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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Workers at Toyota's main supplier are without health insurance coverage

"I thought I'm without health insurance coverage because I'm not a full-time employee. But I feel insecure about working without health insurance coverage," said a woman worker in her 20s working at the Nishio plant of Denso-Corporation in Nishio City, Aichi Prefecture.

Denso is Japan's largest supplier of car parts mainly for Toyota Motor Corp. which keeps making more than 1 trillion yen in annual profits. Denso has its head office in Kariya city, Aichi Prefecture. Many of its contingent workers are not covered by the health insurance program.

The woman lives in a small dormitory room of about five square meters provided by a firm which has a contract with Denso. She receives about 100,000 yen a month after dormitory and meal costs are deducted. She has neither employee health insurance nor unemployment insurance coverage, or the employee pension plan. Denso neglects its legal obligation to provide health insurance coverage to all workers, including temporary workers or workers on contract who work for two months without interruption.

A man in his 30s, also a dormitory resident, said, "I work through two or three contractors. We work both day shifts and night shifts, and we work harder than full-time employees."

At the Denso Nishio plant, 6,900 workers are full-time, and the remaining 1,876 contingent.

Denso is not an isolated case in which workers on contract do not have health insurance coverage. A worker at a Toyota affiliate interior parts maker testified that he was provided with the health insurance coverage after an accident in the past but that he is now without health insurance coverage again. A driving gear parts supply worker and an air-conditining equipment company worker said they feel insecure about having no health insurance coverage.

Takagi Corporation, a major staff servicing firm, hires 10,000 workers nationwide and supply them to Toyota affiliates and other companies. Last summer, 40 percent of the workers were not covered by health insurance.

As corporations are replacing more full-time employees with contingent workers in order to cut labor costs, they begin to neglect to fulfill their social responsibilities. Under pressure from major corporations, staff-servicing firms are seeking to cut costs. In a corporate attempt to avoid paying half the cost for health insurance, workers are left without the heath insurance, and the number is on the increase.

Okuda Hiroshi, Toyota chair and the chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), called for increasing contingent jobs and for no corporate burdens for costs of social insurance.

On the finding about workers at a major firm related to Toyota, Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representative Sasaki Kensho commented as follows, "Behind this lies the policy of deregulating labor laws advocated by the Koizumi Cabinet and the business circles. Therefore, the policy needs to be drastically reviewed." Sasaki also said that workers without health insurance must be immediately dealt with, and that in the Diet he will demand that corporations be held responsible for not making any effort to correct their practices.
- Akahata Sunday Edition, April 16, 2006