Japan Press Weekly

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2010 December 15 - 21 [LABOR]

Municipal system for more public jobs for SMEs promoted

An increasing number of municipalities have placed orders for repairs at public facilities to local SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises) by adopting a registration system for small-scale construction. Thanks to efforts made by construction workers and the Japanese Communist Party, this public system has spread throughout the country, helping to increase job opportunities for SMEs.

“Amid the recession, we construction workers are suffering from a serious job shortage such as we have never experienced before. I was therefore happy to receive the municipal work,” said a 71-year-old painter in Itabashi Ward in Tokyo. He painted fences at a public park under the registration system for small-scale construction, which the municipality introduced five years ago.

Under the system aimed at stimulating the local economy, SMEs in the ward with less than 20 employees are eligible to register for municipal repair projects. Registrants have a variety of specialties, including carpentry, scaffolding building, electric wiring installation, tatami matting, and gardening.

The Itabashi Ward Office has included the maintenance of its public parks under the registration system. In 2009, it ordered 97 park-related projects costing 6.6 million yen, including repair of walkways and toilets and the trimming of trees. The total number of orders to which the system was applied last year was 1,094, costing 49.8 million yen.

The registration system for small-scale construction projects has been introduced to 449 cities, towns, and villages throughout Japan, amounting to one-fourth of all municipalities nationwide. This is an increase of 1.7 times over the 262 municipalities participating in 2004.

Introduction of the registration system, promising more orders for SMEs, has been promoted throughout the country by local branches of the National Federation of Merchant and Industrialist's Organizations (Zenshoren) and the National Federation of Construction Workers' Unions (Zen ken soren). Representatives of the JCP at local assemblies have called for full adoption and further improvement in the system.
- Akahata, December 20, 2010