Welfare ministry proposes easing child care leave prerequisites
Amid a surge in nonregular workers, it would ease the current rigid requirement for child care leave that prevents many mothers from returning to work.
Most in survey favor work-life balance but few inclined to use all of their paid holidays
As much as 40 percent of Japanese workers prioritize their jobs even though they want to balance their time for work and private life, according to a recent survey by a quasi-government organization. The survey also found that on average the respondents used just 7.7 ...
Obama inks 'fast-track' trade bills but says tough talks lie ahead before TPP is reality
U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday signed into law legislation that gives him "fast-track" power to push ahead on a Pacific Rim trade deal that has been the subject of intense debate in Congress and across the nation. Flanked by some of the lawmakers who ...
Hundreds of workers at supplier to Uniqlo strike over firings
Hundreds of factory workers at a Chinese supplier to Fast Retailing Co. are striking over the dismissal of some of the employees, forcing production to shut down, a labor rights group said. All of the about 900 workers at Artigas Clothing & Leatherwear Co. in ...
Resona group banks to give pay raises for first time in 20 years
Resona Holdings Inc. has decided to raise wages for workers in nonmanagerial posts at its banks by 1 percent or more on average from July in the first wage hike in 20 years, company officials said. The move is aimed at raising its workers' morale ...
Workers getting smaller share of corporate earnings despite record profits
Millions of workers are taking home their smallest share of corporate income in two decades as companies build record cash hoards and fail to give the substantial wage raises that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sees as critical to a durable economic recovery. A seasonally adjusted ...
Increases in the cost of living outpaced annual earnings that rose for the first time in four years in 2014 as the Abe administration sought to reflate the economy. Average earnings climbed 0.8 percent last year while pay, adjusted for inflation, fell 2.5 percent, the ...
Two workers die in accidents at Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 plants
Two workers are killed in separate incidents at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant and the nearby No. 2 complex amid complaints that Tepco has done too little to improve safety conditions.
Labor experts at the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) will offer two days of telephone counseling starting Wednesday to help workers struggling under heavy workloads. The chances of a worker falling victim to "karoshi," or death from overwork, and having the fatality so recognized increase ...
Sea of Japan's medieval islands of exile luring workers
The Oki Islands in the Sea of Japan are turning history on its head. The remote outposts that were used for centuries by medieval rulers to banish rivals have become a model for regional revival as the town of Ama, on one of the four ...
20% in Japan willing to work under merit-based system without overtime pay: poll
About 20 percent of working men and women who responded to a recent Internet survey said they would like to work under a performance-based system without overtime pay, as proposed by the government. In the survey of 1,000 people working in various fields as employees, ...
Women hold only 6.2 percent of the managerial posts in Japan and just over a fifth of the companies surveyed expect that to rise, a survey says.
