Japan Press Weekly

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2012 November 21 - 27 [LABOR]

1.47-million jobs slashed in manufacturing sector

The number of workers in the manufacturing sector has continued on a downward trend with mass layoffs of contingent workers by major corporations following Lehman’s collapse.

Government labor statistics show that the workforce in the manufacturing industry dropped to 9.64 million in September 2012 from 11.11 million in July 2008, down 1.47 million in the past four years.

Many manufacturers aggressively employed non-regular workers as replacements for regular workers, resulting in a decline in the number of regular employees to 7.04 million in 2012 from 7.69 million in 2009. On the other hand, contingent jobs increased by 70,000 to 2.04 million from 1.97 million during the same period of time.

Annual working hours of workers in general, except part timers, remained at more than 2,000 hours, indicating that workers are forced to work long hours as disposable labor.

When the Liberal Democratic Party was in power, it adversely revised the Worker Dispatch Law by liberalizing temporary jobs and lifting the ban on the use of contingent workers in the manufacturing sector at the request of business circles to weaken labor regulations. The mal-revised law created more unstable employment and low-paying jobs, causing the increase in the rich-poor gap.

The successor Democratic Party of Japan, in the face of the issue over massive dismissals of contingent workers, hammered out amendments to the Worker Dispatch Law. The DPJ government initially planned to prohibit the use of contingent workers in the manufacturing sector and the use of on-call temporary workers. The initial plan also called on employers to offer direct job contracts in certain cases.

In reaction to this plan, the business circles asserted that bans on the use of contingent workers will lead to an increased risk to management.

In the end, the DPJ government accepted the business demand, eliminating the initial plan from the amendments and taking the teeth out of the Worker Dispatch Law.

Unlike these two parties, the Japanese Communist Party proposes a labor policy in which workers can work under decent working conditions, job security can be guaranteed, and wages can increase.