The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will seek 205.8 billion yen in budget requests for fiscal 2002 to help build a safety net for people expected to lose their jobs under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's structural reforms, ministry officials said Saturday.
The sum, if endorsed, would be used to subsidize companies that accept people who were forced to leave their jobs because of corporate restructuring, they said.
The assistance package would include special subsidies for the construction sector to provide financial assistance to firms that accept older employees who have been made redundant at other companies within the corporate group due to restructuring and offer to retain them beyond the age of 61. Of the 205.8 billion yen, some 16.8 billion yen will be sought for steps to support this shift in labor.