Recent news

Latest items of recent news relevant to Japan as reported in our fortnightly newswire ‘Dernières nouvelles’.

Japan: Fragile economic recovery (January 2024)

The longer leading indicator is a statistical measure that predicts economic growth or contraction for the next 6-9 months …

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Japan: The 3-day workweek

The potential popularity of a 3-day workweek has been the subject of a survey conducted by the resourcing company Mynavi …

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Japan: Preparing for the “2024 Problem”

With effect from 1st April 2024 several labour reforms will take effect which employers operating in the country should prepare for now …

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Japan: Changes to career advancement subsidy

A career advancement subsidy is provided by the State to employers when they hire non-regular workers as full-time employees, or to encourage them to improve the treatment of non-regular workers …

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Japan: Changing remuneration to reflect the external market

A recent survey of human resource management carried out by the Tokyo-based resourcing company ‘Recruit’ (known globally as RGF) has found that 39 …

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Japan: Labour shortages persist

Teikoku Databank’s recent ‘survey on corporate trends regarding labour shortage’ covers 11,506 companies …

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Japan: Evolving driving force for early mobility

Gone was the time that the vast majority of Japanese employees stayed with the same company throughout their career …

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Japan: Secondary employment increasingly acceptable to principal employers

According to a recent survey by the information services company Mynavi, the number of employers prepared to accept employees for principal jobs, even if they already hold a ‘side job’, has increased substantially over the last three years …

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Japan: Retirement agency services

Fears about an employer’s reaction to any request to retire sometimes lead employees in Japan to call on the services of a “retirement agent” …

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Japan: Expressway commuting discounts

Discounts for commuters are now available on many expressways across the country – but only on weekday mornings and evenings …

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Japan: Labour confederation prepares for a tough new annual wage round

The largest labour organisation – The Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) – has announced that it plans to demand average wage hikes of 5% or more in the 2024 “shunto” labour-management wage negotiations …

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Japan: Necessity to effectively distribute work rules

From April 2024 employers will be required to notify their staff about the content of work rules …

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Japan: Company open style reduces use of overtime

A metal parts manufacturer, Sakata Seisakusho in Niigata Prefecture, has been able to increase basic salaries by 12% and average annual salaries by 26% through openly sharing the value of productivity gains with employees …

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Japan: White paper on death through overwork

A special survey report has just been presented to the Japanese Cabinet by the The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare …

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Japan: Persuading workers to take their annual paid leave

Although it has been a government policy since 2021 to ensure that the proportion of workers taking their annual leave entitlement will rise from 58 …

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