Looking back on 2003
December is regarded in Japan as being the most hectic month of the year. For better or worse, only a few days of 2003 remain. Let us look back on the past year, focusing on Japan's labor issues.
This was a year where a sense of helplessness and deadlock loomed over the country, from start to finish.
It appears that Junichiro Koizumi and his administration, advocating administrative, financial, and political structural reforms as well as the promotion of privatization, won the public's trust in the recent election after two and a half years in power (see our previous issue). However, the effects of these reforms and proof of economic recovery have not been evident this past year. As for the dispatch of the Self Defense Forces (SDF) to Iraq, an issue that has set off a nationwide debate, there are growing calls, as a result of the recent murder of two Japanese career diplomats, for the government to act more cautiously. However, members of the SDF are likely to be dispatched without the government sufficiently clearing up the doubts and reservations held by many of Japanese people.
The policies for the 2004 spring joint labor negotiations, recently published by Rengo and other labor unions, lack punch. Likewise, although the findings of a number of surveys were released recently, none seems cheerful enough to lift the general mood of gloom.
Indeed, a survey of union dues, which Rengo-RIALS (Research Institute for Advancement of Living Standards) conducted for the first time in two years, revealed the tough financial status that labor unions are placed in due to the continued downward trend in their number of members.
Meanwhile, the Status of Major Corporations' Settlements by Type of Business (interim report) released by Nippon Keidanren showed that, of the 293 companies surveyed, all major corporations representing 22 major business categories, 154 companies on which data could be compiled saw increases in the amount of winter bonus that were agreed upon. This was the first year-on-year increase in three years. The weighted average amount was 820,575 yen per union member, which was 15,164 yen, or 1.88%, up from the same period in 2002. However, according to the first ever compilation by the People's Joint Struggle Committee for Spring Joint Labour Negotiations (a joint-struggle organization which the National Confederation of Trade Unions, the Council on Genuine Independent Labour Unions, and other organizations establish for a limited period during spring joint labor negotiations), the amount of winter bonus agreed upon by the 197 unions that received offers from management was equivalent to 2.16 months, a simple average of 625,816 yen. The weighted average, however, was 797,468 yen, approximately 37,000 yen less than the amount shown during the same period of the previous year.
Japan's high unemployment rate among middle-aged and older individuals as well as young people is clearly casting a darkening shadow on society, with the so-called Japanese-style labor-management relationships gradually collapsing. It appears, however, that the Japanese people's working styles have not, on the whole, changed much over the past year. This is evident in the fact that the rate of employees taking their allocated paid vacation days recorded an all-time low, and the reality that the number of people dying from overwork--which has become such a serious issue--has not decreased significantly.
Can Japan's current government, labor and management resolve these problems and challenges, and chase away the prevailing sense of gloom? One thing is certain: 2004 will be a year when government, labor and management will finally be put to the test.
