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TELL counselors aiding expats, Japanese alike
Tokyo English Life Line, which has been providing free and anonymous English-language telephone counseling for more than 35 years, extends a helping hand to both expatriates and Japanese facing depression, suicide temptation, problems in cultural adjustment, relationships and the workplace, as well as health concerns. A nonprofit organization, TELL is associated with the Japanese-language telephone…
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For Some in Japan, Home Is a Tiny Plastic Bunk
For Atsushi Nakanishi, jobless since Christmas, home is a cubicle barely bigger than a coffin — one of dozens of berths stacked two units high in one of central Tokyo’s decrepit “capsule” hotels. “It’s just a place to crawl into and sleep,” he said, rolling his neck and stroking his black suit — one of…
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Population drops for 3rd year
Japan’s population fell by 75,000 in 2009, decreasing for the third straight year and dropping at the fastest rate since the end of World War II. According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry’s annual population estimate, the pace of decrease accelerated in 2009 as the 1,144,000 deaths–an increase of 2,000 from 2008–outpaced the 1,069,000…
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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…