A new report by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry revealed that 5,631 dispatch workers were injured or killed in work-related accidents in 2008. Most of these were injured after being sent to temporary jobs in the manufacturing industry, which accounted for two-thirds of the accidents. The transportation industry was responsible for another 10 percent of injured temps.
The rate of 15 serious accidents per day shakes the very idea of Japan as a safe place to work, and reveals a different view of the idea of temporary labor in the new economy.
In 2008, the number of dispatch workers killed while working fell slightly to 31, still a startling number to consider. A lesser number of knife killings would receive front-page coverage for weeks, but the report on workplace deaths is relegated to back pages. The only reason those numbers are down from 2007 is that the total number of temp workers fell.