Basic Policy The Basic View on Women's Employment When we consider welfare measures for women workers, the first question we encounter is how we should evaluate women's employment and what standpoint should be taken in the matter. The Labor Ministry established in 1971 the Conference on Women's Employment, consisting of experts in different fields. The group was entrusted to study the problem objectively and technically to find out the most reasonable viewpoint regarding the employment of women, especially married women, in the context of the national economy, childrearing, education, and the status of women. After prolonged discussion and study the Conference submitted a report. Its conclusion was based on the following idea: the question of whether or not a mother of small children should go to work is a question to be decided not universally by society but individually by women themselves with their independent judgement, and the responsibility of the government is to provide an environment and conditions in which women can freely choose their own way. The Ministry of Labor, following the principles expressed in the report, consolidated the basic ideas to be embodied in the law concerning the welfare of working women. It then asked the opinion of the Advisory Council of Women's and Minors' Problems, composed of experts and representatives of labor and management, and subsequently drew up a bill for the Working Women's Welfare Law, which later was submitted to the Parliament. Formulation of the Basic Policy for the Welfare of Working Women In compliance with the provision of the Working Women's Welfare Law of 1972, the Minister of Labor formulated in 1973 the "Basic Policy for the Welfare of Working Women.” On the basis of an outlook on the future trends of the working life and family life of women workers, the basic policy refers to three points as the major problems in promoting the status and welfare of women workers: how to develop and make full use of women's abilities, how to protect the health of women workers as mothers, and how to harmonize their dual responsibilities at home and at work. Further, the most important countermeasures to be implemented in the coming 5 years are mentioned in it as follows: (a) creation of a social climate favorable to promotion of the welfare of working women; (b) promotion of better work environment; (c) formulation of a guideline concerning health preservation for working mothers and improvement of administrative arrangements to strengthen guidance service for employers; (d) promotion of child care leave; and (e) establishment of welfare centers for women workers. Assistance in Finding Employment Vocational Guidance Public employment security offices scattered all over the country, and numbering about 500, undertake vocational guidance as part of the employment exchange service. For part-time jobseekers who are mostly housewives such employment service is offered at each of these offices. Besides, 15 so-called Terminal Employment Information Bureaus have been estab lished since 1970 near terminal stations in big cities to offer employment services, including vocational guidance. Vocational Training By 1975, about 440 public vocational training centers had been established by the State, local governments, and the Employment Promotion Projects Corporation. These schools provide general training in such trades as sewing, office work, beauty art, machine drafting, hair cutting, and construction drafting. They also provide occupational capacity redevelopment training in office work, sewing, drafting, dressmaking, typing, machine drafting, tailoring, knitting, and beauty art. Besides, in eight schools located in major cities, training in domestic science and catering service is provided to middle-aged and older women with a view toward promoting their employment. Short-Term Vocational Training In addition to the regular training schemes mentioned above, prefectural women's and minors' offices organize short-term training courses of 2 weeks duration in medical office work, office work related to workers' social security, drafting, and apparel sales work for the purpose of facilitating employment of middle-aged and older women. Some prefectural governments have undertaken surveys and training courses to promote reentrance into the labor force of housewives who are qualified as hospital nurses or day nurses. Measures for Part-Time Employment The accelerated labor shortage in recent years has led to an increased demand for a part-time work force. On the other hand, there has been an increasing number of women, mainly housewives, who want to be employed part time as a result of various changes, including changes in the mode of living. However, since part-time employment started rather recently in this country, this pattern of employment has not yet been fully systematized. Consequently, there are at present various problems to be solved regarding part-time employment. For instance, on the side of employers, serious attention is not paid to the employment management for part-time workers, and on the side of workers, awareness as workers is lacking. The Ministry of Labor, in the effort to establish better arrangements for adequate employment service for part-time workers, is carrying out the following measures. • To set up special corners for part-time workers in the major public employment security offices where applicants for part-time employment are particularly numerous; To conduct an employment exchange service for part-time workers at the so-called terminal employment counseling offices set up at terminals in large cities for the convenience of the public; • To offer guidance service and courses to those who want to work part time, for the purpose of enabling them to utilize effectively their abilities and aptitudes harmonizing their family responsibilities with their worklife; • To give guidance to employers for the improvement of employment management and working conditions for part-time workers; and or that the mother is ill or is attending a sick person. In any of these cases the child is qualified for admission irrespective of the amount of income earned by the family to which the child belongs. If the household income exceeds a certain amount, the family has to pay part or all of the nursing expenses. The nursing fee is standardized in several grades according