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Employers denying jobs to applicants based on medical histories, gov’t study finds
Some Japanese companies demand job applicants provide personal medical histories and deny employment based on their content, a Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) research group has discovered. The ministry has directed employers not to ask for medical information unrelated to the positions in question, citing a risk of employment discrimination, while the research…
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Population probably shrank even more in 2009, ministry estimates
Japan’s population probably shrank further in 2009 as births fell by roughly 22,000 to about 1,069,000, the health ministry said in estimates released Thursday. “The trend of increasing population decline is expected to continue in the future as the number of deaths rises due to the aging of the population, while the number of women…
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Pensions body faces tough test
Japan Pension Service, an organization set up to take over the work of the Social Insurance Agency, will start operations Friday. Though the new entity will attempt to regain trust of the public by tackling problems such as the pension records fiasco, it faces many hurdles. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama met the 13 people chosen…
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Piecemeal temp jobs at agencies face ban
An advisory panel to the labor minister issued a report Monday recommending that staffing agencies be prohibited from registering workers on individual contracts for specific jobs that pay only when work is available. The report, which also proposes banning the practice of sending workers for short-term manufacturing jobs, comes in line with a government plan…
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Revision to dispatch law
The global recession that started in autumn last year has dramatically highlighted the vulnerability of temporary and other nonregular workers at this time of economic contraction. In response, the government started reviewing the worker dispatch law at the Labor Policy Council, which advises Akira Nagatsuma, the minister of health, labor and welfare. The council has…
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Public schools turn to non-Japanese teachers
Third-grade students at Osaka municipal Kita-Nakajima Primary School get insights into culture on the Korean Peninsula that many others do not. Their homeroom teacher is Lee Chi I, 31, a third-generation South Korean living in Japan. Lee’s grandfather came from South Korea’s Gyeongsangnam-do, but she was born and raised in Aichi Prefecture. Students at the…
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Bar hostesses form union to combat workplace exploitation, sexual harassment
A group of women working as bar hostesses have formed their own labor union, complaining about unpaid wages and sexual harassment. Working at so-called “kyabakura” — a portmanteau of “kyabare” (cabaret) and “kurabu” (clubs) — bars as a hostess is becoming increasingly popular among young women in Japan. However, the group, which announced the formation…
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More seek, fewer win status as refugees
The number of people granted refugee status by the government between January and September was less than a third of the figure for the same period last year, according to Justice Ministry documents. Considering that applications for refugee status during the nine months surpassed the record number set for the period in 2008, people who…
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Too innocent for prejudice?
Are kindergarteners racist? Do they discriminate between children with different skin colors? “Children are too innocent,” one Japanese mother told me in a survey of parents’ views. Her conclusion: “They do not hold racial prejudices.” As innocent as children may be, extensive research conducted in the United States and Europe has shown that children as…
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Year-end bonuses make sharpest drop ever
The average year-end bonus at major Japanese companies this year plunged by 15.01 percent to 755,628 yen, the sharpest year-on-year drop since the records began in 1959, the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) has announced. It is also the first double digit decline for winter bonuses, with the figure standing at the lowest level since…