Temp workers given shelter, appeal for aid for unemployed

TOKYO, Jan. 5 Kyodo - Temporary workers who have lost their jobs and places to live in the current
economic slump and other homeless workers began moving Monday to shelters
offered by the government after their ''tent village'' in Tokyo's Hibiya Park
was closed, with some beginning to apply for welfare benefits.
Hundreds of demonstrators, including these ''villagers'' and members of
numerous labor unions, gathered in front of the Diet building in central Tokyo
to lobby for legislation to assist unemployed temporary workers.
The demonstrators marched through Tokyo chanting slogans such as ''Drastically
revise the temp workers' law,'' ''Major companies, stop illegal firings,'' and
''Raise the minimum wage.''
After the demonstration, the organizers' representatives and about 50 temp
worker villagers called for relief measures when they met about 80 lawmakers
from both ruling and opposition parties at the office building for House of
Councillors members.
Makoto Yuasa, head of the ''village,'' explained the desperate situation of the
500 or so people who took shelter at the village, which was open from the
year-end until Monday morning.
He said one villager walked all the way from Ibaraki Prefecture to Hibiya Park
while another villager was taken there by a police officer after being
dissuaded from committing suicide.
''We need support from politicians. Please change this society to one that
supports people who want to live,'' Yuasa said.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry offered accommodation for around 500
people in vacant buildings in such public facilities as schools that have
become vacant due to the dwindling child population.
According to the municipal government of Chiyoda Ward, about 230 people from
the village have applied for welfare benefits via fax, claiming Hibiya Park as
their address.
It usually takes about two weeks to process welfare benefit applications but
authorities are aiming to shorten the period to about a week, the ward
government said.
Naoto Kan, acting president of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan,
told the villagers, ''The situation is something like a human-caused calamity,
mainly caused by politics,'' and promised to step up support.
Muneo Suzuki, leader of the single-seat opposition New Party Daiichi and one of
the originators of the meeting at the Diet building, said, ''Politicians should
serve disadvantaged, underprivileged people. Let's change the government by
having an election.''
But a 25-year-old man from Tokyo's Ikebukuro, who recently lost his job and
participated in the demonstration and the meeting with the politicians, said he
does not expect any change in the situation.
''The politicians pledged to help us at the meeting but I won't be able to
believe them until I actually see the enactment of a new law,'' he said.
Earlier in the day, Yuasa and volunteer workers at the village in Tokyo said
they will continue working to enable the people to survive amid the current
economic crisis after the closure of the village.
Addressing more than 300 unemployed people, who stayed in Hibiya Park and the
nearby auditorium of the welfare ministry during the New Year holidays, Yuasa
said, ''We will continue making efforts so each of you can live on.''
The village provided free food and shelter for jobless people, including those
who have been forced to leave accommodation provided by their former employers.
On Sunday evening, around 500 people stayed in tents and the auditorium.
While the volunteers pulled out of the village Monday, Hideaki Omura, senior
vice minister of health, labor and welfare, said at the assembly of the
villagers that the government ''is willing to provide support so as many people
as possible can find jobs and housing.''
Among the villagers, a 49-year-old man from Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, who
was forced to leave a company dormitory at the end of last year after becoming
ill, said, ''I could feel relieved here as I had food and housing, but I am now
at a loss as I don't know what to do from now.''
A graduate student at Ritsumeikan University who joined the village as a
volunteer said she felt such jobless people ''may be ourselves 20 years from
now...I hope the government will enhance social security measures.''
Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told a press conference that tackling
the employment issue is one of the government's biggest challenges.
''The system (of allowing employers to easily dismiss temporary workers) has
developed and caused the current problem,'' Kawamura said, suggesting the
government will cooperate with business circles in addressing the issue.
Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa told reporters earlier in the day that Prime
Minister Taro Aso directed Cabinet members to continue their efforts on
employment and residential measures during a Cabinet meeting.
==Kyodo
2009-01-05 22:10:30