The Japan Labor Flash
No.31
Email Journal February 1, 2005
JILPT Information
The Japan Labor Flash Reader Questionnaire
Statistical Reports
Main Labor Economic Indicators
Current Topics
Companies are utilizing IT on a limited basis only …etc.
Public Policies
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications making serious
efforts to encourage teleworking
Public Policies
Sony adopts a recruiting system that enables college graduates to
join the company any time within the following 2 years upon receipt
of unofficial promise of employment …etc.
Public Policies
Labor and management start negotiations for spring 2005
JILPT Information
The Japan Labor Flash Reader Questionnaire
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Statistical Reports
-Main Labor Economic Indicators-
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/estatis/eshuyo/200502/index.htm
Current Topics
-Companies are utilizing IT on a limited basis only-
In January, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced
the results of a fact-finding survey on IT business collaborations
that it carried out from January to March 2004. The survey comprised
a questionnaire targeting 10,068 listed companies and interviews with
23 corporations. A total of 890 companies answered, making the response
rate 8.8%. According to the survey, a majority of companies--87.9% of
large-scale companies and 69.5% of small- to medium-scale enterprises--
understood the need to make use of information technologies to achieve
their strategic goals. However, the survey also showed that as many as
78.1% of the former and 89.6% of the latter have either not yet been
able to fully utilize IT, or are able to make use of IT at an optimum
level only within individual departments. As seen, companies have a
low maturation value for IT usage.
-Hiring of non-Japanese by business offices increased 6.6%-
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare recently announced
the results of a report on the employment status of non-Japanese
nationals as of June 2004. A total of 24,678 business offices were
either directly or indirectly (as temporary worker from an agency
or under contract) employing non-Japanese workers, up 6.6% over the
previous year. Of these, 22,127 business offices employed such workers
directly (number of workers: 179,966), and 5,135 business offices
employed them indirectly, or partly indirectly (number of workers:
132,436).
Public Policies
-Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications making serious
efforts to encourage teleworking-
In December 2004, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
formulated the Telework Security Guidelines, to support companies’
efforts to introduce a teleworking environment featuring a high level
of information security. The Guidelines list the minimum information
security measures that corporations launching teleworking systems
should implement. In drawing up the Guidelines, the Ministry used
examples of loss of information security and other problems that
actually occurred at teleworking sites.
The Ministry positions teleworking as a flexible employment pattern
that simultaneously enhances workers' welfare and operational efficiency.
It expects that encouraging wider adoption of the teleworking system
can contribute to solving social issues and problems, such as the falling
birthrate and the aging of the population, as well as helping to preserve
the global environment. From January of this year, it began implementing
teleworking on a test basis within the Ministry. This was the first time
for the program to be applied to government officials. In trying out
this system, the Ministry focused especially on organizing problems
and tasks related to information security measures, in the hope of
rationalizing and solving those problems and tasks to cope with the
likely expansion of teleworking after FY2005.
As one measure to further promote the system, moreover, the Ministry
decided to establish in April a telework forum, with the government,
industries and universities working together.
Public Policies
-Sony adopts a recruiting system that enables college graduates to
join the company any time within the following 2 years upon receipt
of unofficial promise of employment-
Sony will introduce a new system of hiring new college graduates.
Beginning with FY2006 recruitment activities, the company will hold
examinations four times between spring and summer. Approximately 220
university and graduate school graduates are planned to be hired,
and those who receive informal promises of employment are free to
choose the date that they will join the company within the next two
years.
Large companies tend to conduct recruiting activities in April, with
the period of hiring new university graduates being concentrated in
April of the following year. Many have found this practice to be a
problem, since it carries the danger of interfering with the students'
academic studies. However, this is the first time for a company to
carry out employment examinations for new college graduates at four
different times, and to allow the students to decide the time, within
the next two years, that they wish to join the company.
To eliminate the gap between the content of work the students had
envisaged prior to joining the company, and the actual work assigned
to them after joining the company, Sony has decided to have each
business department adopt a method to involve itself with the recruitment
process. With the implementation of this new method, the company hopes
to further develop a setup that will make it easier for students to apply.
(Nihon Keizai Shimbun, January)
-Using a downtown office building to support people who wish to take
up farming-
A "factory" for growing rice and vegetables will begin operations
by as early as February, in the basement of a building located in
the heart of an office district in Otemachi, Tokyo. The building was
once used as a safety vault for a major bank. The plan calls for
growing vegetables and fruit by only using light-emitting diodes (LEDs)
and other forms of artificial lighting.
This project is being jointly carried out by a job-switching support
company established with investments provided by approximately 30
companies including Canon and Sony, and by Pasona Inc., a temporary
staffing company. The companies will use the farming facility,
intentionally built in a convenient downtown location, to provide
agricultural training to unemployed youths as well as middle-aged
and older individuals who have lost their jobs due to corporate
restructuring, to help them to take up farming.
The two companies have judged that, from now on, agriculture will
have room to expand and absorb more jobs. They have embarked on an
experiment to manage a factory for producing high value-added vegetables,
and to provide assistance for encouraging people to take up farming.
Initially, several youths--former "freeters," or job-hopping
part-time workers--who are hoping to take up farming, will be placed
in charge of growing crops. They were sent to Ogata Village in Akita
Prefecture and underwent extensive on-the-job training for farming.
Since FY2003, a total of approximately 100 middle-aged and older
salaried workers and freeters have been sent to the village to undergo
such farming. In the future, training in cultivation techniques will
be carried out at this vegetable factory during winter when on-site
training cannot be performed in the field.
The factory will be open from 10 a.m. to about 9 p.m. to allow male
and female company employees on their way home from work to try out
high-tech farming for themselves. Individuals who wish to take up
farming will reportedly undergo full training at a later date.
(Asahi Shimbun, January)
Public Policies
-Labor and management start negotiations for spring 2005-
On January 18, top officials at Rengo (the Japanese Trade Union
Confederation), and Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) met
to discuss future wage systems and other issues, marking the virtual
start of this spring's labor-management negotiations.
Last year's negotiations began on a tough note, with management
hinting at the possibility of basic wage cuts.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2005/no.31/31_si.html
