When Miwa Takeuchi found out her part-time clerical job had been outsourced to a Japanese temp staffing agency and she’d have to work longer hours for lower pay, she was relieved. At least she was still employed.

Three years later, Takeuchi, a single mother and one of Japan’s growing ranks of “working poor” who struggle to get by on annual income of $20,000 or less, takes a darker view.

“When I thought about it, I realized that the more I worked, the less I got,” she said. “I started out as a regular worker, but … over the past decade, I have just gotten poorer.”

Takeuchi is not alone.

A decade of corporate cost-cutting and labor market deregulation has transformed Japan’s employment landscape. More than a third of all employees are non-regular workers without job security — part-timers, contract workers and temps — and more than 10 million are “working poor.”

That’s a sharp contrast from the 1980s, when more than 80 percent of workers had job security and most felt middle class.

Now, as the global financial crisis sweeps over the economy, non-regular workers risk being hit fast and hard, raising concerns the slump will be steeper and the impact more concentrated on the most vulnerable compared to past downturns.

The number of fixed-term workers at Toyota Motor Corp, for example, fell to 6,800 last month from around 9,000 in July-September last year in response to weaker demand, a spokesman for Japan’s leading car maker said.

“In countries with a high level of atypical work conditions, in many cases precarious working conditions, there is a much greater risk that in times of recession these groups are hit first and most,” said Michael Forster, a social policy analyst at the Paris-based Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

POLITICAL AGENDA

A 2006 report showing poverty in Japan had risen to one of the highest levels among the OECD’s 30 member countries, largely because of the gap between regular and non-regular workers, shocked many and helped put the topic on the political agenda.

“Japan already has the fourth-largest ‘inequality’ levels of all major countries. Who would have predicted this just 10 years ago?” Ichiro Ozawa, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, said in a speech at a recent party convention.

“If we continue to ignore inequality, our economy will eventually stop functioning and Japanese society will collapse.”

The Democrats have made improving job security and shrinking income gaps a key part of their platform ahead of an election that must be held by September 2009 and could come sooner.

An OECD report this month showed income gaps shrank somewhat between 1999 and 2004, mainly because the rich became less wealthy. Yet the report still ranked Japan fourth among its member countries in terms of poverty, defined as those living on less than half the median income.

Not to be outdone, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is promising subsidies for firms that hire so-called “senior freeters” — part-time job hoppers aged 25-39, many of whom graduated during Japan’s 1994-2004 “Employment Ice Age,” when firms struggling with economic stagnation shied away from hiring.

“Companies can’t just invest in capital goods. They have to invest in workers too or they won’t buy things,” said LDP lawmaker Masazumi Gotoda, who helped draft his party’s proposals.

Such older “freeters,” estimated to total nearly 1 million last year, have become what media call a “Lost Generation,” trapped in unstable, low-paying jobs lacking unemployment benefits or health insurance.

“We have had a very rigid employment scheme in which recruits to large companies are limited to those who just graduated … so those who graduated during the ‘Ice Age’ cannot get good jobs even when the economy recovers,” said Naohiro Yashiro, an economics professor at International Christian University.

“LOST GENERATION”

Among the most vulnerable are daily temps who find employment through staffing agencies and earn about 7,000 yen ($70) a day at factories, construction sites and in other low-skilled jobs.

“I never know whether I’ll have a job until the evening before,” one 36-year-old man who works as a daily temp, mostly on delivery trucks, told a recent symposium on the topic.

“A job might last a week, or there might be no work at all, so I don’t have a fixed monthly income,” the man said, adding that he survives only because he lives at home with his parents.

Activists and labor lawyers argue that while the system helps companies fine-tune employment in response to ups and downs in the economy, the cost to society as a whole is heavy.

“At a micro-level, companies may feel that this is good for them to be able to adjust employment easily, but if large numbers of people cannot support themselves, social uncertainty will rise,” said Shuichiro Sekine, secretary-general of a temp union.

“Many workers will have to rely on welfare, and that’s a big loss for society overall.”

