From Havana Times:
Wall Street Protest Finds Strong Echoes in Japan
Suvendrini Kakuchi
HAVANA TIMES, Oct. 31 (IPS) — Inspired by the ongoing Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in the United States, thousands of Japanese youth and workers, dissatisfied with growing unemployment and harsh working conditions in the world's third largest economy, have taken to the streets to demand stable jobs and government reforms.
Two weeks ago, a demonstration in Tokyo, billed by organizers as the largest protest in recent years, drew a crowd nearly 5,000-strong.
Laborers and students from all across Japan converged on the capital with raised fists and chants of protest as rap bands played songs about the anxiety and hopelessness in which much of the country is mired.
The current official unemployment rate is five percent of the total population but among youth the number has risen to almost nine percent.
In fact, more than 45 percent of workers aged 15-24 hold irregular jobs and just 56 percent of new college graduates receive job offers, representing the worst situation for youth in the country since World War II.
Ichie Kumagai, 28, a daycare worker who travelled more than 359 kilometers from Osaka, Japan's second largest city, to speak at the rally in Tokyo, said, "I am angry, frustrated and worried about the future.
"Young people like me face a hopeless situation today because officials and society do not care about us," she told the indignant crowd.
Intense lobbying by millions of daycare workers earlier this year managed to raise the minimum wage to nine dollars per hour, up 50 cents from 2010.
More than 30,000 signatures have been collected in Saita town in Osaka alone, in a petition to stop planned regulations that will permit such changes as increasing the number of children to a maximum of 30 per daycare worker and hiring part-time workers instead of offering regular jobs.
Kumagai told IPS that her salary has remained static over six years of hard work while her job has only gotten more demanding.
She works at least 12 hours a day without overtime pay each week. She added that saving money has become crucial to protect against an unstable future.
Meanwhile Japan's huge fiscal deficit stemming from its two decade economic recession, coupled with an ageing population, has ushered in new regulations aimed at reducing public welfare spending.
"The government justifies such moves because public funds are dwindling. We do not agree with that reasoning," Kumagai told IPS.
Japanese protestors are inspired by the rhetoric in the U.S. against bailing out banks and big businesses, as well as against austerity measures that are widely believed to shrink the middle class by slashing public spending and creating widespread, cyclical unemployment.
"We are influenced by the protests in the U.S. but we want to develop our own way of gaining a stable future," Makoto Kawazoe, a representative of the Kanto Youth Union, a leading labor rights organization in Japan, told IPS.
Indeed, the Tokyo protests that plan to start again in November, involve a whole spectrum of activists and organizations from anti-nuclear activists and youth lobbying for clean energy to veteran labor unions such as the National Federation of Labor Unions (NFLU), which have been at the forefront of the struggle for domestic workers' rights.
According to Kawazoe, Japanese society must take the responsibility of creating stability for youth by accepting the fact that youth employment is crucial to Japan's economic prowess on the world stage.
"People view unemployed youth as irresponsible or lazy and do not support their needs. This attitude must be changed," he added.
The NFLU has identified several issues that need to be addressed in order to guarantee some degree of stability for youth entering the job market.
The government should offer financial support to youth undergoing skills training or apprenticeships until they find work; end the current practice of expecting third year university students to start job hunting before they have completed their studies; and enact regulations to ensure that companies offer stable employment terms, it says.
While these demands are widespread, they are by no means universal throughout Japan.
Daiji Kawaguchi, professor of economics at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, explained that while he is sympathetic to the ongoing youth protests, the call for reforms must also focus on active solutions.
"A burning question facing the Japanese job market is how to make it more international. Youth must develop skills to face an increasingly globalised market and engage with the debate about accepting more foreign labor," he told IPS.
"With the focus simply on expanding the safety net, the youth-led movement is weak," he added.
Economists point to the dramatic changes under way in the business world, such as Japanese manufacturing relocating to cheaper sites abroad and more local companies engaged in cost-cutting measures to meet stiff competition from rising Asian tigers such as South Korea in the global marketplace.
Gross National Happiness researcher Masao Fukunaga added that the Japanese youth dream of a stable future is based on the memory of an older Japan, in which the economy was expanding and the lifetime- employment system was still in place.
"But that era is ending in Japan," Fukunaga told IPS. "The future is difficult and I hope youth who are taking to the streets to call for support will also tackle this emerging reality," he said.
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=54582&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+havanatimes%2Fapge+%28Havana+Times.org%29
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Followers
Blog Archive
-
▼
2011
(8499)
-
▼
November
(1134)
- रीटेल एफ डी आई से कारोबार पर विदेशी पूंजी काबिज और...
- ‘MINDCONTROL’ AND ELECTRONIC WEAPONS - VICTIMS' OR...
- Welcome to the world of corporate psychopaths
- Financial 'vultures' poised to swoop on Africa thr...
- MEDVEDEV: RUSSIA SERVES NOTICE November 28, 2011 B...
- Nepal Updates
- Statement Condemning Repression Against Anti POSCO...
- he GOP’s Middle Class Tax Increase
- F-22s Gobble Up More Billions
- Adivasi Bounded Labour Killed,No Justice yet.-Than...
- US war against Pakistan?
- PIL to Register FIR Against Mukesh Ambani, RIL
- The lawsuit that could end the gangster rule of We...
