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Tent village residents still out of work
A tent village [known as Haken Mura] for laid-off temporary workers set up in Tokyo’s Hibiya Park over the New Year’s holidays was officially declared closed Sunday at a symposium to discuss unemployment issues, but many of those who stayed in the village remain jobless. The group that organized the village, consisting of labor unions…
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Group organizing tent village for unemployed to be disbanded
The group that set up a tent village for laid-off temporary workers in Tokyo’s Hibiya Park over the New Year holidays will disband at the end of this month, the chief of the group said Wednesday. Makoto Yuasa said his group has decided to end its activities after helping to change peoples’ perceptions of the…
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5,631 temps killed, injured in work accidents in 2008
A total of 5,631 dispatch workers were killed or injured in work-related accidents in 2008, many of them inexperienced workers in the manufacturing industry, according to a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry report. While the figure is 254 lower than in 2007, it is still high–more than eight times the number injured or killed in…
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Exploited workers lose $20B a year
The exploitation of workers is a huge business worldwide. People forced to work without pay collectively lose more than $20 billion a year in earnings, according to a report from the United Nations International Labour Organization released Tuesday. Global profits from human trafficking and forced labor have reached $36 billion, according to the United Nations,…
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Japan to Immigrants: Thanks, But You Can Go Home Now
When union leader Francisco Freitas has something to say, Japan’s Brazilian community listens. The 49-year old director of the Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers called up the Brazilian Embassy in Tokyo April 14, fuming over a form being passed out at employment offices in Hamamatsu City, southwest of Tokyo. Double-sided and printed on large…
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English lessons on the cheap
So imagine my surprise when I found out a week from the end of the school year that I would not be returning to my school. The local Board of Education had changed the company that supplied assistant language teachers. Supportive teachers advised me to talk to the BOE and ask for a direct hire…
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Marriage rate for non-regular employees half that of regular employees
Single males in non-regular employment have a much lower marriage rate than that of regular employees, a government survey has shown. Moreover, the birth rate is lower among female non-regular workers than their regularly-employed peers, according to the survey. The results of the survey conducted by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry suggest that the…
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October-March temp firings up 26% to 157,806
An estimated 157,806 nonregular employees, mainly temporary workers in the manufacturing sector, are expected to lose their jobs between last October and next month amid the recession, a labor ministry survey showed Friday. The estimated number of job cuts during the six-month period represents a 26.4 percent rise from the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry’s…
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Nonregular workers axed hits 158,000
Nonregular workers who have lost their jobs or will become unemployed during the October-March period number 157,806 throughout the country, more than five times the corresponding figure in late November, a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry survey showed Friday. The ministry conducted the survey by collating data on nonregular employees from the ministry’s Hello Work…