Japan could face shortage of 270,000 nursing staff by 2025, ministry warns
With baby boomers being at least 75 by 2025, social security spending by the government and demand for medical practitioners are expected to rise rapidly.
Japanese government to study whether to introduce joint custody of children after divorce
There has been opposition to the idea, with some people expressing concern that it could adversely affect children if their parents are at odds.
Health ministry names 424 public hospitals that need to consider reform
The health ministry on Thursday published a list of 424 public medical institutions it has deemed to be in need of possible consolidation and realignment. The move is aimed at speeding up the streamlining of the medical sector and suppressing ballooning medical costs ahead of ...
Japan may have mistakenly taken remains of 600 foreigners in hunt for war dead, ministry admits
Japan may have mistakenly collected the remains of nearly 600 non-Japanese in Russia under a long-term project to find the remains of its war dead, the welfare ministry said Thursday. Experts have pointed to the possibility for years, but the ministry, which oversees the task, ...
Ministry says Recruit Career acted illegally in Rikunabi data scandal and demands corrective steps
The labor ministry said Friday it had issued administrative guidance to Recruit Career Co. for selling to its clients web browsing data predicting the odds of job-hunting students declining informal job offers, without the students' consent. The ministry determined that selling the data violated the ...
Record low of 16,772 children on day care waiting lists in Japan, welfare ministry says
The ministry says the lists are at their shortest since it began tracking them in 1994, but demand is expected to grow when free services kick off in October.
Nearly 40% of Japan government institutions miss hiring targets for people with disabilities
But the 44 state institutions have reached over 80 percent of the overall hiring target set for year-end.
Japan eyes overhaul of pensions after payouts predicted to be worth 20% less within 30 years
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday that the government will consider overhauling the public pension system to make sure it is sustainable in the long term, a day after the government projections showed that pension payouts would fall by nearly a fifth in ...
Japan to raise subsidies for firms where dads take paternity leave, sources say
The extra funding is intended to get companies to more than double the nationwide participation rate to 13 percent so more women can enter the workforce.
Labor Ministry says minimum hourly wage to rise by ¥27 to ¥901 on average in 2019
The legally-set minimum hourly wage in Japan will rise by ¥27 to ¥901 on average in fiscal 2019, which started in April, from the previous year, the labor ministry said Friday. The minimum wage will be raised as early as October. Among the country's 47 ...
Record 5,160 firms employing foreign trainees in Japan violated labor laws in 2018, ministry says
A record 5,160 business facilities employing foreign technical intern trainees were told in 2018 to correct practices that violated labor-related laws, the labor ministry has said. The number shot up from 4,226 in 2017, in line with an increase in foreigners working under the country's ...
Japan's social security benefits topped ¥120 trillion to hit record high in 2017
Social security benefits paid out in fiscal 2017 reached a record high and exceeded ¥120 trillion for the first time, a welfare ministry-affiliated think tank said Friday. The figure for the year to March 2018 stood at ¥120.24 trillion, up 1.6 percent from the previous ...
