Japan ruling parties plan 2 trillion yen employment promotion package

TOKYO, Dec. 5 Kyodo - Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito party worked out a 2 trillion yen employment promotion package Friday to support employment of 1.4 million workers over the next three years, LDP officials said.
The package, submitted to Prime Minister Taro Aso later in the day, calls for
setting aside 1 trillion yen each in a special account for employment insurance
and the general account budget to maintain employment of non-regular employees,
help those who have lost jobs find new ones and fund measures against firms'
cancellation of job offers, they said.
The planned second supplementary budget for fiscal 2008 ending next March is
designed to include the first 150 billion yen out of 1 trillion yen for the
general account.
Measures to maintain employment of non-regular employees include provision of
subsidies to companies that directly employ workers sent by staffing agencies.
Subsidies will also be given to prefectural governments to fund emergency job
creation projects, where these governments would provide job opportunities to
non-regular and non-young workers who lose jobs.
The package also urges Hello Work regional employment security offices to
provide consulting and information services to foreign workers, mainly those
with Japanese ancestry, who lose jobs at factories in Japan.
The employment insurance system would be reformed to lengthen the period for
unemployment benefit payments and expand the system's coverage of non-regular
workers.
The package also includes measures against companies' cancellation of effective
employment promises to graduating students. Information on companies willing to
employ students whose employment promises has been cancelled would be provided
on the Internet, and special subsidies would be given to the firms recruiting
these students. The package calls for publishing names of companies that cancel
such promises with a vicious manner.
==Kyodo