TOKYO (AFP)--Hundreds of laid-off temporary workers rallied
Monday in Japan, urging companies to give them social protection as
the government said the economy faced its worst crisis since World
War II.
About 300 workers demonstrated outside the Tokyo headquarters of
major companies including truckmaker Isuzu Motors (7202.TO),
telecommunications firm NTT (DCM) and Mizuho Bank (8411.TO), as
well as Japan's main business lobbyist group, the Keidanren.
The government estimates at least 125,000 temporary contract
workers have been laid off or will be fired by March when the
fiscal year ends, as the global economic downturn has impacted
Japan's export-dependent economy.
"Although we do not deny this financial crisis, companies have a
social responsibility. But they have abandoned it for the sake of
their survival," said Ryozo Fujisaki, chairman of the national
trade union council.
"We have the right to work, the right to live, and our rights
are being stepped on," he shouted in front of the Keidanren office,
whose chairman also heads Canon Inc. (7751.TO), which has dismissed
more than 1,000 temporary workers.
Several foreign nationals joined the rally. Many Peruvians and
Brazilians of Japanese descent working in the country's major
industrial areas have been among the first to be fired in the
current downturn.
Japan's economy suffered its worst contraction in almost 35
years in the fourth quarter of 2008 as the global economic slump
hit demand for Japanese cars, electronics and other goods, forcing
companies to slash jobs.
The economy shrank at an annualized pace of 12.7% in the three
months to December, new data showed Monday, and Economic and Fiscal
Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano said Japan faced its "worst ever
crisis in the postwar era."
Temporary worker Hideo Yamamoto, 34, who said he was suddenly
dismissed in December from Isuzu, said his meager savings were now
stretched thin.