Japan Press Weekly

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2013 September 25 - October 1 [LABOR]

Number of ‘working-poor’ remains above 10 mil level for 7 straight years

A National Tax Agency survey result released on September 27 shows an upsurge in the number of “working poor” whose annual income is less than two million yen and a decrease in the number of so-called “middle-income” workers.

According to the NTA 2012 Statistical Survey of Actual Status for Salary in the Private Sector, 10.9 million private sector workers earn less than two million yen a year, topping the 10 million-mark for the 7th consecutive years.

Since the Worker Dispatch Law was adversely revised in 1999 to one allowing temporary agency workers to be used in all job categories in principle, more and more people have been forced to work under the “working poor” conditions.

The survey result also indicates that the number of workers in income brackets between 4 million and less than 8 million yen decreased by 14% in the past seven years, and workers in brackets between 8 million and less than 20 million yen dropped by 30%.