Foreign personnel feel the pain of 'corona job cuts' in Japan
06 May, 2020
Eight years after arriving from Brazil, Rennan Yamashita sat in a government office in Mie Prefecture, filling in forms for unemployment insurance after losing his job for the ninth or 10th time - he has lost count.
Some weeks earlier, he was let go from his job at an automobile parts factory. He only held that job for four months.
"If indeed they need you, they hire you; if they don't need you, they'll fire you. It's simple like that," said Yamashita, 31.
The coronavirus pandemic has hit Japan's economy hard and many factories, including those of carmakers, are scaling back production.
Foreign workers are particularly vulnerable, with a weaker support network and language barriers that prevent them from seeking government help.
Union groups, labour legal representatives and nonprofit organizations say foreign personnel such as Yamashita will be the first to lose jobs in "corona cuts", that they fear may expand to the sort of mass layoffs seen in the 2008 financial crisis.
Last month, the Japan Center for Economic Research estimated that if Japan's GDP contracted by twenty five percent this season, the unemployment rate would reach 5% and about 2 million people could lose their jobs.
In March and April, a labor organization located in Mie Prefecture, a manufacturing center, received 400 consultations from laborers who were afflicted by the coronavirus. About 330 were foreign workers.
"Foreign workers on short-term contracts are laid off first," because they're easier to fire, Union Mie organizer Akai Jimbu said.
Last year, 34.5 percent of foreign employees in Mie were momentary workers, weighed against the national average of 2.5 percent.
"It's almost like they're hired so that they could be fired when the going gets tough," Jimbu said. "They're just a spare bolt in the eyes of the employer."
Japan has become increasingly reliant on foreign labour. With a third of its population over 65 and a smaller working population, the federal government has eased some immigration restrictions.
A lot more than 1.6 million foreign workers supported japan economy by October 2019 - a four-fold increase from 2008.
A labour ministry official told Reuters the ministry will not officially track the quantity of foreign workers let go since it provides "support to all workers" irrespective of their nationality.
Still, the government recently allocated 370 million yen ($3.46 million) to improve multilingual support for foreigners at unemployment offices and online.
But most foreign personnel don't turn to the federal government for help. While Union Mie handled hundreds of consultations this season through mid-April, the local labour ministry office saw only seven.
Kaori Nakao, a Japanese-Brazilian woman, sought help from the union when her employer laid her faraway from an automobile component factory at the end of March.
The company informed her she had been fired as a result of coronavirus-related production cuts. Nakao, 38, was also ordered to leave her company apartment.
Pregnant with her fourth child and without savings, she asked Union Mie for help.
Last month, union members and Nakao protested outside her employer's office and the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Thermal Systems factory where she worked.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Thermal Systems declined to comment since it didn't employ Nakao.
"I simply want to work," Nakao said. "I've zero money and I cannot even buy food for my children."
Yamashita, who's still looking for jobs, said he had found an open position at another car parts factory a couple weeks ago.
The contract was limited to 90 days - maybe even less. Still, Yamashita said, it had been something. He interviewed for the job, and was looking towards a respite from searching.
But then he got a call. The positioning wasn't available anymore.
"We will be the first to go," he says of foreigners employed in Japan. "I already know about that."
Source: japantoday.com
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