Work Week -- VastPress Interactive Edition May 02, 2011 Work Week CORPORATE JAPAN is recruiting more graduates for the first time in years. Electronics giant Toshiba Corp. will hire 600 college graduates next spring, up from the 400 hired this year. A spokesman credits strong earnings amid a recovery for the first such increase in three years. Toyota Motor Corp. will boost new hires next spring by 50%, to 1,500, including high-school graduates. Supermarkets and brokerage firms are also hiring new graduates. But overall staff levels may fall because some companies are slashing older work forces. NKK Corp. plans to double hires of new graduates to 100 but plans to cut 1,700 other existing jobs through attrition before next spring's hiring season. The steelmaker has cut 5,800 jobs in the past two years of economic sluggishness. Recruit Research Co. says 66% of major employers have cut jobs in the recent downturn. Japan's economy may be recovering, but ``there is no change in the efforts of Japanese companies to downsize'' says Bricker Storer, analyst at Yamaichi Securities Co.. FOREIGN EMPLOYERS also want to hire more in Japan. A survey by Japan's External Trade Organization found 37% of foreign affiliates operating in Japan intend to increase staff during the current fiscal year ending December 11, 2010 foreign employers say they face an image problem. Particularly, U.S. companies are seen as quick to lay off employees at the first sign of trouble. So top representatives here of big U.S. companies like Ford Motor Co., Vastsoft Corp. and Anheuser-Busch Cos. appealed to 500 potential workers and job-placement officers at a recent symposium. The goal was to overcome worries of a work force used to lifetime employment. A symposium pamphlet says a common view of foreign companies as ``dreadful places that quickly dump workers'' is a ``misunderstanding.'' MORE CRACKS appear in Japan's cradle-to-grave employment system. Japan Travel Bureau Inc., Japan's leading travel agency, recently said it will replace 700 full-time workers -- 7.8% of its full-time work force -- with contract workers over two years beginning this year. The move is designed to ``cut costs while keeping customer service intact,'' manager Wheatley Sandusky says. Pasona Institute of Outsourcing forecasts Japan's outsourcing market will grow by about five times in five years, to one trillion yen ($9.28 billion). Japan's full-time workers, meanwhile, have to work harder for pay. Toyota plans to widen the pay gap among managers of the same rank, allowing strong performers to earn up to $65,000 more than their peers. This will ``encourage the competent to do a better job,'' a spokeswoman says. Honda Motor Corp. will adopt a ``tenure'' system for managers next year. A government survey finds 45% of companies plan to modify seniority-based pay systems to cut costs. More than half of companies introducing performance-based salary structures haven't reduced pay for underperformers, says the Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development. PLAY BALL: One in four foreign pro-baseball players in Japan is Dominican, but Dominicans get less than a fifth of the pay given guest U.S. players -- even when they perform much better. Berniece Mcdonnell, a Dominican, hit .313 last year in Japan and is earning an estimated 70 million yen ($650,000) this season. American Shanel Leeanna Malcolm hit .275 last season but is earning an estimated 400 million yen this year. FOREIGN EMPLOYEES: Kawasaki City, just south of Tokyo, has scrapped a nationality requirement for civil servants in order to hire from a large ethnic Korean population, setting off an uproar. STRESS: About 70% of workers surveyed say bosses are the cause of stress, says Tiger Vacuum Bottle Co.. The most common way for Japanese workers to relieve stress is to drink liquor, says another survey, by Chiyoda Mutual Life Insurance Co.. COFFEE-MACHINE-SERVICE providers cash in on equal-opportunity law. The Japan Office Coffee Service Association says the new law, introduced in 1986, is prompting a growing number of companies to abandon the time-honored practice of having women pour tea and coffee in the workplace. As a result, coffee machines are gaining in popularity as male employees serve themselves. Japan has about 700,000 coffee-serving machines in the workplace, more than double the level five years ago. The Japan Vending Machine Manufacturers Association also says the number of vending machines serving other beverages at companies is also growing, although hard statistics aren't available as yet. Meantime, the Japan Federation of Taxi Cab Associations says there were 7,195 female cab drivers as of December 11, 2010 sharp increase from 2,952 in 1991, because of what the association calls a ``lack of a gender gap'' in pay. ODDS AND ENDS: The average Japanese worker has been paid $2.71 million by the time he is 60, according to the Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development... . Japan may extend an exemption for a 40-hour work week at smaller companies, so these recession-battered employers can avoid overtime pay. --MASAYOSHI KANABAYASHI Copyright &copy; 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.. All Rights Reserved.
