Human Resources

June 2003

The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) has launched a Japanese language version of its online job posting and resume service. The service, Employment Central, is designed to help companies secure top-level professional staff and assist job seekers in landing Japan-based positions at foreign and Japanese employers. The Japanese version has been added in response to numerous requests from employers since the original site was launched in February. The chamber expects the new version to provide more opportunities for employers eagerly seeking bilingual Japanese professionals and job seekers to meet. (June 21, Kyodo News, the Japan Times)

The Ministry of Labor (MOL) will revise the Trade Union Law to speed up the settlement of labor disputes caused by dismissals on the grounds of union membership and other such unfair labor practices. MOL intends to establish settlement procedures by obligating labor relations commissions, to draw up settlement plans for each case. The current law does not specify such procedures. It plans to submit a bill seeking the amendment to the law to an ordinary Diet session next year. The move is aimed to facilitate resolving disputes triggered by employers' unfair labor practices, when management rejects collective bargaining with its labor union and a company dismisses or demotes an employee because of union membership. Reflecting the increasingly severe employment situation, labor relations commissions had about 400 filings related to unfair labor practices last year, up 15% from a year earlier. Aiming to halve the settlement process time through labor relations commissions, more than six years at the longest at present, the ministry will undertake fundamental reform of the labor dispute settlement system for the first time in 55 years. Specifically, the ministry is reviewing specific settlement procedures in the law to clarify the steps as well as requiring labor relations commissions to map out concrete settlement plans and prompting them to swiftly prepare their ruling when management and labor fail to reach an agreement within a certain time period. A ministry panel will hammer out a report on the revision to the Trade Union Law by late July. Labor disputes are usually settled out of court. But the absence of specific rules on settlement procedures tends to protract the process. (June 13, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun)

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare will allow temporary staffing agencies to send medical experts to hospitals such as doctors and nurses on the condition that the hospitals interview them beforehand. Being one of the key items pushed by the Council for Regulatory Reform and is slated to take effect in spring of 2004, the planned deregulation is aimed at addressing the shortage of medical professionals in Japan. A Labor Ministry deregulation panel will incorporate the proposal into a report and the ministry is expected to revise the relevant ordinances shortly. Currently, temporary employees are not allowed to work at hospitals due to concerns that they may disrupt medical treatments. But the ministry views that such concerns will be eliminated if the hospitals are allowed to interview the temps beforehand, and assess their skills and personalities. Legal changes scheduled for March 2004 will allow companies to interview temps before hiring them. (June 12, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun)

The government will promote employment with business and academia to provide training and job opportunities for young people. It is intended to encourage the young, increasingly working part-time, into the engine driving Japan's economy. These measures will be reflected in the basic fiscal management and restructuring reform plan to be drafted by the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy. There are about 2 million young people in Japan who work on a part-time basis, and around 1 million who are jobless. The unemployment rate for those aged 24 or younger is 12%, more than twice the level of the overall population. Thus, the government devised the measures to improve the increasing unemployment rate among the young. One of the key features of the measures is the introduction of a dual system of vocational education and training, which is common in Germany. Under the system, companies will hire high school graduates without a job as trainees, and these people will be trained at vocational schools simultaneously. The Labor Ministry will consider granting subsidies to companies accepting such trainees. The government plans to promote entrepreneurship among the young as well. METI will subsidize part of the operating costs at nonprofit and other organizations that support young entrepreneurs. The government also proposed having municipalities cooperate with private-sector firms, and creating job information and training centers for young people working part-time. However, the measures state only that regional governments will set these centers up according to local demand, and did not include such details whether the national government will support municipalities. Thus, the ministries will encourage companies to increase job opportunities for the young by hiring new employees. They will train about 1 million young people in three years, but have yet to fully analyze the cost. Because of the tight government finances, it was difficult to further discuss the matter with the financial authorities. The relevant ministries and the Cabinet Office will flesh out the details when they draft the fiscal 2004 budget. It is uncertain whether they can secure the funds, as the Finance Ministry plans to give top priority to rebuilding government finances. The situation is also deteriorated by the fact that the relevant ministries prefer to use their subsidies for the new measures.　(June 11, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun)