Japan Press Weekly

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2009 February 25 - March 3 [LABOR]

Diet summons auto industry representative over dismissal of temp workers

With temporary workers being laid off on a massive scale by large corporations, the House of Representatives Budget Committee on February 24 held a hearing by inviting representatives of the Japanese automakers and an advocacy group on the issue of jobs and poverty to answer questions as witnesses without being under oath.

Such a hearing with representatives of large corporations and business organizations as witnesses, the first on this issue, had been called for by the Japanese Communist Party.

The corporate witness was Kawaguchi Hitoshi, Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, Inc. (JAMA) Human Resources Committee chair and Nissan Motor Co. Senior Vice President and Human Resources Dept. head.

Attorney-at-law Utsunomiya Kenji spoke on behalf of the Anti-Poverty Network. He was the honorary mayor of the laid-off temporary workers’ temporary rescue center set up at Hibiya Park in Tokyo during the New Year holidays.

Utsunomiya noted that the total amount of internal reserves accumulated by Toyota, Canon, and 14 other major manufacturing corporations reached 33.6 trillion yen at the end of September 2008, twice the 2002 figure.

He criticized the large corporations for relentlessly cutting the jobs of contingent workers and demanded that the government take steps to have the corporations concerned fulfill their social responsibilities.

He also demanded that the Diet summon business leaders, including Mitarai Fujio, Japan Business Federation chair, and Toyota’s president, as witnesses without being under oath so that their reckless and illegal dismissals of temporary workers can be completely regulated.

Kawaguchi argued that employing contingent workers has been very effective to ensure flexible production adjustments, confessing that Japan’s automakers are using temporary workers as ‘safety valves’.

JCP representative Kasai Akira criticized the corporate representative for his reckless and cold-hearted remarks.

When Kawaguchi stated that the JAMA has been unfamiliar with the realities of the lawless employment of contingent workers under piecemeal contracts, Kasai demanded that the corporate sector immediately come up with the actual figures.

Pointing out that Japan’s major corporations have huge amounts of internal reserves, more than sufficient to continue employing temporary workers, Kasai stressed that major corporations must fulfill their social responsibilities fully to defend their jobs as well as to stimulate the economy.