Government and labor union leaders agreed Wednesday on the need to create additional jobs in the public sector to prevent the record-high unemployment rate from rising even further.
The agreement came at a meeting of Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda; Chikara Sakaguchi, minister of health, labor and welfare; Takeo Hiranuma, minister of economy, trade and industry; and Etsuya Washio, head of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation.
Hiroshi Okuda, head of the Japan Federation of Employers Associations, also took part.
They exchanged views on the employment situation in the wake of the jobless rate rising to 5 percent in July and major supermarket chain operator Mycal Corp. going under last week.
Washio urged the government to expand employment measures, saying: "It is necessary to compile a supplementary budget for the current fiscal year that focuses on employment. The government needs to allocate 4.35 trillion yen for employment measures and it should not stick to the principle of capping (annual) government bond issuance at 30 trillion yen."
Fukuda brushed aside the possibility that the 30 trillion yen cap might be exceeded, but expressed hope for continued talks.
It was the first such meeting since June 12, when government and labor union leaders met for the first time since November 1999.