Japan Press Weekly

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2012 May 23 - 29 [LABOR]

Youth group reports on Japan’s young workers’ situation to ILO

The Democratic Youth League of Japan (DYLJ) on May 28 submitted to the Japan Office of the International Labor Organization (ILO) a report on the actual job situation of Japanese young people.

DYLJ representatives presented the report in order to convey Japanese young people’s voices to the 101st session of the International Labor Conference of the ILO, which is to be held in Geneva from May 30. One of the main themes of the conference is “The youth employment crisis”.

DYLJ Chair Tanaka Yu said that the DYLJ has been tackling the problem of youth employment through a variety of actions such as the National Youth Rally that the DYLJ has held in cooperation with other organizations like the youth section of the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) since 2003. He stressed the need to realize the “Decent Work” that the ILO is calling for and to create new jobs. He added, “Many young workers have to work till late at night. The hourly minimum wage of some local areas in Japan are between 600 and 700 yen, which is too low to make a living.”

Receiving the documents, a vice-director of the ILO office replied, “I will send your report to the ILO headquarters.”

The DYLJ’s report states that low wages, unstable employment, and hard working conditions for long hours are spreading among the youth in Japan.

Other younger participants said, “Illegal long hours continue openly”, “Dismissed because of a lack of experience despite working for 10 long years”, “The Japanese government should make more efforts to increase the numbers of regular workers instead of non-regular workers”.