Category: News

  • Matsushita Plasma got around rule on subcontracted workers

    Matsushita Plasma Display Panel Co. (MPDP) rectified its illegal labor situation at a factory in July 2005, but implemented a similar system less than a year later after some shifty maneuvers, sources said. The problem surrounds a plasma-TV manufacturing plant in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, where between 700 and 800 workers from subcontracted companies are making…

  • Matsushita sidesteps law to continue dodgy labor practice at factory

    Matsushita Plasma Display Panel Co. (MPDP) rectified its illegal labor situation at a factory in July 2005, but implemented a similar system less than a year later after some shifty legal maneuvers, sources said. The problem surrounds a plasma-TV manufacturing plant in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, where between 700 and 800 workers dispatched from subcontracted companies…

  • Big-name firms using dodgy labor practices

    Some of Japan’s biggest manufacturers are skirting labor laws in a practice that allows them to avoid responsibility for the safety of “subcontracted” workers. The system also leaves the workers vulnerable to low pay and sudden dismissal. These companies have been repeatedly warned by prefectural labor bureaus to change their hiring practices, but many offenders…

  • Louis Carlet Profiled in Mainichi Shimbun

    Tokyo Nambu Deputy General Secretary Louis Carlet was profiled under the people section of page three of the Mainichi Shimbun. Japanese Link: http://www.mainichi-msn.co.jp/shakai/wadai/news/20060730k0000m070121000c.html

  • Revised ordinance bars gangs from sponsoring foreign entertainers

    An amended government ordinance entered force Thursday, banning companies linked to organized crime syndicates from sponsoring foreign singers and dancers entering Japan on entertainment visas. The updated Justice Ministry ordinance is aimed at tackling human trafficking as foreign women who have entered Japan as entertainers have often been forced to work for low wages as…

  • Registered foreigners top 2 million

    The number of registered foreign residents in Japan at the end of 2005 totaled roughly 2,011,500, surpassing the 2 million mark for the first time ever, the Justice Ministry announced Friday. The figure was up 1.9 percent from a year ago and foreign nationals now account for 1.57 percent of the total population. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060527a2.html

  • Japan set to accept more skilled foreign professionals

    Japan is set to accept more foreign professionals by introducing more flexible immigration policies, the government said Thursday in line with a set of policy targets adopted by a government panel and aimed at securing leadership in international society. In an attempt to attract more human resources with highly advanced knowledge and techniques from abroad,…

  • U.N. rapporteur raps Japan’s law on fingerprinting foreigners

    A special U.N. rapporteur on racism on Thursday criticized Japan’s new immigration legislation on fingerprinting and photographing all foreign visitors as a process of treating foreigners like criminals. Doudou Diene, on his last day of a six-day visit to Japan to conduct a follow-up of his report on racism, said at a press conference in…

  • Diet passes bill to take foreigners’ prints, pics

    Despite strong criticism from the Japan Federation of Bar Associations and human rights organizations, the bill cleared the House of Councilors with a majority vote by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito. With the revision of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law, an estimated 6 million to 7 million foreigners entering Japan…

  • Nova projects net loss as rapid expansion backfires

    Nova Corp said Friday it expects its group net balance to have fallen into the red in the business year through last March with a loss of 3 billion yen as a result of competition for student enrollment among its own schools. The major English conversation school operator had projected a 200 million yen profit…