to the income of the family and the age of the child. If the child belongs to a "protected family" under the Livelihood Protection Law or to a family exempted from the payment of inhabitants' tax for the previous year, nursing service is provided free. For other families the nursing fee is classified into nine grades according to income tax and inhabitants' tax assessment. For children under 3 years of age the fee is a little higher in each grade than for children over 3 years because a larger number of nurses are required for the younger group. When a family has more than two children cared for in a day care center the fee is reduced to a half of the standard amount for the second and younger • To accept job applications by mail and job orders children. On the other hand, certain families may be by telephone. Job Security Day Care Centers The greatest obstacle that hinders the continuation of a woman's work career is found in her responsibilities related to childrearing, and as a means of solving this problem efforts are being made to expand the network of day care centers. Minimum standards for child welfare facilities are provided for authorized day care centers, both public and private, established and operated under the provisions of the Child Welfare Law in order to insure the welfare of children. Guidance and supervision are conducted also to maintain a certain standard in the operation and equipment of these facilities. All of these centers receive subsidies from the State as well as from the local governments for equipment and cost of operation. Consequently, the number of centers has been increasing yearly and their operation improving. In 1974 there were 17,342 centers throughout the country. The percentage of the whole capacity as against the population of children of nursery age indicates that the situation is by no means worse than that in Western countries. Nevertheless, because of the drastic increase in the demand for child care facilities, owing to the swell in the number of women workers in recent years, the shortage of day care centers is keenly felt. For admission into a day care center it is required that the mother of the child or other relatives living with the child not be in the position to take care of the child; for instance, that the mother has a job outside the home or in the home, that the child has no mother, asked to pay an additional amount according to the municipal property tax assessment for the families. Child Care Leave There are many women who have unwillingly given up a work career because of child care responsibilities, in spite of their will to continue to work after childbirth. To remedy the situation, the Government is trying to provide guidance service to employers for the purpose of promoting introduction of the abovementioned child care leave scheme. Due to the employment practices in this country where life-long employment and the seniority wage system are still prevalent, after a woman (or even a man) once leaves a job, reentrance into employment is fairly difficult for her, and even if she has succeeded in getting a job, she is often obliged to accept unfavorable working conditions. Therefore, child care leave is considered to be fairly effective in safeguarding women's employment and in ameliorating their working conditions. As to the payment of salaries during child care leave, the matter is left to the individual decision of labor and management concerned, as laid down in the working regulations or labor agreement. The decision may be made taking into consideration practices in the cases of other types of leaves as well as the payment capacity of the enterprise. In actual instances, however, leave without pay is predominant. As a matter of fact, the leave is a relatively long one, and during the time household expenses swell considerably because of delivery and nursing of the newborn child. Besides, in case the worker remains insured by the health insurance and employees' pension insurance, she has to pay the portion of contribution payable by the insured. For these reasons it has been pointed out that in order to make child care leave more accessible to women workers some measures are needed for financial assistance to protect their living during the leave. As stated above, the Labor Standards Law provides for maternity leave and prohibits the discharge of women workers during the period of the leave and 30 days thereafter. But the law does not specify the pay ment of wages during the leave period, leaving it to the decision of labor and management concerned. In actual cases maternity leave with pay is provided in about a little over 30 percent of the enterprises. However, a woman worker insured by the health insurance receives a maternity allowance from the insurance fund as described in the following section. Maternity Benefits and Other Social Insurance Benefits Under the existing social insurance system, cash benefits are paid within the schemes of health insurance, workmen's accident compensation insurance, employment insurance, and employees' pension insurance to compensate for loss of wages due to illness, injury, delivery, unemployment, old age, etc. Among these schemes, workmen's accident compensation insurance, employment insurance, and employees' pension insurance are administered by the Government. Under the health insurance scheme, workers are insured either by the Health Insurance Association organized in the enterprise in which they are employed, or by the Government in case the enterprise has no such associaion for the workers it employs. Health Insurance Under health insurance, benefits are paid for illness, injury, and death arising from causes out of duty and also for delivery. Benefits peculiar to women workers include childbirth expenses, maternity allowance, and nursing allowance. The benefit paid as childbirth expenses is a lump sum corresponding to half of the standard monthly remuneration, and this is paid in the case of delivery to an insured person. Maternity allowance is a benefit (corresponding to 60 percent of the standard daily remuneration per day) paid to an insured person for the number of days she was absent from work because of childbirth, provided such absence was within 42 days before and 42 days after childbirth. Nursing allowance is a lump sum of 2,000 yen,' which the insured person receives if she is