Tag - labor

 
 

LABOR

COMMENTARY / World
Jun 10, 2014
Some companies still struggle with their dark WWII history
The amount of bookshelf space dedicated to the 12 years of Hitler's Third Reich often exceeds that of any other period in history, but the role and the complicity of companies in the atrocities committed by the Nazis continue to be shrouded in obscurity.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Jun 9, 2014
AKB48 members deserve to get workers’ comp for saw attack
Are members of girl group AKB48 'workers' under the law and therefore eligible for industrial accident insurance? The evidence suggests so.
EDITORIALS
Jun 7, 2014
Power napping for performance
A new trend aimed less at improving worker efficiency has started to become more popular in Japan — power napping.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 5, 2014
Top retailers reach crossroads in labor shortage shakeout
Don Quijote and Uniqlo, two of the nation's best-known mass-market retailers, aren't waiting for the government's new growth policies due later this month before implementing their own labor reforms.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2014
Too high a price for Sherpas
The 16 Sherpa lives lost in an avalanche on Everest six weeks ago highlight the growing divide between well-heeled climbing expedition members and the mountaineering guides. Sherpas must re-articulate their concerns and establish a sensible code of operation.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
May 28, 2014
Foreign labor key to Olympic gold
At a construction site in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, worker Fan Xiuyu says he's too busy to miss the wife and 6-year-old child he left behind in China.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2014
New digital technology wave replacing labor
People scrambling to keep up with digital technologies need to know that the world we are entering is one in which the most powerful global flows will be ideas and digital capital — not goods, services and traditional capital.
EDITORIALS
May 8, 2014
The changing face of society
It is important that Japan reform its employment systems and social security programs so that it can better cope with the shrinking labor supply and the needs of the 65-and-over crowd, now more than one-quarter of the population.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
May 7, 2014
Japanese firms have much to lose in battles over bogus outsourcing
The biggest reason companies sign outsourcing contracts with regular workers is to avoid all the obligations employers have to regular employees according to labor law.
EDITORIALS
May 7, 2014
Easing work-hour regulations
Key government panels for the Abe administration are looking into easing work-hour regulations so that some workers could be rewarded on the basis of performance rather than hours spent in the office.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 4, 2014
A cut-out-and-keep guide to getting legal advice in Japan
With the new school and fiscal year bringing plenty of new arrivals to Japan, here are some basic tips on how to use various legal services in Japan.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 30, 2014
Contractors feeling impact of 'Abenomics'
The construction industry is raising wages and selling bonds as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's stimulus policies cause labor shortages and a need for funds.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2014
Tradable gains in Spain rain hope for recovery
Though domestic investment is constrained by credit availability, major European and Latin American multinationals have begun investing in the Spanish economy, attracted by its enhanced competitive posture, structural flexibility and recovery in domestic demand.
EDITORIALS
Apr 15, 2014
Flawed foreign labor plan
The Abe administration's sudden plan to use participants in a controversial foreign trainee program to fill manpower shortages in the nation's construction industry smacks of a ploy that benefits only Japan. The government must first consider how these workers' rights will be protected as well as how to avoid social problems if they are used.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Apr 14, 2014
Suit over dismissal to tackle thorny issue of language teachers' employment status
At the heart of the Sulejman Brkic case is the issue of what, in legal terms, the nature of his employment status was while he worked for language school ICC: Was he an employee or a contractor?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Apr 9, 2014
Foreign workers fear exploitation as Olympic projects gather steam
My first Labor Pains column of the new fiscal year will look at the government's recent proposal for bringing in foreign workers.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 4, 2014
Abe's immigrant dream is a wage nightmare
Prime Miniser Shinzo Abe wants to import 200,000 foreign workers a year into Japan to counter the decline in the population. But the gambit might work at cross-purposes with his push to get companies to increase wages.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?