Japan Press Weekly

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2012 April 18 - 24 [LABOR]

Japan-based multinational corporations should be responsible for maintaining domestic employment

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Yoshii Hidekatsu criticized the government’s financial support to multinational corporations as only leading to their overseas expansion and hollowing out of Japanese industry.

In a discussion at the economy and industry committee meeting of the Lower House on April 18, Yoshii took up the collapse of Elpida Memory Inc., a semiconductor maker, which the government backed up by the Act on Special Measures for Industrial Revitalization. The company went bankrupt in February in spite of receiving as much as 27.7 billion yen of taxpayers’ money in subsidies. Yoshii said, “The government’s aid failed to create new jobs and resulted in a loss to the public.”

The JCP Dietman also pointed out that the multinational electronic components maker TDK plans to close its 5 factories located in northeastern Japan and dismiss its workers. Citing the fact that the company has halved the number of workers in domestic factories while increasing the staff by three times in foreign factories, he demanded that the government make Japan-based multinational corporations maintain employment for domestic workers and protect local economies.

Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Edano Yukio replied, “The government is providing advice to the prefectural authorities on this matter.”

“Large corporations should fulfill their responsibility to the regional economy because they have a great influence on it,” Yoshii repeated.