Japan Press Weekly

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2017 October 18 - 24 TOP3 [LABOR]

With JCP efforts, names of 478 ‘evil corporations’ go on Labor Ministry website

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on October 18 released the names of 478 “evil corporations” on its website which include firms sent to prosecutors in the past year for violation of labor legislation such as unpaid overtime.

Efforts jointly made by the Japanese Communist Party and workers concerned have brought about the public naming of offending corporations. In the past several national elections, the JCP achieved advances. As the length of Diet interpellations allocated to lawmakers is determined in proportion to the number of each party’s Diet members, the JCP came to have more opportunities to raise questions in the Diet. Accordingly, the JCP proposed a bill to ban employers from exploiting workers under sweatshop-like conditions and has frequently taken up the issue in the Diet.

The labor ministry compiled labor violations and names of violators during the period between October last year and the end of September this year, and published the information on its website. The number of “evil corporations” is the largest since the ministry began making it public in 2015.

The corporations in question include: Dentsu Inc. where a suicide and a death due to overwork occurred; Mitsubishi Electric Corporation where a worker developed severe depression after experiencing excessive overwork; Nagoya Works of Nippon Steel Corporation where a workplace safety violation was found; and Yamato Transport where overtime without pay was exposed.

Past related articles:
> JCP Kira urges gov’t to crack down on ‘black corporations’ [February 7, 2015]
> JCP proposes bill to regulate ‘black corporations’ [October 16, 2013]
> JCP Yamashita points to UNIQLO as example of ‘black corporation’ [May 15, 2013]