Harassment at work 
According to a study done by the 厚生労働省 “minister of health and labor”, the number of いじめ “bullying” cases has raised by 24% by comparison to 2006. The 総合労働相談コーナー “labor consultation corner” of the minister has dealt with more than 940000 enquiries. Among these, there were about 181000 litigious cases.
The repartition is as follows.
- 解雇 “layoff” : 23.8%
- 労働条件の引き下げ “cut on work conditions” : 12.8 %
- その他の労働条件 “other cases related to work conditions” : 20.8%
- いじめ・嫌がらせ “bullying, harassment” : 10.3% (22153 cas)
- 退職勧奨 “incitation to resignation” : 7.3%
- 出向 “transfer” : 3.4 %
- セクシャルハラスメント “sexual harassment” : 2.4 %
- 採用 “employment”: 1.8%
- 雇用管理 “employment management” : 1.5%
- 女性労働問題 “rights of women at work” : 1.1 %
- Miscellaneous: 14.7%
Overall, harassments account for more than 12% of the litigations. Let’s note that the number of request for the intervention of a 斡旋者 “mediator” only concerned 7000 cases which leave us wondering about the outcome of the other consultations. However, what is very mind-boggling is the low percentage of problems related to the right of women at work considering that Japan is generally seen as a country where women are depreciated. Notably, we have heard pretty awful things on the subject from the mouth of some politicians like Hakuo Yanagisawa, the Japanese health minister who said 女性は産む機械 “women are birth-giving machine”. Perhaps, they thought that their words would not leave the room. The whole world knew it in a matters of hours thanks to the web 2.0 ! The difference between the percentage of active women with about 48.3 % of the female population versus 73.4 % of the masculine population (data for 2004) does not seem enough to explain this number.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 at 6:31 am and is filed under : News, Society.
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Recent earthquakes in Japan
Translation from french： Comme ça du Japon
Personally, I think that the global number has increased due to the fact that more and more Japanese dare to complain. It is just like the sudden peak of reported rapes or ill treatment cases in France. The fact that only a few cases involved women probably shows that most Japanese women remain silent due to some sort of obedience against the established rules…
comment: 2007-06-18 — 3.41 pm | permalink
There are definitely similitudes with the “sudden” rise of iceberg-like social problems in France.
Thanks for your comment.
comment: 2007-06-19 — 5.50 am | permalink
It is well known that the japanese never complain so I was very surprised when I read these numbers
Regarding the survey and its implication on the equal rights for men and women, nothing is said regarding the number of women that have a job with lots of responsabilities.
Then the unexplained 20,8% is quite amusing. It’s 1/4 of the cases that are ignored. This sounds fishy.
France did not have to create a law regarding sexual harassment and I think that it shows that the place of women in the society is fair.
Any opinion of Japanese people on the matter ?
Thanks for this very interesting article.
comment: 2007-06-23 — 10.17 am | permalink
Regarding the unexplained 20.8%, it’s very common to ignore the very particular cases and group them under the “misc.” or “other cases”.
As for the opinion of Japanese, I would really appreciate to hear from them.
comment: 2007-06-26 — 5.22 am | permalink
Corrections
“de 24 % par rapport a l’année dernière” (à)
” “inegalités des femmes au tavail” : 1.1 %” (inégalités)
“On notera aussi que le réglement” (règlement)
“des problèmes liés a l’inégalité” (à)
“（（例：柳沢厚労の「女性は産む機械」）” (une parenthèse en trop)
comment: 2007-08-10 — 11.46 pm | permalink
Merci pour les corrections.
Je me rends compte que le fait d’écrire le brouillon des articles sur mon smartphone WZero-3 n’est pas sans conséquence au niveau des accents (impossible de les mettre). J’en ai manqué un certain nombre lors de la phase de peaufinage sur mon ordinateur portable…
comment: 2007-08-11 — 6.20 am | permalink
Atchan, vous croyez vraiment que le harcèlement sexuel n’existe pas en France…??? Ca n’est pas puni par la loi?? Ce n’est pas parce qu’iln’y a pas de loi anti harcèlement sexuel que le harcèlement sexuel n’existe pas! Il n’y a pas toujours eu des lois anti pédophilie ou viols, ça ne veut pas dire que la pédophilie et les viols sont des phénomènes récents!
Allez demander aux filles qui se font tournanter (violées en réunion) si elles pensent que la place de la femme en France est saine!! (au passage, les tournantes ça n’as pas lieu que dans les cités, mais dnas tous le smilieux sociaux, y compris les plus huppés) N’y a til pas eu le passé des cas de femmes/jeunes filles violées dans les transports en commun en France?? Et en plus, les autres passagers n’ont rien fait!
comment: 2007-10-27 — 2.16 am | permalink