And though politicians talk of remedies, activists such as Chieki Akaishi of support group Single Mothers’ Forum are wary.

“They’ve realized they must listen to such people or they can’t get votes, but they aren’t trying to change the fundamental social framework to include equal pay for equal work and equal treatment for regular and non-regular workers,” she said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE49T03A20081030?sp=true

Even though it has been a year since Nova applied for court protection under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law, the central government has done little to ensure the private language school industry improves its operations.

The failure of Nova, which was the largest language school in the nation, has sowed public distrust in the industry.

Moreover, many former Nova students have not been compensated for tuition fees paid in advance, even though the school’s operations have been taken over by Nagoya-based G.communication Co.

On Thursday, a group set up by former Nova students submitted a petition to Seiko Noda, state minister in charge of consumer affairs, requesting stronger measures to protect language school students.

“I’d like the authorities to investigate [the matter] in depth so similar problems don’t happen,” a 35-year-old female former Nova student said.

Although there are no regulations on the establishment of language schools, the law that covers such businesses was revised in 1999 to regulate them to some extent, allowing students to cancel contracts with the schools, for example.

Although Nova had many contract issues before it failed, the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry supervising the law was slow to take punitive measures against Nova, such as banning it from entering into contracts with new students.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20081027TDY07301.htm

With its gleaming designer stores, the world’s second largest economy and an insatiable appetite for luxury labels, Japan has long been regarded as the land of the rising capitalist.

But a wave of discontent among its younger workers is fuelling a change in the nation’s political landscape: communism is suddenly back in fashion.

What many young Japanese view as an erosion of their economic security and employment rights, combined with years of political stagnation, are propelling droves of them into the arms of the Japanese Communist Party (JCP), the nation’s fourth largest political party.

New recruits are signing up at the rate of 1,000 a month, swelling its ranks to more than 415,000. Meanwhile a classic proletarian novel is at the top of the best-seller lists, and communist-themed “manga” comics are enjoying soaring success.

A further sign of disaffection among young Japanese – who in recent years have been more renowned for their political apathy than their revolutionary zeal – is the increasing frequency of rallies by workers on the streets of the capital.

Earlier this month, crowds of up to 5,000 young Japanese workers marched through the streets of central Tokyo to express their growing discontent with the government over working conditions.

And the job losses, financial insecurity and social dissatisfaction that are expected to go hand in hand with the current global credit crisis are expected to increase the ranks of the party further.

Spearheading the lurch to the Left are young Japanese in their twenties and thirties, who have become increasingly disillusioned with changes to employment laws which they blame for creating a climate of insecurity.

Some 44 per cent of country’s workforce are part-time only, while a profusion of short-term contracts has created a generation of freelancers who are often between jobs.

Kimitoshi Morihara, deputy director of the Japanese Communist Party’s international bureau, said: “Working conditions dramatically changed for younger generations in 2002 when new temporary working laws were introduced.

Today, more than one in three Japanese is in temporary work. They have almost no rights, no security and no future.

“The political climate in Japan is changing and more young Japanese are becoming politically aware because these issues have long been ignored by other parties.” The revival of hard left politics comes as Japan faces the prospect of an general election in coming months, following the parliamentary deadlock which led to last month’s sudden resignation of Yasuo Fukuda, the third prime minister in less than three years.

The country’s schlerotic political system has enabled the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to hold power for an almost unbroken five decades, although its powers were critically curtailed last year when the main opposition party won control of the upper legislative chamber.

Resurgent Japanese communism is deploying all the tools of the 21st century, with the internet and on-line video sites playing a vital role.

The party’s charismatic chairman, Kazuo Shii, triggered a rush of new recruits with a rousing parliamentary speech attacking the “exploitation” of young workers, which has become cult viewing among young Japanese on video websites.

With his grey salaryman suit and glasses, 54-year-old Mr Shii appears a far cry from conventional revolutionary stereotypes. However, after eight years at the helm of the party he has been propelled to prominence to become something of a media personality.

