Employers' organizations submit joint proposal regarding hiring of young workers

In May, Nippon Keidanren and the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry submitted to the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry a joint proposal on the promotion of recruitment and fostering of human resources focusing on young people

As measures addressing non-employed youths, the proposal calls for new programs carried out by close collaboration among schools, corporations, and the administration. It also urges that a comprehensive strategic plan be drawn up to this end.

As the center for implementing these new measures, the proposal calls for the establishment of a Career Center (provisional title) to be set up and run by the local area, and in collaboration with industry, the private sector, NPOs, municipalities, and Public Employment Security Offices. The two organizations emphasized the need to coordinate information provision with support activities to foster vocationa awareness (such as internships), and to implement, in an integrated, one-stop manner, the following services, which had traditionally been carried out independently: (1) provision of information on corporations and job listings; (2) referral of jobseekers to employers; (3) counseling to form a solid occupational/vocational awareness and to clarify job seekers' interests and intended career paths; and (4) introduction of training programs.

At the same time, the proposal pointed out the following as measures to be bolstered and improved: (1) unifying the internship support setup (governing ministries) and active use of the referral planned personnel dispatch system (including trial recruitments); (2) studying a government-established, privately-run system so that the government can cooperate with the private sector in providing recruitment information; (3) devising a human resource fostering program based on occupation-specific career maps and utilizing private-sector individuals in public vocational training facilities.

Prior to this, Nippon Keidanren had published a report in April entitled "Boosting Industrial Power--Tasks and Outlooks." In this report, it stressed the need for strengthening recruitment intermediation through the use of private-sector vitality, as well as tuning Public Employment Security Offices' functions to those that match the actual market. The report proposes measures that give shape to the vision launched by Chairman Hiroshi Okuda in January, aiming at creating a Japan filled with vitality and interest. As can be seen, Japanese employers' organizations have become extremely outspoken recently, drawing public attention with one combative statement after another.