Japan Press Weekly

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2013 May 8 - 14 [LABOR]

Abe’s growth strategy will promote disposable use of labor

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo intends to remove legal protections for workers to promote a “growth strategy” in response to demands from the business world.

The business circles have claimed that Japan’s employment regulations are an obstacle to smooth business operations and a robust economy. They have advocated revision of rules regarding dismissals and working hours.

The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) on April 16 released a proposal calling for relaxation of employment rules. In the proposal, Keidanren claims that regulations on the use of workers “decrease flexibility in business activities and limit workers’ choice of work style.” It stressed that the government should drastically revise work-related laws.

In a meeting of the government council on industrial competitiveness, chairman of the Association of Corporate Executives, Hasegawa Yasuchika proposed that the labor contract law include a principle of free dismissal and that the current rules on dismissal, which were established through workers’ court battles against employers’ abuse of their power in regard to dismissals, be revised.

Regarding removal of regulations on working hours, what corporate representatives in the council seek is to impose on workers longer working hours without overtime pay. The council calls for an introduction of the so-called “white-collar exemption” under which clerical workers will be exempted from work hour regulations. It also demands an increase in the number of job categories in order to apply to more workers a system which deems hours actually worked to be the hours prescribed by companies so that they can force workers to work however long they want without paying overtime allowance.

Abe has taken a positive stance toward these business world’s demands by stating that he wants to make Japan “the best nation in the world to engage in corporate activities.”

However, a survey of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development shows that Japan’s legal protections for workers are weaker than those of other member nations. The labor ministry in the 2012 white paper on labor and the economy even pointed out that Japan is “a nation whose protective measures for workers are comparatively weak.”

If the government eases labor regulations, it will in essence be promoting the corporate disposable use of labor and increase the number of workers’ deaths and illnesses due to longer working hours.