The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has started discussions that will eventually lead to stronger controls over the dispatch and use of temporary workers. The move will reverse the direction of the nation's basic labor policy. Labor market liberalization has progressed since the law on dispatched labor was enforced in 1986. In 1999, dispatched labor was allowed in principle for all types of jobs. This has contributed to a rapid increase in the number of dispatched workers. They now number about 3.2 million and are registered with about 52,000 temporary staffing agencies.

As dispatched labor has expanded, problems related to it have also surfaced, including job insecurity, low wages and labor accidents. Enterprises have started treating dispatched workers as cheap and expendable — people who can be fired anytime. Given these problems, the ministry should have already taken measures to stop the expansion of dispatched labor. The ministry should take utmost care so that tightened controls over dispatched labor will not lead to fewer job opportunities for workers. It also should make efforts to ensure that working conditions for dispatched workers, including social insurance coverage, approach the conditions of regularly employed workers.

The ministry hopes to submit a bill to revise the law on dispatched labor to an upcoming extraordinary Diet session. A ministry study group has called for a ban in principle on the practice of dispatching and using workers for assignments of 30 days or less, because these workers tend to be subjected to the more dangerous jobs while the responsibility to protect their rights is blurred. Conditions endured by workers who must repeatedly rely on dispatched assignments of just one-day duration have become a social problem. The ministry should consider measures to get these workers into vocational training programs and help them find employment for longer periods.