Among those who have recently come under his sway is Miki Tomohiro, a 34-year-old freelance writer from Fukutsu City, Fukuoka Prefecture. “When I saw Mr Shii speaking, I felt as if he was exposing capitalism in its crudest form,” he said. “I surfed the internet to find out more about the party before joining.” Oomori Shuji, 30, a temporary worker for Toyota, from Aichi Prefecture, who joined the party in June, added: “Since my graduation, I have never been fully employed. At a JCP workshop, I learned about the realities of temps hired by the day and the working poor, who are without social security or bonuses, and are often easily fired.

“The party is considerate of the plight of young people, including their jobs and living conditions. It has a concrete policy on these questions.” Another sign of the growing allure of the Left is the sudden surge in popularity of a classic Japanese novel, Kanikosen – the Crab-Canning Ship �- about embattled factory workers who rise up against their capitalist oppressors.

Nearly eight decades after it was written by Takiji Kobayashi, a communist who was tortured to death for his political beliefs aged 29, its sales have leapt from a slow annual trickle of 5,000 to 507,000 so far this year, unexpectedly catapulting it to the top of the nation’s bestseller lists.

A “manga” comic book depicting the same Marxist tale is also winning over young Japanese, with 200,000 copies sold in a year. Kosuke Maruo, editor at East Press, which publishes the manga version, said: “The story succeeds in representing very vividly the situation of the so-called working poor today.

“They cannot become happy and they cannot find the solution to their poverty, however hard they work. Young people who are forced to work for very low wages today may have a feeling that they are in a similar position to the crew of Kanikosen.” Kyudo Takahashi, 31, a freelance writer from Tokyo, attributed the popularity of the story to a growing sense of displacement among his generation.

“Kanikosen was a textbook in school but we didn’t read it seriously then,” he said. “Now, we’re reading it again because we’re frustrated with the government.

“In the book, people are exploited again and again. They are not treated like humans, more like cows at a hamburger factory. That is how many people feel today. When we find work, someone is always exploiting us. We cannot feel secure about the future.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/3218944/Japans-young-turn-to-Communist-Party-as-they-decide-capitalism-has-let-them-down.html

A group of 24 former students of failed language school operator Nova Corp. lodged a suit for damages Friday against former Nova management and two audit companies, seeking a total of 16 million yen in compensation to cover prepaid tuition.

It was the first time that former Nova students have filed a class action suit since the company went bankrupt last year, lawyers for the plaintiffs said after filing the suit with the Osaka District Court.

They claimed that former President Nozomu Sahashi and other Nova management led the company to bankruptcy after employing illicit accounting procedures and business practices to expand its operations. Sahashi, 57, was indicted in July on charges of embezzlement.

The plaintiffs — including students and company employees in Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Nara, Ehime and Miyazaki prefectures — also accused the audit companies of allowing the Nova management to continue such unlawful practices, according to the complaint.

Some condemned the management for failing to reimburse tuition fees even after canceling their contracts.

“We would like to help former students by pressing charges against Nova over its reckless business practices,” lawyer Takanori Ozaki said at a news conference.

http://caas.tmcnet.com/news/2008/10/17/3711039.htm

A group of 26 cities and towns with large foreign communities adopted a declaration Wednesday calling on the government to form a new agency to comprehensively deal with immigration policies and beef up efforts to strengthen Japanese language education.

“More and more foreigners are expected to come to Japan as workers in the years ahead and it will no longer be an issue concerning specific regions,” said Yasutomo Suzuki, mayor of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, at the group’s conference in Tokyo.

The gathering assembled about 470 people from the 26 municipalities in seven prefectures as well as officials from the Foreign Ministry, the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, and three other related ministries.

Soichi Motai, mayor of Ueda, Nagano Prefecture, suggested that municipalities join hands with local companies to create funds to boost opportunities for foreign residents to learn Japanese.

A survey by the Immigration Bureau, part of the Justice Ministry, showed Japan had 2.15 million registered foreign residents as of 2007, about 1 1/2 times more than a decade ago.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20081016a5.html