Japan Press Weekly

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2012 December 19 - 25 [LABOR]

Contingent male workers increasing in Japan

More and more Japanese men in their prime are forced to work as contingent workers.

Statistics released by the internal affairs ministry show that the number of male contingent workers aged from 25 to 54 has increased 1.35 times from 1.58 million in 2002 to 2.14 million in 2011.

In the age group between 25 and 34, the number of non-regular employees has gone up by 260,000, while regular employees have decreased by 1.59 million in the same period of time. In the bracket aged from 45 to 54, full-time workers declined by 740,000 while non-regular workers have remained at the same level in number.

This indicates that permanent employees are increasingly being replaced with non-permanent ones and that those who found a temporary job when they were young are getting older without having an opportunity to get a steady job.

In the age category between 15 and 24, the percentage of contingent workers has risen from 39.1% in 2002 to 44.8% in 2011. Contingent workers aged from 55 to 64 have also increased 1.69 times. It seems that more elderly employees were forced to seek jobs after their retirement because the starting age for payment of a pension was postponed from 2001.