The nation's largest labor organization called on Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday to help stave off joblessness via a special law and a supplementary budget for fiscal 2001.
Etsuya Washio, head of the 8 million-member Japan Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), made the request in a document handed to Koizumi during the first meeting between the group's chief and a prime minister in two years.
Rengo requested that "an emergency law to curb unemployment be drawn up and a supplementary budget be compiled to swiftly carry out steps against unemployment," according to a copy of the document handed to Koizumi.