Zenroren severely criticizes the Japan Restoration Party for proposing the abolition of the minimum wage system and easing regulation on dismissals in its election platform

ODAGAYWA Yoshikazu,
Secretary General
National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren)

Political parties are campaigning for the December 16 House of Representative general election. They have published their respective election policies outlining their promises to the public. Zenroren has the duty as a national trade union center to present its views in the interest of workers about policies. In this regard, we cannot overlook the "public promise" put forward by the Japan Restoration Party (led by ISHIHARA Shintaro) in a policy proposal entitled "Making Japan wiser and stronger (an outline for 2013-2016)." We strongly protest the public promise.

The Restoration Party’s public promise emphasizes the need to increase labor mobility through easing regulation on dismissals and abolishing the minimum wage system.

This shows that the Restoration Party does not know the actual state of Japanese workers and the very serious social problems being derived from the working people’s conditions. More than one in three company employees are casual workers (17,900,000 people).

The number of working poor with earnings below two million yen a year has reached ten million. Increasing labor mobility is the main cause of increasing poverty among workers. In an economic crisis that broke out in 2008, more than 230,000 contingent workers were forced out of work.

The electronics industry in Japan is cutting more than 130,000 jobs to streamline their production capacity on the pretext of an economic slowdown in Europe as well as the rising evaluation of the yen. Japanese companies, particularly large manufactures, are using casual workers as a safety valve for employment adjustment, which means doing business with the freedom of dismissals.

Nearly 30 percent of all households are without any savings. More than two million people live on government livelihood protection welfare benefits. The situation reflects the impoverishment of workers in Japanese society.

This year’s “White Paper on the Labor Economy” of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry points out that an increase in the number of contingent workers is holding down personal consumption.

In order to pull the Japanese economy out of a deflationary trend, it is indispensable to stabilize the labor market and bottom up wages.

The Restoration Party is dead wrong when it calls for a society that gives employers the freedom to fire workers, a society in which employers have the freedom to cut wages, or a society without regulation.

We call on workers to direct your anger at the political party that abandons policies that guarantee the minimum living standards and working conditions by abolishing the minimum wage system and by calling for employers’ freedom to dismiss workers. We call on you to voice your protests at the party. Let us raise our voices and carry out actions to demand that politics do its part to eliminate working poor and that no worker is forced to work with the fear of being fired.