PROTECTION URGED FOR JAPANS NON-REGULAR WORKERS

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While the Japanese economy is picking up after a decade-long malaise, the growing number of non-regular workers, many of them losing out on their social welfare benefits, are desperately trying to survive. Most of these non-regular workers are either freeters on dispatched workers.
 Freeters are young people in their teens and twenties who have part-time or casual jobs, while dispatched workers work under contract in a dispatching agency and perform any type of work except longshoring, construction, and security and medical care-related services. There were more than 1.7 million dispatched workers in Japan in 2001  a huge leap from only 144,000 workers in 1986.

In 2004, younger workers (15-24, 25-34 age groups) and elderly workers (65 years and over) dominate the non-regular sector. This is attributed to changes in the work values and preferences of workers regarding non-regular employment, particularly among those in younger age brackets. Another cause is the decrease in opportunities for regular employment, which unavoidably pushes people into non-regular employment.

These non-regular workers, particularly those in the younger age brackets, face a number of labor-related problems.

In one case, a man identified as Mr. M. entered a contract as a regular employee for a company that sells computers. Later, he found out that he was actually hired as a dispatched worker for another company that used his supposed employer to lure new college graduates like him. He also discovered that he has not been covered for social insurance. It was supposed to be his employers responsibility to pay half the premium.

Another case involved a Ms. K, a graduate of an arts college who was employed for a design company. She was told that she would not be covered for social insurance, even though her employer should pay half the premium. Furthermore, she had to spend her own money to purchase a computer and other equipment needed to do her job, and that she had to spend for her own traveling expenses. On top of it all, she was not paid for overtime work.

There are many examples of young workers who are pleased to get desirable, regular work, and then later find themselves as regular workers only by name.

This phenomenon of regular workers only by name can be traced from Japans seniority system, which forces young people to work with low wages in order to make a living.

Those who graduate from universities become part-time workers because there are very few jobs due to the economic depression. When they reach the age of 30 and think about getting married and starting a family, their employment status creates serious issues.

A woman may even be forced to quit her job because of pregnancy. Her partner has to support the household of three members with his single income of 2 million yen a year (about USD17,000). If they are lucky enough to be covered by public insurance, their household income can be compensated by a childbirth allowance of medical insurance and parenting-leave benefit of employment insurance. But many young people are not covered by public insurance because of they are non-regular workers.

Steps must be taken to find out more feasible measures within the current legal system to aid this situation to help young people survive in Japanese society.

Sources:

Hikaru Akutsu. The Era of All Losers  Create an Alternative Lifestyle printed in Womens Asia 21 issue No. 16, Winter 2006

The Japan Institute of Labor and Policy Training. Labor Situation in Japan and Analysis 2004/2005 as posted at
<http://www.jil.go.jp/english/laborinfo/library/documents/2004_Contents.pdf>

Statistics Bureau and Statistical Training Institute. Statistical Handbook of Japan posted at <file:///F:/Labor.htm>