{"id":14337,"date":"2016-11-28T11:20:28","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T21:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14337"},"modified":"2016-11-28T12:20:02","modified_gmt":"2016-11-28T22:20:02","slug":"japan-times-five-year-rule-triggers-tohoku-college-massacre-of-jobs-harbinger-of-a-larger-looming-purge-sez-debito-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14337","title":{"rendered":"Japan Times: “Five-year rule” triggers “Tohoku college massacre” of jobs; harbinger of a larger looming purge, sez Debito.org"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. Debito.org has talked at length about the “Great Gaijin Massacre of 1992-4<\/a>,” where National and Public Universities decided to terminate en masse<\/em> (at the urging of the Ministry of Education<\/a>) their foreign faculty who were over 35 years old 1) as a cost-cutting measure, and 2) because they could — since most NJ were on contract employment (meaning one could be “fired” through a simple contract non-renewal), while full-time J faculty were almost always employed on permanent non-contracted tenure from day one<\/a>. “Academic Apartheid<\/a>” is what respected scholars such as Ivan Hall <\/a>called it. And conditions have not really gotten better, as (again through government design) more full-time Japanese faculty are being put on contract employment themselves, while far fewer full-time NJ are being granted permanent tenure.<\/p>\n

Now we have a new looming massacre. The labor laws changed again in 2013 to require employers to stop keeping people on perpetual renewable contract status. After five years of employment, employers must switch them to permanent noncontracted status. Well, the five-year mark is April 1, 2018, meaning there is an incentive for employers to fire people before they hit a half-decade of employment. Debito.org said before that that would happen, and there were some doubters<\/a>. But here’s the first published evidence of that happening, at Tohoku University, courtesy of our labor law expert at the Japan Times.\u00a0 After all these years of service, even less job security awaits. Dr. ARUDOU, Debito<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

‘Five-year rule\u2019 triggers \u2018Tohoku college massacre\u2019 of jobs<\/strong>
\n by Hifumi Okunuki<\/strong>
\n The Japan Times, Nov 27, 2016<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2016\/11\/27\/issues\/five-year-rule-triggers-tohoku-college-massacre-jobs\/<\/a><\/p>\n

I have discussed the \u201cfive-year rule\u201d several times before in this column \u2014 the revision of the Labor Contract Law (Rodo Keiyaku Ho) enacted in 2013. Under the amendment, any worker employed on serial fixed-term contracts (y\u016bki koy\u014d) for more than five years can give themselves permanent status. See my earlier stories for more details, particularly my March 2013 column, \u201cLabor law reform raises rather than relieves workers\u2019 worries<\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The amendment was supposed to give workers more job security. Or at least that is what lawmakers claimed the purpose was. From the start I had my doubts \u2014 doubts that are now being borne out.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The fact is, employers are using the amendment as an excuse to fire their workers or change their working conditions before April 2018. When the law was enacted, it was not grandfathered to entitle those who had already worked more than five years. That meant the clock started on April Fools\u2019 Day, 2013, and that the first time it will be possible to use this purported job-security measure will be April 1, 2018.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

After enactment, some employers put new hires on one-year contracts with a three-renewal limit, or a five-year maximum with no renewal possible afterwards. It seems obvious this was to avoid being restricted by the five-year rule, which is really a \u201cmore-than-five-year rule.\u201d Other employers are planning to either change their employees\u2019 working conditions or fire or nonrenew their employees over the coming year, 2017. Again, it seems obvious that their intention is to avoid the new law and thereby violate its job-security spirit.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And this month I\u2019ll name names \u2014 or a name in this case. This month\u2019s installment delves into the \u201cTohoku University massacre.\u201d This prestigious, famous and respected college with a long history and tradition has revealed that it plans not to renew the fixed-term contracts of up to 3,200 employees when they next come up for renewal. This kind of move \u2014 effectively a mass firing \u2014 is rare in Japan, and the plan has already had a huge impact in education and labor-law circles.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rest at http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2016\/11\/27\/issues\/five-year-rule-triggers-tohoku-college-massacre-jobs\/<\/a><\/p>\n

====================================<\/p>\n

Do you like what you read on Debito.org? Want to help keep the archive active and support Debito.org’s activities? We are celebrating Debito.org’s 20th Anniversary in 2016, so please consider donating a little something. More details here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Debito.org has talked at length about the “Great Gaijin Massacre of 1992-4,” where National and Public Universities decided to terminate en masse (at the urging of the Ministry of Education) their foreign faculty who were over 35 years old 1) as a cost-cutting measure, and 2) because they could — since most NJ were on contract employment (meaning one could be “fired” through a simple contract non-renewal), while full-time J faculty were almost always employed on permanent non-contracted tenure from day one. “Academic Apartheid” is what respected scholars such as Ivan Hall called it. And conditions have gotten no better, as (again through government design) more full-time Japanese faculty are being put on contract employment themselves, while far fewer NJ are being granted permanent tenure.<\/p>\n

Now we have a new looming massacre. The labor laws changed in 2013 to require employers to stop keeping people on perpetual renewable contract status. After five years of employment, employers must switch them to permanent noncontracted status. Well, the five-year mark is April 1, 2018, meaning there is an incentive for employers to fire people before they hit a half-decade of employment. Debito.org said before that that would happen, and there were some doubters. But here’s the first published evidence of that happening, at Tohoku University, courtesy of our labor law expert at the Japan Times. After all these years of service, even less job security awaits.<\/p>\n

JT: [Under] the revision of the Labor Contract Law (Rodo Keiyaku Ho) enacted in 2013, […] any worker employed on serial fixed-term contracts (y\u016bki koy\u014d) for more than five years can give themselves permanent status. […] The fact is, employers are using the amendment as an excuse to fire their workers or change their working conditions before April 2018. When the law was enacted, it was not grandfathered to entitle those who had already worked more than five years. That meant the clock started on April Fools\u2019 Day, 2013, and that the first time it will be possible to use this purported job-security measure will be April 1, 2018. [..]<\/p>\n

This month\u2019s installment delves into the \u201cTohoku University massacre.\u201d This prestigious, famous and respected college with a long history and tradition has revealed that it plans not to renew the fixed-term contracts of up to 3,200 employees when they next come up for renewal. This kind of move \u2014 effectively a mass firing \u2014 is rare in Japan, and the plan has already had a huge impact in education and labor-law circles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,19,20,4,16,56,48,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bad-business-practices","category-education","category-history","category-japanese-government","category-labor-issues","category-nj-legacies","category-shoe-on-the-other-foot-dept","category-sitys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14337","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=14337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}