NEWSWORTHY
Companies across Japan take action to protect employees from unruly customers
A campaign is underway among Japanese companies to clarify rules that protect employees from unruly customers as labor shortages drive public-facing industries to improve their work conditions. In one example, taxi companies keen to stem an exodus of drivers are setting strict guidelines that allow ...
Japan's demand for foreign workers may soften immigration policy, albeit slowly
Shinichiro Tsukada says his small plastering company in Tokyo wouldn't survive without the 22 Chinese and Vietnamese workers who make up half his payroll. "They're treasures, real treasures," he said. "Workers are disappearing as our population ages. Buildings cannot be built because there aren't enough ...
Japan sets goals for companies to prevent deaths from overwork
Workers will benefit from a guaranteed interval between each day’s work and the next, but the plan did not specify how long the break must be.
Dozens of activists tried to install a bronze statue symbolizing laborers forcibly taken to Japan during its rule over the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945.
Labor reform bill passed by Japanese government despite opposition criticism
The government approved a bill Friday aimed at addressing the nation's chronic overwork problem despite opposition criticism that the envisioned legislation could exacerbate long working hours. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government wants the measure passed by the end of the current Diet session that ends ...
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 ...
Peak moving season slowed by driver crunch as labor violations dwindle
In the run-up to moving season, the national shortage of truck drivers has become acute, forcing transport companies to ask customers who are switching homes to delay their moving dates until after the spring break. Since the beginning of the year, the Japan Trucking Association ...
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday withdrew a recent remark on Japan's discretionary work system, while opposition lawmakers questioned the validity of the labor ministry survey on which Abe's remarks were based. "I'd like to withdraw my remark and apologize," Abe told a House of ...
Convenience stores address labor crunch with automation, shorter hours
The major convenience store chains are opening new stores even though the nation's growing manpower shortage is making it increasingly difficult to maintain 24-hour operations. Some of them are overcoming the shortages, which include part-time staff, by promoting automation. But one big chain has begun ...
Tight market and new labor law improving job security for Japan's army of contract workers
Japan's labor market is getting so tight that companies are starting to convert contract and part-time workers into full-time, regular employees to prevent them from leaving — a move that could lift wages and spending but squeeze profits. The trend is a reversal from the ...
Parents of woman who committed suicide sue Kitakyushu government for power harassment
The parents of a 27-year-old former part-time city worker who committed suicide in 2015 filed a lawsuit Tuesday demanding ¥13 million in compensation from the Kitakyushu Municipal Government, claiming their daughter was overworked and harassed by a supervisor. Kana Morishita's parents say she took her ...
Japan's richest village having hard time luring low-pay workers to process its pricey scallops
Sarufutsu in the far north of Hokkaido is the nation's richest village, thanks to a bounty of scallops pulled from the Sea of Okhotsk. The village — which is closer to the Russian island of Sakhalin than Tokyo — boasts some of the highest average ...
