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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…
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All shuttered Geos schools to reopen for lessons in May
G.communication Co., which has taken over collapsed English conversation school operator Geos Corp., plans to resume lessons at all Geos schools by the end of May, the company president said. This means lessons will resume soon at 18 of the 230 Geos schools that were closed for falling behind in their rent payments and for…
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G.com has more room for ex-Geos teachers
G.communication Co. will hire some teachers from schools that it isn’t taking over from defunct Geos Corp. because it is currently experiencing a manpower shortage, G.communication President Hideo Sugimoto told The Japan Times on Wednesday. “Some teachers left (the Geos schools) we took over because they weren’t getting paid,” Sugimoto said in an interview in…
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Tokyo’s population hits 13 mil.
The population of metropolitan Tokyo is estimated to have topped the 13 million mark in April for the first time in its history, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government said Wednesday. The population in the Japanese capital has increased by 1 million over the current decade since surpassing 12 million in 2000. The population, calculated on the…
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Chinese taking 2 different routes to Japan
The two Chinese are about the same age and both plan to improve their future prospects by living in Japan. But the similarities end there. The pair reflect the stark differences among Chinese heading to Japan from the booming coastal areas and the poorer inland regions that have yet to be swept up in the…
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Foreign nurses deserve helping hand
Given the serious shortage of medical and nursing care workers and nurses, lifting certain restrictions so qualified foreigners in these fields can apply their skills in this country is an obvious solution. In its fourth basic immigration control policy plan compiled late last month, the Justice Ministry stated it would reexamine the mandatory limit on…
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Classes resume at 200 Geos schools
G.communication Co., which has taken over 230 of 329 schools run by collapsed English conversation school operator Geos Corp., resumed classes at 201 Geos schools nationwide Friday. Classes at the remaining schools will restart soon, according to G.communication. The phone was ringing off the hook at one Geos school in Tokyo, where classes resumed at…