The Japan Labor Flash
No.45
Email Journal September 1, 2005
Statistical Reports
Main Labor Economic Indicators
Current Topics
Postal Privatization Bills Rejected, Lower House Dissolved, and
General Election to Come
36.6 Percent of Firms Surveyed Consider Reducing or Giving up
"Golden Parachuting"
Public Policies
Child-Care Leave System at a Standstill
Public Policies
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Formulates Criteria
for Evaluating Ability in Automobile Manufacturing (Assembly)
Dell Japan Suspected of Violation of the Employment Security Law,
File Sent to Prosecutors' Office by Kanagawa Police
Public Policies
Prime Minister Koizumi Dissolves the Lower House - How Will the
Public Verdict Go?
Statistical Reports
-Main Labor Economic Indicators-
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/estatis/eshuyo/200509/index.htm
Current Topics
-Postal Privatization Bills Rejected, Lower House Dissolved, and
General Election to Come-
A set of bills to privatize Japan Post, on which Prime Minister
Koizumi had gambled the fate of his administration as the centerpiece
of his administrative and financial reform, was rejected on August 8
in a plenary session of the Upper House, having earlier barely
squeezed through the Lower House. In a situation where the bills
would be rejected if 18 or more lawmakers of the ruling party, the LDP,
cast dissenting votes, there was much last-minute wheeling and dealing.
Eventually, 22 members of the Prime Minister's party voted against
the bills; 108 votes were cast for the bills and 125 against, with
eight members abstaining or absent.
Prime Minister Koizumi, having announced clearly that he would see
a dissenting vote as a no-confidence motion against the government,
immediately convened an extraordinary gathering of Cabinet members,
which decided to dissolve the House of Representatives and call a
general election for September 11.
The number of LDP members who voted down the legislation in the
plenary session of the House of Representatives in July was 37, with
14 members abstaining or absent, making a total of 51 lawmakers.
The LDP leadership decided not to let members who voted against the
bills run as its official candidates and set up its own candidates
to oppose them.
-36.6 Percent of Firms Surveyed Consider Reducing or Giving up
"Golden Parachuting"-
In August, Teikoku Data Bank Ltd. published the results of a survey
of corporate views on "amakudari", (Golden Parachuting), and
bid
-riggings. The survey, carried out in July, targeted 21,320 private
firms across the country, with the valid replies totaling 10,203
(valid reply rate of 47.9 percent).
Firms which offered executive posts to former government officials
totaled 369 (3.6 percent of the respondent firms), of which 67
(18.2 percent) were considering cuts in the number of former
bureaucrats accepted and 68 (18.4 percent) have refrained from the
acceptance. Firms which said that they would continue hiring former
bureaucrats totaled 107 (29.0 percent), less than the number of firms
which indicated their intention to cut the number of bureaucrats
accepted or to stop acceptance altogether (36.6 percent). In the
meantime, firms which replied that the amakudari practice serves as
a breeding ground for bid-rigging, etc. totaled 8,498 (83.3 percent),
although 7,077 firms (75.5 percent) felt that bid-rigging would still
persist.
Public Policies
-Child-Care Leave System at a Standstill-
In August, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare published the
results of FY 2004 Basic Survey on the Employment of Women. According
to the survey results, the percentage of female workers taking child
-care leave among all female workers in fiscal year 2003 stood at 70.6
percent, an increase of 6.6 points from the previous fiscal year,
although the rate for male workers remained a mere 0.56 percent, an
increase of 0.23 point. The proportions of business establishments
which had regulations in accordance with the Equal Employment
Opportunity Law for supervising maternal health - a maternity leave
system and measures to reduce the burden of commuting for pregnant
women - were 37.7 percent and 28.5 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, a questionnaire survey recently published by the Foundation
for Children's Future concerning "absences from home, etc. of mothers
engaged in child-rearing" (carried out in November 2004, with valid
replies totaling 1069) shows that 80.2 percent of pregnant women and
mothers with children aged under 3 feel that Japanese society is not
conducive to making women feel comfortable about giving birth and
rearing children. The proportion of those who feel that society as
a whole views pregnancy and child-rearing with indifference or
insensitivity is as high as 44.2 percent, underlining women's
dissatisfaction with and concern about the attitude of society
towards child-care.
