The draft of the Abe administration's economic growth strategy calls for writing rules in fiscal 2014 for the employment and dismissal of quasi-full-time workers whose status falls between full time and irregular.

Quasi-full-time workers work a particular type of job or in a specific geographical area and are given permanent employment like full-time workers. But if a company decides that the job has become unnecessary or closes a factory or a branch office in that particular area, in principle they will be fired.

The government says that quasi-full-time work will help diversify the way people work and will contribute to accelerating the transition of irregular workers to permanent employment status. But it is clear that quasi-full-time workers will be easier to dismiss than conventional full-time workers.