Thirty-seven percent of temporary workers in Japan want to become permanent employees mainly because their current wages are low, according to a survey released recently by a temporary workers' association.

The survey, conducted by the Temporary Work Services Association of Japan, also showed that about 69 percent of respondents have contracts with their employers for less than six months and 87 percent have contracts lasting less than a year.

About 40 percent of the respondents wishing to become regular employees are in their 30s and 40s and tend to spend a lot of money on child and elderly care.

Temporary workers work an annual average of 9.1 months, and 45 percent percent said they want to maintain their status since it allows them flexible working hours.

About 40 percent said they are happy working on a temporary basis, while 21 percent said they were unsatisfied with their status.

About half the respondents said their wage levels were low and 30 percent expressed concerns that their employment situations are unstable.

The association recently sent survey questionnaires to some 40,000 people who worked as temporary workers as of late November, and about 9,000 responded.

Fishing ranks sink

The number of people in Japan working in the fishery business in 2000 fell by 3.6 percent from a year earlier to 260,200, for the 17th straight year of decrease, the fisheries ministry has said in an annual report.

Men accounted for about 80 percent of the total workforce, and by generation, those aged 65 or older increased by 3.7 percent to 69,290, bringing its ratio to the men's total to 32.1 percent, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said recently. Similar figures for younger generations, however, all declined, with men in the industry aged between 15 to 24 falling 4.2 percent and those between 25 and 39 decreasing by 7.6 percent.

Ministry officials figured the survey results suggest that there is a shortage of young people entering the fishery industry.