Fired engine plant worker Kouichirou Fukudome shouts slogans with dozens of protesters outside truck maker Isuzu's towering headquarters, all demanding they get their jobs back. Once unheard of in Japan, such protests are becoming more common as thousands of “temporary” workers – who often had steady jobs for years under various contracts – get fired by major companies like Sony and Toyota just as the global economic slump makes it unlikely they'll find substitute work any time soon. The layoffs are a new phenomenon in a nation long known for its tacit guarantee of lifetime employment. The mass firings are creating broader social problems such as homelessness, with an inadequate safety net to handle them, because temporary workers can be forced out of company dormitories. Some find refuge in 24-hour Internet cafes; others return to the rural towns they once fled in search of employment. Fukudome, 47, worked for seven years at Isuzu on successive short-term contracts. He is upset that non-production employees have replaced him on the assembly line, simply because they are permanent workers who cannot be easily fired. “There are a lot of them who aren't doing anything,” he said. “I wouldn't buy an Isuzu now. They're being made by amateurs.” His battle is an outgrowth of a major shift in the world's second-largest economy in employment practices, which emerged in the 1980s but only became widespread after the government formally legalized it in manufacturing in 2004. Global competition has driven Japan to create this new class of contract workers. Many of them work full-time, but they are less-well paid, have fewer benefits and are widely looked down on by others. And as the economy sours, they are being laid off. In recent months, Sony Corp. has announced 8,000 job cuts, Toyota Motor Corp. 3,000, Isuzu Motors Ltd. 1,400, Honda Motor Co. 3,100 – all so-called temporary workers – and the government predicts some 125,000 of these people will be jobless by March. In recent years the number of people working on contracts or on a part-time basis, which includes a much broader group of employees, has grown to 17.8 million people, or about a third of Japan's work force. The disparity in treatment between contract and regular employees threatens to divide Japanese society, widening the gap between the haves and have-nots in a country that for much of the post-World War II era has prided itself as a land of equality. In previous downturns, Japanese companies coped by holding down wages, freezing employment and cutting costs, but there were few outright layoffs. A new twist to this recession is the plight of these temporary workers – known in Japanese as “haken” (referred by an agency) or “kikan-jugyouin” (contract worker). As more are laid off, Japan's unemployment rate of 4.4 percent – still low by Western standards – is likely to climb. Kenichi Furuya, 23, who has gone from job to job, including noodle shops, real estate sales and discount chains since he was 18, believes contract workers are unfairly treated. “It's unforgivable for a nation to have all these people who can't find jobs,” he says. The growing numbers of jobless “haken” workers have led to broader social problems like homelessness that critics say Japan is ill-equipped to handle. Those who have been kicked out of company housing have sought shelter and free meals at soup kitchens. Others stay at 24-hour cafes featuring “manga” comic books or Internet access. For years, the temporary worker's problems weren't properly understood.
