Japan may not be as enthusiastic about implementing international labor standards as widely thought.
According to government sources, Japan is at last ready to ratify a treaty calling for consultations among governments, labor and management to promote the implementation of international labor standards.
The sources said that the government will submit the treaty for ratification to a 150-day ordinary Diet session convening in late January.
The move comes nearly a quarter-century after the Tripartite Consultation Convention was adopted in 1976 by the International Labor Organization, a Geneva-based organ affiliated with the United Nations.
The Convention, which is more commonly called the ILO convention No. 144, requires any convention-party country to take necessary procedures to ensure that "effective" tripartite consultations are held between government, labor and management to promote the implementation of international labor standards.
The ILO treaty took effect in 1978. Seventy-nine countries had ratified the treaty as of Dec. 31, 1996, the latest date for which figures were immediately available.
Despite repeated demands from domestic labor circles for early ratification, the Japanese government has so far refused to ratify the ILO treaty, claiming that it is unclear from the treaty wording what specific procedures are required to ensure "effective" tripartite consultations among government, labor and management.