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CHAPTER 19 LABOUR AND WAGES
This chapter covers labour force, wages, hours of work, labour turnover, labour productivity, labour unions and labour disputes.
The section of labour force contains statistics on persons in labour force, employed persons and unemployed persons. Principal sources of data are "Labour Force Survey" and "Population Census" (see "2 Population and Households") both by the Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. The employment indices are obtained from "Monthly Labour Survey" by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
The section of wages contains average wages, wage structure and model wages, etc. Data are obtained from "Monthly Labour Survey" and "Basic Survey on Wage Structure" by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, "Wage Survey" by the Central Labour Relations Commission and "Survey of Job-by-Job Pay Rates in the Private Sector" by the National Personnel Authority.
The section of hours worked contains average hours worked and the working hour system, which are obtained from "Monthly Labour Survey" and "General Survey on Working Conditions" by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
The section of labour turnover contains statistics on the desires for employment or job changes, the condition of new employment and the separation from job, and the employment referrals. Main sources of data are "Employment Status Survey" by the Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and "Survey on Employment Trends" and "Annual Report on Labour Market" by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. For the employment situation of new school graduates, "Basic Survey on Schools" by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (see "25 Education") is available.
The section of labour productivity contains labour productivity index based on "Productivity Statistics" by the Japan Productivity Centre.
The section of labour unions and labour disputes contains statistics on labour unions, union membership and labour disputes. Sources of these data are "Basic Survey on Labour Unions" and "Labour Disputes Statistics" both by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
For employment insurance and workmen?s accident compensation insurance, see "23 Social Security", and for industrial injuries, see "29 Disasters and Accidents".
Labour Force Survey (Fundamental Statistical Survey)
The survey, having started in September 1946 by the Cabinet Bureau of Statistics (now, the Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications) with the aim to survey the monthly changes of labour force status of the national population, became a full-dress survey from July 1947, after experiencing an experimental period of about a year. It is a sampling survey for households and individuals covering, since 1983, about 40,000 households and their household members, and is taken as of the end of each month (as of 26 for December). Labour force status is determined by the actual conditions in a week ending the last day of each month (from 20 to 26 for December), covering about 100,000 persons 15 years old and over.
Labour force status
Statistics on labour force status are obtained from the Population Census, the Employment Status Survey (mentioned later), as well as the Labour Force Survey. In the Labour Force Survey and the Population Census, persons in labour force and those not in labour force are separated according to their actual work status during the survey week, whereas in the Employment Status Survey they are classified into working persons and persons not working according to their usual status. Further, in contrast to the annual average in the Labour Force Survey which is equal to the average from January through December, the Population Census refers to the actual status during a week ending the last day of September of the census year, which overlaps conceptually with the Labour Force Survey for September of the census year.
Labour force status of the Labour Force Survey is classified as follows.
- Labour force
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Total of employed persons and unemployed persons among the population 15 years old and over.
- Employed
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Total of employed persons at work and employed persons not at work.
- Employed at work
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Persons who worked for pay or profit for at least one hour during the survey week (Family workers who worked without pay are included in "employed at work").
- Employed, not at work
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Persons who had jobs but did not work during the survey week (for self-employed workers, referring to persons whose absence from work did not exceed 30 days; and for employees, to persons who received, or were to receive wages or salaries).
- Unemployed
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Persons who had no job and did not do any work, but were able to work, willing to work, and made efforts to find a job (including those who were waiting for the results).
- Not in labour force
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Population 15 years old and over other than persons in labour force.
Monthly Labour Survey (Fundamental Statistical Survey)
The survey was instituted in July 1944 by the Cabinet Bureau of Statistics (now, the Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications) to meet the needs to clarify month-to-month change of employment, wages and hours worked. Later in September 1948, the jurisdiction of the survey was transferred to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (the transfer of all the survey operations was completed in April 1951). It is a sample survey, consisting of three components: the nationwide survey to clarify changes in wages, hours worked and employment; the prefectural survey to clarify these changes in each prefecture, both for establishments with 5 or more regular employees; and the special survey for establishments with 1 to 4 regular employees. The scope of the survey is all industries excluding A-Agriculture and forestry, B-Fisheries, Domestic services, Foreign governments and international agencies in Japan, and S-Government, excluding elsewhere classified, as defined in Japan Standard Industrial Classification Rev. 12.