nursing her newborn child. Employment Insurance The employment insurance scheme, which has been started since April 1975 following a drastic revision of the former unemployment insurance scheme, aims at A yen is currently worth about three-tenths U.S. cent; 297.6 yen equaled $1 in August 1975. stabilizing the livelihood of the unemployed by paying benefits. In addition, it aims at the promotion of employment opportunities through facilitating jobseeking activities, the improvement of employment structure to insure job security, the development of workers' capacities, and the promotion of the welfare of employees. Unemployment benefits are classified into two groups of allowances: job applicant benefits and employment promotion benefits. The former includes basic allowance, skill acquisition allowance, lodging allowance. and sickness and injury allowance. The employment promotion benefits include outfit allowance for fulltime employment, removal allowance, and wider area jobseeking allowance. The amount of basic allowance. which is the most basic part of the benefits, is the equivalent of 60 to 80 percent of the recipient's earnings in the previous employment, the higher rates being applicable to lower wage earners. With regard to the duration of the benefits, recipients are graded into four groups according to the degree of difficulties in finding employment due to age and other factors. The lowest grade is applicable to those under 30 years, who receive benefits for 90 days, and the highest to those 55 years old and over, who receive benefits for 300 days. From the consideration of the welfare of women workers, a new provision allows for extension of the benefit period which is 1 year as a rule to 4 years at the most, in case the recipients were separated from employment for compelling reasons such as childbirth or child care, and so they may receive the basic allowance when they are able to apply for a job. Certain programs called Employment Improvement program, Capacity Development program, and Employment Welfare program are to be implemented, with the premiums paid by the employer as the sole financial resources. As part of the Employment Improvement program, employment incentive money will be granted to employers to encourage the introduction of child care leave and the employment of widows, for the purpose of preventing unemployment and promoting job opportunities for women workers. Workmen's Accident Compensation Insurance The object of the workmen's accident compensation insurance is to provide workers with protection against injury, disease, invalidity, or death resulting from employment, and to make necessary facilities for the welfare of the workers. The insurance benefits paid either to the victim worker or the worker's family include medical compensation, nonduty compensation, compensation for physi cal handicaps, compensation for the bereaved family. expenses for funeral rites, and compensation for long. term disability. Under the provisions of the law, women are sometimes more favorably treated than men in the grading of physical handicaps for which compensation for physical handicaps is paid. For instance, in case a female worker has remarkable deformities left on her external appearances, she is entitled to compensation for 7th grade (131 days of average daily wages a year as long as the physical handicaps exist), whereas a male worker who has the same handicaps is paid compensation for 12th grade (a lump sum equivalent to 156 days of average daily wages). Employees' Pension Insurance The employees' pension insurance is designed to protect workers against old age, invalidity, and death by paying benefits either in the form of pension (oldage pension, invalidity pension, and survivors' pension) or in the form of a lump sum (invalidity allowance and withdrawal grant). Thus, it contributes to the stabilization of the livelihood and promotion of the welfare of workers and their families. As to old-age pension, some differences are provided between women and men with respect to pensionable age and other terms of payment. A male worker is entitled to an old-age pension at the age of 60 if his insured term of coverage is 20 years or more (15 years or more after the age of 40). For a female the pensionable age is 55, and the required term of coverage is 20 years or more (15 years or more after the age of 35). Survey and Research Activities which it undertook, in cooperation with the Women's and Minors' Bureau, a comprehensive study on all aspects of women's life, including worklife, by means of various surveys and lectures by experts. Besides, many of the labor departments or welfare departments of local governments carried out in recent years surveys on facts or opinions concerning the worklife and family life of working women. Educational Activities In order to increase understanding of and concern for the welfare of working women among employers and the general public and to stimulate awareness among working women themselves, the Women's and Minors' Bureau has carried out various educational activities including the Women Workers' Welfare Campaign organized as an annual event in the whole country. Especially in these years the endeavor has been directed toward the abolishment of some unreasonable employment practices such as compulsory retirement for married women and low retirement age applied only to women workers. These practices have been much criticized in recent years as a factor preventing development and full use of women's abilities. The Bureau has been making efforts to enlighten employers as well as workers in this respect by publishing and distributing a collection of court judgments in favor of the causes of women workers who took action against such practices, or by preparing material describing the development of the equality movement in Western countries. Labor departments of prefectural governments also have been carrying out, independently or in cooperation with the prefectural women's and minors' offices, enlightenment and guidance activities in relation to women workers' problems. This has been done by such means as training courses on labor management organized for employers, training courses for women workers, and seminars for female members of labor unions. The Women's and Minors' Bureau of the Ministry of Labor has been making efforts to identify facts about women