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How the homeless are fighting Nike in Shibuya’s Miyashita Park
Homeless people and their advocates are battling plans by sportswear giant Nike to fund the renovation of a dank, squatter-friendly ‘park’ into a sports ground for youth Less than a block away from where the fashionistas gather to shop for designer brands in Tokyo’s Shibuya district, a flight of stairs leads to a narrow park…
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Hunger strike at immigration center
About 60 detainees at the East Japan Immigration Control Center in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, have been on hunger strike since Monday to seek better treatment, a Tokyo-based volunteer group member said Wednesday. Meanwhile, center spokesman Hiroki Shimizu confirmed to The Japan Times that about 30 detainees, rather than 60, have refused to eat since Monday.…
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Language sets high hurdle for caregiver candidates
FOREIGN NURSES Since the first batch of Indonesian nurses and caregivers arrived in 2008 under a new bilateral economic partnership agreement, 570 have come to Japan, as have 310 Filipinos under another EPA that took effect two years ago. But just two Indonesians and one Filipino — out of 254 applicants — passed Japan’s nursing…
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Fresh batch of Filipino nurses, caregivers to leave for Japan
A fresh batch of over 100 candidate nurses and caregivers will leave the Philippines for Japan this weekend to begin free language and skills training, officials said Saturday. A total of 46 nurses and 70 caregivers, the third group of Filipino health workers to be sent to Japan, will depart Sunday to undergo a six-month…
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Chiba city’s native speaker English classes canceled after ALT contracts found illegal
This is just more reason to unionize. Stop illegal dispatching and claim higher wages and better benefits. Don’t be taken advantage of by these middlemen and these Boards of Education that want to hire you without paying you what they should and without affording you what is rightfully yours under Japanese law. This “cooling off…
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The role of labor unions
Japanese workers mark this year’s May Day amid continued hard economic times and a harsh employment situation. This is an opportune time for serious discussion on the role labor unions can play to create a society where people can toil with hope for the future. Japan’s unemployment rate in February remained stuck at relatively high…
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First May Day in Post-LDP Japan: Workers Say, “Nothing Has Changed”
Over the last ten years, wages in Japan declined 10% even as the profits of big corporations doubled. The average manufacturing worker saw a month’s pay disappear from his annual earning last year. Meanwhile, none of the Democratic Party’s electoral promises — the removal of the Futenma base, health care reform to relieve the hardship…
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Wages see first rise in 22 months
Wages rose for the first time in 22 months in March after a pickup in manufacturing led to a sharp increase in overtime pay, the labor ministry said in a preliminary report released Friday. Workers at companies with five employees or more earned ¥275,637 a month on average, with overtime and other nonscheduled pay gaining…
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Japan Mar Average Wages +0.8% Y/Y, 1st Rise In 22 Months
The average monthly total cash earnings per regular employee in Japan rose by a preliminary 0.8% year-over-year to Y275,637 in March, posting the first y/y rise in 22 months, data from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare released on Friday showed. It followed a 0.6% fall in February, when the pace of the y/y…
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Japan Spending, Wages Rise as Prices Slump 13th Month
Japan’s household spending, wages and job openings increased, while consumer prices tumbled for a 13th straight month, signaling a sustained recovery that’s still not strong enough to end deflation. Wages advanced 0.8 percent, the first increase in 22 months, the Labor Ministry said. Finance Minister Naoto Kan said today that the central bank may forecast…