Japan Press Weekly

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2008 December 3 - 9 [WELFARE]

Democratic organizations hold rally in front of the Diet

Labor unions and other democratic organizations held a rally in front of the Diet on December 3 calling for improvements in employment- and healthcare-related measures.

Speaking on behalf of the organizers, National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) Vice President Shibata Masako called on participants to increase the effort to press major corporations to fulfill their social responsibility to secure jobs.

Miyagaki Tadashi, chair of the Japan Federation of National Public Service Employees’ Unions (Kokko-roren), said, “The Worker Dispatch Law should be fundamentally revised to restore restrictions on the use of temporary labor” that were eased in 1999.

All Japan Teachers and Staff Union (Zenkyo) Secretary Higashimori Hideo reported that only 35 percent of high schools students in Hokkaido Prefecture have received job offers. He stressed the need to struggle to prevent employers from cancelling their job offers.

Japanese Communist Party House of Councilors Kami Tomoko said, “The need now is to take economic measures to assist the household economy.”

She was handed about 15,000 signatures in opposition to the extension of the new anti-terrorism special measures law and calling for the abolition of the medical insurance system for the elderly aged 75 and older.