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Deaths show low-income earners most vulnerable to savage heat of Japanese summer
One 48-year-old man, who was once homeless but had begun working, died of what is thought to be heat stroke on July 26 at his un-air conditioned Tokyo apartment. On Aug. 15 a 76-year-old man in Saitama, north-west of Tokyo, died of heatstroke because he couldn’t afford the electricity to run his air conditioner. “People…
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Nissan to give temps some stability
Nissan Motor Co. will forgo using job-placement agencies and start directly hiring all temporary nonengineering staff in phases beginning in October in an apparent effort to provide employment stability to workers in line with a labor office request, company officials said Wednesday. Nissan’s move may spur other companies to rethink their hiring practices, analysts say,…
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Business English revives schools
The recent corporate trend of making English the “official language” within companies has given a tailwind to the formerly faltering English language school business. As a number of companies aim to establish or maintain a global presence, English language schools are working to develop educational programs more practical than those offered by their rivals for…
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Nissan to phase out temp worker positions in favor of contract jobs
Nissan Motor Co. said it plans to phase out clerical positions filled by temporary workers and replace them with contract positions beginning in October. The automaker apparently made the decision after it was instructed by the Tokyo Labor Bureau to improve its employment practices in accordance with the Worker Dispatching Law. Currently, there are around…
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Screeners question if benefits outweigh the costs
Concerns are growing over the future of a public program to dispatch foreign teachers to Japanese public schools as a key administrative reform panel has urged the government-linked body that runs the program to drastically cut its overall budget. But government officials in charge of the operating body told The Japan Times recently the recommendation…
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Strict immigration rules may threaten Japan’s future
Her new country needs her, her new employer adores her, and Joyce Anne Paulino, who landed here 14 months ago knowing not a word of the language, can now say in Japanese that she’d like very much to stay. But Paulino, 31, a nurse from the Philippines, worries about the odds. To stay in Japan…
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Hike in minimum wages
Hourly minimum wages are set to create a society in which all people can earn a living if they work diligently. The Central Minimum Wages Council of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has decided on an average raise of 15 yen in minimum hourly wages set by prefectures. In its manifesto for the…
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The only Filipino nurse to pass Japan’s nursing exam
Ever Lalin, like others in the first batch of 98 nurses and caregivers who went to Japan May last year for a training stint preparatory to taking the Japanese nursing licensure exam, had no prior lessons in the Niponggo language. “Halimaw ah (A monster’s feat),” cheered nurse bloggers when it was announced last March that…
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ＡＬＴ「難」山積み 自治体財政、人材確保、労働環境
教育委員会が「偽装請負」で指導を受ける。そんな事態が後を絶たない。それでも多くの教委が外国語指導助手（ＡＬＴ）の業務委託（請負）を続ける背景には、自治体の厳しい財政事情や人材確保の難しさがある。一方で外国人の相談を受ける労働組合には、ＡＬＴが続々と駆け込む。偽装請負トラブルの火種を抱えたまま、多くの教委が来春、小学校の英語必修化を迎えることになる。
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Average minimum hourly wage to rise 15 yen to 728 yen in Japan
A government advisory panel is expected to recommend Friday that a weighted-average hourly minimum wage in Japan be raised by 15 yen to 728 yen for fiscal 2010 that started in April, government sources said Thursday. The increase would exceed 10 yen for fiscal 2009 and be the fourth consecutive double-digit increase. The government’s growth…