workers and the trends of their problems by carrying out studies and surveys of various kinds. These include surveys on the implementation of maternity protection and other aspects of working conditions of women, and opinion surveys covering labor, management, and the public to clarify their views concerning welfare measures for women workers. Also, the Bureau has established several research committees to examine the standards of administrative guidance in different areas of women workers' problems. Among these committees are the Expert Meeting Concerning Health Care of Working Mothers, Research Activities of Nongovernmental OrganiMeeting Concerning Child Care Leave, and Research Meeting on Equality in Employment-all of which are composed of experts and scholars. Research is going on through the operation of the Research Meeting on the Labor Standards Law established in 1969, to study from factual and legal viewpoints the problems involved in the implementation of the Labor Standards Law, including the provisions related to maternity protection. The Prime Minister's office also carries out from time to time opinion surveys on women's employment. For the 2 years 1972 and 1973 the Office had under it a Research Commission on Women's Problems, through zations Employers' Organizations There are in Japan six major national federations of employers' organizations: Keidanren (Federation of Economic Associations), Nikkeiren (Japan Federation of Employers Association), Doyukai (Japan Committee for Economic Development), Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, National Federation of Commercial and Industrial Associations, and Chuokai (Japan Federation of Smaller Enterprise Organizations). Chuokai (Japan Federation of Smaller Enterprise Organizations) With respect to measures for women workers, the Federation tries to have its members' opinions reflected in the administrative policy by such means as participating in governmental committees. It has also appealed to administrative agencies concerning measures stabilize the employment of housewives such increasing public day care centers and granting low interest loans for child care facilities established by smaller enterprise organizations. Keidanren (Federation of Economic Associations) is a synthetic economic organization uniting industrial associations. Nikkeiren (Japan Federation of Employers Association) is a federation of industrial, regional, and prefectural associations of employers. This organization is mainly concerned with labor problems, including women workers' problems, which it is tackling very actively. Doyukai (Japan Committee for Economic Development) organizes individual members of financial circles. The Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry is a federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry in the whole country, each of which is a unit organization in each city, organizing Labor Unions employers of industrial and commercial enterprises located there. It provides business guidance for the members and presents its proposals and demands to the Government. It also deals with employment problems. The National Federation of Commercial and Industrial Associations is a federation of commercial and industrial associations in the whole country, each of which is a unit organization in each town or village, organizing employers of commercial and industrial enterprises located there. Chuokai (Japan Federation of Smaller Enterprise Organizations) undertakes educational and informational activities directed to associations of smaller enterprises. to as In 1974 the number of labor unions amounted to 68,000 and the total membership numbered 12.5 million, or 34 percent of all workers in paid employ. ment. Characteristically the labor unions in Japan are organized on a company basis as unions within individual enterprises. About 60 percent of the unions are affiliated with one of the four major national unions: Sohyo (General Council of Trade Unions of Japan), Domei (Japanese Confederation of Labor), Churitsuroren (Federation of Independent Unions), and Shinsanbetsu (National Federation of Industrial Organizations). The biggest of the four is Sohyo, which affiliates 65 local unions, including unions for public Nikkeiren (Japan Federation of Employers employees and public corporation workers as its main Association) The Federation has been actively engaged in various research and studies related to women workers' problems. Among these are surveys and research on the development and use of women workers' abilities, labor management for women in part-time employment, and trends in the employment of new graduates, particularly female graduates. It also offers guidance to employers through member associations with respect to the problems involved in the labor and personnel management for women workers, training for women workers, and realization of their capacities. The Federation tries to reflect its view and opinions in administration by sending its delegates to various committees established by governmental agencies. Chamber of Commerce and Industry The Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry is especially active owing to its location in the metropol itan area which is the industrial and administrative center of the country. It has pointed out the necessity of measures relating to the study of partial revision of the Labor Standards Law, promotion of vocational training for women, elimination of unreasonable practices discriminatory against women, and environmental improvement agreeable to the female labor force. It has often presented its proposals to the Government and has been active in the effort to educate the public, including employers and housewives. force. The total membership of Sohyo numbers 4.34 million, of which 1.1 million are females. On the other hand, Domei organizes mainly unions in private enterprises and its membership numbers 2.3 million, of which one-third are females. As characteristic of any labor union organized on a company basis, a worker who has been a member is automatically deprived of membership at the moment of her or his separation from the job. As a result, women workers whose duration of service is generally short are less influential than men in the unions. Even where women outnumber men in membership, the leadership of the union's activities is often in the hands |