At the same time, since the employment conditions for female doctors
are particularly severe in departments such as pediatrics, obstetrics
and gynecology, and anesthesiology, all of which suffer from a serious
shortage of doctors, a considerable number of female doctors in those
departments give up their jobs upon giving birth or beginning child
rearing. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has decided to
establish a "human resource bank of female doctors" (tentative
name)
which will encourage medical institutions where permanent doctors are
dominant to adopt a scheme allowing flexible working patterns, and to
introduce medical institutions which are willing to accept part-time
doctors to accommodate the increasing number of female doctors who
wish to continue working while taking care of their children or to
resume working after child-care.
Public Policies
-The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Formulates Criteria for
Evaluating Ability in Automobile Manufacturing (Assembly)-
In August, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare drew up a set
of criteria to be used in objectively assessing the ability of workers
in the automobile manufacturing sector (assembly). Formulation of the
criteria, in which ability standards are set at four levels (from
ordinary personnel to managers of organizations or departments), was
entrusted to a committee comprising business persons and scholars, in
collaboration with the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, Inc.
and the Confederation of Japan Automobile Workers' Unions.
Specifically, the abilities needed for assembly operations are
classified into general abilities and specific abilities. General
abilities consist of (i) corporate ethics and social responsibility
of firms; (ii) cooperation with others; (iii) task management;
(iv) safety and health; (v) detection and handling of irregular
situations; (vi) promotion of activities for improvement;
(vii) manufacturing control; (viii) work instruction; and
(ix) systematic development of human resources. On the other hand,
specific abilities are further divided into manufacturing control
and assembly. Manufacturing control comprises (i) planning of factory
production; (ii) product development; and (iii) maintenance of
facilities. Assembly includes (i) work related to the procurement
and supply of spare parts; (ii) work on the assembly line (exterior
and interior finish, wiring, pipe-fitting, engine-related work,
underbody work, and greasing); (iii) final examination of line work;
(iv) maintenance of facilities; (v) work instruction; (vi) product
development; and (vii) advanced skills. The criteria for evaluating
ability not only include the knowledge required for each level but
also present examples of typical action which are used as benchmarks
to see if workers can execute tasks properly. Together with the criteria,
a "diagnostic sheet for ability" is drawn up so that the criteria
can
be used for recruitment and personnel evaluation.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has so far drawn up
similar criteria for ability evaluation for 14 occupations, including
office work such as accounting and personnel management, manufacturing
of electrical equipment and machinery, and hotel work. It,is also
currently working on criteria for a wide range of business sectors
such as advertising and landscaping.
(Press Release, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, August)
-Dell Japan Suspected of Violation of the Employment Security Law,
File Sent to Prosecutors' Office by Kanagawa Police-
A leading world computer manufacturer's Japanese affiliate, Dell
Inc., was charged with violating the Employment Security Law.
In hiring sales staff, it conducted interviews directly but had a
personnel dispatch company hire the workers it wanted, then took on
those workers as dispatched employees. For this reason, on August 12
the Kanagawa Prefectural Police decided that the conduct constituted
a "placement service", which is banned by the law, and gave
prosecutors
the file on the company and a former employee who was responsible for
the hiring. The company reportedly contacted some 200 workers over a
period of about two years up until 2004, conducted direct interviews,
then had a dispatch agency hire them. Business establishments are
required, when engaging in job placement services, to obtain a permit
according to the Employment Security Law. In principle, regulations
concerning the Worker Dispatch Law, and the guidelines laid down by
the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, prohibit firms from hiring
dispatched workers after directly selecting them and then asking
agencies to dispatch them, on the grounds that the dispatch of workers
should be judged by dispatch agencies in accordance with the workers'
ability. The company commented on the case, stating, "it is true
that
our understanding was insufficient and that the company introduced
workers to a dispatch agency against the law. We received an
instruction from the Kanagawa Labor Bureau in 2004, remedied the
violation, and have had no problem since."
(Asahi Shimbun, August)
Public Policies
-Prime Minister Koizumi Dissolves the Lower House - How Will the
Public Verdict Go?-
As explained in the Current Topics, a series of bills to privatize
Japan Post was voted down, after which Prime Minister Koizumi dissolved
the House of Representatives and called for a general election.
Openly recognizing that the government would not be able to conduct
administrative and financial reform if it could not even privatize
Japan Post, Prime Minister Koizumi declared that the dissenting votes
were a campaign to topple the government, and decided not to cooperate
in the election of LDP members who had cast dissenting votes against
privatization, including lawmakers representing the interests of those
involved in the sector. Believing that the Japanese people would call
for the postal reforms even if the Diet said "no" and the LDP
split up,
he resorted to dissolution and called for a general election to test
the public's view on the reforms.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2005/no.45/45_si.html
