Workers will be forced to pay more for less unemployment benefits

The bill to reduce the rates of unemployment benefits and the period of their payments was enacted on April 25 after it was passed in the Upper House by a majority of the three ruling parties. It will come into effect on May 1st.

All opposition parties, including the Japanese Communist Party, voted against.

The minimum rate of unemployment benefits, which is 60 percent at present of the salary the insured person's was paid immediately before losing his/her job, will be reduced to 50 percent.

Under the law, the maximum period of unemployment benefits for a person who has been a regular (full-time) employee insured for at least five years will be reduced by 30 days to 50 days.

The rate of insurance premiums will be increased to 1.6 percent from the present 1.4 percent of the insured person's wages. In some cases the rate can be raised to 1.8 percent.
Shorter length of time benefits are available will leave more unemployed without income

The number of unemployed who collect unemployment benefits will go down. But this clearly isn't good news. The fact is that unemployment is rising in Japan.

On April 22, a senior labor ministry official in parliament stated that the number of unemployed who receive unemployment benefits will be 1,080,000 a month, down from 1,140,000 at present. This was in answer to Koike Akira, Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors. (end)