October 28, 2013
Akahata editorial (excerpt)
How are young people working at or using 24-hour businesses, such as fast food restaurants, convenience stores, and internet cafes? The organizing committee of the October 20 National Youth Rally published the results of an interview survey on workers and users of these stores in seven prefectures, including Tokyo. The survey revealed severe working and living conditions of youth in Japan.
A respondent said, “I’m working here from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. and working another job during the daytime. I work around 400 hours a month. I usually sleep two hours or so.” Other respondents said, “Working 17 hours a day or 100 hours a week, I get paid only 210,000 yen a month,” and “For five days a week, I work from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at a convenience store and 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. at a ‘beef bowl’ restaurant. My hourly wage is 850 yen and my monthly income is 100,000 yen.”
These responses clearly reveal the harsh reality in which many young workers have to take on more than one job because their hourly wages are so low. While the Labor Ministry warns that doing 80 hours of overtime a month may cause death from overwork, many of the respondents work far more than that.
A male contract employee of an IT company in his 20s said, “I worked till 0:15 a.m. today and can’t get home as I missed the last train. I want black corporations to be stamped out.”
The Japanese Communist Party submitted to the Diet a bill to regulate black corporations which use young workers as disposable labor. The bill, which is to impose an upper limit to hours of overtime and tougher regulations on overtime without pay, received favorable responses from young people, unions, scholars, and lawyers.
Even without the enactment of the bill, workers can demand their employers to stop forcing them to work overtime without pay or denying employees paid leave. To that end, the role of labor unions is very important. The National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren), the National Trade Union Council, and independent unions launched a joint action to oppose the Abe Shinzo Cabinet’s move to further relax labor regulations. This is a noteworthy movement. The need now for young workers is to stand up and exercise their labor rights.
Past related articles
> 1,500 youth rally to eliminate ‘black corporations’ [October 21 & 22, 2013]
> JCP proposes bill to regulate ‘black corporations’ [October 16, 2013]
How are young people working at or using 24-hour businesses, such as fast food restaurants, convenience stores, and internet cafes? The organizing committee of the October 20 National Youth Rally published the results of an interview survey on workers and users of these stores in seven prefectures, including Tokyo. The survey revealed severe working and living conditions of youth in Japan.
A respondent said, “I’m working here from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. and working another job during the daytime. I work around 400 hours a month. I usually sleep two hours or so.” Other respondents said, “Working 17 hours a day or 100 hours a week, I get paid only 210,000 yen a month,” and “For five days a week, I work from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at a convenience store and 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. at a ‘beef bowl’ restaurant. My hourly wage is 850 yen and my monthly income is 100,000 yen.”
These responses clearly reveal the harsh reality in which many young workers have to take on more than one job because their hourly wages are so low. While the Labor Ministry warns that doing 80 hours of overtime a month may cause death from overwork, many of the respondents work far more than that.
A male contract employee of an IT company in his 20s said, “I worked till 0:15 a.m. today and can’t get home as I missed the last train. I want black corporations to be stamped out.”
The Japanese Communist Party submitted to the Diet a bill to regulate black corporations which use young workers as disposable labor. The bill, which is to impose an upper limit to hours of overtime and tougher regulations on overtime without pay, received favorable responses from young people, unions, scholars, and lawyers.
Even without the enactment of the bill, workers can demand their employers to stop forcing them to work overtime without pay or denying employees paid leave. To that end, the role of labor unions is very important. The National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren), the National Trade Union Council, and independent unions launched a joint action to oppose the Abe Shinzo Cabinet’s move to further relax labor regulations. This is a noteworthy movement. The need now for young workers is to stand up and exercise their labor rights.
Past related articles
> 1,500 youth rally to eliminate ‘black corporations’ [October 21 & 22, 2013]
> JCP proposes bill to regulate ‘black corporations’ [October 16, 2013]