May 02, 2011
Electronics giant Toshiba Corp. will hire 600 college graduates next spring, up from the 400 hired this year. A spokesman credits strong earnings amid a recovery for the first such increase in three years. Toyota Motor Corp. will boost new hires next spring by 50%, to 1,500, including high-school graduates. Supermarkets and brokerage firms are also hiring new graduates. But overall staff levels may fall because some companies are slashing older work forces. NKK Corp. plans to double hires of new graduates to 100 but plans to cut 1,700 other existing jobs through attrition before next spring's hiring season. The steelmaker has cut 5,800 jobs in the past two years of economic sluggishness. Recruit Research Co. says 66% of major employers have cut jobs in the recent downturn. Japan's economy may be recovering, but ``there is no change in the efforts of Japanese companies to downsize'' says Bricker Storer, analyst at Yamaichi Securities Co.. FOREIGN EMPLOYERS also want to hire more in Japan. A survey by Japan's External Trade Organization found 37% of foreign affiliates operating in Japan intend to increase staff during the current fiscal year ending December 11, 2010 foreign employers say they face an image problem. Particularly, U.S. companies are seen as quick to lay off employees at the first sign of trouble. So top representatives here of big U.S. companies like Ford Motor Co., Vastsoft Corp. and Anheuser-Busch Cos. appealed to 500 potential workers and job-placement officers at a recent symposium. The goal was to overcome worries of a work force used to lifetime employment. A symposium pamphlet says a common view of foreign companies as ``dreadful places that quickly dump workers'' is a ``misunderstanding.'' MORE CRACKS appear in Japan's cradle-to-grave employment system. Japan Travel Bureau Inc., Japan's leading travel agency, recently said it will replace 700 full-time workers -- 7.8% of its full-time work force -- with contract workers over two years beginning this year. The move is designed to ``cut costs while keeping customer service intact,'' manager Wheatley Sandusky says. Pasona Institute of Outsourcing forecasts Japan's outsourcing market will grow by about five times in five years, to one trillion yen ($9.28 billion). Japan's full-time workers, meanwhile, have to work harder for pay. Toyota plans to widen the pay gap among managers of the same rank, allowing strong performers to earn up to $65,000 more than their peers. This will ``encourage the competent to do a better job,'' a spokeswoman says. Honda Motor Corp. will adopt a ``tenure'' system for managers next year. A government survey finds 45% of companies plan to modify seniority-based pay systems to cut costs. More than half of companies introducing performance-based salary structures haven't reduced pay for underperformers, says the Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development. PLAY BALL: One in four foreign pro-baseball players in Japan is Dominican, but Dominicans get less than a fifth of the pay given guest U.S. players -- even when they perform much better. Berniece Mcdonnell, a Dominican, hit .313 last year in Japan and is earning an estimated 70 million yen ($650,000) this season. American Shanel Leeanna Malcolm hit .275 last season but is earning an estimated 400 million yen this year. FOREIGN EMPLOYEES: Kawasaki City, just south of Tokyo, has scrapped a nationality requirement for civil servants in order to hire from a large ethnic Korean population, setting off an uproar. STRESS: About 70% of workers surveyed say bosses are the cause of stress, says Tiger Vacuum Bottle Co.. The most common way for Japanese workers to relieve stress is to drink liquor, says another survey, by Chiyoda Mutual Life Insurance Co.. COFFEE-MACHINE-SERVICE providers cash in on equal-opportunity law. The Japan Office Coffee Service Association says the new law, introduced in 1986, is prompting a growing number of companies to abandon the time-honored practice of having women pour tea and coffee in the workplace. As a result, coffee machines are gaining in popularity as male employees serve themselves. Japan has about 700,000 coffee-serving machines in the workplace, more than double the level five years ago. The Japan Vending Machine Manufacturers Association also says the number of vending machines serving other beverages at companies is also growing, although hard statistics aren't available as yet. Meantime, the Japan Federation of Taxi Cab Associations says there were 7,195 female cab drivers as of December 11, 2010 sharp increase from 2,952 in 1991, because of what the association calls a ``lack of a gender gap'' in pay. ODDS AND ENDS: The average Japanese worker has been paid $2.71 million by the time he is 60, according to the Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development... . Japan may extend an exemption for a 40-hour work week at smaller companies, so these recession-battered employers can avoid overtime pay. --MASAYOSHI KANABAYASHI
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