{"id":14210,"date":"2016-12-02T11:40:41","date_gmt":"2016-12-02T21:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14210"},"modified":"2016-12-02T11:40:41","modified_gmt":"2016-12-02T21:40:41","slug":"jt-the-flip-side-of-coveted-public-sector-jobs-in-japan-fewer-rights-by-being-excepted-from-labor-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14210","title":{"rendered":"JT: The flip side of coveted public-sector jobs in Japan: fewer rights, by being excepted from labor laws"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog.\u00a0 Once again, the JT comes out with an insightful article about the difference between appearance and reality, especially in Japan’s labor market.\u00a0 Okunuki Hifumi tells us about how Japan’s most-coveted job — civil servant (!) — actually comes with at a price of fewer rights under Japan’s labor laws.\u00a0 Depending on your status, bureaucrats lack the right to strike, collectively bargain, or unionize (not to mention, as it wasn’t in this article, engage in “political activities”<\/a>).\u00a0 And that can severely weaken their ability to fight back when labor abuses occur (see in particular footnote 6<\/a>) or, as schoolteachers, to educate students about politics<\/a>.\u00a0 Read on.\u00a0 Dr. ARUDOU, Debito.<\/p>\n

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(Photo Caption) Pop quiz: Which of these types of government worker has the right to strike \u2014 tax inspectors, schoolteachers, firefighters or public health workers? Answer: None of the above, thanks to an Occupation-era law designed to tamp down the influence of communism. | KYODO PHOTO<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The flip side of coveted public-sector jobs in Japan: fewer rights<\/strong>
\n BY HIFUMI OKUNUKI, SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES, AUG 21, 2016<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2016\/08\/21\/issues\/flip-side-coveted-public-sector-jobs-japan-less-rights\/<\/a><\/p>\n

I research labor law and teach it to university students. In the first class, I break up the two groups of labor laws \u2014 those related to individual and collective labor relations \u2014 for my students. Individual labor relations law begins and ends with the 1947 Labor Standards Act (r\u014dd\u014d kijun h\u014d<\/em>); its collective counterpart is surely the 1950 Trade Union Act (r\u014dd\u014d kumiai h\u014d<\/em>).<\/strong><\/p>\n

About 99.9 percent of my 18-20-year-olds look blank the first time they hear the word \u201cr\u014dd\u014d kumiai<\/em>,\u201d or labor union. Some of them have arubaito<\/em> (part-time jobs) and thus already have become r\u014dd\u014dsha (workers) protected by labor laws, but they have not heard of labor unions and have no idea what such a creature looks like. I have my work cut out trying to explain to them the concepts of labor unions, collective bargaining and striking.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A popular professional aspiration among university students today is to join the ranks of k\u014dmuin, or government employees. Civil servants have stable employment, meaning they don\u2019t have to worry about the possibility of being laid off. Their work hours and days off are usually quite favorable compared with those at private-sector firms. (At least that is what is said \u2014 that is the reputation. The reality is not so straightforward.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once, the hot jobs were high-income positions with finance firms or trading houses, but today\u2019s youth are more sober, preferring a steady, grounded career path. A 2015 poll by Adecco Group asked children between 6 and 15 years old in seven Asian countries and regions what they wanted to be when they grow up. Children in Japan answered in the following order of popularity: 1) company worker; 2) soccer player; 3) civil servant; 4) baseball player. Note the perhaps unexpected answers ranking 1) and 3). \u201cGovernment employee\u201d made the top 10 only in Japan. […]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amazingly, each type of civil servant has different labor rights in Japan. I ordinarily teach labor law that protects private-sector employees, so when I tell my students that the labor laws for civil servants differ by type of job, they express shock, particularly when they find out that civil servants have fewer<\/em> rights than other workers…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Read the rest of the article at http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2016\/08\/21\/issues\/flip-side-coveted-public-sector-jobs-japan-less-rights\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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JT: Once, the hot jobs [in Japan] were high-income positions with finance firms or trading houses, but today\u2019s youth are more sober, preferring a steady, grounded career path. A 2015 poll by Adecco Group asked children between 6 and 15 years old in seven Asian countries and regions what they wanted to be when they grow up. Children in Japan answered in the following order of popularity: 1) company worker; 2) soccer player; 3) civil servant; 4) baseball player. Note the perhaps unexpected answers ranking 1) and 3). \u201cGovernment employee\u201d made the top 10 only in Japan. […]<\/p>\n

Amazingly, each type of civil servant has different labor rights in Japan. I ordinarily teach labor law that protects private-sector employees, so when I tell my students that the labor laws for civil servants differ by type of job, they express shock, particularly when they find out that civil servants have fewer rights than other workers…<\/p>\n

COMMENT: Once again, the JT comes out with an insightful article about the difference between appearance and reality, especially in Japan’s labor market. Okunuki Hifumi tells us about how Japan’s most-coveted job — civil servant (!) — actually comes with at a price of fewer rights under Japan’s labor laws. Depending on your status, bureaucrats lack the right to strike, collectively bargain, or unionize (not to mention, as it wasn’t in this article, engage in “political activities”). And that can severely weaken their ability to fight back when labor abuses occur, or, as schoolteachers, to educate students about politics. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,22,20,5,4,16,15,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bad-business-practices","category-cultural-issue","category-history","category-human-rights","category-japanese-government","category-labor-issues","category-lawsuits","category-tangents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14210\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}