pension and retirement benefits-
Major Japanese banks suffered deteriorating business as a result
of the collapse of the bubble economy and the bad debt issue, and at
one time received infusions of public funds. Lately, they have been
stepping up efforts to drastically restructure their organizations
and cut their workforce. Still, criticisms abound that the pensions
and retirement bonuses they provide are still unreasonably high
compared with other industries. Major banks have responded by disclosing
plans to cut the benefits they provide.
The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi will cut the pension benefits they
provide to employees retiring in April 2003 and thereafter by 7 to 20%.
The bank's retirement benefit is comprised of pensions and lump sum
payments. This revision applies to retirement pensions only. The bank
has been paying a pension by adding to the public pension, a set of
amount from the welfare pension fund which is a representative
corporate pension program. However, it seems that with pension
management becoming increasingly problematic recently because of
low interest rates and low stock prices, the bank decided that it
could no longer continue such substantial pension arrangements.
The Resona Bank Group, meanwhile, plans to cut the pensions of its
employees retiring in April 2003 and thereafter by as much as 48%.
The Mizuho Financial Group has already cut their retirement lump sum
starting this fiscal year by up to 40%, and has also decreased the
amount of pension benefits provided.
The total value of cuts to pensions (including retirement allowances
in certain instances) effected by the five major banking groups will
exceed 200 billion yen.
These moves show that the major banks have finally begun to slash
the levels of pensions and retirement allowances paid. Still,
differences between other industrial sectors are expected to remain,
and since the present curtailments apply only to people who will be
retiring from now on, it has been pointed that unfair treatment may
become an issue with respect to people who have already retired in
the past, who are still receiving handsome pensions.
Public Policies
-A Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Study Group proposes that
short-time workers working 20 hours or more per week subscribe to
their employee pension program-
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's Study Group on Employment
and Pensions has compiled a report entitled, "Towards the establishment
of a neutral pension system that can respond to diverse working styles."
The report focuses on expanding the coverage of pensions to workers
who are currently ineligible to subscribe to employee pensions, such
as part-time and other workers who work for short hours. The report
indicated its plan to establish the criteria for inclusion into employee
pensions as "weekly designated work hours of 20 hours or more, or an
annual income of 650,000 yen or more."
At present, of those who work for short periods, individuals whose
daily or weekly designated work hours, and whose designated workdays,
exceed three-quarters of those of regular employees, are required to
subscribe to employee pension programs. Those who do not meet these
criteria are required to subscribe to the National Pension Plan. If
a worker's annual income exceeds 1.3 million yen, he or she must pay
their own insurance premiums. If a worker's spouse is insured via an
employee pension and earns less than 1.3 million yen, he or she is
exempt from paying such premiums.
Therefore, if the system shifts to a new standard, there will be
fewer instances of juggling work hours to keep annual income to within
1.3 million. The Ministry expects to see a maximum of about 3.9 million
more insured individuals .
News Clippings
-Survey on Outstanding Companies for FY2002-
The top outstanding company is Honda, followed by Canon and Kao.
The FY2002 ranking according to PRISM, a multilateral corporate
assessment system developed jointly by Nihon Keizai Shimbunsha and
Nikkei Research, showed Honda regaining the No. 1 spot for the first
time in two years. The company was ranked fourth in the previous
fiscal year. It received high scores in a broad range of activities,
including its thorough risk management efforts and active filing of
patent applications.
Canon outscored Honda in three assessment items, including profitable
stores and growth potential, but ended up a close second because of
its low score in terms of "youthfulness" (based in part on the average
age of board directors).
Third-ranked Kao earned high scores for its activities involving
pension programs and stock option systems. They were followed by
Nissan Motor, ranked 4th, and Takeda Chemical, ranked 5th.
PRISM is an evaluation system for ranking corporations. It first
creates a model for assessing companies that experts regard as being
outstanding, using the four indices of flexibility/friendliness,
revenue and growth, R&D, and youthfulness. It then uses a 33-item
survey data combined with financial indices to calculate the overall
score. The system targets a total of 2,710 companies listed on Section 1
of the Tokyo Stock Exchange as well as influential non-listed companies.
(Nihon Keizai Shimbun, February)
-I'd rather have a homemaker Mom-
From May to June 2002, Benesse Educational Research Institute
conducted a questionnaire survey targeting children in the higher
grades of public elementary schools in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
The theme of the survey was "The family as a place to belong," and
responses were collected from 1,326 individuals.
When asked whether they would prefer a mother who stayed home and
took care of the family (homemakers) or a mother who worked outside
the home, 40.8% of the children surveyed preferred the former; 23.1%
preferred the latter; and 36.1% had no special preferences.
More girls than boys wanted their mothers to stay home (37.4% for
boys and 44.6% for girls).
Of the mothers of the children surveyed, 34% did housework only
(homemakers), and 45% worked outside the home (including part-time
and self-employed workers).
When asked if they believed housework (including taking care of
the family and doing household chores) to be a tough job, a total
of 85.4% of the children said that it was "very tough" or "rather tough."
On the other hand, a total of 42.3% of the respondents said that they
found housework done by their father challenging. Their answers seem
to show that the children are aware that their mothers are primarily
in charge of doing housework, and that this job is quite demanding.
Benesse Educational Research Institute analyzes the findings as
follows. Since long ago, it has been said in Japan that children grow
up observing what their parents do and think rather than what they say.
Children seem to grow up with a sense of security when they feel that
their parents are working hard and doing all they can to support the
family.
(Sankei Shimbun, February)
Special Issue
-Today's Japanese teenagers are pessimistic and introverted-
The Yomiuri Shimbun conducted a nationwide survey on Japanese youths
to primarily investigate the views of today's youngsters on society
and life, as well as how they believe they should lead their lives.
The survey targeted 5,000 individuals aged between 12 and 19.
Effective responses were sent in by 2,942 individuals (response rate:
59%).
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2001-2003/2003a/vol.38/teenagers.html
