A revision to the worker dispatch law being prepared by the government would remove the three-year limit on dispatching temporary workers to the same job, thus enabling businesses to keep using temporary staff on a long-term basis instead of hiring regular employees. While the Abe administration touts "diverse ways of work" in the labor market as an important part of its growth strategy, the measure could expand the ranks of temporary workers, who generally have little job security and are paid less than regular employees.

The 1986 law on the dispatch of temporary workers bans the use of temporary workers for the same job for more than three years, except in 26 fields designated as requiring special skills, such as interpretation. The Labor Policy Council, an advisory panel to the labor minister, compiled a report in January proposing that companies be allowed to continue using temporary workers for any job category indefinitely as long as the individual workers themselves are replaced every three years.

Under the council's proposal, companies would be required to hear the opinions of labor unions when they seek to use temporary workers for a position for more than three years, but unions would not have the power to override companies' decisions. The government plans to submit a revision bill to the current Diet session so that the new rules can take effect in April 2015.