The nationwide survey is conducted as of the end of survey month by mail or online reporting (for establishments with 30 or more regular employees) and by enumerator or by online reporting (for establishments with 5 to 29 regular employees) at approximately 33,000 establishments with 5 or more regular employees.
Indices concerning employment, wages and hours worked are compiled from the result of the nationwide survey, and uses the year 2010 as their base period. These indices are adjusted for any discrepancies that would occur by the periodic replacement of the samples so as to make a time-series comparison possible over a long period.
Basic Survey on Wage Structure (Fundamental Statistical Survey)
This survey, which has been taken by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare for the purpose of clarifying in detail the actual state of wage structure of the country, belongs to a series of surveys on wage structure conducted annually since 1948 with the establishment of the Ministry of Labour. Since 1964 when the survey assumed the present name, the survey has been carried out every three years on a large scale and for other years in between on a small scale. However, since 1982, this distinction in this scale was eliminated and all the survey is conducted on a large scale basis.
The survey has been conducted, in principle, as of 30 June every year, at about 78 thousand establishments selected from privately managed establishments with 5 or more regular employees (establishment with 5 to 9 employees is included only when the enterprise employ 5 to 9 employees) and publicly managed establishments with 10 or more regular employees by the stratified sampling method taking prefecture, industry and establishment size into account. The scope of the survey is all industries, excluding A-Agriculture and forestry, B-Fisheries, Domestic services, Foreign governments and international agencies in Japan, and S-Government, excluding elsewhere classified, as defined in Japan Standard Industrial Classification Rev. 12. As the Wage Survey of Outdoor Workers by Occupation was discontinued in 2004, wages of several occupations which were covered by the survey have been included in the Basic Survey on Wage Structure since 2005.
Wage Survey
The survey, which is a part of the Comprehensive Survey on Wage Conditions, has been conducted every year since 1952 by the Central Labour Relations Commission so as to furnish reference materials for the conciliation and mediation of labour disputes. The survey collects information on wage situation, as of the end of June (or the last day of June pay period), from 380 private enterprises with a capital of 500 million yen or more, and with 1,000 employees or more, which are selected by the Central Labour Relations Commission. The 2014 survey collected answers from 232 companies.
Survey of Job-by-Job Pay Rates in the Private Sector
The survey has been taken annually since 1948 by the National Personnel Authority in order to collect information on wages and salaries by occupation at private establishments to obtain comparable wage and salary data with the government employees.
The survey covers private establishments with 50 or more regular employees, engaged in any industries excluding "Postal services" in "Q. Compound services", "Religion" and "Foreign governments and international agencies in Japan" in "R. Services, n.e.c. " and "S. Government, except elsewhere classified" as defined in Japan Standard Industrial Classification Rev. 12. The 2014 survey was conducted in June-August at 12,358 establishments (474,041 employees), asking wages as of the last payment day in April.
General Survey on Working Conditions
This survey is conducted annually by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare to clarify the working conditions of privately managed enterprises in Japan by comprehensively surveying wage system, working hours system, labour cost, welfare facilities and system, retirement allowance system, and age-limit retirement system, etc.? Befor October 1996, "Survey on Wage Composition", "Survey on Wage System" and "Survey on Working Hours System" were conducted separately. These surveys were integrated in October 1966, and the new survey, "Comprehensive Survey on Wage and Working Hours System" was conducted until 1983. In 1984, "Survey on Welfare Facilities and System" was incorporated with "Comprehensive Survey on Wage and Working Hours System". Further, in 2000, the survey name was changed to the present, and the reference date was changed from the end of December to 1 January of the following year.
Covered by the survey are about 6,100 enterprises selected by random sampling stratifying by industry and size of enterprise from private enterprises with 30 or more regular employees in all industries excluding "A. Agriculture and forestry", "B. Fisheries" "Domestic services" of "N. Living-related and personal services and amusement services", "Q. Compound services", "Political, business and cultural organisations", "Religion" and "Foreign governments and international agencies in Japan" of "R. Services, n.e.c." and "S. Government, except elsewhere classified" as defined in Japan Standard Industrial Classification Rev. 12.
