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Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Japan (RATIFICATION: 1986)

1. The Committee notes the Government's report received in October 2002 stating that in recent years the employment situation has steadily deteriorated. In 2002, the number of employed people in Japan dropped by 820,000 (1.3 per cent), from 64.12 million to 63.30 million. The number of unemployed workers increased by 190,000 persons, reaching 3.59 million; in the last five years this figure has increased by 2.27 million. The unemployment rate has reached a historic high at 5.4 per cent, averaging 5.5 per cent for men and 5.1 per cent for women. Unemployment was highest among young people aged 15 through 24 (men, 11.1 per cent; women, 8.7 per cent). The labour force participation rate averaged 61.2 per cent in 2002, a decline of 0.8 per cent compared with the previous year, the fifth straight year of decline. By sex, the labour force participation rate was 74.7 per cent among men and 48.5 per cent among women, representing declines of 1.0 and 0.7 percentage points. Long-term unemployment has increasingly become a problem; in 2002 approximately 1.05 million people, or about 29 per cent of the unemployed, were out of work for a year or more.

2. The Government considers that to overcome the challenges that the labour market faces in coming years it is necessary to introduce reforms that promote an increase in the supply of labour by women and improve the allocation of labour. In this connection, and with the aim of reconciling work and family life, it has introduced a revised Childcare and Family Care Leave Law. The main contents of the revised legislation are, inter alia, the prohibition of discriminatory treatment for reasons such as childcare leave, a restriction of overtime work for workers taking care of pre-school children or another family member and the introduction of a leave system for taking care of children. Additionally, with the objectives of easing the integration of new workers into the labour force, promoting human capital development and increasing productivity, the Government has introduced a revision to the Job Capacities Development Promotion Law. The Committee takes note of the measures taken by the Government to overcome the difficult economic conditions and reiterates the request formulated in its 2001 observation to be kept informed as to the impact of training programmes on employment promotion and on any progress made in ensuring equality of treatment for all categories of workers. Please also continue to provide information on trends in the quality of employment.

3. With reference to its 2001 observation, in which it noted with interest the information provided by the Government on the Ninth Basic Employment Measures Plan, the Committee hopes that the Government will provide, in its next report, the information necessary to assess the manner in which the measures taken with a view to promoting full employment are decided and kept under review within the framework of a coordinated economic and social policy and in consultation with the representatives of the persons affected, in accordance with Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention. In particular, the Committee requests that the Government provide the information, as noted in the report form, regarding the manner in which the measures taken in areas such as budgetary and monetary policy, investment policy and fiscal policy help to further employment aims. It also reiterates its interest in obtaining any information on how various measures, such as the increase in flexibility of fixed-term contracts and the proliferation of other forms of temporary work, help promote the objectives of full, productive and freely chosen employment as stipulated by Article 1 of the Convention.