Japan Press Weekly

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2013 October 16 - 22 [LABOR]

1,500 youth rally to eliminate ‘black corporations’

Braving the cold rain, 1,500 Japanese youth on October 20 took part in a rally held in Tokyo’s Meiji Park. They adopted an appeal calling for the creation of a society without so-called “black corporations” which use young people as disposable labor.

The rally named the National Youth Rally was the eighth of its kind. Since the first one took place in 2003, the rally has taken up issues regarding youth employment and poverty as pressing social problems.

In the rally this time, young former employees of Akita Publishing Co., Ltd., major coffee shop chain “Caffe Veloche”, and Japan Airlines in turn talked about their court battles against their unfair dismissals.

A former publishing company worker said she had experienced power harassment from her boss and was unfairly dismissed after blowing the whistle on the company’s wrongdoings.

The worker, who is a member of the Tokyo Young Contingent Workers’ Union, said, “I hope that my struggle against unfair labor practices will encourage others who may experience similar issues to stand up and face up to unfair practices.”

Delegates from the rally’s local organizing committees in eight prefectures, including those from Hokkaido, Fukushima, and Osaka, reported that they waged various activities, including holding local rallies and fact-finding surveys involving young workers.

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi delivered a speech in solidarity. Pointing out that the growing voices and movements of young people have pushed the government to take measures against problems regarding black corporations, Ichida said that the JCP will work hard to enact a bill to eliminate black corporations’ abusive use of labor that the party submitted to the current Diet session.

Lawyer Sasaki Ryo, member of selecting the “Black Corporation of the Year Award”, stressed that black corporations regard workers as consumables like fuel. He appealed to the audience, “To unite with each other by joining a labor union is the most effective way to fight back against black corporations’ harsh working conditions. If workers get together to fight back, it will contribute greatly to the elimination of black corporations.”

Daikoku Sakuji, President of the Japan Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren), a member organization of the organizing committee of the National Youth Rally, also gave a speech.

A 24-year-old participant from Osaka said he faced harassment from his supervisor and gave up his job after working only one month. “Corporations’ employment practices which harm young workers in various ways is unacceptable. I want to share with my friends what I’ve learned here,” he said.

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On the following day, 120 participants of the National Youth Rally visited the Labor Ministry to demand an implementation of regulations on harsh working conditions presently imposed on young workers.

They requested the ministry to give tighter instructions to companies to prevent the power harassment and sexual harassment; announce the name of companies where such acts have taken place; regulate excessively long working hours in order to prevent “karoshi” (death from overwork); create more stable job opportunities with various measures including a drastic revision of the Worker Dispatch Law; and increase the number of labor standard inspectors.

They also petitioned parliamentarians and other ministries to work to realize the young people’s demands voiced in the rally.


Past related articles:
> Skilled part-timer reveals in court coffee shop chain’s unfair dismissal [September 25, 2013]
> Worker sues against punitive dismissal by manga publisher [September 12, 2013]
> Watami receives ‘Black Corporation’ award [August 13, 2013]
> 1,000 youth rally in Fukushima demand shutdown of all nuclear plants in Japan [November 5, 2012]