Japan needs regulations to secure decent livelihoods -- Akahata editorial, July 9

In Japan, long working hours are causing deaths from overwork. Workers are forced to work overtime without pay. A corporate restructuring race is going on. Part-timers and temps are forced into inadequate working conditions. Unlike Europe, Japan does not have regulations to defend people's livelihoods and rights. This is a major weakness of Japanese society. Establishing regulations equivalent to those in Europe is an essential task for remaking Japan to correct anomalies.

No ceiling for overtime

One our of four full-time male workers between 20 and 40 years of age works overtime more than 1,000 hours a year. Such an extraordinary amount of overtime work is prevalent because there is no legal limit to hours of overtime work. In France, overtime work is restricted to no more than 180 hours a year. German workers are allowed to work overtime up to two hours with a maximum of 60 days a year.

In addition to already short annual paid holidays in Japan, the number of paid leaves the Japanese workers use is 8.8 days on average, or 48 percent. Germans and French, in contrast, normally use more than 1-month in paid holidays in summer or in winter.

In the last several years, massive corporate restructuring and dismissals carried out by large corporations have been sweeping across Japan. Germany and France have a discharge restrictions law and the European Union has adopted a directive (like a law) that requires employers to hold consultation on corporate restructuring for the purpose of reaching an agreement with employees.

Unstable jobs now account for 30 percent of the total. Many of these workers are paid less than half what full-time workers are, and forced to work under poor working conditions with severe discrimination. Concerning working conditions, the EU established the principle of equal treatment between full-time workers and part-time and fixed-term contract workers.

In France, Germany, and Italy, the principle is that temporary workers must not be discriminated against in wages and treatment in places of work. In the EU, a directive that prohibits discrimination in the workplace is now under discussion.

Japan also lacks regulations to defend small- and medium-seized businesses. Opening or closing down large-scale retail stores is virtually unrestricted. Under the notification system, they are not required to take into account their impact on nearby smaller retail stores. In Europe, in contrast, large retail stores must be approved by relevant authorities. The United States also adopted the large-scale retail stores restriction in the 1990s. Among summit countries, Japan and Russia are the only ones that have no "taxpayer's charter" defining taxpayers' bill of rights.

It is necessary to force large corporations to end their authoritarian behavior and fulfill their corporate social responsibility for employment and regional economies.

The Japanese Communist Party demands the establishment of an economy with rules for safeguarding the people's lives and rights as a necessary way to create decent jobs, improve working conditions, and help small- and medium-sized businesses.

Why doesn't Japan have strict regulations to secure the people's livelihoods? It is because successive Liberal Democratic Party governments have long regarded the business sector as the key player in the nation's economy. They have neglected to even legislate the minimum standards that are established in the rest of the world. They have instead assisted large corporations, which are known for their extraordinary greed, in making huge profits using the extraordinarily long hours of work and squeezing subcontractors without establishing even the internationally recognized rules and regulations.

Japan has not ratified any international conventions related to working hours, including the International Labor Convention-1 stipulating an eight-hour work day restricting overtime work.

The LDP-Komei government must be blamed for destroying the existing labor regulations in order to ease restrictions on the use of temporary workers and term-contract workers and the expanded use of the discretionary work-schedule system that enables companies to force employees to work without limits.

End political anomalies

The Democratic Party of Japan is no less aggressive than the ruling parties in proposing policies that destroy regulations that protect workers. The DPJ in its election policy statement for the Upper House election calls for the defense of "market forces" and the abolition of regulations of business. This clearly shows its position as a defender of large corporations.

The ruling parties and the opposition DPJ are asking for donations from corporations that will only worsen the anomalies caused by the politics of giving the business sector the key role to play.

Let's work to achieve a JCP advance in the House of Councilors election in order to pave the way for correcting the political anomalies and establishing regulations for protecting the people's lives and rights. (end)