Tag - jobs

 
 

JOBS

Junko Mihara, minister for children-related policies, said at the start of the meeting that "the government will work as one to advance efforts" to tackle sex crimes against children.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 26, 2025
Japan holds first preparatory panel meeting on sex crime background checks
Junko Mihara, minister for children-related policies, said that "the government will work as one to advance efforts" to tackle sex crimes against children.
The Japanese anime industry has been facing chronic labor shortages linked to poor working conditions that have led to a decrease in the number of productions.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2025
Japan to set up body to improve anime industry working conditions
The move is part of a five-year action plan aimed at boosting overseas sales of Japanese content such as manga and video games to ¥20 trillion in 2033.
Economic losses in Japan stemming from workers' mental or physical disorders, linked to lower labor productivity, represent about 1% of the country's nominal gross domestic product for 2024.
BUSINESS
Jun 20, 2025
Annual economic losses from workers' health issues reach ¥7.6 trillion
The losses, linked to lower labor productivity, represent about 1% of the country's nominal gross domestic product for 2024.
Shogakukan's office in Tokyo. The Fair Trade Commission issued a warning to Shogakukan and Kobunsha for failing to clearly indicate terms and conditions for freelancers they outsource work to.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2025
Japan's FTC gives first warning over freelance law breaches
Shogakukan and Kobunsha, both based in Tokyo, were urged to take preventive measures under the law, which came into effect in November 2024.
People shop at a covered market in Suva, Fiji, on Sept. 5.
BUSINESS
Jun 17, 2025
Pacific Islands should boost women's participation in work, says World Bank
Six countries did not have paid parental leave, often forcing women to leave the labor force when they started families, a report said.
With people growing increasingly wary of unknown callers and not answering their doors, more and more agencies and pollsters tasked with collecting data are using online surveys, though that comes with its own set of challenges.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jun 17, 2025
Faced with dwindling response rates, pollsters turn to online surveys for data
Problems with the new wave of online surveys include fresh biases in the data, confusion over questions that a computer cannot address and gaining trust.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's Cabinet has approved this year's <i>honebuto no hōshin</i>, a document that sets economic and fiscal management guidelines for the government.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 13, 2025
Wage growth a focus of this year's honebuto no hōshin
The government's guidelines for economic and fiscal management outline the target of raising the average minimum hourly wage to ¥1,500 by 2030.
Young women are moving from rural regions to Tokyo due to the lack of opportunities for education and employment, as well as the prevalence of stereotypical gender roles in their hometowns, a survey by the Cabinet Office last December found.
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2025
Citing lack of opportunities, young women in Japan are not returning to rural areas
The government also stressed in its 2025 white paper on gender equality the need to eliminate the "fixed sense of gender roles" in rural communities.
The government is looking to ease the overconcentration of businesses in Tokyo to tackle labor shortages in the countryside, ensure nationwide economic growth and realize a sustainable society.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 13, 2025
Government aims to create 10,000 jobs via business relocations from Tokyo
The move is aimed at easing overconcentration of companies in the capital and bridge an urban-rural divide in economic growth.
Serious labor shortages in the bus and taxi industries have prompted the government to consider easing language requirements for non-Japanese drivers.
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2025
Eased language requirement proposed for non-Japanese bus and taxi drivers
Currently, foreign nationals wanting to work as bus or taxi drivers are required to have the N3 level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.
A law on teachers' salaries was revised to gradually raise their pay and also help resolve the problem of long working hours, though some lawmakers say it's not enough.
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2025
Japan enacts law to gradually boost teachers' pay
The revision also requires all prefectural and municipal boards of education to draw up and publish plans to manage teachers' workloads.
Akihiko Ogino, president and CEO of Daiwa Securities Group, says Japan should press ahead with diversity initiatives as he attends the Tokyo Pride parade in the capital's Shibuya area on Sunday.
BUSINESS
Jun 8, 2025
Top banker vows loyalty to DEI at Tokyo Pride Parade as Trump’s pushback rages
Few Japanese executives have spoken out on U.S. backlash to DEI, though many firms seem to be quietly maintaining their initiatives.
Wages in Japan are falling on a real basis, in part because of rising food prices.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 5, 2025
Real wages in Japan fell 1.8% year on year in April
Inflation-adjusted pay has now fallen for four straight months.
Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet, presented a vision of AI that was at once optimistic about the technology’s possibilities and sober-minded about some of its present limitations, at an event at the Bloomberg Tech conference in San Francisco on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 5, 2025
Alphabet CEO expects to keep hiring engineers while AI advances
Alphabet's CEO presented a vision of AI that was at once optimistic about the technology’s possibilities and sober-minded about some of its present limitations.
The number of "zombie companies" in Japan, which do not make enough to cover their interest payments, was estimated to have grown some 228,000 in fiscal 2023, one of the highest in a decade.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Jun 3, 2025
'Zombie company' apocalypse might be the point of Japan's minimum wage push
Government efforts to accelerate the pace of pay increases could lead to poorly performing companies going out of business.
The basic framework adopted by the government calls for measures to improve the employment situation of those in their 40s and 50s, and for steps to assist them in their later years.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 3, 2025
Japan government to boost support for job 'Ice Age' generation
The framework calls for measures to improve the employment situation of those in their 40s and 50s, and for steps to assist them in their later years.
Kimihiro Matsuzaki prepares dishes at his half-century-old restaurant, Yanagi, in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Jun 2, 2025
Profitable Fukushima companies closing due to lack of successors
According to Teikoku Databank, more than a third of the companies that went out of business in the prefecture in 2024 were in the black.
After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Jun 2, 2025
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic
Labor shortages and shifting mindsets are driving younger Japanese workers to challenge the country’s traditional office culture.
Japan has enforced tougher rules on companies to protect workers from heat after 30 workplace deaths and roughly 1,200 injuries were reported last year that were associated with high temperatures.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2025
Protect workers from heat waves or face fines, Japan tells firms
The revised legislation is a rare global example of a national-level policy on heat safety for employees.
Members of the Japan Self-Defense Forces prepare to load boxes of medical relief supplies onto a helicopter in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in September last year.
JAPAN / FOCUS
May 31, 2025
SDF ramps up campus outreach amid recruitment slump
Officials say the initiative is an effective way to foster a stronger connection between the public and the SDF.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past