NEWSWORTHY
Japan modernizing workplace conditions to lure new mothers back
With Japan's demographic challenges causing a workforce crunch that is proving difficult for companies to overcome, many are now offering flexible conditions to allow new mothers to return to full-time careers while maintaining their work-family balance. More women, afraid their careers will stagnate while they ...
Acute shortages of manpower in Japan are prompting changes in the country's labor market, and a new rule to facilitate the conversion of fixed-term contract workers into indefinite-term employees will come into full force in April. The status conversion rule was included in the revised ...
Japan Inc. wants ruling bloc to prevail in election win but with smaller majority: poll
Japanese companies overwhelmingly want Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition to stay in power in this Sunday's national election but about two-thirds want it to lose seats, a Reuters poll found. The survey suggests corporations want political stability but don't want to hand Abe a ...
New employees ready to challenge Japan's 'work-first' culture, study shows
Japanese workers devoting themselves to working massively long hours for their employers might be becoming a thing of the past. Nearly half of newly employed people said they would leave the office when their work was done even if their superiors or colleagues were working ...
An estimated 890,000 new recruits at companies, public offices and other organizations marked their first day at work on Monday, the first business day of the new fiscal year. Job availability for graduates has continued to improve over the past several years, with 90.6 percent ...
Japan's 'Matrix'-style job fairs evolving as employers forced to think outside the square
Graduate recruitment in Japan looks a bit like a scene from the movie "The Matrix." Hordes of students dressed in identical black suits and white shirts make the rounds of seminars, tests and interviews. Even as jobs outnumber applicants, these "Agent Smiths" still fight it ...
The Taiwanese boss of an auto component-maker in the Okinawan city of Uruma is confident that his decision to come to the island prefecture was the right one. "If you have production bases in Okinawa, your products will be labeled 'made in Japan' and become ...
A growing number of companies are requiring their employees to learn how to interact with the elderly and people with disabilities. In many cases, the skill set is being added to staff training programs. Many companies are requiring workers to obtain a certificate, in part ...
Japan urged to embrace diversity management as working population shrinks
Long accustomed to hiring mainly Japanese staff, domestic firms are likely to start diversifying their workforces in response to a declining working population, and to accommodate clients' needs amid rapid globalization. Bringing talented workers, including more foreign nationals and women, into the labor force is ...
A Japanese man in his 30s was seriously injured and another Japanese man suffered minor injuries in Tuesday's terrorist attacks in Brussels, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Wednesday. Meanwhile, Japanese companies operating in Belgium and other European countries have begun checking on and securing the ...
Japan Inc. slowly shedding LGBT taboos but bias laws still lag
Yusuke Kitamura hid his sexuality from colleagues for most of his career. It was only after joining one of Japan's oldest brokerages last year that he could tell them he was gay. "It was so stressful having to lie, and I was hoping to come ...