Employment Status Survey (Fundamental Statistical Survey)
The survey was first taken in 1956 by the Statistics Bureau, Prime Minister?s Office (now, the Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications) to shed light on the labour force status of the nation and the structural factors affecting it. It had been taken, as a rule, every three years, but the interval was extended to five years after the 1982 survey, so that the 2012 survey became the sixteenth. The survey had been conducted as of 1 July until 1977, but since 1979, the date of the survey was changed to 1 October. The survey aims to ascertain the status of the labour force on the basis of the prevailing conditions as of the survey date, seeking the number of working days, hours worked and income as well as desires for employment, comparing persons both with a job and without a job, and investigating changes in employment and in the place of work from the preceding year, etc. The 2012 survey covered a national sample of about 470,000 households and about 1,000,000 persons 15 years old and over residing in these households.
Working persons
Persons who are usually engaged in work for pay or profit and expected to be in the same status after the date of survey and persons with a job but not at work at present.
Persons not working
Persons who do not have jobs for pay or profit.
Survey on Employment Trends
The survey has been conducted twice a year, the first half and the latter half, since 1964 by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare for the purpose of analysing the labour mobility by surveying the characteristics and circumstances of newly hired employees and separated employees at the establishments in major industries.
The survey covers 14,326 establishments (for the 2013 survey) with 5 or more regular employees, sampled from all industries, excluding A-Agriculture and forestry , B-Fisheries, Domestic services, Foreign governments and international agencies in Japan, and S-Government, except elsewhere classified, together with 72,128 persons (for the 2013 survey) who are sampled from the newly-hired employees in the sample establishments and 86,146 persons (for the 2013 survey) sampled from the employees separated from the above establishments are surveyed through the respective establishments.
Employment referral statistics
Data on the placement activities of the Public Employment Security Offices are taken from "Annual Report on Labour Market" and "Labour Market for New School Graduates" compiled annually by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. "Annual Report on Labour Market" collects data on the employment referrals during each fiscal year based on the reports submitted by the Public Employment Security Offices throughout the country. "Labour Market for New School Graduates" contains data on the employment referrals carried out before the end of June by the Public Employment Security Offices or by schools as to the new graduates of lower secondary and upper secondary schools in March every year.
In addition, information on the placement of the new school graduates is made available by an inquiry into the situation after graduation made by "Basic Survey on Schools" (see "25 Education") conducted as of 1 May of each year by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. In this survey, graduates who found employment include those who advanced to schools of higher grade while staying as employed, those who found employment through personal connection and those who engaged in their own family business, in addition to graduates who found employment through the Public Employment Security Offices or schools.
Labour Productivity Index
The indices have been compiled monthly since 1958 by the Japan Productivity Centre for the purpose of measuring changes in physical labour productivity in manufacturing industries. The physical labour productivity is defined as the output per labour input, the latter of which is expressed in terms of man-days. The present indices cover manufacturing (21 categories) and mining and their base year is 2010. The weights are taken from those for the Indices of Industrial Production compiled by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
Basic Survey on Labour Unions
The survey was initiated in 1947 under the name of Survey on Labour Unions as a complete count survey in order to clarify actual conditions of the organisation of labour unions. It was renamed to Basic Survey on Trade Unions in 1948. In 1983, the name of the survey was changed to the present one, and, at the same time, the survey became a part of the Survey on Industrial Relations. The survey is conducted, covering all the labour unions in Japan, by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare as of the end of June every year.
Labour unions are broadly classified into the following three categories: unit labour unions, joint labour unions, and federation of labour unions. The unit labour union refers to a labour union whose members are workers in their individual capacity, and which has no subordinate units (such as branches) as members. The joint labour union refers to an organisation whose members are workers in their individual capacity, and which has subordinate units (such as branches). The federation of labour unions refer to an organisation whose members are unit labour unions and joint labour unions.
Labour Disputes Statistics
The statistics are compiled by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare based on the reports submitted by the prefectural sections in charge of labour administration. The purpose of the survey is to investigate the actual conditions of labour disputes throughout the country. Data are collected as of the end of each month on the conditions ranging from their occurrence to solution of all labour disputes during the month.
