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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…
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Bans eyed to help dispatch workers
To help those most vulnerable in economic downturns, the labor ministry decided to ban, in principle, “registration-type” dispatches, in which staffing agencies conclude contracts with workers only for their dispatch periods, sources said. The ministry also decided Tuesday to prohibit the staffing agencies from sending blue-collar workers to manufacturing industries for short-term work, they said.…
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Japan’s Unionization Rate Rises for First Time Since 1975
Japan’s overall unionization rate picked up for the first time since 1975, as the membership among regular employees has sharply increased, it was announced by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The estimated unionization rate (percentage of union members among all employees) for 2009 was 18.5 percent, up 0.4 points from the preceding year.,…
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1st rise in unionization in 34 years
The percentage of unionized workers rose for the first time since 1975–in part because of a drop in employee numbers amid the economic downturn, a labor ministry survey showed. Another reason cited was part-time workers joining labor unions at supermarket stores, restaurant chains and other businesses. The unionization rate rose 0.4 percentage point from a…
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Bar Association says martinis and legal advice a bad mix
A martini with two olives and a dash of legal advice? That’s the plan of a Tokyo lawyer who wants to open a bar where he would serve up both drinks and counsel, but the Daini Tokyo Bar Association is calling it a bad mix. According to 29-year-old attorney Jun Sotooka, the idea first came…
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Taxpayer ID number system a step closer
The government’s Tax Commission decided Sunday to launch in the new year a working group to study the introduction of a system to identify taxpayers by assigning them an ID number, according to government officials. The envisaged system would enable the government to collect all tax-related information about individual taxpayers, including the amount of their…
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Ministries joust over whether to up medical fees
The issue is one of the focal points in the compilation of the fiscal 2010 budget. If the government decides to raise the amount of medical remuneration in fiscal 2010, it will be the first such increase since fiscal 2000. “To restore the nation’s ailing health care system, we need to consider increasing government expenses…