Japan Press Weekly

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2015 March 18 - 24 [LABOR]

JCP Kira: ‘Black training’ for new employees should be banned

Japanese Communist Party lawmaker Kira Yoshiko on March 23 at a Diet meeting charged that some companies order their new employees to engage in unreasonable training and criticized the training as an infringement on their human rights.

At a House of Councilors Budget Committee meeting, Kira pointed out that these companies try to instill submissive attitudes in their new employees by forcing them to endure hard disciplinary training that has nothing to do with their job assignments. She called these kinds of training “black training”.

Kira gave the details of a three day training course a healthcare company has its new recruits take. This training is outsourced to a religious entity. According to Kira, the recruits had to chant a sutra 1,000 times and meditate while standing under a waterfall.

The JCP lawmaker stressed that there is no relation between these activities and their work assignments, and that the company violates the employees’ freedom of religion guaranteed by the Constitution. Adding that new workers cannot object to the company order due to fear of dismissal, Kira argued that the government should investigate into the matter and take measures to not allow the imposition of such illegal training courses.

Labor Minister Shiozaki Yasuhisa in reply said that he will look into the matter. Justice Minister Kamikawa Yoko said that it is a human rights issue if the training courses involve physical and mental suffering that is unrelated to work.