Jobs in Japan
1. End of lifetime employment.
As Japanese bubble economy burst around in 1990. Lifetime employment system collapsed. Although many companies still have senior-based wage system, more and more are starting to adopt ability-based wage. No more of myth, Japanese workers are employed by only one company and wages are regularly increased until their retirement.
Companies, instead, are hiring more temporary employees to reduce cost. One out of three Japanese are working non-regular, unstable jobs.
The government announced a plan to increase full-time workers and to fill a gap between full-time and part-time workers by 2021.
2. Holiday of workers.
Are we workaholics lived in rabbit hutches?
This is partly true during the post-war period when people were urged to work in order to rebuild the economy. Now, the government suggests companies to give 20 paid holidays to workers in one year, in addition to 15 national holidays. But the number of paid holidays taken only 9.3 in 2010. In 2016, 50% of the paid holidays were taken, which makes worst rate among 28 countries (US, Canada, Mexico, Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherland, Norway, Spain, Sweden, UK, Brazil, Australia, HongKong, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, Thailand, UAE, New Zealand, Finland, Belgium, Switzerland, and Japan.)
3. Working hours.
Before the Labor Standard Law was revised by the government in 1981, minimum hours for workers were 48. After the revision, minimum hours were set for 40, which made five-day work weekly. The total annual working hours were reduced 1904 hours in 1994 to 1728 hours in 2011.
4. Unemployment rate.
Until the burst of economic bubble, the unemployment rate in Japan was very low and stable. After that, it rose around 5%. But this number was calculated without people who already "gave up" seeking a job. When they are included, the number should rise around 10%.
Unemployment benefits that they receive is 50 to 80% of their former salaries for a period of 90 to 330 days.
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