The Hatoyama administration is working on an amendment to the job dispatch law in an effort to provide greater security to temporary workers hit by the economic slump.
But observers worry that the Democratic Party of Japan-led ruling coalition is backing away from a campaign promise to drastically overhaul the law. This threatens to leave nonregular workers out in the cold.
The dispatch law, which regulates employer use of temporary workers, was loosened in recent years under Liberal Democratic Party-led administrations. Until 1999, only a few job categories, including clerical and translation work, could be filled by temps. That year, the law was revised to open up nearly all industries other than manufacturing and health care to temporary workers. Then in 2004, the law was amended to allow temps to work at manufacturers.