- Throw These Cooking Oils in the Trash
- Retail FDI: The Calculations and Compulsions..
- Manual scavengers poster -READ
- Irula Tribe women sexualy abused by Police - Tiruk...
- Sr. Valsa case with the National Commission for Women
- Oh The aggressors! Oh The killers of the Innocent ...
- MY AUSTRIA VISIT AND PROJECT OF HOPE Asghar Ali En...
- Fwd: BAMCEF & RMS 28TH N.C. 24TH TO 28TH DEC 2011,...
- Fwd: [OrissaConcerns] Statement on the Repression ...
- Fwd: declare aadhaar illegal, pleads suit - bangal...
- Fwd: [bangla-vision] FD News and an important action
- Fwd: हस्तक्षेप.कॉम चल अन्ना घर आपने रेन भई यह देश…
- Fwd: Tom Burghardt: Target Iran - Washington's Cou...
- Fwd: Kanimozhee bhee Kaanee ho Gayee!
- Fwd: Truth behind the appeal to Hindus - One secon...
- Fwd: (Desiyatra)-- Sharad slap unites Indian polit...
- Fwd: Today's Exclusives - Controversial stock oper...
- In Tamil Nadu’s southern districts, prisoners are ...
- Fishy Friends By Nigar Ataulla
- Rapid Haramikaran Of India - Growth Rate Food 2%, ...
- Dalit labourer dies, nephew alleges he was beaten
- Water politics in the Jordan River basin
- Dr. Bhupen Hazarika honoured in London - 1999
- declare aadhaar illegal, pleads suit - bangalore, ...
- DGP Mr. BR Lall – Crusader Against ‘Black Money’ N...
- The glimpses of Post FDI in retail
- Anand Sharma writes to parties clarifying FDI stance
- The Miqati Government in Lebanon – Continued Subju...
- Miami-protest spokesman led 'Nuke Israel' rally
- Why not open debate on Holocaust?+Capitalism under...
- Discussion on Karnataka Guarantee of Services to C...
- Statue of Liberty – an Egyptian Peasant Lady?
- Moroccan opposition warns of silent majority
- De Jager talks tough as he heads to Berlin for tal...
- Debt Crisis Belgium under the tutelage of Brussels?
- Eurobond talk should not be 'taboo', Monti tells V...
- Will Global Financial Demolition Lead To New World...
- Would uranium sales to India breach a key Labor tr...
- Fwd: [Occupy Kolkata] i know casteism in india is ...
- Fwd: [Marxistindia] CPI(M) Supports Traders Call f...
- Fwd: Julie Lévesque: Protest in Syria: Media Lies ...
- Fwd: [Occupy Delhi] IN 1886-94, DURING THE SANTHAL...
- Fwd: [Occupy Delhi] PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATIC STUDENT...
- Bangladesh: International anti-imperialism conference
- 5,000,000 North East Indian Migrations Expected in...
- Prosecutor: Reagan, Bush not criminally liable
- LIVING IN GERMANY
- Occupy Everywhere: Michael Moore, Naomi Klein on N...
- The People's Surveillance State
- Washington's $8 Billion Shadow
- Where Does Occupy Wall Street Go From Here? ...a p...
- Israel's technology or its politics that the minis...
- Targeted Individual due for execution unless we dr...
- FDI in Retail for 99% Indians – Vendors, Farmers, ...
- HUNDREDS RALLY IN MUZAFFARABAD AGAINST MFN STATUS ...
- KSA: Thousands in Eastern Province Chant Death to ...
- LIBYA: Thousands accused of Gaddafi links held by ...
- RSS A pure religion- LIKE SIKHS/Jaina/ BUDHA/= wit...
- Dead Man Talking: More Fake Encounters in Gujarat
- 21st Greatest Sikh Traitor Parkash Chand Badal ina...
- Up to 25 Pak soldiers dead in NATO chopper attack
- Abhay Sahu, leader of anti-POSCO movement arrested
- login immediately Meshram saheb speaking
- Nuclear emergency in Japan: lessons for India
- DRUM- Desis Rising Up & Moving
- World's Largest and Longest Invisible War
- Regards to PIL- Chinese expert praises Indian courts-
- Non-discrimination and Equality in India Contestin...
- Akal Takht, SGPC condemn slapping of Sharad Pawar
- Urbanization key to speedy growth: RBI governor
- Egypt's economy slumps under weight of unrest
- FDI decision taken to help Rahul's foreign friends...
- Kishenji's body identified by niece
- aviation crisis News Stories
- KISHENJI SPECIAL Calcutta Corner Why is Mamata Ban...
- Bring the spice back The men have left the Sunderb...
- Maoists allege fake encounter PRONAB MONDAL
- Blunted: Maoist peril & CPM slur - CM scores twin ...
- Hunt for Suchitra yields purse NARESH JANA
- State to fly Kishan’s body home if identified by n...
- http://www.telegraphindia.com/1111126/jsp/frontpag...
- Egg on the face of fake Tagore champions - All 20 ...
- State steps up border vigil Police escort for fore...
- Kishan wily, govt wilier Parivartan and penetratio...
- Reforms Drive is in Topmost Gear Now in Absence of...
- Fog effect: 28 trains to remain cancelled for two ...
- ISHRAT JAHAN: MURDER IN COLD BLOOD Ram Puniyani
-
▼
November
(1134)
No comments:
Post a Comment